Daly Cherry-Evans drama that’s torn Manly apart revealed

The Manly Sea Eagles is in crisis after repeated dramas in 2022 but the root cause of the issues may have started long before.

DCE’s special treatment has been revealed. Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Manly’s season from hell has just got a lot worse.

The Sea Eagles missed the finals after and lost their last seven games after the Pride jersey scandal left the club in disarray but a new report has revealed the cracks had already formed.

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On Monday morning, News Corp revealed superstar brothers Tom Trbojevic and Jake Trbojevic are unsettled at the club and may be looking for a way out, following a series of reports claiming a frosty relationship between the brothers and captain Daly Cherry-Evans.

The ugly end to the season has also seen reports Des Hasler may leave the club.

Tom Trbojevic denied there were any issues, but stated: “I don’t have any plans of leaving because as far as I’m concerned, Des is still the coach”.

But 2GB’s Ray Hadley has revealed it wasn’t just the awful end to the season which saw the seeds of discontent sewn, reporting Cherry-Evans was given preferential treatment in the 2021 bubble in Queensland and was allowed to live in a house away from hub.

DCE with Tom Trbojevic. Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images

He said it wasn’t illegal but left teammates frustrated.

“We all know that last year, first of all the players went into a bubble and a number of clubs went into Twin Waters in the Sunshine Coast,” Hadley revealed on 2GB.

“I think Penrith were among the clubs that went there, Manly certainly went there, Newcastle went there and maybe the Roosters were there at a time as well.

“Manly were there as well, they went there, when restrictions were eased the families were exported from New South Wales to spend time with the players and be housed in I guess a location where fathers had access to children and their wives, partners and things like that.

“On the Sunshine Coast Manly there with other New South Wales based teams there was apparently special dispensation given to the skipper Daly Cherry-Evans to live away from the bubble in a house.

“Completely legal but that didn’t go down too well with other players, whose wives and family were living in close vicinity to where they were.

“You had the coach allowing the captain to be special and live in a house away from the rest of the players and that created a divide and I’ve confirmed that with a number of players.

“They tell me that it created a divide and that divide was well before the rainbow jumper round, well before it.

“To try and trace it back to happening around the rainbow jumper round is ridiculous, it happened when Des Hasler decided as the coach to allow the captain to live elsewhere and some of the players were upset about it and continue to be upset about it.

“I don’t quite understand how this all happened but it did, there’s talk today Tony Mestrov the new CEO will solve all the problems, well he can’t be that good Tony.

“No mistake about this, any change at Manly will simply be someone carrying out the wishes of the owner of Scott Penn — that’s how it works.

“If you own the club you make the decisions and he owns the club and he’s back from New York at the moment and he’s taking ownership over what happens I imagine.”

Nothing is going right for the Sea Eagles. Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images

Speaking on Sky Racing’s Big Sports Breakfast, The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield said he believed there may be a push for Jake Trbojevic to become the club captain, despite Cherry-Evans being the Queensland skipper and locked in at Brookvale until 2025.

“Daly Cherry-Evans is the angle I took in the column today and look I don’t know if I agree with the fact that he’s fighting to keep his captaincy but it is a fact so I had to write about it because I think he’s been a very good leader over the years,” Rothfield said.

“If there’s one fault with DCE it’s that he can be a little bit aloof as a character and when a club is in crisis or has been torn apart with an issue like the pride jersey he’s not really someone players find easy to turn to and rally the side.

“I think he lacks the inspiration that someone like Jake Turbo (Trbojevic) can bring to the side and that’s why it’s a really big discussion point at Manly right now, so is DCE’s contract.”