Manly’s season was supposed to end with Trbojevic’s injury - it finally did with a kicking duel

When Tom Trbojevic tore his pectoral muscle in the second State of Origin match, most thought it would be the end of Manly’s season. Little did they know it would actually end with his replacement starting a good old-fashioned kicking duel.

Reuben Garrick has had an outstanding season as Trbojevic’s replacement in the No.1, but an outstanding season doesn’t mean you’re immune to a moment of utter madness. Case in point: with his team locked in a 12-all skirmish with the title favourites, their season flickering, Garrick opted to return a Penrith kick immediately with one of his own, presumably for speedster Jason Saab.

It wasn’t as if we weren’t warned, because coach Anthony Seibold said they’d need to do something different to beat the Panthers. He confirmed after the game they’d practised the ploy. The only problem? Manly’s chase was so staggered and so poor that Sunia Turuva ended up with the ball and raced away to score. The Sea Eagles never got near Penrith after that.

“It was a plan,” Seibold said of the bizarre Garrick kick. “We couldn’t come here and just try and arm wrestle. We spoke about returning serve during the week and we practised it at training. One or two guys missed their job there, but we had to think outside the box.”

For a team that promised much earlier in the season, Seibold’s first year at Manly will end without finals, barring a miracle. It hasn’t been that bad, and many will admit they stayed in the finals fight longer than first thought when Trbojevic went down in sky blue. But they will need to win their last three games to be a chance, and even then it probably won’t be enough after a clinical Panthers clawed their way to a 24-12 win at 4 Pines Park on Thursday night, edging closer to another minor premiership.

The match will be remembered as a tale of two kicks, one Garrick’s audition to be Eddie Jones’ next recruit from rugby league, and a second from a man who no one really knows what to do with.

There are few more polarising figures in the NRL than Josh Schuster, a player who yo-yos from the astounding to absurd. It did not take even four minutes for him to show both, poaching an intercept from Nathan Cleary (who does that?) and then running 50 metres, nearly every step of the way looking for a helper. Brad Parker was the only man, yet even he resembled the Ford Laser on his last drips of fuel begging for the petrol station. So having run down field and the defence fast getting to him, what does Schuster do? He kicks the ball. On the first play. No Sea Eagle got near it.

Whether it was a good thing for him or not, his halves partner and captain Daly Cherry-Evans threw an intercept a few minutes later. Only this time it fell in the lap of a speedster, Stephen Crichton, who charged downfield to score. At least Schuster had a similarly red-faced mate.