Daly Cherry-Evans backflip bid: Manly Sea Eagles step up efforts to keep star halfback
- PHIL ROTHFIELD SPORTS EDITOR-AT-LARGE
- THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
- MAY 04, 2015 12:00AM
MANLY have exactly 40 days to convince Daly Cherry-Evans to remain at Brookvale next year, and rest assured they are giving it their best shot.
The club is doing everything possible to turn the opening of round 13, ironically on June 13, into a Black Friday for the Gold Coast Titans.
League Immortal, Australian selector and Manly legend Bob Fulton is a powerful and persuasive man who doesn’t lose too many battles.
As Cherry-Evans was sitting on the bench for the Kangaroos at Suncorp on Sunday, Fulton and CEO Joe Kelly revealed they had not given up hope. Not by a long shot.
“To win a premiership every club needs an X-factor player and Daly is without doubt one of the best in the game and he will only get better,” Fulton said in his first comments on the issue since rejoining the club as an executive consultant.
“He is 25 and has already played Origin, won a premiership, won a Clive Churchill Medal and a World Cup. He and Greg Inglis are heir apparent for the honour of being the next Test captain when Cameron Smith calls time.
“Some players are manufactured leaders and some are born leaders. Daly Cherry Evans is a natural leader and a big match player.”
In his role as a Kangaroos selector, Fulton rarely talks about the individual form of players or the various match-ups between the great halfbacks or any positions for that matter.
He has broken the rule in this case.
“It is no coincidence that his two best games this season have been against the Melbourne and Australian halfback Cooper Cronk,” Fulton said.
“There is no doubt he outplayed Cooper both times in Manly’s only two wins. In both games the Manly forwards held their own giving Daly the opportunity to show his class.”
Fulton’s resolve to keep Cherry Evans has a lot to do with the fact the Sunshine Coast junior is following a football career pathway so similar to his own.
At almost the same age, Fulton left the south coast as a teenager in 1966 to launch what became a remarkable rugby league career at Brookvale.
“Manly accept that he has agreed to go — that is his choice and his right,” Fulton said.
“But if you ask if I would like him to stay the answer is yes but only if he wanted to.
“The round 13 rule is there for players to have the right to change their mind.
“There are plenty of players who have changed their mind. None have come under the criticism or the scrutiny that Daly has come under.”
Importantly Fulton is giving Cherry-Evans space to make his decision.
Not that it’s holding back Joe Kelly who makes no secret of the fact he is doing his utmost to keep him at Brookvale.
“We want Daly Cherry-Evans playing at his best and enjoying his team mates,” Kelly said.
“That environment is what we are aiming at and we will continue to talk to him personally and to his management about his future after this season.
“We would be letting down our fans if we gave up without a fight.
“The fans are telling us very loudly to never give up in trying to keep him and we think they have a vital part to play in that because of his enormous popularity.
“This club has never given up on the field or off it and we aren’t going to start now.”
So I rang Manly’s legendary old club secretary Ken Arthurson for his thoughts, knowing there has never been a better or shrewder contract negotiator in the game.
“I would love to see him stay,” Arthurson said.
“He was born in Queensland but he is a Sea Eagle through and through as far as I’m concerned.
“His partner is a northern beaches girl and both his children have been born there. I would really like him to be a one-club player.'''
Comment
Troy
Haha rothfield. Zorba feeding u more lies. And Fulton in the penn/peters camp too. Only if he wanted to stay? He did but manly withdrew his contract and asked him to look elsewhere. Manly did nothing to keep him then and doing nothing now to keep him. Just a bit of lip service to make themselves look good in the press and to the fans. Rd 13 forget it. DCE already bought a house in GC. Stop lying to the fans Manly and rothfield.
