Sea Eagles skipper Daly Cherry-Evans stars in big win over Bulldogs

SEA Eagles skipper Daly Cherry-Evans celebrated his 150th game for the club with a magical performance in his side’s 36-0 thrashing of the Bulldogs.

Daly Cherry-Evans in action against the Bulldogs, Picture: Getty Images.

SEA Eagles skipper Daly Cherry-Evans has celebrated his 150th NRL game for the club by producing a magical performance in his side’s 36-0 thrashing of the Bulldogs at Lottoland on Saturday.

The halfback had a hand in five of Manly‘s seven tries, including four in the first half when they blew the Bulldogs off the field to lead 26-0 at the break.

Cherry-Evans demonstrated the reason why the club signed him to a long-term deal reportedly worth $10 million.

“It was one of the most enjoyable days, obviously there were a lot of things that went right for us when we had the ball,” Cherry-Evans said.

Daly Cherry-Evans tests the Bulldogs defence. Picture: Gregg Porteous

But he said as a captain the proudest thing was walking from the field with the opposition scoring zero points.

And he deflected the praise he received onto his team mates.

“I had a lot of good people inside me doing a lot of good things today,” he said.

“I was just happy to do what I could do.”

Coach Trent Barrett described his skipper’s performance as “outstanding”.

“He was terrific last week and great again tonight,” he said.

“I think Cherry was good on the back of what his team mates are doing around him.

“As a half you can’t perform without the platform that the forwards are laying.”

Manly's Martin Taupau proves a handful for the Bulldogs at Lottoland. Picture: Gregg Porteous.

And when Barrett made those comments Cherry-Evans nodded in agreement.

Saturday’s win follows on from their impressive victory over the Cowboys in Townsville the week before.

“We were pretty determined to back up last week’s win and an outstanding defensive effort again I thought,” Barrett said.

He said the side can improve and still turned over a bit too much ball but there were some things the side can be really happy with.

“We are on the right track I think and all the hard work they have been doing is paying off,” Barrett said.

“We are a long way from where we can get to.”

Sea Eagles wingers Jorge Taufau and Akuila Uate both deserve mention for their contribution to the win and work they did coming in and assisting their forwards.

MANLY 36 (B Kelly 2, A Koroisau, C Sironen, T Trbojevic, A Uate, D Walker tries; D Walker 4 goals) CANTERBURY 0 at Lottoland. Referee: Gavin Badger, Jon Stone. Crowd: 9,610.