After playing 352 games in the maroon and white of Manly, Daly Cherry-Evans admits to feeling more than a little strange in red, white and blue but he is ready to step out of his comfort zone in 2026.<\/p>\n
Boasting more games for the Sea Eagles than any other player, 36-year-old Cherry-Evans shocked many by choosing to leave the club he had represented with distinction for 15 seasons.<\/p>\n
“I’m very uncomfortable being in another club\u2019s colours but deep down I’m really satisfied with the decision and I know how much personal growth is going to be ahead of me next year,” Cherry-Evans said.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m proud to be standing here as a Rooster and I\u2019m also proud of my career at Manly. It was great to be part of that club\u2019s history for so long and it was really emotional when I walked out for the last time.<\/p>\n
“Fifteen years at one club and having lifetime friends, it’s hard to let go of but you remain friends forever. Friends support you no matter what you do.”<\/p>\n
Come Thursday March 26 and DCE will square off against those lifelong Manly mates at 4 Pines Park with only one thing on his mind – victory.<\/p>\n
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Vintage Cherry-Evans<\/p>\n
“When you play against your mates you just want to beat them, that’s all your thinking about,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m sure it will be a great experience for everyone – playing against my good friends at a place I have so many memories of.<\/p>\n
“It’s easy for everyone to want to blame people at Manly [for my departure] but the reality is I didn’t get traded, I didn’t get swapped. I was a free agent and at the end of the season I made a decision to go somewhere else.<\/p>\n
“I take responsibility for where I ended up, I’m really proud of where I’m standing right now and the jersey I’m in and I just don’t think it’s fair to put other people under the bus.”<\/p>\n
As much as he would have loved to farewell Manly with a finals appearance, the club’s season went off the rails after a solid 3-1 start and they eventually limped into 10th spot.<\/p>\n
Plenty of critics were keen to blame the disappointing season on the upheaval caused by Cherry-Evans’ announcement in March that he wouldn’t be at the club in 2026 but the champion playmaker is adamant rumours of unrest were off the mark.<\/p>\n
“The Panthers won the last four competitions in a row prior to this year and each year they had big-name players leave the club but it wasn\u2019t a distraction for them because they were winning,” he said.<\/p>\n
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Cherry-Evans discusses ‘strange’ final game for the Sea Eagles<\/p>\n
“But because we didn\u2019t win it became a distraction – that was the narrative that was pushed to fit the story and I believe people just got it wrong on that one.<\/p>\n
“I only signed with the Roosters two weeks ago. I was like anyone else who comes off contract. I treated that process just like everyone else, it\u2019s just everyone else wanted me to tell them what I was doing before I was ready to do it.<\/p>\n
“The most respectful thing was to wait until the season was done before telling people what I was doing.”<\/p>\n
Signed to a one-year deal at Bondi, Cherry-Evans said he is open-minded about how much he can learn from the Roosters’ playing group, including fellow halves Sam Walker and Hugo Savala.<\/p>\n
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Savala slips through again<\/p>\n
How the trio fit into Trent Robinson’s 17 and what numbers they wear will be sorted out over the off-season as Cherry-Evans finds his groove in his new surroundings.<\/p>\n
“Sam or I could wear No.6 or No.7 and it wouldn\u2019t change a whole lot,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Visually it might be a big deal if I\u2019m not wearing No.7 but I\u2019d be fine with wearing 6 if that\u2019s what we need to do.<\/p>\n
“I have one year to prove I still have what it takes to play at this level. You always need to prove your worth to yourself and your teammates.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After playing 352 games in the maroon and white of Manly, Daly Cherry-Evans admits to feeling more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-301173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}