http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...gave-him-a-start/story-e6frg7w6-1227236126927
looks like the Australian has been copy & pasting from us - hope Dan gets royalties.
IF Manly had any backbone, any semblance of pride, they would pull Daly Cherry-Evans’s contract offer off the table. Use that money to ensure Kieran Foran stays, sign a top-quality forward and dedicate whatever remains to signing a halfback who treats his club with a bit more respect.
Cherry-Evans is making a mockery of Manly. Yesterday, he was caught waltzing into Cronulla with his manager Gavin Orr for talks with the Sharks. Apparently a $2.5 million offer is on the table.
Cherry-Evans enjoyed lunch with Cronulla chairman Damian Keogh, talked turkey, created waves and headed back to the northern beaches. Late last week, it was the Gold Coast as Cherry-Evans and his partner toured the tourist strip. According to Orr, another club is on the agenda tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Manly patiently wait for an answer on the multi-million dollar deal they have tabled to the Queensland and Australian halfback as frustration and anger grow among his teammates.
Cherry-Evans has never been the most popular member of the Manly squad. Among many of his teammates, he now ranks somewhere alongside syndesmosis. At least one player is believed to have rung his manager and expressed his dismay with yesterday’s events. It would be a surprise if others didn’t do the same.
Cherry-Evans has every right to find out what he is worth on the open market. He has every right to talk to rival clubs. The question Sea Eagles supporters are rightly asking is why does he have to make such a sideshow of it. How is it that every move Cherry-Evans makes is documented by the media? He can blame clubs, he can even point the finger at Orr, but ultimately he is responsible for his actions
Why couldn’t Cronulla officials cross the bridge to meet him? Better still, why couldn’t he leave it in the hands of Orr?
Contrast that with five-eighth Kieran Foran. There is just as much demand for his services, if not more. Parramatta, Canterbury, the Sydney Roosters and the New Zealand Warriors want a piece of the Kiwi international. Foran is well aware of the interest but has told his manager Paul Sutton to exhaust every avenue with Manly.
A week ago, Foran was a lock to stay at the Sea Eagles. Now his career is back in the balance. Manly’s cause wasn’t helped by their performance last Saturday night as they were blown apart by the Sydney Roosters in a trial.
That performance only adds to the frustration over Cherry-Evans’s decision to conduct a personal tour of the NRL. Only days after being flogged, he was meeting officials from a rival club to discuss his future.
Foran has carried himself with class, reinforcing the perception that he has the team at heart and Cherry-Evans is in it for himself. You can only imagine what former Manly forward Anthony Watmough is thinking as he watches Cherry-Evans hock himself around the NRL.
Or Glenn Stewart for that matter. Fortunately, Stewart is still making his way back from England, where he was part of the Souths squad that won the World Club Challenge.
Stewart and Watmough took pay cuts to stay at Manly during their stints at the club.
Cherry-Evans put his hand out for pay rises during that corresponding period. Now he is holding the Sea Eagles to ransom. He is making them sweat despite the club offering him a deal that would make him a multi-millionaire. Others have been forced out the door to appease the gifted playmaker.
Yet Cherry-Evans insists on thumbing his nose at the club that gave him the chance to become a State of Origin and Test star. As good as he is — and he is very good — Manly have every right to ask whether he is worth the trouble.