{"id":469774,"date":"2025-09-09T22:10:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=469774"},"modified":"2025-09-09T23:15:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T23:15:30","slug":"biggest-disappointment-in-year-rocked-by-shock-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=469774","title":{"rendered":"'Biggest disappointment' in year rocked by 'shock declaration'"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are plenty of teams in the top eight that are glad Manly<\/a> are not playing in the big games ahead.<\/p>\n

That's the Sea Eagles' enigma – on their day they have been capable of beating any team in the league \u2026 but they just didn't have enough of those special days in 2025.<\/p>\n

In the end, they missed the finals by just two points, but were so inconsistent they probably didn't deserve to be there.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Ange 'gamble' probed as Postecoglou returns to Premier League\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Many critics believe the Sea Eagles' season began to unravel way back in March, when Daly Cherry-Evans made the shock declaration that he would be quitting the club for 2026.<\/p>\n

His words seemed to rock the club – the captain, senior player and face of the franchise had one foot out the door.<\/p>\n

The Sea Eagles lost four of their next five games and were always chasing their tails in the battle for finals footy after that.<\/p>\n

\"Daly<\/p>\n

One positive is they finished the season with three straight wins, scoring more than 100 points in the process, to very possibly save coach Anthony Sebold's job and lay a foundation for next year.<\/p>\n

Both Tom and Jake Trbojevic – two such important men at Manly – had their injury problems during the year and that only added to the club's woes.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Injuries up front resulted in the Sea Eagles struggling in the trenches, with Josh Aloiai managing just four games, Taniela Paseka three, Lachlan Croker three and Tof Sipley two.<\/p>\n

The 2026 season will see the start of a new era, with Canberra recruit Jamal Fogarty to steer the ship around and boom youngster Joey Walsh set to push Luke Brooks for a starting spot.<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/p>\n

Seibold will be under pressure to perform but expect a few more new buys before the season kicks off, including the re-signing of premiership-winning forward Siosiua Taukeiaho<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Best player<\/strong>: Tolu Koula came of age as a try-scoring weapon in 2025, bagging 17 tries in 22 games including several dazzling long-range efforts. At 23, he has a huge future.<\/p>\n

Biggest disappointment<\/strong>: Haumole Olakau'atu is one of the most feared wide-running forwards in the game when fit and firing but had a quiet year by his standards with just five tries in 15 games.<\/p>\n

Injuries didn't help – Manly need him fit and firing.<\/p>\n

\"Daly<\/p>\n

Key signing<\/strong>: With Cherry-Evans leaving, the Sea Eagles managed to pick up a very capable replacement in Fogarty. A crafty ball-player, Fogarty also has an excellent kicking game.<\/p>\n

2026 gains<\/strong>: Jamal Fogarty (Raiders)<\/p>\n

2026 losses<\/strong>: Daly Cherry-Evans (Roosters), Toafofoa Sipley, Michael Chee Kam Tong, Tommy Talau (all released)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are plenty of teams in the top eight that are glad Manly are not playing in the big games ahead. That's the Sea Eagles' […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":469776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=469774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469779,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469774\/revisions\/469779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/469776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=469774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=469774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=469774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}