A month ago it seemed his days were numbered as Sea Eagles coach—now Anthony Seibold is plotting the club’s second NRL finals foray in as many seasons, something the club hasn’t achieved for more than a decade.
Speaking from the Northern Beaches ahead of the historic Round 21 match-up with the Canterbury Bulldogs at Allianz Stadium, Seibold brushed aside recent criticism as little more than external noise.
“One of the things I’ve learned is things are never as bad it seems, and things are never as good as it seems, it’s always somewhere in the middle,” Seibold said.
“But that’s what so vibrant about our game, there’s so much interest and commentary in the media which is great, if our game wasn’t that interesting we wouldn’t be playing in front of potentially a full house tomorrow.”
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“It can be roller coaster at times,” Seibold continued.
“But it’s all part of the fun and the challenge—whether you’re a player or coach the big thing is to keep perspective, and I feel we’ve done pretty well at that.”
To illustrate that perspective, Seibold then pointed to his side’s performances in 2025 against the NRL’s best teams.
“It’s not about what everyone else thinks, it’s what we can actually do,” he said.
“If you look at the top six teams at the moment, we’ve been able to beat four of them and we haven’t played the Dogs yet so we get another opportunity tomorrow to test ourselves.
“We’re going over to their party and we’re looking forward to it.”
‘How can we be a consistent finals footy team?’
While the short-term focus is spoiling the Bulldog’s thirty-year 1995 Grand Final anniversary celebrations, Seibold says the eighth-placed Sea Eagles are enjoying being in control of their own destiny in the run home to the NRL final series.
“It’s exciting at this time of year because you get down to the pointy end and that’s the next step for us a club—how can we be a consistent finals footy team?” he said.
“We’ve put ourselves in a good position, we have a clear picture of what our run (home) looks like and what we need to do to get there—we have seven opportunities left, starting tomorrow against the Bulldogs.
“Any time you’re in control of your own destiny that’s crucial, and we are the moment.”