If you judged a sporting career by the way it ended, Don Bradman would be a flop, out for a second-ball duck. Tiger Woods would be last seen hobbling into a golf cart. ‘Changa’ Langlands would be doing circle work in white boots.
On the other hand, when you’re judging a failed relationship, the ending is everything, especially if they’re the dumper and you’re the dumpee.
Manly fans have to ask themselves, as Daly Cherry-Evans runs out for his 350th game on Saturday, if they are marking the end of a stellar career or going through a painful break-up.
If it’s a marriage, this divorce is Johnny Depp bad. It’s Bill Gates bad. It’s Woody Allen bad.
The consensus is that DCE has made but not signed an agreement with Nick Politis to go to the Roosters to play for a year or so and then land a coaching role (an offer that would not be included in the ‘salary cap’, but that’s another story).
DCE’s availability arose in autumn because nobody expected a 36-year-old elite NRL playmaker to come onto the market for 2026, and no club had forward-planned its roster around it. Manly certainly hadn’t. The one club with the ‘salary cap space’ and a gnawing hole in its stomach was the Roosters. DCE decided to wait until the end of this season before committing, so everyone has had to wait.
Not that mysterious, really. It’s a marketplace. But if you think you’re in a personal relationship with a player, it’s gutting, he’s betrayed you on television, and worst of all he’s dumping you for your own cousin without being upfront about it. You won’t be at Brookie this weekend to celebrate him becoming the fourth-most-capped player in Australian rugby league history.
But the plot got complicated. Almost from the moment DCE decided to non-announce his not-yet-decided future on television, he’s had a mediocre year and Manly’s season has spun ever-faster towards the gurgler.
In 350 games, DCE has turned in maybe 25 poor ones, of which 10 have come this year. He’s got excuses. His awful TV appearance came a day after Taniela Paseka ruptured his Achilles, which had a bigger impact on Manly’s season. This month, DCE has been playing behind a pack consisting of Jazz Tevaga, Ben Trbojevic, Corey Waddell, Matthew Lodge, Jake Simpkin and Sio Siua Taukeiaho, triers and veterans, but Andrew Johns at his best couldn’t have got that team into the semi-finals.
Since the dramatic decline of Tom Trbojevic’s form, moreover, Manly’s ‘premiership window’ has been exposed as a myth created by people who hadn’t been watching them very closely.
Only two Manly players can be said to have improved this year: Haumole Olakau’atu, one of the best edge forwards in the world and Manly’s only dependable attacking option (but injured now), and Tolu Koula, who’s risen from a good centre to a potentially great one. For the rest, Burbo has advanced from a reserve-grader to a borderline first-grader. And that’s it. As for the coach, who would want to play for someone who aspires to be the office manager?
Anyway, that’s the Bradman’s duck side of things. Ugly, shocking, and the sooner it’s put into perspective the better.
The bigger picture is the career. For the Sea Eagles, ever since the Turbo model of 2019 and 2021 came apart, Cherry-Evans has held the rest together.
In 2024, Manly overachieved by making the second week of the finals, in large part thanks to DCE’s kicking game and onfield generalship. He gave Luke Brooks scope to play his best football. He put enough kicks and passes Jason Saab’s way to convince someone that Saab was more than just a track sprinter with a track sprinter’s football skills.
His leadership covered over the empty space in the coaching box, just like it had for 15 years of previous coaches. Manly’s results in the DCE period, starting with their 2011 premiership in his debut year, created a helpful diversion from the ownership vacuum that periodically blew its breezy nothingness through the revolving door of the front office
Even if he never quite conveyed a genuine belief that his team could win another premiership – he’s DCE, not JC – he steered a mostly okay roster to outcomes that were mostly better than okay. Until this year, Manly under DCE were an industrious team with one big flaw (they tended to throw away winning leads) balanced by one big virtue (they hardly ever got blown off the park). He led a well-run team in a poorly-run club, which should make him the envy of half the NRL.
The glass half-full version: 350 games in 15 years and just 23 missed with injury, a freakish achievement for a small man tackling waves of big men. Eight finals campaigns, one premiership, one losing grand final in which he won the Clive Churchill Medal.
Ninety-seven tries, 187 goals, 28 field goals of which most were match-winners, an uncountable number of try assists and 40/20s. Twenty-one Test matches, 26 Origins. Most fans understand the career accomplishment, and they’ll show their appreciation.
The glass half-empty is for those who think they’re in a personal relationship with a rugby league player. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea. He’s a bit slippery, a bit plasticky, and the only more unpalatable club he could be moving to is the Storm (but Craig Bellamy’s too smart). Cherry-Evans might have wrecked a season (which was probably going nowhere). Having covered over club dysfunction for so long, he might have walked out at the worst possible moment (the latest in a decade’s worth of worst possible moments).
If there’s any cold comfort for those feeling betrayed, it’s in a declining Cherry-Evans ending up at the Chooks, who in 2025, having kicked the compulsion to shop, are having an excellent season with mostly home-grown talent. Cherry-Evans looms for the Roosters like an ice-cold beer for a reformed alcoholic. We’ve done so well, and it’s only one drink…
On balance, Daly Cherry-Evans has given Manly enough. More than enough. But that’s a sober assessment, easier to make when the player is the dumpee (Adam Reynolds gave Souths more than enough; Clint Gutherson gave Parramatta more than enough) than when he’s the dumper (Jack Wighton, anyone?). When it’s a messy split and the player is the dumper, balance and sobriety are not what’s closest to hand.
For a player who has projected a certain aloofness, it’s remarkable that Cherry-Evans’s actions get taken so personally. Maybe that’s just the price he has to bear. I suspect that once the emotions subside, the career will be measured at its true weight. Manly legends Bob Fulton and Paul Vautin also jagged well-paid semi-retirements at the Roosters, a fun fact only worth mentioning because it’s so easily forgotten.
www.smh.com.au
On the other hand, when you’re judging a failed relationship, the ending is everything, especially if they’re the dumper and you’re the dumpee.
Manly fans have to ask themselves, as Daly Cherry-Evans runs out for his 350th game on Saturday, if they are marking the end of a stellar career or going through a painful break-up.
If it’s a marriage, this divorce is Johnny Depp bad. It’s Bill Gates bad. It’s Woody Allen bad.
The consensus is that DCE has made but not signed an agreement with Nick Politis to go to the Roosters to play for a year or so and then land a coaching role (an offer that would not be included in the ‘salary cap’, but that’s another story).
DCE’s availability arose in autumn because nobody expected a 36-year-old elite NRL playmaker to come onto the market for 2026, and no club had forward-planned its roster around it. Manly certainly hadn’t. The one club with the ‘salary cap space’ and a gnawing hole in its stomach was the Roosters. DCE decided to wait until the end of this season before committing, so everyone has had to wait.
Not that mysterious, really. It’s a marketplace. But if you think you’re in a personal relationship with a player, it’s gutting, he’s betrayed you on television, and worst of all he’s dumping you for your own cousin without being upfront about it. You won’t be at Brookie this weekend to celebrate him becoming the fourth-most-capped player in Australian rugby league history.
But the plot got complicated. Almost from the moment DCE decided to non-announce his not-yet-decided future on television, he’s had a mediocre year and Manly’s season has spun ever-faster towards the gurgler.
In 350 games, DCE has turned in maybe 25 poor ones, of which 10 have come this year. He’s got excuses. His awful TV appearance came a day after Taniela Paseka ruptured his Achilles, which had a bigger impact on Manly’s season. This month, DCE has been playing behind a pack consisting of Jazz Tevaga, Ben Trbojevic, Corey Waddell, Matthew Lodge, Jake Simpkin and Sio Siua Taukeiaho, triers and veterans, but Andrew Johns at his best couldn’t have got that team into the semi-finals.
Since the dramatic decline of Tom Trbojevic’s form, moreover, Manly’s ‘premiership window’ has been exposed as a myth created by people who hadn’t been watching them very closely.
Only two Manly players can be said to have improved this year: Haumole Olakau’atu, one of the best edge forwards in the world and Manly’s only dependable attacking option (but injured now), and Tolu Koula, who’s risen from a good centre to a potentially great one. For the rest, Burbo has advanced from a reserve-grader to a borderline first-grader. And that’s it. As for the coach, who would want to play for someone who aspires to be the office manager?
Anyway, that’s the Bradman’s duck side of things. Ugly, shocking, and the sooner it’s put into perspective the better.
The bigger picture is the career. For the Sea Eagles, ever since the Turbo model of 2019 and 2021 came apart, Cherry-Evans has held the rest together.
In 2024, Manly overachieved by making the second week of the finals, in large part thanks to DCE’s kicking game and onfield generalship. He gave Luke Brooks scope to play his best football. He put enough kicks and passes Jason Saab’s way to convince someone that Saab was more than just a track sprinter with a track sprinter’s football skills.
His leadership covered over the empty space in the coaching box, just like it had for 15 years of previous coaches. Manly’s results in the DCE period, starting with their 2011 premiership in his debut year, created a helpful diversion from the ownership vacuum that periodically blew its breezy nothingness through the revolving door of the front office
Even if he never quite conveyed a genuine belief that his team could win another premiership – he’s DCE, not JC – he steered a mostly okay roster to outcomes that were mostly better than okay. Until this year, Manly under DCE were an industrious team with one big flaw (they tended to throw away winning leads) balanced by one big virtue (they hardly ever got blown off the park). He led a well-run team in a poorly-run club, which should make him the envy of half the NRL.
The glass half-full version: 350 games in 15 years and just 23 missed with injury, a freakish achievement for a small man tackling waves of big men. Eight finals campaigns, one premiership, one losing grand final in which he won the Clive Churchill Medal.
Ninety-seven tries, 187 goals, 28 field goals of which most were match-winners, an uncountable number of try assists and 40/20s. Twenty-one Test matches, 26 Origins. Most fans understand the career accomplishment, and they’ll show their appreciation.
The glass half-empty is for those who think they’re in a personal relationship with a rugby league player. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea. He’s a bit slippery, a bit plasticky, and the only more unpalatable club he could be moving to is the Storm (but Craig Bellamy’s too smart). Cherry-Evans might have wrecked a season (which was probably going nowhere). Having covered over club dysfunction for so long, he might have walked out at the worst possible moment (the latest in a decade’s worth of worst possible moments).
If there’s any cold comfort for those feeling betrayed, it’s in a declining Cherry-Evans ending up at the Chooks, who in 2025, having kicked the compulsion to shop, are having an excellent season with mostly home-grown talent. Cherry-Evans looms for the Roosters like an ice-cold beer for a reformed alcoholic. We’ve done so well, and it’s only one drink…
On balance, Daly Cherry-Evans has given Manly enough. More than enough. But that’s a sober assessment, easier to make when the player is the dumpee (Adam Reynolds gave Souths more than enough; Clint Gutherson gave Parramatta more than enough) than when he’s the dumper (Jack Wighton, anyone?). When it’s a messy split and the player is the dumper, balance and sobriety are not what’s closest to hand.
For a player who has projected a certain aloofness, it’s remarkable that Cherry-Evans’s actions get taken so personally. Maybe that’s just the price he has to bear. I suspect that once the emotions subside, the career will be measured at its true weight. Manly legends Bob Fulton and Paul Vautin also jagged well-paid semi-retirements at the Roosters, a fun fact only worth mentioning because it’s so easily forgotten.
DCE is a rugby league great. The end
The break-up with the Sea Eagles has been messy, but however you cut it, the Manly number 7 is a champion.
