State of Origin 2018: Will a star turn for Maroons make Cherry the apple of Queenslanders’ eyes?
IF the Maroons defy the odds and win Origin III on Wednesday night with Daly Cherry-Evans playing a key role, will he suddenly go from pariah to pin-up?
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IN the days leading up to the 2004 Australian Open tennis championships a letter appeared in a major local newspaper.
“Just remind me,” it said. “What round does Mark Philippoussis have get to before we like him again?”
The same could be asked this week about Daly Cherry-Evans.
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If the Maroons defy the odds and win Origin lll on Wednesday night with DCE playing a key role, will he suddenly go from pariah to pin-up?
Or will the public animosity that seems to hover over him like a dark rain cloud continue to haunt him?
Given recent evidence it would appear that Queensland will have to win by 50, with Cherry-Evans contributing at least 48, for it to be the first option.
Rarely, if ever, have I encountered such antagonism towards a footballer as he vies for representative selection, let alone towards a Queenslander from Queensland supporters.
Last week I received a letter from a reader who described himself as “your typical hard-core Queensland supporter”.
“I’d prefer to lose the game without Cherry-Evans than win it with him,” he wrote.
The previous week a correspondent offered, “I am a passionate Queenslander and have always supported my beloved Maroons. I will say, if DCE was picked in the Qld team, I would have to sit that year out. I feel that strongly about him not being picked. He will never be a Queenslander in my eyes.”
Strong words. So much so that a colleague asked me recently if she was missing something when it came to the DCE hate-fest.
Suggestions he has been on the outer with other players can’t be it.
I know of one Maroons player from the 1980s who was anything but popular with his teammates. Rooming with him was considered the ultimate short-straw, but he could play and bowed out with more than 20 Origins on his resume.
Which leaves the heinous act which has so upset Queenslanders that it is discussed with the disgust usually reserved for puppy abuse whenever Cherry-Evans is mentioned.
As one of my readers wrote of it: “What he did to the Titans to get a bigger pay cheque from Manly was disgraceful. DCE has no respect for the Queensland culture.”
I’m not sure where it says that the Queensland culture includes passing up coin, but I seem to remember Greg Inglis heading to South Sydney after already committing to the Broncos which suggests there’s one rule for one and one for others.
As for the loyalty card, I guess it depends whose pack you’re playing with. Cherry-Evans and his family were settled in Manly, he’d earned his spurs with the club and won a premiership with them. That he would turn his back on everything the Gold Coast offered, knowing the criticism he would face, would no doubt be considered the ultimate act of loyalty by Manly fans.
Not that I know any of them, despite what some might think.
When I dared to suggest a few weeks back that Cherry-Evans should be chosen for Origin I in order to give the Maroons a recognised goal-kicker (a move which might have seen Queensland and not NSW going for the clean-sweep on Wednesday night I might add) I received a letter from a disgruntled reader accusing me of being a Manly supporter.
Where I come from — North Sydney — them’s fighting words.
No, I have no great love for DCE or Manly. I just find it interesting that Queenslanders, who speak so passionately of the Maroons’ history of loyalty, should turn their backs so vehemently on one of their own.
Can Cherry-Evans change that on Wednesday night?
No doubt Mark Philippoussis will be an interested onlooker.
Originally published as State of Origin 2018: Will a star turn for Maroons make Cherry the apple of Queenslanders’ eyes?
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