Roosters five-eighth Daly Cherry-Evans was all smiles and ‘exactly where he wanted to be’ on Thursday night, despite the “really weird” feeling of playing at Brookvale Oval for the first time in a club jersey other than Manly‘s to a boisterous reception.
The 37-year-old had played his entire NRL career with the Sea Eagles and remains the club’s most capped player, but his off-season move to Bondi certainly divided opinion.
The lead-up to his return at Brookie was largely centred around how the crowd would react to the former captain and 2011 premiership winner in red, white and blue.
READ MORE: Trbojevic ‘not happy’ after club make rare HIA call
READ MORE: Roosters carnage as four stars forced off in wild weather
READ MORE: Hard luck hits Socceroos after blow on eve of clash
Daly Cherry-Evans in action against Manly. Getty
Cherry-Evans got a small taste when he first ran out for warm-ups, but it wasn’t until the game started that the emotions from the Manly faithful was evident.
Every time he touched the ball, Cherry-Evans was met with a chorus of boos and that turned to loud cheers any time he was tackled by Manly’s defence.
But at the end of the 80 minutes, despite all the negative reaction, Cherry-Evans had a massive smile on his face and who could blame him after a 33-16 win?
Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now.
When asked about the Brookie crowd’s response to him, Cherry-Evans took the high road and believes there was “no nastiness” involved.
“I appreciated it, I really did,” he told Nine.
“It’s a part of sport, right? There’s no nastiness to it, it’s just the game and fans are allowed to show their passion. When it’s done in the spirit of the game – no dramas.
Daly Cherry-Evans speaks to Nine after the round four win. Nine
“I’ll walk around now and say hello to a few people … nothing but love.
“Obviously this is a place where I spent nearly the majority of my life, so I’ve got so many great memories here and still got some great mates in the side.
“It was really weird feeling being here tonight in a different dressing room and running out as a Rooster, but I’m exactly where I wanted to be and really enjoying the journey.”
Trent Robinson echoed the sentiment of his star recruit in his post-game presser.
“There was a lot made out of it and I thought the boos were a little bit of fun and you could see people were having fun with it,” the Roosters coach said.
Trailing 10-8 at the half-time break, the Roosters rallied back in the second stanza and tries for Robert Toia, Connor Watson and Daniel Tupou in the space of five minutes put the visitors well ahead of the contest against a struggling Manly side.
Cherry-Evans said the belief within the side was high throughout the clash.
“We still had a lot of belief, even though we were down on the scoreboard,” he said.
“We let in two long-range tries, so there’s a lot to be taken from the great defence other than those two plays in the first half.
“We were quite confident that we were able to consistently play a style of footy that would get rewards late and it’s exactly what happened today.
“Real big credit to our coaching staff and huge pat on the back to our forward pack.”