Tom Trbojevic

Tom Trbojevic
Personal information
Nickname Tommy Turbo[1][2]
Born (1996-10-02) 2 October 1996
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height 194 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight 102 kg (16 st 1 lb)
Playing information
Position Fullback, Wing, Centre
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2015– Manly Sea Eagles 32 18 0 0 72
As of 6 August 2016
Source: [3]

Tom Trbojevic (born 2 October 1996) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who currently plays for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League. He plays at fullback and wing.

Background

Born in Sydney, New South Wales, Trbojevic is of Serbian descent[4] and played his junior rugby league for the Mona Vale Raiders, before being signed by the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.

Despite playing for both Mona Vale and in junior representative teams, Trbojevic didn't let his school studies suffer scoring 94.3% on his HSC. He is currently attending university where he is studying a double degree in Applied Finance and Economics.[5]

Trbojevic is the younger brother of fellow Manly Warringah Sea Eagles player Jake Trbojevic.[6]

Playing career

Early career

In 2014 and 2015, Trbojevic played for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles' NYC team.[7][8] In June 2014, he played for the New South Wales Under-18s team.[9] On 25 September 2014, he re-signed with the Sea Eagles on a 2-year contract.[10]

2015

Trbojevic started 2015 playing fullback for Manly's NYC team and crossed for 4 tries in the opening game of the season against the Parramatta Eels at Pirtek Stadium. He continued to play a starring role in the Under 20's as Manly won its first four games of the season until injuries forced first grade coach Geoff Toovey to promote him to make his NRL debut on the wing for the Sea Eagles in their Round 5 game against the Canberra Raiders at the Lavington Sports Ground in Albury in country NSW.[11] Although Manly ultimately lost the game 29-16, Trbojevic scored a try with only his second touch of the ball and later crossed for his second try on debut.[12] Unfortunately, a high ankle injury suffered in the following round against the Penrith Panthers sidelined him for a number of weeks.

On 28 April, along with older brother Jake and fellow local junior Clint Gutherson, Trbojevic extended his contract with the Sea Eagles from the end of 2016 to the end of 2017.[13]

Due to the quality of the Manly backline which included representative players Brett Stewart, Jamie Lyon, Steve Matai, Peta Hiku and Jorge Taufua, Trbojevic has been forced to bide his time playing in the NYC while being used as an injury replacement winger for the Manly's NRL side. On 25 July against the New Zealand Warriors at the Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand while playing fullback in the NYC, Trbojevic had his second 4 try game of the season (giving him 14 in 7 NYC games in 2015), accumulating a NYC record 466 running metres for the game, prompting calls for him to be made a permanent first grade player.[14] Two weeks before he had played his 7th first grade game, crossing for a double in Manly's 38-6 defeat of the Gold Coast Titans, but was dropped for the next game against the North Queensland Cowboys in favour of returning New Zealand test centre Hiku. On 1 August following the Warriors game, he was again called into the NRL team as a replacement for Steve Matai who had been heavily concussed the week before against the Warriors. Trbojevic scored his third double of the season, including scooping up a loose ball and racing 70 metres to score the final try of the game, and played a starring role as Manly defeated the competition leading Brisbane Broncos 44-14 at the Central Coast Stadium in Gosford.[15]

Despite only having played only 8 games in first grade in 2015, all of them on the wing, Trbojevic's talent as a fullback was recognised when he was named in the position for Rugby League Week's 2015 NRL Rookie Team of the Year.[16] He was also named at fullback in the 2015 NYC Team of the Year.[17]

Trbojevic's final game for Manly in 2015 was the Holden Cup Grand Final played on NRL Grand Final day. Although he had another strong game and scored his 29th try in 22 games for the year (21 tries from 13 games in the under-20s and 8 tries in 9 NRL games), the Sea Eagles went down to the minor premiers Penrith Panthers 34-18.[18]

2016

On 1 February, Trbojevic was named in the Sea Eagles' 2016 NRL Auckland Nines squad.[19]

Trbojevic would play 23 games for the Sea Eagles in 2016, missing only Round 9 due to a high ankle sprain suffered in the Anzac Day match against the Newcastle Knights. Although hampered by the injury which would require corrective surgery at the end of the season, he continued playing and was rewarded mid-season when he and brother Jake were called into the New South Wales squad before Game 3 of the 2016 State of Origin series as development players. He would go on to score 10 tries for the Sea Eagles after taking over from Brett Stewart at fullback (following season ending knee surgery to Stewart). On 7 September he was named as the Roy Bull Best and Fairest for the Sea Eagles 2016 season.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "Tom Trbojevic to Carve Up Holden cup Opener". Dailytelegraph.com.au. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
  2. ↑ "'Turbo' Tom cruises past Warriors". Sea Eagles. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
  3. ↑ "Tom Trbojevic - Career Stats & Summary". Rugby League Project. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  4. ↑ "Serbian Rugby League on Twitter: "We now have a Serbian Australian rugby league community Facebook page. Please retweet and help spread the word "". Twitter.com. 2015-04-06. Retrieved 2015-09-27.
  5. ↑ Jake and Tom Trbojevic are the future of the Manly Sea Eagles
  6. ↑ "Jake and Tom Trbojevic are Manly's younger version of the Stewart brothers". Foxsports.com.au. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  7. ↑ "Two From Two for Rabbitohs NYC". Rabbitohs.com.au. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  8. ↑ "NYC TEAM LIST v Raiders". Seaeagles.com.au. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  9. ↑ "NSW U18s Retain Interstate Crown". Nswrl.com.au. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  10. ↑ "lock in future of stars". Seaeagles.com.au. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  11. ↑ "LATE MAIL: Trbojevic to debut". Seaeagles.com.au. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  12. ↑ "Sea Eagles v Raiders: Five key points". NRL.com. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  13. ↑ "re-sign local trio". Seaeagles.com.au. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  14. ↑ "Sea Eagles Flyer Tom Trbojevic Pushes First Grade Recall with Four Long Range Tries in Holden Cup". Foxsports.com.au. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  15. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20151220214217/http://www.nrl.com/manly-shock-nrl-ladder-leaders-brisbane/tabid/10874/newsid/88559/default.aspx. Archived from the original on 20 December 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ↑ "RLW's CLASS OF 2015". Rugby League Week. 2015-08-23. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  17. ↑ "2015 Holden Cup Team of the Year". NRL.com. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  18. ↑ "finish runners-up in NYC". Sea Eagles. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
  19. ↑ "Manly names new look Nines squad". NRL.com. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  20. ↑ http://www.seaeagles.com.au/news/2016/09/07/tom_trbojevic_wins_m.html Tom Trbojevic wins Manly's top award]

External links

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