NRL 2022: Daly Cherry-Evans throws support behind Des Hasler, urges Manly to unite after tough season
An emotional Daly Cherry-Evans admits everyone at Manly is under pressure after fading out of finals contention, but remained staunch in his support for coach Des Hasler.
NRL
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An emotional Daly Cherry-Evans has thrown his support behind Manly coach Des Hasler and urged the embattled Sea Eagles to use the off-season to unite and rediscover their identity.
Manly are in the midst of a five-game losing streak that has ended their hopes of playing finals football and heaped pressure on Hasler, who is facing one of the most crucial off-seasons of his coaching career.
Change is in the wind, although Hasler is expected to be given the chance to turn things around despite calls from former captain Max Krilich for the premiership-winning coach to step aside.
Cherry-Evans acknowledged everyone at the club was under pressure given the way they have played since the Pride jersey fiasco more than a month ago.
“We have opened ourselves up to those sort of things,” Cherry-Evans said.
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“We just need the people who are here and are in the job to take this club in the right direction. Unfortunately as a player, I have been around long enough to know what when you start losing footy games, unfortunately your coach gets under the pump.
“That is why he is definitely part of my motivation to play well and get some results in these last two games and show some support for my coach, because I really enjoy being coached by Des.
“I think he has a lot to offer as a coach. It is a shame when things don’t go well on the field, they have to take the brunt of it.
“We’re in a real lull at the moment, there is no denying that. We have lost five in a row and we haven’t looked like winning one of them.
“That is hard to comprehend as a player and as the captain of the club it is disappointing. Five weeks ago our ambitions were super high.
“It has ended abruptly for us.”
The limp end to the year has taken its toll on everyone at the club. Cherry-Evans became emotional on Tuesday as he spoke about his departing halves partner Kieran Foran, whose last game for Manly at 4 Pines Park at the weekend ended in a disappointing loss to Cronulla.
“I was gutted for him and the other boys who are leaving as well,” Cherry-Evans said.
“He didn’t deserve that. It is hard for me to understand that he is not going to be here next year. We complement each other so well.
“It is going to be hard to watch him go after these next two games. I am going to miss him, no doubt about it.”
Cherry-Evans insists hope is not lost. An off-season of soul searching is on the way but he is confident Manly have the talent to quickly turn things around provided everyone is pulling in the same direction.
“Sometimes winning can cloud issues in a footy environment,” he said.
“The silver lining that is going to come out of this is that we do have a genuine opportunity to sit back and really have a look at our club from the top down.
“This is an opportunity if we need to make changes, or do we double down on what is working or what we believe will work.
“That has to start at the top. Any good club is run from the top down. At the moment we have a CEO (Tony Mestrov) who has just come in, which is great for the club.
“I just think it is important for this club to have an identity and a clear path for where we want to go. At the moment it looks like we don’t.
“We need to rally as a club and come together and align. I think if we can align, this place has always been a strong club.
“We have a lot of strong people at this club who can help us get back on track really quickly. I do believe that can happen - we just have to make sure we get on the same page.”
‘Manly seven’ saga not to blame for Sea Eagles’ slide: Hasler
-Michael Carayannis
Des Hasler has refused to blame the “Manly seven” for the club’s drastic form slump instead pointing to injuries as their season continues to capituale.
The Sea Eagles are channelling their best imitation of the Dragons BBQ from last season drawing parallels with St George Illawarra, whose season imploded on the night of their Covid-19 rule-breaking party.
Manly have been lifeless since seven players boycotted the clash against the Roosters and are in the midst of a five-game losing streak.
A season which promised so much has now disintegrated.
“I won’t use that as excuse,” Hasler said of the Manly seven. “We are missing players as well — we’ve got quite a bit of talent (on the sidelines). We have to be realistic.
“I’ve got a list of 10-12 excuses I could use to lay the blame elsewhere. We were deficient in areas of play. Sustaining pressure, leaked some really disappointing tries.”
The 40-6 smashing against the Sharks will do little to quell suggestions of a fractured playing group.
In Hasler’s defence, the Sea Eagles have a long list of stars sidelined including the Trbojevic brothers, Jason Saab, Sean Keppie, Taniela Paseka and Reuben Garrick.
He challenged his players to take up the opportunity of playing in first grade in the final two weeks of the season. They play Canberra and Canterbury to close out their season.
“We spoke about opportunity – it comes with playing in that Manly jersey,” Hasler said.
“Opportunities are hard to come by. We are competing. It’s just those effort areas we are letting ourselves down. It doesn’t get any easier. We need to get back coming up with a good game. We just need to find a good game of footy.”
Veteran Kieran Foran’s farewell to his home ground ahead of shift to Gold Coast next year was soured by what he described as giving up “too many points”.
“Some of their tries were soft,” Foran said.
Hynes masterclass keeps Sharks on Cowboys’ heels
-Matt Cleary
Another sizzling performance from Sharks halfback Nicho Hynes has seen Cronulla run riot over Manly and leapfrog Melbourne Storm into third on the NRL ladder.
The win sees Cronulla behind North Queensland Cowboys on points differential, with the genuine possibility of finishing the season in second.
The Sharks play Canterbury (at home) and Newcastle (away) in the final two rounds, while North Queensland face the much tougher prospect of South Sydney at Accor Stadium and Penrith in Townsville.
Cronulla opened the scoring in the Steve Rogers Memorial Trophy match on a still Saturday night at 4 Pines Park when Matt Moylan chipped at close range, the ball ricocheting off the post and Hynes’ leg before the halfback regathered to score.
As he did last Saturday against Wests Tigers in Tamworth, burly prop Royce Hunt rumbled through some flimsy goal-line defence to post the Sharks’ second try.
As it’s been for much of the season, promising Manly raids were let down by handling errors.
When Brad Parker dropped a pass directed at his chest — on the first tackle after a scrum — there was a collective groan among the crowd of 12,243.
At the other end, Cronulla were clinical. Moylan wrestled his way to a try adjacent the posts before Hynes let the Steeden sing with a beautiful, fizzing left-to-right pass that hit winger Matt Ikuvalu on the chest.
The Sharks went to the break leading 22-0 which for Manly was at least an improvement on last time the teams met when Cronulla scored six tries and led 32-0 at half-time at PointsBet Stadium.
In that match Manly made a comeback to save face before going down 34-22.
In this one the second half was quite like the first: Cronulla crisp in attack, effective in defence; Manly, to quote Dr Zachary Smith from Lost in Space, like bumbling boobies.
Niue international Alfred Smalley, in his second NRL game, dropped Cronulla’s first kick in the second half.
A promising Manly raid came to end when Tolutau Koula chipped and chased, only for the same post that benefited Hynes bounce the ball way from Sea Eagles chasers.
Hynes rubbed salt into wounds with a 40/20 in the next set.
“Man-leeee” reverberated briefly around the ground like a defiant song from a dying whale.
Hynes had a double in the 52nd minute. Four minutes later his bomb found Briton Nikora.
When Haumole Olakau’atu messed up a play-the-ball there was barely a murmur from the crowd — it was not unusual — before the second-rower threw his mouthguard into the turf with gusto.
A mighty Brookvale Bronx cheer erupted when Daly Cherry-Evans snatched an intercept and went 40 metres to score.
EMBARRASSMENT OF MISSING RICHES
In 2015 Manly’s U/20s team featured promising players Tom Trbojevic, Jesse Ramien, Luke Garner and Liam Knight. On the bench that day for Manly: one Nicho Hynes, who returned to Brookvale on Saturday night to score two tries and kick six goals.
You can’t keep them all, of course. And few would argue Trbojevic is not pick of the litter. But if a club is judged on retention of promising juniors, losing four of the five must be classed as failure.
HAVING A BARRY
Livewire former rugby sevens international Lachie Miller, a taller, chunkier version of former Cronulla half Barry Russell, was busy and nippy at the back in place of injured fullback Will Kennedy. Miller ran for 197m - perhaps half as many across field.
FAREWELL, STALWARTS
It was the last game at Brookvale for Manly stalwarts Kieran Foran, Martin Taupau and Dylan Walker. Andrew Davey and Jorge Taufua were also farewelled with a lap of honour post-match.
In milestone news, Cherry-Evans played his 281st game, a figure which took him past Steve Menzies into second for most games for Manly (Menzies also played 69 for Northern Eagles).
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