The Daly Cherrygraph

Some scuttlebut from today’s SMH column by Danny Weidler:

DCE’s love ... of Des​

There was a lot of love at Daly Cherry-Evans’ wedding to Vessa, and not just between the bride and groom. Former Manly coach Des Hasler was there because of his big role in DCE’s career. They won a premiership in 2011.
The master of ceremonies, rising media star and former NRL player Cooper Johns, seized the moment to raise the presence of Hasler and highlight the absence of current Manly coach Anthony Seibold. It brought much laughter to the room.

The only current staff member who went was long-time kit man Alex Ross. Seibold and DCE sat beside each other at Toafofoa Sipley’s wedding three weeks ago.
I’m not suggesting there is any issue between Manly’s captain and coach, but Cooper is clearly comfortable having a crack at his old Sea Eagles mentor Seibold. Hasler is still very popular with the playing group, but officials at the club have no time for him following their acrimonious split.
 
Daly Cherry-Evans has backflipped on his decision to play on in 2026, telling Manly he wants to see how the season unfolds before committing to what would be the 16th season of his glittering NRL career.

Cherry-Evans’ decision comes as Manly draw up a potential succession plan that would see fullback Tom Trbojevic move into the halves when the premiership-winning halfback hangs up the boots.

Last month Cherry-Evans told the Sea Eagles he wanted to play on beyond the end of his 2025 contract, but at a meeting to decide his future on Thursday he said he’d had a change of heart and wanted to leave his options open.

He did, however, say he wanted to end his career as a one-club player and Manly agreed to hold a position open in their 2026 roster in case he decides he still has more football in him.

In preparation for Cherry-Evans’ potential retirement at the end of 2025, Manly have discussed shifting Trbojevic to five-eighth in 2026, a move that would enable them to secure young gun Lehi Hopoate on a long-term deal as the club’s fullback.

Should Cherry-Evans decide to stay on past next season, he will likely have to take a significant pay cut to squeeze into the salary cap because Manly had not budgeted for him beyond his current contract.

The Queensland captain, who also hasn’t yet decided whether he will play State of Origin in 2025, is on a deal worth close to $1 million in 2025. He is still playing at a high level and is arguably ranked among the top four halfbacks in the competition, alongside Nathan Cleary ($1.2m), Mitchell Moses ($1.25m) and Jahrome Hughes ($900,000).

The Sea Eagles, however, have already spent big money on retaining the likes of Haumole Olakau’atu, Tolutau Koula, Jason Saab and Taniela Paseka and have salary cap restraints in 2026.

They also want to give Hopoate, who was impressive at fullback for Tonga in the Pacific Championship at the end of the season, a pathway to make the No.1 jersey his own. He is currently on a development contract for 2025.

Hopoate’s elevation includes the potential shift of Trbojevic into the unfamiliar No.6 role, a positional switch that was flagged with the player a few months ago. That would mean Luke Brooks taking over the No.7 jersey vacated by Cherry-Evans.

The Sea Eagles have also attracted rising star Onitoni Large, 17, from the Wests Tigers. He is considered a long-term halves option for Manly.

Cherry-Evans has been a loyal servant to the club throughout his entire career, leading Manly to nine finals series, two grand finals and a premiership in his 14 seasons since debuting in 2011.

He reneged on a deal to join the Gold Coast Titans early in his career, instead signing a long-term extension with the Sea Eagles.

The Sea Eagles haven’t tabled a formal offer for Cherry-Evans but have indicated how much they would be willing to spend to keep him on the books in 2026 if he decides to stay on.

www.smh.com.au

Trbojevic faces switch to halves with Cherry-Evans’ future in doubt

Superstar fullback Tom Trbojevic may play five-eighth when veteran playmaker Daly Cherry-Evans hangs up the boots.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au
 
Everything except that cherry may or may not play in 2026 (is that news?) looks like speculation based on nothing.

I thought turbo was going into the centres. How many positions is he going to play? Can we fire the rest and have tom play all the positions?

No mention of Walsh. I thought he was closer to being ready to go than Large but I could be wrong.
 
The performance of Brooks as the lead play maker / kicker in Round 16 suggests that the coaches wouldn’t pick him again as the only kicker / playmaker in the halves, the coaches showed their hand here in Round 19 when they put Humphries in to partner Brooks in the halves.

The club have a fair few options outside of Turbo here and game management is not a weapon of Luke Brooks.
 
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I’m not surprised DCE looked a bit knocked around after the last origin series. I’m sure he’d rather depart the Origin arena under his own terms. I expect Slater will focussing on the future and Deardon played well for Australia. Cant see Hunt selected for Origin this year either. I’d love to see DCE go out a premiership winner in 2025.
 
Scorpio said:
That would presumably mean Brooks would be steering the ship with Tom as a non-kicking 5/8... I'm not buying it.
Click to expand...
Yes..... I don't mind the idea of Tom as a running five-eight, he has excellent attributes for that role. But the kicking game is the one real problem to be solved. If we only have Brooks as a lone kicker then we got a problem.
 
This reminds me of something. I haven't looked at 2024 stats for us in a few weeks but in general what they appeared to say - very little dummy half running, very few offloads - was that structurally we likely have a strong preference for organising our attack through the halves with Tom and Lehi as points of variation. DCE's departure perhaps at year end means we had better come up with some ideas for variations this year or if he goes then in 2026 we will look terrible!
 
Phobia said:
Daly Cherry-Evans has backflipped on his decision to play on in 2026, telling Manly he wants to see how the season unfolds before committing to what would be the 16th season of his glittering NRL career.

Cherry-Evans’ decision comes as Manly draw up a potential succession plan that would see fullback Tom Trbojevic move into the halves when the premiership-winning halfback hangs up the boots.

Last month Cherry-Evans told the Sea Eagles he wanted to play on beyond the end of his 2025 contract, but at a meeting to decide his future on Thursday he said he’d had a change of heart and wanted to leave his options open.

He did, however, say he wanted to end his career as a one-club player and Manly agreed to hold a position open in their 2026 roster in case he decides he still has more football in him.

In preparation for Cherry-Evans’ potential retirement at the end of 2025, Manly have discussed shifting Trbojevic to five-eighth in 2026, a move that would enable them to secure young gun Lehi Hopoate on a long-term deal as the club’s fullback.

Should Cherry-Evans decide to stay on past next season, he will likely have to take a significant pay cut to squeeze into the salary cap because Manly had not budgeted for him beyond his current contract.

The Queensland captain, who also hasn’t yet decided whether he will play State of Origin in 2025, is on a deal worth close to $1 million in 2025. He is still playing at a high level and is arguably ranked among the top four halfbacks in the competition, alongside Nathan Cleary ($1.2m), Mitchell Moses ($1.25m) and Jahrome Hughes ($900,000).

The Sea Eagles, however, have already spent big money on retaining the likes of Haumole Olakau’atu, Tolutau Koula, Jason Saab and Taniela Paseka and have salary cap restraints in 2026.

They also want to give Hopoate, who was impressive at fullback for Tonga in the Pacific Championship at the end of the season, a pathway to make the No.1 jersey his own. He is currently on a development contract for 2025.

Hopoate’s elevation includes the potential shift of Trbojevic into the unfamiliar No.6 role, a positional switch that was flagged with the player a few months ago. That would mean Luke Brooks taking over the No.7 jersey vacated by Cherry-Evans.

The Sea Eagles have also attracted rising star Onitoni Large, 17, from the Wests Tigers. He is considered a long-term halves option for Manly.

Cherry-Evans has been a loyal servant to the club throughout his entire career, leading Manly to nine finals series, two grand finals and a premiership in his 14 seasons since debuting in 2011.

He reneged on a deal to join the Gold Coast Titans early in his career, instead signing a long-term extension with the Sea Eagles.

The Sea Eagles haven’t tabled a formal offer for Cherry-Evans but have indicated how much they would be willing to spend to keep him on the books in 2026 if he decides to stay on.

www.smh.com.au

Trbojevic faces switch to halves with Cherry-Evans’ future in doubt

Superstar fullback Tom Trbojevic may play five-eighth when veteran playmaker Daly Cherry-Evans hangs up the boots.
www.smh.com.au www.smh.com.au
Click to expand...
Oh yes, we are definitely in the off season. As usual no one would put their name to this diatribe.
 
Maybe Joey Walsh can make a quite quick and good transition to N R L level for season 26 .
D C E had a fairly solid preparation, initially in the under 20 's , then a stand out season in the Q L D cup and was pretty much ready to go at a higher level then
.Walsh could well have the attributes to be on an even faster trajectory but if D C E is still able to go on with it in season 26 and Walsh is not quite ready , shouldn't be any issue .
If not , Walsh is going to have to be on an even faster learning curve approaching 26 .
Can 't really see any serious intentions to move Turbo to a 6 role , more then understandable to a roving centre role if Lehi can come on even better in the early stages of next year .
Then Garrick back to a wing role which would please quite a few folk on here
 
Turbo at 6 could work if we had a 7 who just focused on kicking and steering the team around the park - like Fogarty at the Raiders (who I'd love as a stopgap option if the young guys aren't quite ready post DCE, also a great goalkicker)

Unfortunately we have enough evidence in the Souths game and the 10 years at the Tigers that Brooks can't really fill that role. Maybe he can grow into it in the later years of his career, but at this point I wouldn't be counting on it
 
JakeyB789 said:
Unfortunately we have enough evidence in the Souths game and the 10 years at the Tigers that Brooks can't really fill that role. Maybe he can grow into it in the later years of his career, but at this point I wouldn't be counting on it
Click to expand...
Everyone seems to have collective dimentia regarding the game against Newcastle. Brooks was the dominant playmaker, even if he was in the 6, and Humphreys was in the 7. Seibold himself said that Brooks, in the aim of being the No. 2 playmaker, didn't take a voice in the South's game and hence he performed poorly. After that game, they deliberately made attempts to have him involved, hence his uptick in form, and him stepping up against Newcastle. He was the dominant playmaker alongside Turbo, he was calling the shots, and we flogged them.

It wasn't the dominant playmaker role that Brooks was hampered by at the Tigers, it was the Tigers in general. Alongside a competent team, he can perform, and manage the team. Especially if he has Turbo right beside him. I do think Brooks could play that Fogarty role alongside Turbo. He basically did for Benji Marshall when they nearly made the Top 8.
 
Didn't want to post in the 'Retierment' thread as that is clearly scuttlebutt - and I wanted to pose a question off the back:

PURELY a hypothetical question here.... don't let reality stand in the way:

IF DCE was to finish FY25 in full health, and having played to a similar capacity as he did last year (captain of QLD, highly reliable, great kicking, no injuried etc etc etc)..... what do you think he would fetch on the open market? Which teams do you think would throw money at him to 'buy' a premiership (i.e. they have a good team but missing an experience half for a year to try and win the comp)?

Would anyone be in for him? How much would he command? Would a start-up like PNG want him? Would the Dragons throw dumb money at him as a shiny marketing object?

I can only imagine the rumour mill!
 
Warriors
Dolphins
Titans
Rabbits
Tigers
Roosters
Bulldogs
Knights
Cowboys
Dragons
Raiders

If they had the money and given his age I'd say about $7-800,000 per annum on 2 year contract
 
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