{"id":563952,"date":"2026-03-25T19:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/563952\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:14:13","slug":"daly-cherry-evans-v-manly-is-the-nrl-at-its-sexiest-but-its-not-why-roosters-sea-eagles-are-hot-and-bothered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/563952\/","title":{"rendered":"Daly Cherry-Evans v Manly is the NRL at its sexiest. But it\u2019s not why Roosters, Sea Eagles are hot and bothered"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dan<\/p>\n

March 26, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n

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Daly Cherry-Evans\u2019 return to Brookvale Oval<\/a> brings rugby league\u2019s sexiest subject to the fore: contracts, recruitment, retention, roster management, cold hard cash.<\/p>\n

Even a year on from Cherry-Evans announcing his Manly exit on one NRL broadcaster<\/a> \u2013 with an extension offered minutes later on the other host broadcaster \u2013 the waters are still muddy around exactly how the Sea Eagles lost their most decorated player.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter. Far more pressing is when, where and why Manly haven\u2019t already signed quality middles<\/a> to reinforce a battling forward pack (albeit after chasing Broncos-bound veteran Mitchell Barnett in a player market short on props).<\/p>\n

Jake Trbojevic\u2019s future<\/a> is one thing. But Luke Brooks\u2019 form on roughly $700,000 a year is looming large as another.<\/p>\n

For the Roosters, slow starts are nothing new. Sam Walker and James Tedesco have this week noted the Tricolours near-annual stumbling out the blocks after a summer of headlines about their recruitment, retention and roster management.<\/p>\n

\"WillWill Daly Cherry-Evans still be smiling at full-time on Thursday night?Max Mason-Hubers<\/p>\n

The difference in 2026 is the marquee signing of Cherry-Evans, with obvious parallels to when Tedesco and Cooper Cronk arrived in 2018.<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked about his first campaign as a Rooster after skipping across town from the Tigers, Tedesco recalled a shock 10-8 loss to his old side at Allianz Stadium and a pretty miserable first game in red, white and blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was getting booed every time I touched the ball,\u201d the Roosters skipper said. \u201cI dropped the ball to lose the game … I had a lot of haters after that game. But it ended up pretty well that year, so I can\u2019t complain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tedesco also acknowledged how in 2018 \u201cwe had four losses, four wins and a lot of us, including me, were panicking a bit, [saying] \u2018what\u2019s going wrong?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as Cronk, Tedesco and a side laden with talent \u2013 much like this year\u2019s vintage with a dozen Origin or tier one Test players \u2013 eventually worked things out, the Roosters attack should click into gear at some point.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Tedesco hugs former Tigers teammate Michael Chee Kam after a round one loss in 2018.NRL Photos<\/p>\n

Three games in March do not make a premiership-winning halves combination.<\/p>\n

For the Sea Eagles and Roosters, how their salary cap is spent makes for sexy headlines. But it\u2019s the unsexy rugby league nuts and bolts that matter right now.<\/p>\n

Manly have had a bye week and 11 days to stew on the dismal 36-16 loss to Newcastle<\/a> that drew boos and an early exit from the Brookvale crowd in round two.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The sight of Reuben Garrick making a long break against the Knights, yet inexplicably playing the ball with no one following up for dummy half duties, was Manly\u2019s most galling mistake, just shading Brooks\u2019 failed kick-off reception and numerous fumbles in their own territory.<\/p>\n

Lehi Hopoate and Taniela Paseka said the right things about \u201cbeing disappointed in our effort areas\u201d this week, but Sea Eagles fans have heard that and seen otherwise all too often.<\/p>\n

Anthony Seibold is, as he pointed out on Thursday, \u201ctwo games into a two-year extension\u201d, yet pressure continues to mount on the Manly coach.<\/p>\n

Tedesco meanwhile, not for the first time, did not miss in assessing his own side\u2019s commitment to rugby league\u2019s basics.<\/p>\n

As fullback and defensive coordinator, his frustration at conceding 42 points to the Warriors and 40 against Penrith two weeks later is clear.<\/p>\n

Not so much though it seems, in the lack of cohesion between Cherry-Evans and his new teammates<\/a> on the right edge \u2013 which has leaked 10 tries in three games.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think our hunger and our effort for each other, to play for each other and save tries, is something that we\u2019ve talked about,\u201d Tedesco said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"NRL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably a combination of both [structure and attitude issues], but I definitely think our attitude to saving tries and to doing whatever it takes to stop them is an improvement area.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time Tedesco was so publicly unimpressed with his side\u2019s commitment was in mid-2023 when he described the Roosters support play<\/a> and \u201cour effort areas around the ball is as low as I\u2019ve seen\u201d.<\/p>\n

After misfiring for months with an attack that ranked 16th until well into the season, the Tricolours found their mojo and averaged 27 points a game from July onwards.<\/p>\n

The point is, with all the talent at the Roosters and Manly, the sexy stuff will sort itself out. It\u2019s the basics that matter most right now.<\/p>\n

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\"DanDan Walsh<\/a> is a sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 26, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-563952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563952","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=563952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}