Weekend Read: Manly dive could push Cherry-Evans into retirement
Manly have lost three of four games since Daly Cherry-Evans declared he won’t be at the club next season. BRENT READ questions whether their slump could push him into retirement.
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It has been a month since Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the season and the Sea Eagles have won one game.
That lone victory was against battling Parramatta. Since then, defeats have followed against Melbourne, Cronulla and St George Illawarra.
The loss to the Dragons was the latest sledgehammer blow to their premiership hopes as the Sea Eagles produced a shocking first half and fell agonisingly short of clawing their way to victory.
Sure, the win over Parramatta was the last time Tom Trbojevic took the field.
The Sea Eagles have also had a horrid schedule over the past month, forcing them to crisscross the continent in search of wins.
However, there is no hiding the fact that they and their captain have struggled since Cherry-Evans made the stunning decision to walk out on the club at the end of the season.
Cherry-Evans has had one try assist over the past four games.
He has looked a shell of the player who started the season so convincingly that Manly reacted and tabled a two-year extension when it became apparent he was about to leave.
The Sea Eagles sideshow has been swamped over the past week by the Lachlan Galvin circus. All eyes are on the Wests Tigers heading into the weekend. Manly and the form of their skipper shouldn’t escape scrutiny either.
His club form could also has ramifications for Billy Slater and the Queensland team.
No doubt, Cherry-Evans would have been pencilled in to start in the No.7 jersey for the Maroons when the series kicked off next month.
Mind you, it wasn’t a fait accompli. Tom Dearden played well last year and Cameron Munster is on target to return after missing last year with injury.
Cherry-Evans has a fight on his hands – his form and that of his team has weakened his grip on his beloved Queensland jersey. It may yet have a say over what he does next season.
If Manly and their skipper keep playing the way they are, perhaps Cherry-Evans may decide to retire after all. The next month will be defining for the club and their captain.
Crucially, Trbojevic is an outside chance to return next week, although he is more likely to make his comeback after the bye.
Until he returns, Cherry-Evans is the most influential figure at Manly. The Sea Eagles badly need him to get back in the groove.
Otherwise, his final season at the club could be one to forget.
*****
Mitchell Moses is due to return from injury for Parramatta on Easter Monday but the bigger story right now at the Eels may be who is on the way out – and potentially who is coming in.
The Eels are putting the broom through the playing ranks under coach Jason Ryles and who can blame them really given the way Parramatta have started the year in the absence of the injured Moses, who was struck down by a foot problem in the pre-season and missed the opening six games of the year.
This week, Joe Ofahengaue became the latest player to be given the green light to leave after attracting an offer from Super League side Leigh.
Ofahengaue wasn’t in the club’s plans for 2026 so they granted him an early release.
It saved them precious salary cap space and helped them avoid a potential destabilising situation with a player who only recently said he was keen to stay on.
Shaun Lane has now taken a break from the game to sort out his future. Bryce Cartwright hasn’t had a look-in all season. Ryan Matterson has been on the outer. Wiremu Greig is on the interchange bench for the reserve grade side. The list goes on.
Players who were mainstays under Ryles’ predecessor Brad Arthur are being ushered out or demoted as Ryles continues to put his stamp on the club.
The Parramatta squad has been stale and in dire need of an overhaul for some time now. Ryles showed he was happy to feel some short-term pain in the pursuit of long-term gain when he allowed captain Clint Gutherson to depart.
That was merely the start. By the end of this season, as many as nine players from the side that played the final game on Brad Arthur’s watch could be out the door.
The Eels were thrashed by the Storm less than a year ago and Arthur was axed soon after. The bulk of that side will be elsewhere at season’s end as the winds of change blow violently through a club with one of the most storied premiership droughts in rugby league.
They will need to be replaced and the Eels are backing their youth. New contracts are on the verge of being confirmed for Will Penisini and Sam Tuivaiti.
The club has unsurprisingly been linked with estranged Wests Tigers teenager Lachlan Galvin given he would fit an obvious need as a halves partner to Moses when Dylan Brown departs at the end of the season.
Moses and Galvin share a manager and potentially a story. Moses has been where Galvin is right now – locked in a standoff with the Tigers and mulling over his next move.
Moses’ own spat with the Tigers was ugly. Downright nasty. At the time that he was offered a three-year deal worth $3 million to stay. In the end, he insisted, it wasn’t about money.
According to reports at the time, it was about his development. Sound familiar? Moses has gone on to carve out a career as one of the game’s finest players.
If not for Nathan Cleary, it is reasonable to think he could have played a mountain of games in the No.7 jersey for NSW. Maybe even more than three appearances for Australia, although Daly Cherry-Evans would have had a say in that.
You only have to look at the Eels in his absence to realise how influential Moses is to a football side. His return on Monday for Parramatta at CommBank Stadium against a Tigers side without Galvin – the teenager was axed and sent back to NSW Cup for claiming he would leave at the end of his contract in the best interests of his career – could be the turning point in Parramatta’s season.
Galvin’s signature, if they can land it, would be cathartic. He spent some time at Parramatta as a young fella but eventually left when the club decided they had better options. He grew up an Eels fan and his family are rabid Parramatta supporters.
At some point in his life, he no doubt aspired to pull on a blue and gold jersey in the NRL. That day may be fast approaching. Eels supporters certainly hope so, flooding his Instagram feed this week with messages of support, urging him to return.
It’s been a tough start to the year but Galvin has given those suffering supporters something to cling to. A sign that change in the club is having a positive effect. Hope that what they are enduring this season will be worth it in the end.
Galvin’s signature would ease their pain.
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Originally published as Weekend Read: Manly dive could push Cherry-Evans into retirement
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