The exceptional performance of the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in Round 2 had the Trbojevic brothers shortening in odds for Origin selections, but the pair aren’t ready to think about it just yet.
Just three weeks into the NRL season, the Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues team is some way off being formulated by coach Brad Fittler – and several players would prefer to focus on their weekly club commitments for now. That won’t stop many pundits locking Jake and Tom Trbojevic in for NSW jerseys, with Jake an incumbent and Tom also earning a Kangaroos selection in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.
Hopefully he can just keep improving, keep playing consistent footy and put his hand up.
Jake Trbojevic
“Obviously you want to play Origin, it’s a dream you set yourself and you always want to represent New South Wales, as someone living in New South Wales,” Tom Trbojevic told NSWRL.com.au, “But for me, I’m just really focused on just playing good footy for Manly.
“If I’m playing good footy to warrant myself selection I’ll be very happy, but the focus for now is just playing as well as I can.
“I learned a lot of things in the World Cup and just being around the calibre of players such as your Billy Slaters, your Cameron Smiths, Cooper Cronks… I could keep naming them, but just learning off them and taking it all in has really helped me.”
Older brother Jake, who was denied the chance to play alongside Tom at International level due to an untimely pectoral injury, would also like to see him in sky blue later in the year.
“Hopefully, that’s everyone’s goal,” Jake Trbojevic said. “Everyone in the whole competition wants to play State of Origin. It’s a really quality game, so hopefully he can just keep improving, keep playing consistent footy and put his hand up come selection time.”
No one does it better than Jake Trbojevic'
It was an up-beat Trbojevic duo on hand to support the NSWRL’s Manly M8s program on Thursday, with the Sea Eagles’ recent 54-0 drubbing of Parramatta ensuring a positive mood on the Northern Beaches. Moving on from the win before the club’s Round 3 clash with South Sydney is the next challenge.
“It’s obviously good after a win and the way we won does help,” Tom said. “It’s only one win though, so we can’t get carried away – we’re really looking forward to Saturday night against Souths.
“It can be (a challenge moving on from a big win), but we’ve had a really good week at training. We’re really focused and we know what we need to do to win our next game.
“We’re just going to have to build on our win and hopefully be better and better each week.”
“Everyone sort of bounced into training there on Monday, everyone was pretty pumped with the win and the video session’s always good when you don’t concede a try,” Jake added. “It makes training a little bit easier and everyone’s really excited for the weekend.”
The Sea Eagles will face the Rabbitohs from 5:30pm on Saturday night, kicking off a highly-anticipated NRL double-header at ANZ Stadium.
