CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Queensland rugby league legend and the original millennial club-slut, Daly Cherry-Evans, is back on the market.
History is repeating itself again, as the the Manly captain declares he will not accept a last-ditch offer to stay at the club, as the Sea Eagles fight tooth and nail to keep their most-capped superstar.
Other clubs, like the Sydney Roosters and his hometown of Redcliffe, have also expressed serious interest – but as we learnt ten years ago, Cherry-Evans will not be persuaded by anything other than what works for him and his family.
A high-ranking member of the NRL Player’s Association, the Manly captain is renowned for rejecting the shallow NRL narratives around ‘loyalty’ and ‘sacrifice’ – and has made a name for not accepting anything less that what he believes to be his worth.
Whether it was his role during the pandemic-era players strike, or his initial signing controversy at the Manly Sea Eagles, the Queensland renegade does not fuck around when it comes to getting paid.
As an emerging Manly superstar in 2015, it was revealed that Cherry-Evans had agreed to join the Gold Coast Titans in 2016 on a 4-year contract. However, at the last minute, he changed his mind to stay with the Sea Eagles on an 8-year deal before the NRL’s Round 13 cooling off period expired.
The deal changed rugby league as we knew it, and was rumoured to be over $10m AUD or $1.25m per season. And resulted in one of the greatest dummy spits of all time from the Gold Coast fans and journalists.
The then 25-year-old made no effort to hide his stone-cold negotiations tactics, and was up front about priotising what was best for him.
“I definitely left the door open for this speculation to continue because, to be honest, I was always curious to know what offer was going to be on the table” he said at the time.
DCE, now aged 36 but looking like he’s in pretty good nick, has confirmed he’s still keen to play next season but said it would not be at the Sea Eagles.
And so it starts again.
Manly bosses have since sent Cherry-Evans a two-year deal, with club officials texting the offer to NRL shock jock Buzz Rothfield live on NRL360.
The deal is rumoured to be around 700k a year until he’s 38. Can DCE do better? If he can, he will.
Looks like the speculation is running high again, maybe the Gold Coast should have another crack at signing their man. Hahahaha.
