Alfie Langer believes Daly Cherry-Evans and Cameron Munster will hand NSW years of misery
Champion Maroons playmaker Allan Langer says current halves Daly Cherry-Evans and Cameron Munster boast traits that will see them join Queensland’s greatest ever pairings.
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Queensland halfback legend Allan Langer has warned NSW haven’t seen the best of a Daly Cherry-Evans-Cameron Munster scrumbase alliance that he says is destined for Origin greatness.
Throughout the decades the Maroons have produced a series of champion halves pairings including the famous Langer-Wally Lewis union and more recently the Johnathan Thurston-Cooper Cronk strike force.
Now Langer, Queensland’s greatest halfback, believes Munster and Cherry-Evans are in the formative stages of building a lethal understanding that can subject NSW to more years of Origin misery.
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Munster and Cherry-Evans have won consecutive games as Queensland halves, franking last year’s 18-12 defeat of NSW in Game Three with their 18-14 dismantling of the Blues in Origin I on Wednesday night.
Langer says he already sees parallels between the Munster-DCE combination and some of Queensland’s finest playmaking partners-in-crime.
“They are going be even more dominant at this level,” said Langer, the 34-game schemer who formidably teamed with ‘The King’ Lewis before his famous partnership with Kevin Walters.
“I see those parallels between me and him (Lewis), even me and Kevvie.
“They just work so well together and bring different styles. Cameron is the damaging ballrunner and Daly is the guy who has the cool head to steer the side around.
“The more they play together, the better they will get.”
While Cherry-Evans recently turned 30, such is his dedication and professionalism, he believes he can emulate the likes of Thurston and Cronk by playing beyond his 35th birthday.
That would give him a potential half-a-decade Origin life span alongside Munster, who turns 25 in September and has aborted his fullback plans to focus on being Queensland’s pre-eminent five-eighth.
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Langer said Cherry-Evans and Munster possess the traits of all great halves pairings - an understanding and playmaking balance.
“They will be the halves for the next four or five years. The way they play, they can be among the greats,” he said.
“The way they play, they have plenty of experience but they are still young enough to keep building.
“Cameron and Daly have so many years left at this level.
“Daly can be one of our great halfbacks. I reckon there is a lot more improvement in him and Munster as a pairing.”
Maroons captain Cherry-Evans agreed with Langer that he and Munster have untapped potential as a halfback and five-eighth union.
“We said after the game when we spoke to each other, structurally we were quite poor in attack,” he said.
“On the run we communicated and that’s one thing we did well, me and Cam speak well on the field.
“There’s things we can certainly tidy up as a halves combination, but we have a good feel for each other.”
Originally published as Alfie Langer believes Daly Cherry-Evans and Cameron Munster will hand NSW years of misery