Has there ever been one player who has transformed a team like Tommy Trbojevic has done at Manly?
It's remarkable the difference one player can make with Tommy coming back.
Early on, Manly were really struggling and after the first month of the competition, there was even talk of them vying for the wooden spoon because of the way they were performing and question marks around Des Hasler's coaching.
It's incredible how it all turned around so suddenly.
Tommy's come back into the side after getting over his hamstring issues and all of a sudden, everyone in their team has grown a leg just from the confidence of having him back.
Tommy's playing out of his skin and the rest of their boys have jumped on board with him to the point where they have gone from wooden spoon contenders to top four material and a genuine premiership threat in the space of six to eight weeks.
We can probably learn a valuable lesson from what they have been able to do too.
It's all about confidence with them and that's what it can do. The same players who were struggling in that first month are now on fire and I've been saying for weeks now it's the same with us.
We just need something to trigger a turnaround in fortunes for us. Something that will give us that same sort of confidence and self belief that Tommy's presence has given Manly and we will be right back in the mix again.
We need to find that trigger and hopefully playing against them, our club's tradition big rival, at home on Sunday in front of a big crowd will be the catalyst for us to find that spark we so desperately need.
It might be as simple as a big play during the game or someone coming up with a big tackle or some real inspiration from someone that flicks a switch and gets us back on track.
Whatever happens, Manly will be a huge challenge for us. Hopefully, we can halt their go-forward and put the brakes on Tommy and come away with the confidence-boosting win we are craving.
Greeny heartbreak
It was a real shock for all of us and really tough for Greeny to have to pull the pin on his career now and not at the end of the season.
It's heartbreaking given how much he tortured himself on the training paddock for months on end after his knee surgery late last year.
From our point of view as teammates, we were just blessed to have him around the place with his experience and cool head but it's clearly been really frustrating for him not being able to physically do what he's wanted to do on the field and at training.
It hurts us all to see him finish up but I'm sure he is going to still be around the boys with his insights and doing some coaching as well which will be good.
