Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold has confirmed Reuben Garrick will replace superstar Tom Trbojevic at fullback for the remainder of the NRL season, after starring at the back in his side’s loss to Melbourne on Saturday night.
Garrick, who moved from the centres to fullback, saved two tries and had a team-high 213 run metres against the Storm in what was an eye-catching performance.
It won praise from his coach post-game, with Seibold declaring Garrick will wear the No.1 jersey going forward this year.
“Reuben was outstanding,” he said.
"His effort off the footy, he made a try-saving tackle on Xavier (Coates) and then he came across on Will Warbrick there and obviously got the ball away from their first try.
Some of his efforts off the ball were outstanding, so Reuben will have that No.1 going forward for the rest of the season.
Anthony Seibold
“He’ll be able to build some cohesion and combinations. He only had one or two training sessions there during the week.
“He’ll be better, but I really liked his start (tonight).”
The Sea Eagles were initially interested in securing Warriors-bound veteran Roger Tuivasa-Sheck for the remainder of the season, but Seibold said post-game on Saturday night he was “unavailable.”
Trbojevic leaves the field
Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans sent a scare through the Sea Eagles and Queensland camps when he came off with 10 minutes remaining looking sore.
Although, he said it was nothing of concern.
“It was just tightness and soreness, so nothing alarming but just a sign of where I am at age wise,” he laughed.
Always the perfectionist, Cherry-Evans was critical of his performance just three days after skippering the Maroons to an Origin series win in Brisbane.
“I’m feeling a bit sore and a bit tired now, but I just tried to inject some energy at the start of the game,” he said.
Cherry-Evans leads the way
“We were pretty good for a fair chunk of the game, but we just missed a lot of organisation and detail with our attack and I definitely have to take some responsibility for that.
“I’m really excited to get back to Manly and to train with the boys this week.”
After managing just one try in the loss to the Storm, Seibold said attack would be a focus ahead of the Round 18 clash with the Roosters.
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“I thought we were really good in the first half and defensively I thought we were really strong there and turned up for each other,” Seibold said.
“Just the second half, our accuracy and our detail in attack just put too much pressure on our defence.
“I thought we were really brave defensively but it just wasn’t good enough from an attacking point of view tonight.”