MANLY last night took a giant step towards retaining Daly Cherry-Evans after finding a way to immediately increase the boom halfback's meagre salary.
A revised four-year offer, tabled at a meeting between Manly officials and the 23-year-old's agent Gavin Orr yesterday, is understood to have scotched any threat of Cherry-Evans wanting out before his current deal expires at the end of 2013.
Manly's continued inability to boost Cherry-Evans' $85,000 base salary for this season prompted Orr to ask for a release last Friday.
Although the request was denied, Sea Eagles boss David Perry and shareholders have spent the past week canvassing third-party sponsorship options to satisfy the demand.
It's understood they successfully raised the money, either through a new backer or by convincing teammates to transfer their 2012 third-party deals to Cherry-Evans.
With Orr emerging from yesterday's meeting in a positive frame of mind, it now appears likely Cherry-Evans will remain at Brookvale until the end of 2015 on a four-year package worth around $2 million.
The new contract is a significant upgrade for the Queenslander, who committed to a three-year contract worth barely $300,000 before making his NRL debut last year.
"The club has seen me (yesterday) and put a new offer towards me and Daly," Orr told Radio 2UE's Sports Today program.
"We are going to go through that ... and see where that takes us. We should have something clearer today, hopefully.
"All reports out of today and talking to the club, it looks promising.
"We are not asking for what he could get on the open market.
"We are asking what's suitable for what he's doing right now at that particular club.
"He really wants to stay at Manly and we are working hard to make sure that happens."
itunes: Download our special edition NRL Magazine
Android: Download our special edition NRL Magazine
Orr said his request for a release was born out of frustration over the prolonged negotiations, which have now stretched out since last August.
But facing a strained 2012 and 2013 salary cap thanks to heavily back-ended contracts, Manly's bids to find space for a pay rise failed repeatedly.
The Sea Eagles privately deny ever being approached for a release during the meeting last Friday, but Orr was last night adamant his hand was forced.
"That probably came out of frustration because this contract negotiation has been going since August. I was originally in those contract negotiations with (former coach) Des (Hasler)," Orr said.
"After the grand final everything fell apart. Des left and went to Canterbury and the CEO (Perry) took over. There has been a long period of waiting and seeing what they're doing but that has also given the club an opportunity to try and sort out its cap issues."
"The pressure is there because this has been going on for six or seven months of negotiations and it's got to the stage where Daly really wants to find out if he's staying at the club or if we should be making arrangements for next year to find out which other clubs are looking for halfbacks."
http://m.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/manly-sea-eagles-table-revised-offer-to-daly-cherry-evans/story-e6frexnr-1226300904677?reg=1
