Manly are adamant they have learnt to play without Tom Trbojevic and aren't the same side who were flogged in his absence at the start of last season.
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The Sea Eagles face their biggest test in more than a year over the next month, hoping Trbojevic will miss just four weeks after being rushed in for knee surgery on Monday night.
Manly sprung something of a surprise on Tuesday, with teenage rookie Tolutau Koula named as Trbojevic's replacement at No.1 and Christian Tuipulotu at centre, with Brad Parker recovering from COVID-19.
But the Sea Eagles admitted on Tuesday they were gutted to be without the reigning Dally M Medallist against Newcastle, Gold Coast, Cronulla and South Sydney.
Manly have won just 33 per cent of games without Trbojevic since Des Hasler's arrival in 2019, compared to 75 per cent with him.
Those figures show he is more influential than any other player in the modern era, with an average score of 28-16 with the man known as Tommy Turbo in the side compared to 19-26 without him.
Nowhere was that more evident than in Manly's worst-ever opening to a season last year, going 0-4 without him before recovering to finish fourth.
But the players stressed they learnt to play without him in the back-end of last year, winning four of their past five with Trbojevic missing and putting 50 points on North Queensland.
"It's a different style (we play now) ... to what we would if he was playing," hooker Lachlan Croker said.
"Whether Foz (Kieran Foran) and Chez (Daly Cherry-Evans) play together on the same side a bit more.
"And around the ruck, whoever fills in there is going to have to do something similar to Tom.
"There's going to have to be times where forwards have to get back earlier to get us out of our own end."
Manly also point to greater experience in their squad now with Josh Schuster, Sean Keppie, Jason Saab and Haumole Olakau'atu all having played more football since.
"Last year we were thrown into the deep end without him, we've experienced it now," Croker said.
"It's not going to be easy ... oppositions seeing he's not in the team will feel a little bit better.
"But we have a lot of guys who played a lot of footy last year, they've added another 25 games to where they are now."
Manly's pack have also accepted they will have to stand up and get back earlier for yardage carries, a job often taken by Trbojevic.
"Obviously we're a little bit gutted about it," prop Josh Aloiai said.
"We know how good he is ... we can't get up here and say it's not a big loss.
"There are 200 or 300 metres there that he gets us going forward so others are going to have to put their hand up."
Australian Associated Press
