NRL Round 1: Tom Trbojevic, Anthony Seibold return in style for Manly Sea Eagles victory

Tom Trbojevic's return to the NRL has gone off without a hitch, helping lead the Sea Eagles to a massive victory over the Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon.

The superstar fullback wasn't exactly at his high-flying best but came through the game unscathed, finishing with one try and a game-high 174 run metres in just under 80 minutes on the field.

Daly Cherry-Evans crossed for a hat-trick in the 31-6 triumph, while hulking forwards Taniela Paseka and Haumole Olakau'atu also had impressive individual performances. 

Trbojevic was put on ice late in the second-half with Manly in the lead due to cramping, but was brought back on moments later following a head knock to hooker Lachlan Croker.

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Speaking to Fox League after the game, the 26-year-old admitted his elation to be back in front of a sold-out Brookvale Oval crowd.

“It’s been a long nine months since I played footy," Trbojevic said.

"It was a very nervous week, I haven't had a round one win in my career, so I’m pretty happy.

"It was disappointing to end the year early last year and I had a six-month break over the off-season. I just wanted to get on the field and get it over with.

"I was cramping up a fair bit – it’s hard to prepare for a game of footy, it was tough. It makes the bye [next week] even better."

Trbojevic wasn't the only big name making their return to first grade, with new head coach Anthony Seibold also back in the NRL after a two-year absence. 

Seibold was full of praise for his side after the victory and admitted he was glad to see Trbojevic get through without any major issues.

“It was a really good feeling to see the boys compete really strongly for the best part of 80 minutes," he said.

"They’ve worked really hard in pre-season and spent a lot of time working on what we are trying to be this year…a lot of time connecting as a group.

"To see 17,000 people out there today was something we were really proud of, because we want to be connected to the community and we know how much the Manly team means.

“We wanted to build our game in this early part of the season on our D, and I felt as though today we defended our try line well. A couple of times we scrambled when they put some grubber kick through. I thought we showed a lot of intent with our defence.

“It was just cramping – I took him off because the had the cramp, but he ended up coming back on. He feels good physically and he will be better for that run as well.

"It wasn’t because we were ahead or anything like that, the message came up from the touchline about Tom starting to cramp and we thought with about 15 minutes to go, we had Kaeo Weekes sitting down there and we thought we would put him on.

"Tom was able to get back on the field when Lachy Croker came off."

Manly have the bye next weekend before taking on old rivals Parramatta in Round 3.