Just In: Sea Eagles Sends Off Another Strong Players To Tigers….
Manly Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold has detailed the reasons why the club signed maligned former Wests Tigers half Luke Brooks.
In a move which has widely been considered the best available for all parties, Brooks finally ended his decade-long stint with the Tigers, where he failed to play a single finals match.
Moving to the Sea Eagles, some of the pressure Brooks felt at the Tigers will be released with Daly Cherry-Evans playing halfback and organising the team, allowing him to play a more natural running game in the number six jersey.
Seibold told NRL 360 that factor, combined with a single performance against the North Queensland Cowboys when the Tigers recorded a surprise enormous win, were the major reasons behind Manly signing Brooks, who said at the time he left the Tigers after being placed under a tight deadline to re-sign with the joint-venture.
“I think when Brooks has been at his best his running game has been outstanding,” Seibold said on the Fox Sports show.
“He has got a great left foot kicking game and I just thought that’s what we needed.
“Cherry-Evans and Trbojevic do all the organisation for us and I just thought if we could free him up from the organisation role and just play a running game and use his left foot kick.
“And he is a brave guy as well. He gets his body in front of the big edge back-rowers, so we just thought it would be a good fit for us and a good fit for him.
“Probably the clincher was I watched a game against the Cowboys at Leichhardt Oval and the Tigers had a fantastic win that night.
“I think it was Brooks’ 200th game and he was outstanding and I just thought he would be great for us as a club and we would be good for him as well.”
Brooks starts his time as a Sea Eagle on Sunday (AEDT) in Las Vegas against the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
Contracted until the end of the 2024 season, Triston Reilly was released by the Wests Tigers as Benji Marshall decided to overhaul the club’s Top 30 roster.
Most considered Reilly’s release, along with Brandon Webster-Mansfield, a surprising decision at the end of last year. This came despite him making his NRL debut last season and setting to challenge for a spot in the club’s outside back positions.
Now, months later, Reilly has opened up about his stint with the Tigers, his release, and his return to rugby union with the NSW Waratahs.
“It all happened pretty quick,” Reilly said via The Sydney Morning Herald.
“It was just disappointing because my goals were to have another year in league and was confident of a stronger year in ’24. But things happen.
“I went home for a couple of weeks and … DC [Waratahs coach Darren Coleman] reached out and said he was keen for me to come back. And I jumped at that.”
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Having played for the Newcastle Knights and South Sydney Rabbitohs in under-age competitions, the Harold Matthews Cup and SG Ball Cup, Reilly switched to rugby union.
He would end up returning to rugby league after a stint with the NSW Waratahs and joined the Wests Tigers in 2022, initially on a train-and-trial contract.
Playing in the centres, Reilly made his NRL debut last season and displayed pace, strength and skill in his three appearances for the club. This included one try, six tackle busts, two line breaks, and an average of 71 running metres per game.
“It was a childhood dream, really, to try and play rugby league,” he added.
“I was off contract and I had a bit of interest from the Tigers. I wanted to have a crack at it. To make my NRL debut was a major goal, growing up playing league.”
“I had one my favourite years, even though the main team at Tigers only won a few games. But I played a lot of games, I played 20-odd games,” Reilly continued.
“In previous years, I was playing a few games at the Tahs and a few games at Randwick. The amount of footy wasn’t enough. But I had a big year last year, just playing consistent footy week-in, week-out.
“I definitely feel I have come back a better player. Just the toughness and physicality of league, I feel like I have brought that back to rugby union.”
