{"id":350671,"date":"2026-03-27T14:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350671\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T14:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:10:12","slug":"nrl-2026-daly-cherry-evans-back-to-brookvale-bizarre-experience-boos-spencer-leniu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/350671\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026, Daly Cherry-Evans, back to Brookvale, bizarre experience, boos, Spencer Leniu"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Daly Cherry-Evans paced the dressing room and steeled himself for a frosty reception at 4 Pines Park on Thursday night he found an unlikely ally with a few calming words.<\/p>\n

After 15 years, a premiership and 352 games with the Sea Eagles, emotions ran high as Cherry-Evans returned to Brookie in the colours of one of Manly’s fiercest rivals.<\/p>\n

One man who knew what DCE could expect was Spencer Leniu, who joined the Roosters in 2024 after winning back-to-back-to-back premierships with a bunch of his best mates at the Panthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a conversation I had in the sheds tonight with Spencer,\u201d Cherry-Evans told media post-match.<\/p>\n


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Sea Eagles v Roosters – Round 4, 2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHis experience, seeing the guys from Penrith, he was a good one to lean on pre-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed the support from my teammates. You could feel that during the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

As DCE charged onto the field to a chorus of boos a number of his teammates including Sam Walker and Rob Toia made a beeline for the 37-year-old to wish him well and remind him they had his back.<\/p>\n


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\n Daly Cherry-Evans and Haumole Olakau’atu share a moment post-game at 4 Pines Park.
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In the final wash-up it was Cherry-Evans having the last laugh in a 33-16 triumph but he admitted it had been an emotional rollercoaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalking in tonight and going into the right-hand side of the dressing rooms, I didn\u2019t know how I was going to feel until I did it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really bizarre experience. I don\u2019t think there was anything anyone could have said to prepare me for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nerves spiked at different times, but it was important to just focus on what you can do out there.\u201d<\/p>\n


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As for the constant heckling from the same fans who had cheered him for 15 years, the veteran playmaker took it all in his stride.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way I can explain it is I just took it as I felt it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like they had to do it, because that\u2019s what you do.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven after tonight I didn\u2019t feel any hostility. The crowd booed at times, but I felt like it was respectful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now sitting at 2-2 and with a bye in Round 5, the Roosters have a chance to regroup and reassess ahead of a Round 6 clash with the Sharks in Perth, where DCE can look forward to being just another player rather than the focus of endless media attention in the build-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Daly Cherry-Evans paced the dressing room and steeled himself for a frosty reception at 4 Pines Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-350671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}