The real reason Cherry-Evans fell out of love with the Sea Eagles

The doublespeak and spin surrounding Daly Cherry-Evans’ relationship with Manly requires a team of investigators to sift through and understand. But the bad blood between the Sea Eagles and their skipper can be traced back to two separate incidents where the Manly great was sledged behind his back at public events.

Cherry-Evans revealed on Monday he would not be at the Sea Eagles beyond the end of this season.

At Magic Round last year a senior Manly figure with significant sway at the club was highly critical of Cherry-Evans, suggesting he had too much power at the club. The comments were made within earshot of select people, including rival NRL club officials. That led other clubs to believe Cherry-Evans was on his way out of Manly and that he could be a good buy when his contract expired at the end of 2025.

Some clubs even discussed the potential of signing Cherry-Evans as a result of the disparaging remarks, which were made in a public forum by a person who would have a better than reasonable idea about what was going on at the Sea Eagles. The same person then made similarly unfavourable comments at the end of the year on a football club cruise.

We have chosen not to name the person to protect the identity of our sources, who did not want to be identified, because there were a limited number of people who heard it.

The disparaging comments reached DCE’s camp. That’s when Manly started telling media privately of the plan to return Luke Brooks to halfback and move Tom Trbojevic to No.6.

Rival clubs were certainly aware of the divide at the Sea Eagles, and again the idea of signing DCE was raised by many of them.

Daly Cherry-Evans at Manly training on Thursday.Credit: Rhett Wyman

It makes the spin, from both sides – that there are no issues between club and player – difficult to swallow.

But the spin is understandable given Manly’s desperation to avoid having their season totally derailed by their captain’s looming exit.

This column was hearing whispers of a potentially significant development last week, but no one from either camp would provide information. That’s why I led last week’s column with a piece indicating Manly believed DCE was going to retire at the end of the season, but that they had learnt how little they might have to pay him if he decided to play on.

Daly grind for Fox

Many have described NRL 360’s scramble to try to catch up on the Daly Cherry-Evans story live on air on Monday as car-crash TV.

In fairness, the journalists on the show did their best when hit with the thunderbolt Cherry-Evans news. You can’t blame the program for not knowing what was going on, despite having half-a-dozen News Corp journalists and their chief reporter on call.

DCE’s decision to leave Manly was a well-kept secret. It happens, and it has happened to this hack.

But for their reporters to peddle the line on podcasts since then that some kind of deal had been done between DCE and Nine Entertainment (publishers of this masthead) is fantasy stuff.

Daly Cherry-Evans has been one of the faces at Manly for more than a decade, but he will leave at the end of the season.Credit: Getty Images

The story was there for everyone to chase. And even after plenty of digging, and with the knowledge that DCE was to be a guest on 100% Footy on Channel Nine that night, at 2pm on Monday there was no story. The developments came after that. Not days or weeks in advance. It was a few hours before the 6pm news bulletin that Sydney Morning Herald journalist Michael Chammas and I knew we had the information we were able to share across Nine News and Nine newspapers.

The backside-covering later peddled by News Corp was preceded by the inept actions of an arrogant Manly club. The club that mismanaged the pride jersey situation took their bumbling show onto live TV to insist they had made an offer to their departing captain.

It was high farce – or silliness, as Wayne Bennett described it – as Manly gave one of the great rugby league knee-jerk reactions to a situation they thought they had under control.

It was Manly’s smugness that cost them their captain. Whether they actually wanted to keep him is doubtful. They did not make an offer for months when they had the chance. Throwing in an offer on live television after Cherry-Evans had announced he was leaving was ridiculous.

But the most confusing part was their claim they had made an offer to Cherry-Evans at midday on Monday. That simply did not happen.

One day, I’ll be able to explain how I know that is not true. But right now, the story is too hot. It’s fair to say there were several stories coming out of Manly that did not match up.

We were being told that there was a Monday afternoon meeting between Manly owner Scott Penn and chief executive Tony Mestrov to discuss an offer to Cherry-Evans. At the same time, we were told that an offer had been made at midday. The first the DCE camp knew of an offer was when it was announced on live television that night.

Manly need to have a serious look at the way they operate. There are many questions to be asked about who was ultimately responsible for what has taken place in the past week. A strong club would re-evaluate the way it does its contracting. Manly have considerable work to do in this area.

It has been a tough week for Manly chief executive Tony Mestrov.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

DCE not fighting Wehbe’s battles

The heavy influence of prominent manager Isaac Moses at Manly has been touched upon during the week. Moses manages coach Anthony Seibold, several players and also backroom staff. Cherry-Evans is managed by a company headed up by the Wehbe family. Joe Wehbe and Moses were business partners before an ugly split in 2018.

The two parties do not get on. But to suggest Wehbe is pushing DCE to get out of Manly to square up with Moses is not right. That’s an insult to DCE, as a 15-season veteran of the game. He is not going to make life decisions to fight other people’s battles, and knowing the Wehbes, they would never influence a player to do that.

Roosters in box seat, but ...

So, after all that, where will Cherry-Evans end up?

He has told his agents he doesn’t want to make a call or talk until October, after the season is over. With the Bulldogs not in the race, it appears the Roosters are in the best position to sign him. I put it to the club several times and was dismissed with a smirk by club heavyweights.

The Roosters are surprised Canterbury have ruled themselves out. But they are also delighted. There was concern they were the genuine opposition.

The Dolphins are also still in the hunt for DCE’s signature.

Former NSW Origin coach Phil Gould has made a coaching return … of sorts.Credit: Craig Golding

Gus makes coaching comeback

One of rugby league’s greatest coaches dusted off the clipboard for a brief spell during the week, with the Bulldogs’ NRLW team the lucky recipients of some Phil Gould coaching.

Canterbury’s women’s team is on the lookout for a coach, and to help keep the players’ skills, fitness and morale on track, Gould put the girls through their paces using one of his favourite conditioning and skills sessions. Those who witnessed it say it was clear that Gould has not lost his touch despite 20 years out of the coaching game.

Gould will always have that urge to coach, and doing sessions like the one he conducted on Wednesday was beneficial to the players and himself.

When I asked him about it, he preferred to keep his thoughts to himself.

Gould could return to top-level coaching and do a great job, but he has found his niche as a general manager, having turned around the Panthers, and now doing the same at the Bulldogs.

Addin Fonua-Blake has won over Sharks great Paul Gallen.Credit: Getty Images

Things are Addin up

Sharks great Paul Gallen is pleased to admit he got it wrong when it comes to Cronulla’s biggest forward recruit in recent years. Gallen had doubts about the big-money signing of Addin Fonua-Blake.

“Look at his ability, and it’s unquestionable – he’s one of the best, top three in the game,” Gallen said. “I just had a look at his career, and he’s been in a few different clubs and whenever he’s asked for a release, there hasn’t been a lot of backlash and that made me wonder if he was a problem, or not good at a club, because they let him go easily.

“That was my question mark. But now that I’ve seen him at the club ... I really can’t fault him. He is excellent around the place, from all I’ve seen. He’s very, very positive around the group. In hard sessions, he will lead the way.

“And that’s what you need when you’re a $1 million player, you’ve got to be great with the players and a great club person, and someone who will put the club first and do the right thing by the club. That’s what I see in him.”

Gallen says people still need to be wary of saying he is the player who will turn the Sharks from pretenders into contenders.

“To put it all on him as a front-rower is probably a little bit unfair,” Gallen said. “I think it is a real team effort for the Sharks. He can make a huge difference, but I won’t put the pressure on him by singling him out.”

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