Maroons hopeful Daly Cherry-Evans taking lead role in acting badly

KEVIN Walters might have to wrestle his own instincts if he wants to squeeze Daly Cherry-Evans into his Origin plans, ROBERT CRADDOCK writes.

DO you have to be liked by Queensland to play for them?

No, but it helps.

And, more pointedly, if you are not liked it does seem an odd fit in a State of Origin team built on unity and adoring public sentiment.

Which brings us to Daly Cherry-Evans, rugby league’s version of Michael Clarke — the captain who could have been loved but fell out of favour with the masses.

Queensland coach Kevin Walters might have to wrestle his own instincts if he wants to squeeze Cherry-Evans into his Origin plans, this season and beyond.

Cherry-Evans became an instant villain in Queensland in 2015 after he reneged on a $950,000-a-year deal with the Titans to stay at Manly.

Many Queensland fans (and some players) considered it shameful exploitation of the Titans and have never forgiven him.

Anxieties flared again when he seemingly took a dive against the Broncos on Saturday night, sinking to the ground as if he had been hit by a falling meteor.

Manly star Daly Cherry-Evans has become a villain in Queensland.

Maybe his actions were the last recourse of a desperately committed captain trying to rescue his team.

But it was not a flash look.

Titans fans who insist Cherry-Evans is king of the smoke and mirror tricks have fuel for their argument.

Cherry-Evans is officially in an odd space where the Queensland fans seem to have gone off him.

That’s most unusual because over the years the Maroons have had very few players about whom the team’s fans were ambivalent.

Julian O’Neill may have been a troubled, sometimes wayward soul, but he put in and somehow fitted in.

If Mick Crocker and Nate Myles were playing against your club, you might loathe them for that two hours.

However the same hard-arsed tactics that turned you off in clubland might just turn you on at Origin time.

When Cherry-Evans played for Queensland, the word was that Maroons players found him hard to play with because of his individuality.

Daly Cherry-Evans. The Queensland State of Origin side training at Punt Road Oval in Melbourne. Pic Peter Wallis

No one bagged him publicly but Johnathan Thurston’s extravagant praise for Cooper Cronk’s inclusive game style in 2015 was interpreted as a veiled sledge at Cherry-Evans.

“Cooper is great at a lot of things out there but, playing beside him, one of the things I have grown to appreciate is his ability to not just take charge of a game when he needs to but also the way he knows when to step back and let other guys do their thing,’’ Thurston said.

“There are a lot of great players in this team and one of the strengths of the Queensland team over the past 10 years has been the way we have been able to work together and get everyone contributing.

“We don’t rely on one bloke to win us the game.’’

When Cherry-Evans made his Origin debut, he was tipped by some experts as a future state captain.

It is a long way from where he is at the moment.

Walters has said repeatedly he likes the style of player Cherry-Evans is, with that all-weather polish of a player who “has played a million games of backyard football and has the vision of someone used to catching the ball and score when it rebounded off the rear-vision mirror’’.

His individual brilliance is not in question.

But does he really fit in?

Originally published as Maroons hopeful Daly Cherry-Evans taking lead role in acting badly