Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans says he’s handling the firestorm around his playing future “as best as he can”, conceding a finals series in his last season at the Sea Eagles is now unlikely.
The Sea Eagles’ 26-12 loss to the Tigers on Sunday essentially eliminates them from finals contention.
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It’s a disappointing scenario for Manly, who have lost four games in a row to fall out of the eight.
Cherry-Evans cut a dejected figure on the field at full time and in the Sea Eagles’ post-game press conference.
“We’re now hoping to make the finals which is where you don’t want to be,” the Manly skipper said.
“I don’t know if toll is the right word, but after the game there is a bit to process.
I’ve got a lot of love for this place so obviously wanted to finish with a finals campaign but that’s really unlikely. The realisation of that is why I looked so disappointed after the game.”
Cherry-Evans was then asked by a journalist if the outside noise around his future has affected him.
The star half is expected to join the Roosters next season although nothing has been made official.
Given Cherry-Evans’ up-and-down form, combined with the recent red-hot run of the Roosters and their halfback Sam Walker, it has led to speculation the Chooks might have a case of buyer’s remorse.
In addition, it was reported earlier in the week that Cherry-Evans’ Roosters deal hasn’t been registered by the NRL yet.
“Just to be clear so I can differentiate, I’m definitely not happy with losing four in a row,” Cherry-Evans said.
“Everything else to be honest with you, I’m doing the best I can and feeling like I can hold my head up high.”
Manly coach Anthony Seibold didn’t want to make excuses for what he labelled a “massive step back”.
However, he noted his team’s injury crisis, with seven first choice forwards all unavailable.
“We’ve come off the back of a really tough month of footy where we’ve played three of the top four teams, which has taken a fair bit of juice out of us,” he said.
“We were entrenched in the finals so the last month has been really disappointing for us.
“We’re missing some of our bigger bodies and we were beaten up the middle today.
“Seven of what we potentially thought would be first choice forwards unavailable at present, but our group today, we beat Melbourne a month ago. Same group of players. So injuries are not an excuse.
“We were way off today but we lost the battle in the middle. I can bulls**t you but that’s where we lost it.”
Originally published as Daly Cherry-Evans responds to Roosters’ backflip rumours