Big flaws, recruiting blunders put Manly under pump in DCE derby; why Dogs must pull trigger — Alex McKinnon

All eyes will be on Daly Cherry-Evans this week as he comes up against Manly.

But while DCE will be dominating the headlines, the pressure really should be on his former team because what is happening at Brookvale?

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Manly really haven’t got going, and as a result, the same has been true for their biggest names.

Tom Trbojevic is struggling to get into the game. The same goes for Luke Brooks. He’s struggling to find his space in the orchestra.

That has meant Haumole Olakau’atu, one of Manly’s biggest weapons on the edge, isn’t getting the carries he deserves.

So, what is going wrong?

Well, it all starts with the new rules and, specifically, an inability to adapt to them.

Clearly the new rules have presented a completely different look than what they were expecting.

Sometimes when that happens, some specific coaches who are very structured get found out.

And that would be biggest criticism about Anthony Seibold. He has a very a clear game plan and strategy about how they are going to go about things as a team.

But in this new-look, fast-paced version of the NRL, he and his playing group is being left behind.

It’s not just the rules though. It goes beyond that.

Their poor start to 2026 makes you start to question some of their recruitment decisions as well.

If Joey Walsh is sitting in reserve grade and clearly presented himself as a viable option to play in the halves, why did they need to go and get Jamal Fogarty?

I get it, they lost Daly Cherry-Evans and there was the pressure to find a ready-made replacement. After all, in the NRL there is no such thing as a rebuild because you get stuck.

But you need to rebuild on the run.

That doesn’t seem to be happening at Manly, and it isn’t necessarily a surprise given the uncertainty about who’s in charge there.

It put the club in a position where they prioritised signing a halfback, when you can clearly see that money would have been a lot better spent in middle.

I don’t know who was responsible for the Fogarty signing. But what I do know, at least from the outside looking in, is that Fogarty hasn’t made Brooks better.

If anything it has almost eliminated his impact on the team.

The problems at the club seem to go beyond the field too.

You saw the negotiations with Tom Trbojevic and Jake Trbojevic play out in the media. Clearly someone was negotiating that initially and then another person jumped in and tried to save it.

It’s worrying signs. There is just no alignment in their decision-making. Which takes us back to Walsh.

Clearly, you’ve got a good young half who can hold his gloves up and you could partner him with a really good fullback, who is your club captain now, and a mature six who can kick and tackle well. You think you’d be able to manage that.

Instead, I’ve got not idea where the Sea Eagles are going. Absolutely no idea.

Well, that is except for one thing. Where they are going is in the direction of a new coach.

They’re playing with no energy.

I know they’re losing, but Tom and Jake and Brooks looked like someone stole their teddy bear.

They just look unhappy. This is a playing group that just doesn’t look happy.

WHY REYNOLDS’ ROLE NEEDS TO CHANGE WHEN HE RETURNS

Of course, winning is the easiest way to quiet the outside noise. Just ask the Broncos.

That was an impressive win they had on Friday against the Storm. You could get the sense they really understood how important a game it was.

And how good was Reece Walsh? Again, no Adam Reynolds and he finds a way to stamp his authority on the game.

It is a good headache for coach Michael Maguire to have, but one that they will need to work out ahead of the halfback’s return.

Hopefully Reynolds is able to play the remainder of the year healthy when he gets back. But their style of play is very different when he suits up.

Walsh becomes a much more dominant player. He feels that responsibility to stand up and put his best foot forward and have a more influential position in the team, which is what you want from your best players.

You saw at end of last year when Reece started to really feel comfortable in that role, getting those extra carries and those extra touches.

He gets on a burner.

That’s what happened the other night.

He’s still got some stuff to build in his game, which he’s spoken about publicly.

But the Broncos as a whole also need to figure out a way to maintain Walsh’s high involvement when Reynolds returns.

It’s one of those things where the more you do it, the more you get used to being able to adapt to it.

There’s going to be a time when Reynolds comes back into the team and he plays a more reduced role than he is used to.

Not that he isn’t a very valuable player in Brisbane’s bid to go back-to-back. Reynolds is a guy that directs the team around the park, and he’s probably one of the greatest ever general-play kickers to ever do it.

Both he and Walsh are very smart players, who will need to find that balance together. But either way as I said at the start it’s a good problem to have, because next year they’re not going to have Reynolds.

So, the Broncos may as well start planning for the future now.

UNDERRATED TIGERS GUN’S BIG OPPORTUNITY

Speaking of the Broncos, I’m excited to watch one of their former players get his chance this week.

Jock Madden spent a lot of time up in Brisbane underneath some pretty good halves, including Reynolds.

He’s a mature half that showed a couple of glimpses last time he was there, but he never really got his opportunity.

He did play a couple of games last year, but he got injured around the same time a lot of the other Broncos players went down, so he didn’t really get a chance to prove himself.

But now he gets his opportunity with Jarome Luai going down and while the Tigers obviously would love to have him available, they couldn’t ask for a much better replacement.

Just ask the Warriors given how Tanah Boyd has fared filling in for Luke Metcalf. Madden is in a similar mould.

I strongly believe Madden has got that experience to manage a game. He kicks well and competes and I think it’s what the Tigers are missing.

Someone to be able to steady the ship and control the contest with their long-range kicking game.

That isn’t to say that Adam Doueihi isn’t the answer. He proved himself a viable option last year and really put his hand up in pre-season to get that extension.

But at the same time, he’s someone that has had a lot of injuries.

I think a lot of Tigers fans should be excited to see Madden get his second opportunity at the club and he may well be the seven that partners Jarome over the next five years.

It would be a well-deserved break for Madden, who had opportunities to go to other clubs and chose to go to Brisbane instead knowing full well it would mean not much playing time in the NRL.

That’s sign of his approach in wanting to learn off guys like Reynolds and Ben Hunt and build his game for his next opportunity.

He took the chance to go up to Brisbane and learn a few things, and now he’s got an opportunity to put his best foot forward and prove he belongs in the NRL.

There are multiple new teams coming into the competition and with the game becoming a lot more fast, I really think that suits Madden’s style of play.

WHY I’M A FAN OF THE NEW-LOOK NRL

How about the speed of the game too?

There is a lot of talk about whether it is good for the sport.

I wrote in my last column that I was unsure when I was watching the first round of the season because I didn’t know what the game was going to look like with the new rules.

Usually when you watch a lot of football you are able to see trends and when possession swings will happen and how teams go about trying to shift momentum.

You just knew when it was going to happen.

We’ve definitely seen some big swings in momentum so far this year, and I think it would be very difficult to coach because it’s still quite hard to know exactly what you’re seeing on the field.

As the year goes on I think it may tight up a little bit.

There are a fair few critics of the state of the game right now with all the six-agains, but don’t count me as one of them.

I love watching it. I love how things are going.

Naturally the game changing is going to suit some teams rather than the others and everyone will adapt.

You take the weekend’s games. There were a lot of points, which is great to see. It’s not boring.

Second to that, we’ve seen some results that if you were to predict games going into this season, you wouldn’t have predicted.

Take the Eels beating the Broncos, or the Warriors walloping Canberra by 34 points. And how about the Tigers flogging the Cowboys 44 to 16? The Dolphins nearly put 40 on the Sharks.

It is a lot of points and I didn’t think it was going to be like that.

It is unpredictable, and of course coaches aren’t going to like it, particularly the best ones that prepare so much for the whole season.

As for the speed of the game specifically, it definitely puts more of a focus on your discipline, your completion rate and your ruck defence.

There are some teams that do those things really well, and there are some teams that aren’t.

It’s as simple as that.

WHY BULLDOGS MAY NOT BE FAR FROM PULLING THE TRIGGER

One of the teams playing good, disciplined football so far this year is the Bulldogs.

You win games through hard work and defence and discipline, and they’ve been able to do that and credit to them.

But I still have questions.

They still have plenty of time to work out what their best 2026 team looks like. I just don’t believe that that is with Galvin at seven, Burton at six and Crichton at centre.

I still think they’re trying to wrestle with that and there will come to a time when they do pull the trigger, because I don’t think they’re scoring enough points.

Of course, scoring points isn’t everything. Defence is what they build their game on. They’re doing a good job at that too.

I just think the decision to play Sean O’Sullivan at seven, Burton at centre and Galvin at six is not too far away.

Sullivan is like Madden. He can kick your team around the park and is a strong communicator. That then frees up your best players like Galvin to run and get in the game.

This is the hard thing with Galvin.

I think he could be great player. He’s already a good player. But I just don’t know what the timeline is at the Bulldogs.

Galvin is going to get his chances at halfback. And don’t worry, he is going to work it out. He loves his footy and he’s young with plenty of time to put it all together. After all, he could be the Bulldogs’ halfback for the next 10 years.

But is that the best thing for their team right now? And what’s the timeline that their coach is on and what’s the timeline that the club is on?

If you were to pick their best team right now, I would say put O’Sullivan at seven, Galvin at six and Burton at either one or centre. I think that is their best team right now.

But is that the best thing for Galvin? It’s a really hard balancing act and interesting one to watch and only they know within those walls what it’s going to look like towards the end of the year and what they’re building towards and what they hope happens.

All I know is that Galvin is getting a lot of reps at seven at the moment, and he’s doing a pretty good job, but I’m not sure if it’s the best for the team.

But it may be the best for the club in the years to come.

It’s not just Galvin though. I’m also not sure Connor Tracey is the answer at fullback if the Bulldogs want to win the competition.

Tracey had a great game on Thursday night, don’t get me wrong. His try-saving tackle at the death is an example of everything we have to come to expect from him.

He is already and can continue to be a really good, consistent NRL player at fullback.

I’m just not sure if you can win a comp with him there.

As much as Ethan Strange was so influential at Canberra last year, the other guy that stood up was Kaeo Weekes.

Where is your Kaeo Weekes at the Dogs? Where is your superstar fullback that breaks open the game with his speed?

That obviously isn’t to say speed is everything. If it was, Tyrell Sloan would be a man in demand right now.

He, however, had his problems in defence and for a Bulldogs team that prides itself on that side of the ball, Tracey makes sense for now.

But what is their ceiling with him at the back?

And specifically, would it be higher if Crichton was to shift there down the line?

I disagreed at the time but understood why the Bulldogs put Crichton at centre while they were rebuilding.

This, after all, is a team that hung their hat on defence and efforts areas. Crichton is exactly that, along with the attacking flair.

They were able then to lock down the centre position and that side of the field, which allowed everyone else to fill those other positions and develop.

It’s worked really well for them too. But I just wonder if one eye is on Crichton and the possibility of him playing fullback and what impact that would have on the team?

The Dogs haven’t been scared to make big decisions. Is that going to happen again, and if so when?

It’s not just the Bulldogs who need to have this conversation. They have a lot of similarities with the Sharks.

Everyone says it’s the halves. But if you put a fullback at the back with a bit of speed, your focus isn’t then on the slowness of the halves.

It takes your half breaks into full breaks. It changes your kick return from a defending position into an attacking position.

That’s the difference.

Find yourself a fast superstar fullback, and they’re not easy to find, but find one and the focus will no longer be on all the question marks with the halves.

Of course, the other elements need to be there. It can’t just be speed. You’ve got to have an appetite for getting your body in front.

But what about Ryan Papenhuyzen?

He probably wasn’t a player in the beginning that loved that tough stuff, but the Storm really put time into his development and look how he finished.

I just think for the Bulldogs and Sharks to have success, a little bit more allocation and money needs to be put into the fullback position.

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