Daly Cherry-Evans’ ongoing form slump is one of the reasons behind Manly’s dramatic drop out of the playoff picture and it’s now looming as a major headache on the horizon for the Roosters.
Cherry-Evans had an afternoon to forget at Allianz Stadium on Sunday as he struggled in attack and defence as the Sea Eagles capitulated against the Wests Tigers.
The 26-12 win keeps Benji Marshall’s team in the mathematical race for the finals despite being 11th on the ladder and while Manly are still technically in the hunt, they are no chance after four straight defeats.
In the later game, North Queensland registered a 38-4 cakewalk over a Newcastle side which was woeful in attack and only slightly better in defence.
1. Tigers are big improvers
They are still at long odds to make the finals despite knocking over the Bulldogs and Sea Eagles in recent weeks but wherever they end up, the Tigers have made a great leap forward in 2025.
The Tigers joined the Sea Eagles on 24 competition points with Sunday’s win and are still behind them on the ladder because their for-and-against record is nearly 100 points worse.
But they have a faint hope of sneaking into eighth if the Roosters and Dolphins stumble in the closing rounds and they can beat the Cowboys, Raiders and Titans.
“We haven’t even talked about that. All that matters is that if we lose we’re done,” Marshall said.
“As a coach, I’ve learnt the most in the last few weeks about our team. We’ve always had effort and competed. It’s about putting together the smarts of our footy, the weapons we have.”
The Sea Eagles have the Dolphins, Dragons and Warriors on the horizon but unless those teams send out their reserve-grade sides, Manly don’t have a hope.
It should not be forgotten that Wests were coming off three straight wooden spoons and won just six of their 24 matches last season.
They are now 9-12 and a respectable 11th on the ladder and likely to rise at least one more rung on the ladder.
Unlike in previous seasons, the Tigers will be thrilled if they can finish in the no man’s land that is ninth spot this time around.
Terrell May charges forward. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
2. Sea Eagles go to water
Manly were the dominant team for the first few minutes and the last couple – it was the 75 in between when they conceded 26 unanswered points that let them down.
They couldn’t have started better with Tolu Koula breaking five tacklers to chalk up one of the best individual tries of the season during the first set of the match.
But the Tigers regrouped and showed they were up for the fight with Adam Doueihi continuing his recent purple patch with a try and Jeral Skelton putting them up 12-6 by the break.
Sunia Turuva’s try in the 53rd minute made Manly’s task tough and when Taylan May crossed for a dodgy try with 20 minutes remaining, supporters clad in maroon and white started making moves towards the exits.
“The key attacking weapons aren’t producing. But why aren’t they producing? I just think it’s their connection,” former Panthers premiership-winning halfback Greg Alexander said on Fox League as Manly made error after error.
A team that is not in synch by Round 24 is one that will finish out of the finals equation and that will be the case for Anthony Seibold’s side.
After copping floggings from the Roosters, Raiders and Bulldogs in recent weeks, it is their worst four-game defensive stretch since 1975 according to a killer stat delivered by Fox Sports Lab.
That’s the kind of thing that could be brought up in an end-of-season review before the club’s head honchos inform Seibold that his desk drawers need to be cleaned out by the close of the business day.
“A massive step back,” Seibold said. “It’s going to be tough now, relying on other results, sitting there hoping – and hope’s not a great strategy.
“That was our worst performance for a long time.”
Manly’s Reuben Garrick only lasted 21 minutes after suffering a shoulder injury while Tigers centre Starford To’a also failed to finish the match with a similar injury.
3. Roosters’ DCE backflip dilemma
Daly Cherry-Evans became the biggest story of the 2015 season when he backed out of a lucrative contract with the Gold Coast.
A decade later and the Roosters are now under pressure to reconsider whether they should have forked out a hefty two-year deal for DCE after his form has fallen off a cliff in 2025.
DCE and the Roosters have been cagier than caged hens about whether the deal has been sealed or not for months.
Whether it’s a handshake agreement or the veteran half has signed on the dotted line, it could turn out to be a rare misstep by the Roosters who have gained a reputation as roster experts because they are extremely careful on which players they splash cash on.
But with Cherry-Evans losing his Origin spot with the Maroons, struggling for form with Manly and unlikely to suddenly discover the fountain of youth in the next few months, the reported $1.6 million deal is not looking like the wisest of investments.
And with the rise of rookie playmaker Hugo Savala, there are rising doubts about whether Cherry-Evans would be the best option alongside halfback Sam Walker.
Sandon Smith has already been told he can hit the road a year early and another rising star, NSW under-19 halfback Toby Rodwell, will have to wait longer for a chance at NRL level if DCE is blocking his path.
Cherry-Evans was again well below his best against the Tigers on Sunday.
He is trying to rediscover the spark which made him an elite halfback for his previous 14 seasons in the NRL and he’s probably overplaying his hand, particularly with Manly in desperation mode as their playoff campaign goes down the drain.
Roosters chairman Nick Politis will never go back on his word, particularly in such a high-profile situation as this one.
But if DCE had announced he was leaving Manly last week instead of at the start of the year, it is highly unlikely the Roosters would be rearranging their roster to bring him across the Harbour Bridge.
4. Drinkwater delivers for Cowboys
Their playoff hopes are long gone but the Cowboys at least salvaged some lost pride with their stroll in the park against the Knights.
Scott Drinkwater was at his brilliant best in attack to torment Newcastle’s defenders, particularly close to the line.
And the much-maligned fullback even showcased his rarely seen defensive skills by knocking the ball free of prop Jacob Saifiti’s grasp as he crossed the stripe.
Drinkwater scored two tries of his own and assisted two others as the Cowboys converted a 20-0 half-time advantage into an emphatic victory which only serves to keep them in 13th spot after the Rabbitohs hopped ahead of them on Saturday night with their upset win over Parramatta.
The Cowboys were possibly lucky to be awarded a try on an obstruction call from the Bunker in the 46th minute to Jaxson Purdue when Jake Arthur looked to have been impeded by Jeremiah Nanai on the decoy run.
But the Bunker ruled Arthur made the wrong call in initiating contact, similar to the drama on Friday night when the Warriors were awarded a try that proved crucial in their narrow win over the Dragons.
This time around it was merely a talking point in an otherwise dreary match which would have had the few diehards who tuned in to the broadcast reaching for the off switch at regular intervals.
5. Knights’ attack goes from terrible to worse
Comedy of errors is the term that comes to mind when trying to describe Newcastle’s attack.
They bombed one certain try in the first half with a poor pass when drawing the fullback and Saifiti spilled the pill twice in last-ditch tackles with the line wide open.
Yet again they failed to score a point in the first half, that’s 10 times that has occurred in 2025.
A circuit-breaker is needed in Newcastle – the obvious one would be a new coach with Adam O’Brien seemingly out of answers or unable to come up with a solution to their chronically bad attack.
Jake Arthur is the latest playmaker who has been shuffled into the Knights’ playmaker vortex which has churned through Jack Cogger, Jackson Hastings, Will Pryce, Tyson Gamble and Phoenix Crossland in recent seasons.
They have sorely missed first-choice five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe since his season ended early and Kalyn Ponga due to his foot injury but it’s not like they were able to put points on the board when they were in the line-up.
Newcastle botched another certain four-pointer with 15 minutes on the clock when Dominic Young’s pass went well behind fullback Connor Votano when all he had to do was put it on his chest.
That’s six straight losses and if that becomes nine by season’s end, their only hope of avoiding the wooden spoon is if the Titans can’t jag a win in their final three outings.
The Kick: Bunker goes maverick with dubious try
The Tigers’ try on the hour mark should never have been allowed.
Taylan May cut through a gap off a Jarome Luai pass but Samuela Fainu had already gone behind the defensive line as a decoy.
May was in his slipstream and sidestepped both Fainu and Tom Trbojevic, only a few metres in front of the Sea Eagles fullback, who was perplexed that referee Adam Gee allowed play to continue on.
“Tom was just left standing because he wasn’t sure who to take,” a bemused Greg Alexander said on Fox League.
“He’s got another attacker to think about. Tom had another player in front of the ball carrier.
“I have not seen this before. The fact that Taylan May has to step his own man, that took him away from Trbojevic.”
It was like May and Fainu had choreographed their flight paths after watching the Top Gun sequel – the Bunker has set a dubious precedent by not sending the footage to the cutting room floor.