‘Opened old wounds’: Why DCE’s Manly carnage has left teammates fuming — Hoops

Depending on who you talk to, there’s a hell of a lot more layers to Daly Cherry-Evans’ departure from the Manly Sea Eagles.

What hadn’t made its way into the public domain, before I reported it on Wednesday night on NRL 360, was that Cherry-Evans initially approached the Sea Eagles about an immediate release at the beginning of 2024.

That’s hugely significant given the narrative coming out of the DCE camp and Manly this week has been one of ‘nothing to see here, play on, it’s all happy days’.

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Given DCE asked for a release more than 12 months ago, the Manly halfback’s latest contract circus has clearly been brewing for some time.

The Sea Eagles rejected the move but rival clubs are aware of the Manly captain’s request in the off-season of 2024.

Plenty of people in the game respect the way DCE carries himself but there’s also a view his call to cut ties with Manly has opened up old wounds at the Sea Eagles.

We’re old and ugly enough to remember when Cherry-Evans split the Manly dressing room like never before when he back-flipped on the Gold Coast Titans to sign the biggest deal in rugby league history back in 2016.

Several other big-name Manly players at the time had taken pay cuts to try and keep the maroon and white roster together.

Some were forced out of the club.

It divided Manly and the fallout continued for years.

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The Sea Eagles are at pains to paint a picture of it all being business as usual inside the Manly dressing room right now, yet there’s no question that behind closed doors some teammates would be privately fuming.

When you cut through all the BS that’s been rolled out this week, the most obvious reason the Manly captain is walking out after 15 seasons in maroon and white is money.

No one is begrudging Daly wanting to make as much money as he can in the final few years of his career.

But given he’s made more than $13 million out of the Sea Eagles over the course of the past 15 seasons, it’s easy to see why some of the Manly old boys would be seeing red.

Manly clearly wanted to keep DCE and were aiming to get him to accept a two-year deal worth $1.4 million for 2026 and 2027.

Cherry-Evans has made it blatantly clear he won’t be accepting that.

If Dylan Brown is worth $1.3 million per season then DCE can easily command over $1 million per season, even though he’ll be 37 at the beginning of next year.

The other element of this is DCE’s management company, otherwise known as the football whisperer Joe Wehbe.

If there’s been a knock on Manly since coach Anthony Seibold arrived in 2023 it’s been the club’s penchant for signing players managed by Isaac Moses.

Moses also does the negotiating for Seibold and was once thick-as-thieves with Wehbe until a spectacular bust-up ended up in the Supreme Court.

Moses ultimately settled with former business partner Wehbe to avoid the details of several high-profile players’ contracts being laid bare in a warts-and-all courtroom stoush.

Wehbe is clearly looking to negotiate the best possible deal for Cherry-Evans in the final seasons of his career.

Wehbe also manages the affairs of Sydney Roosters captain James Tedesco and Roosters-bound NSW Origin hooker Reece Robson.

So where will DCE ultimately land?

There’s three schools of thought. The first two involve two of the most high-profile and influential figures in the game, in Sydney Roosters kingpin Nick Politis and Bulldogs boss Phil Gould.

Once great mates from when Politis brought Gould to the Roosters along with Brad Fittler in 1996, these two have been strained for a number of years now and will be actively competing for Cherry-Evans’ signature.

The other option for DCE is going home to Queensland to link with the Dolphins, where he played his junior football and where his old man Troy also played at Redcliffe.

Plenty of people north of the border believe the Dolphins are in the box seat. Many will tell you a deal is already done.

But in Politis and Gould you’ve got two of the best negotiators in the history of rugby league pitching about the strengths of the Roosters and the Bulldogs.

So DCE has got the pick of the board.

He can head home to Queensland or link with either the Roosters or Canterbury-Bankstown, who’d both immediately be a damn good shot at winning a title if they can acquire the Maroons halfback.

Whichever way DCE goes you get the feeling we’re going to be talking about it for years to come.

Just like back in 2016, when he backflipped on the Gold Coast.