Why must he tease us so?
NRL 2022: Daly Cherry-Evans opens up on Manly Sea Eagles quit threat, Des Hasler future
A public battle for the Manly leadership pushed Daly Cherry-Evans to the brink of walking out on the club. He opens up about the horror end to 2022.
By Peter Badel
Queensland captain Daly Cherry-Evans has revealed he considered quitting
Manly after his bombshell claim there was a political “agenda” at the club to have him sacked as Sea Eagles skipper.
Cherry-Evans opened up about his horror final months at Manly as the Maroons maestro prepares to lead Australia’s Prime Minister’s XIII into battle against Papua New Guinea on Sunday at Suncorp Stadium.
The 283-game Manly legend addressed explosive rumours he didn’t get on with the club’s Polynesian contingent, his relationship with besieged coach Des Hasler and the personal toll of calls for him to be axed as Sea Eagles captain.
Cherry-Evans admits he was also rocked by claims he had a fractured relationship with the Trbojevic brothers, Tom and Jake, prompting the 33-year-old to consider quitting Manly - just months after inking a two-year extension.
Manly had a shocking finish to the 2022 season, losing seven straight games following the gay-pride jumper debacle, and Cherry-Evans concedes he was almost a casualty of the flying shrapnel at Brookvale.
“I’d be lying to say it (joining another club) didn’t cross my mind,” Cherry-Evans said ahead of the PM’s XIII-PNG clash.
“People just wanted to cause uncertainty.
“I know that sounds ridiculous ... how could people at one club want to rip the place apart but unfortunately that is the situation we have at Manly.
“Those things I can’t control.
“After these things come out (about Cherry-Evans losing the dressing room) ... once you have the conversations with people within the club and how unrealistic these comments were, I feel really comfortable about where I stand.
“It just reassured me that what I am doing at this club is the right thing.
“The love I have for the place hasn’t changed. I am going to continue to try and get Manly back to finals next year and finish my career there.”
There is a view a faction at Manly is working behind the scenes, politically, to have Cherry-Evans removed as skipper in favour of Jake Trbojevic.
The 33-year-old is aware of the speculation and fears the innuendo surrounding his relationship with Manly’s slew of Polynesian players was a racial narrative constructed to trigger his demise from the Sea Eagles leadership post.
“I thought that (being offside with Polynesian teammates) was pretty funny to be honest considering how comfortable I am with all my teammates, let alone the seven that didn’t play (over the gay-pride jersey) and the rest of the Polynesian group,” Cherry-Evans said.
“They are just rumours that came out because people wanted to unsettle me as a person.
“The longer it went on and the more people I spoke to the more I realised that these were personal attacks and that there were certain agendas that were trying to be driven.
“I am comfortable with my relationships at Manly.”
Asked if those agendas included bringing him down as Manly skipper, Cherry-Evans replied: “Yes, there probably were. That is probably the reality of the situation ... is that people wanted that (him sacked as captain).
“Two months ago I was the best captain in Australia. Now I can’t lead Manly. It is pretty funny isn’t it? That is part of the rugby league stuff that comes around in circles all the time.
“But the people that hold the power at the club have backed me as skipper. I take a lot of confidence in that.
“It was nice to hear (Tom and Jake Trbojevic) come out and say, ‘You are our skipper’.”
Despite the internal ructions, Cherry-Evans is confident he has the support of new chief executive Tony Mestrov and is determined to lead a Sea Eagles resugrence next season _ backing Hasler to hit back as coach.
“There is definitely the human element of it all when people are attacking you personally. It is never a nice thing,” he said.
“The more discussions I had at the club the more I understand a lot of it wasn’t true. I took a lot of satisfaction knowing where I stood with everyone at Manly.
“There are some things I will never be able to control at Manly but the things I can control are the relationships I have with the coaching staff and playing group and the ownership.
“The more it has gone on the better I have felt about it because some of it (criticism of him) is just going to go around in circles.
“When people do get attacked in public it is usually their families that suffer the most. Usually they are not professional athletes who have years of emotional and mental wellbeing to support themselves. They are the ones that usually struggle to understand what is going on. I have been doing this for a long time.
“It was disappointing to see the club dragged through that but it will move on.”
Of Hasler, whose career is on the line at Manly, Cherry-Evans added: “I have said from the start that I am a big fan of Des Hasler and I am a big fan of him being our coach for as long as he can do that.
“I am not going to get in the way of a contract negotiation between a club and a coach. That’s not my ground to stand on, but I will stand here for my coach and say that I hope he gets that sorted out because I do really love him as a bloke and I do enjoy being coached by him.
“The playing group I can have an impact on and I am really confident about where I stand and where the playing group stand with each other.
“Beyond that it is for the club to worry about. In the off-season we have a really long period of time to sort that out. I am sure the people at Manly right now are working through it.