Maury Sea Eagles
Daly Cherry-Evans doesn't want to play for Manly in 2026
Being broken up with on live television is never easy, I assume.
News came filtering through on Monday evening that Manly skipper and club stalwart Daly Cherry-Evans had informed the northern beaches club that the 2025 season would be his last in the maroon and white, but it was yet to be decided whether he’d play on in 2026 for a different outfit or retire.
Now I’m not the biggest fan of DCE as a personality and how he’s portrayed himself over the years, but there is something comforting about the concept of a one club player, a dying breed in the modern game due to the ever-constricting salary cap, freedom of movement, desperate teams throwing the bag at stump throws (cough Dylan Brown cough), and the constant chase for the next mystery box breakthrough.
But more so, it’s highlighted a fatal flaw in Manly’s retention strategy behind the scenes, and it coming to a head on live television with the Manly CEO texting in Fox League to say they’re going to offer him a two-year deal reeks of desperation. Manly entered the pot with a two and a seven, and DCE called the bluff.
Think of the carousel of talented young halves that have departed the shores of the Corso over the last few years for a variety of reasons, like Jamie Humphreys, Kaeo Weekes and Latu Fainu. Letting an entire generation of talented playmakers walk is fine when you have the incumbent old reliable holding down the spot.
So how did it come to this?
Well to answer that, it depends on who you believe.
Appearing live on Channel Nine’s 100% Footy mere hours after the tsunami hit the Collaroy Plateau, Cherry-Evans claimed that this was a decision he had been mulling since December, and the reason for letting the club know now was to give them time to move on and plan.
(Me gesturing wildly to the list of halves they’ve lost above) hardly great succession planning, is it?
Cherry-Evans is a Manly legend, that much is obvious. Since helping the team to the 2011 premiership as a rookie half, he’s gone on to appear in 332 first grade games for the Insular Peninsula (Sydney jokes) outfit, a club record, surpassing Cliff Lyons by playing his 310th against Penrith early last season (a game you may recall for a dropped intercept that the Bunker ruled a Manly try no I’m not bitter why do you ask).
It’s been reported that Cherry-Evans sought out interest in other clubs towards the end of last year, but when the music stopped, there weren’t any suitors. Now that could be for a number of reasons.
Maybe clubs were wise to his ruse of trying to drum up an extra buck out of Manly so didn’t feel compelled to waste their time offering him a contract.
Maybe clubs weren’t thrilled at the idea of paying top dollar for a 37-year-old halfback a year out from when he’d pull on the colours.
Whatever the reason for the dusty market, that inaction around the league inspired Manly to also cool their jets on a new contract offer, which they claim was to allow the skipper time to think about his future.
It’s the classic playground he said she said.
Is Cherry-Evans offended at Manly’s apparent disinterest in falling over themselves to offer him the largest pot of gold in Narrabeen and throwing a public tantrum as a result? Maybe. It’s not as though he’s ever been involved in a public contract dispute before by dragging a desperate club through the rapids before cutting off the string when Manly came with a new bag of cash.
Hang on, I’m being handed a note. Ah, well, anyway!
Manly powerbrokers treating NRL 360 as a talkback radio show by texting in their contract offer once the DCE news broke is equal parts hilarious and tragic. Reading into that alone, it looks like they’ve been stunned into action, thinking Cherry-Evans was playing the mind games all along. I can imagine Tony Mestrov sitting on his balcony with a glass of red in hand dong a crossword1 when someone charges in with an iPad to frantically show him the headline.
“Get me Braith Anasta on the phone now!”
“But sir, that’s not Daly’s agent?”
“Forget the agent, I’m going straight to live television.”
I guess texting the offer to the actual show Daly was appearing on would appear snivelling and even more wormish, rather than the very emotionally level-headed tact of texting the OTHER show. That’s negotiation baby.
Despite the public denials I’m not ruling out this isn’t a mega ploy from Cherry-Evans to extract as much cash as possible from Manly for his final NRL payday. It’s not like his word doesn’t carry a lot of weight or anything (the same note is being frantically pushed back into my periphery).
Should he actually depart, the Dolphins make more sense to me than another retread Sydney club like the Dragons or Bulldogs. A Redcliffe junior in his early days before moving to Mackay, his dad has ties to the club, playing hooker for them in the BRL in the 1980s. He’d be a perfect mentor for young starlet Isaiya Katoa, and there’s countless examples in sports of the right veterans elevating the floors of young teams and dragging them into meaningful games.
Or he could go to the Roosters and their bottomless pit of money.
If this isn’t a massive smokescreen and he does leave Manly I’ll feel sorry for their fans but not the club, because it would be proof of complacency, which I guess would be well deserved. Deciding to not offer your most-capped player a reasonable extension because his market was quiet is just poor management.
Good clubs get ahead and act, bad clubs wait and react.
Now they have to hope the rugby union convert Joey Walsh is the Messiah that was promised.
Manly, you are…NOT the club Daly will be at next season.2
I have no idea of the dispositions of Mestrov, and I’d assume any man who runs a footy club, especially one as turbulent as Manly, is naturally angry, but it’s fun to paint a caricature
When I lived in the US one of my favourite pastimes was watching Maury, so I’m glad I’ve been able to work it full circle