Trbojevic provided an insight into what he learnt from Knowles, who has worked with global stars including Tiger Woods, Alex Rodriguez, Andy Murray and Peyton Manning.

While it would be a stretch to suggest that Trbojevic needed to learn how to run again, the Dally M medallist needed to make some technical adjustments to the way he moves to avoid further injury. “Owning the ground” was one of the phrases Knowles used to describe the subtle changes required.

“It’s not so much a blank canvas and starting again, it’s working out where you need to get stronger and implementing a plan to do that,” Trbojevic explained.

“On a footy field, you find yourself in certain positions, whether you’re changing direction or running fast. At all times, you want to be strong through the ground, and you want to use all of your muscles together and not be weak and put some at risk.

“You look in depth at how you move and how your body works. I’m nowhere near perfect, it takes a lot of time. It’s good, I enjoy it.”

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Most pundits predict that the Sea Eagles will only go as far as Trbojevic can take them. Since 2015, Manly have won 51.6 per cent of games when “Turbo” is fit and only 35.6 per cent when not.

However, talk of a one-man team is quickly dismissed by Trbojevic.

“I’m certainly not buying into it myself – I wouldn’t say it’s something that frustrates me,” he said.

“I’m not reading it or thinking that, so frustrated wouldn’t be the right word. I definitely don’t think it’s true. We’ve got a great squad and you saw how good they were on the weekend.

“If we play like that across the year, we’ll be right.”

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