Manly's Trbojevic brothers are hoping they stay together and don't go the way of the Stewart or Morris siblings in having to break up to keep playing in the NRL.

Jake and Tom Trbojevic are each off contract in 2020 and, as often happens with high-profile players, their clubs usually try to extend their deals in the year before they are due on the open market – think Nathan Cleary (Panthers), Luke Keary (Roosters), Sam Burgess (Rabbitohs).

Jake Trbojevic, 24, said he could never visualise himself playing for any club other than the Sea Eagles.

But the Test and Origin forward is a realist and remembers the emotion-filled drama of Brett and Glenn Stewart being parted at the end of the 2014 season after more than a decade together.

"I've sort of grown up at Manly. I can't see myself anywhere else," Jake told NRL.com.

"But the way the game is now you just never know what's around the corner, when you're talking salary caps and that sort of thing.

"You would never have thought Glenn Stewart would have to leave Manly. But that's the way it worked out."

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The Morris twins were reunited at the Bulldogs in 2015 but will be apart in 2019 – Brett to the Roosters, Josh to Cronulla – due to an array of salary cap pressures at the Belmore club.

"I want to play alongside Tom throughout. But you have to keep an open mind – it's just the nature of the game," Jake said.

"It would be very hard to leave. So that's why I'll do all I can to stay here and play with Tom because I would love that."

Tom Trbojevic, 22, said early contract extension talks had not been part of his thinking for 2019.

"But we do want to stay together – it would make it a lot easier for our parents," he told NRL.com.

"I haven't really thought about it seeing as it's still a couple of years away.

"But I hope it all works out in the end, when it happens. I definitely would love to play my whole career with him."