Seibold, Sea Eagles big losers in NRL draw

Scott Bailey | November 10, 2022

Anthony Seibold has been handed a brutal start to his time as Manly coach, with the Sea Eagles copping one of the most difficult NRL draws of any club for next season.

Still reeling from a nightmare end to their 2022 campaign, Manly could have done with a friendly schedule to start their time under Seibold.

Instead, they will play 13 games against last year’s top-eight teams, including facing top-four teams Penrith, Parramatta and Cronulla twice.

In a further blow, they have been handed a bye in round two, when players are still fresh.

Manly lost their final seven games last season, but will at least have Tom Trbojevic back fit for their opener against Canterbury on March 4, assuming all goes to plan.

Of all the NRL’s sides, only Brisbane’s draw looks more difficult.

With Kevin Walters in the final year of his contract, the Broncos have a league-high 14 matches against last year’s finalists.

They at least have eight of their first 12 matches at Suncorp Stadium, but face every top-eight club from last season twice besides Cronulla and the Sydney Roosters.

Commercially they have also taken a hit with fellow southeast Queensland club the Dolphins’ entry to the competition, with their number of free-to-air games shrinking from 17 to 13.

South Sydney are the other team to cop a particularly difficult run on the field.

The Rabbitohs have 12 matches against last year’s finalists, the most of any team to feature in the top eight.

Conversely, it is Canberra and Cronulla who will be happiest with Thursday’s outcome.

The Raiders play only eight matches against last year’s finalists, only doubling up against Cronulla, with just one match against all other top-eight sides.

“We’re really happy with it,” Raiders CEO Don Furner said.

“We always ask for day games through winter and we got that through the middle of the year.

“And we’re fairly well spread out with our byes.”

The Sharks have also enjoyed the rub of the green, with 10 games against 2022 finalists and only one clash with Penrith and Parramatta.

Other notable factors include defending premiers Panthers travelling to every out-of-NSW club, racking up the most mileage of any Sydney team.

The Eels, in contrast, do not have to leave Sydney until round nine, and have also been gifted the luxury of a bye in the last week of the regular season before finals.

They do however have three five-day turnarounds and will be without Ryan Matterson for their opening games against Melbourne, Cronulla and Manly, after he took a ban to start the year rather than a $4000 fine.

St George Illawarra have the bye in the opening round, but have games against Gold Coast, Brisbane, the Dolphins and Titans again in the following five weeks in welcome news for under-pressure coach Anthony Griffin.