"It blew me away, this one – I knew that Tom Trbojevic was going to make a difference to this Manly side … but he just came in seamlessly," Sterling told Wide World of Sports' Sterlo's Wrap<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n Sterling said that since the start of 2019, Manly had won three quarters of their games when Trbojevic had played, and just 46 per cent without.<\/p>\n "That's a big gulf, isn't it? Seventy-five (per cent) back to basically 45. The thing about Tommy is that he makes the other players around him just look so much better.<\/p>\n "Kieran Foran was superb. His brother, Jake, just looked so much more comfortable there."<\/p>\n The former Eels halfback said the sensation that Manly players must feel when they see Trbojevic suiting up for a game mirrored when he saw Ray Price across from him in the Parramatta dressing room in the Eels' 1980s glory days.<\/p>\n "When they look across and see Tommy there, they get exactly that same sensation, and he goes out there and they just look a much more confident football team."<\/p>\n A frontrunner for the wooden spoon just a couple of weeks ago, Sterling said it was far more likely that Manly would end up contending for the last couple of finals spots than the unwanted cutlery.<\/p>\n "With him coming back can they make the top eight? I'm not entirely sure they have the side to do that, but all of a sudden they're more in contention for 7th or 8th position – I don't see them any higher than that, but I had a line through them," Sterling said.<\/p>\n It's clear that Trbojevic's influence at Manly can't be overstated, and Sterling believes that only Clint Gutherson at Parramatta can rival the Manly fullback in terms of a single player affecting the results of a team so much.<\/p>\n "I think he's that important to Parramatta or close to … but I think it's fair to say that Tommy Trbojevic out of Manly is probably more detrimental to that side than anybody else coming out of any of the other 15 teams."<\/p>\n Manly will be looking for their third win in a row this weekend when they take on the Wests Tigers at Bankwest Stadium.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Turbo](\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/04\/353921\/pickerImage.jpg\")
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