There is growing speculation that Manly wantaway Daly Cherry-Evans had already lined up a “big money” deal at a rival NRL club before his bombshell announcement on Monday.
Cherry-Evans, 36, declared on live TV that he’ll be leaving the club he’s played for since 2011 at the end of this season and said he’s unsure if he’d play on next year.
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But premiership winner Braith Anasta said that was “bullshit” and that the Queensland captain will definitely be playing at a rival club in 2026.
“I don’t believe a word of that (retirement talk),” Anasta said on NRL 360 on Tuesday night.
“You’re telling me he’s considering retirement or going to the Super League? That’s bullshit. That’s garbage, he’s playing on, that was never going to happen.”
Journalists Paul Crawley and Dean Ritchie then revealed what they believe is going on behind the scenes in the messy saga.
“There hadn’t been an offer (from Manly) and the club said to him ‘if you do get an offer, bring it back to us’,” Crawley said.
“Now I would see that as disrespectful and taking someone for granted. It’s cost them one of the best players in the comp.”
“I think Daly wanted to manage the narrative here and he’s got in early and that’s irritated Manly, take it as read they’re not happy,” Ritchie said.
“Take it as read, they are filthy. There is absolutely animosity.
“This is Manly’s window to win a premiership. Cherry’s last thing he wants to accomplish is win another premiership. He’s got two years in front of him, he could retire as a one-club legend, it’s all there and he says ‘I don’t want to play for you anymore’.”
The Sea Eagles are reportedly “filthy” with how Cherry-Evans has handled the situation and Anasta asked Gorden Tallis if the club had been blindsided.
“I think they were, to have your star player, the guy that has been there for 10 years, their last premiership halfback, to go on a show and announce that this is going to be his last year and that he’s going to leave the club,” Tallis said.
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But Crawley wasn’t having it.
“How could you be blindsided by your star player, your longest-serving club player, your captain who has been debating whether to play on or not since last year and you get blindsided on a day when he’s going on a TV show?” he said.
“They’ve stuffed this up. He’s in their backyard, he’s one of the top three playmakers in the game, (Manly CEO) Tony Mestrov says it wasn’t a kneejerk reaction and he hasn’t been lowballed. Yes he has.
“That offer yesterday, that’s a lowball offer for a top three or four halfback in the game, to be offered $750,000 a year, I don’t care how old he is, he should have been offered at least $1 million.”
Ritchie then provided more context and agreed with Tallis that the club was in fact blindsided.
“I’ll tell you what happened. In December, they opened up very preliminary talks of a one-year contract with a second-year club option,” he said.
“Cherry then said to them ‘I’m not sure if I want to play anymore and I might move overseas’. Manly then said we’ll respect that and we’ll back off, which they did.
“In the meantime, there was some very informal dialogue going on and in that dialogue there was an unwritten agreement that they would see how Cherry was after Round 6 and how his body was holding up and how was his form.
“So Manly was waiting for Round 6 and Cherry comes out on national television and says I am quitting the club. He didn’t tell Tony Mestrov and he didn’t tell (club owner) Scott Penn.
“So that’s how they were blindsided.”
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Anasta believes it came down to respect and “principles” not aligning between player and club.
“What I find interesting and a little bit strange and putting myself in DCE’s shoes and even putting my management cap on,” he said.
“He was free to negotiate on November 1 last year and by December he told them he was moving on, so he gave them a month to negotiate a new deal… which suggests to me something is going on there.
“If he wanted to stay there, he could have taken a few more months to come up with a deal that suited both him and the club. So it tells me he wanted to go and there’s got to be a reason for it.
“I spoke to a lot of officials today at a few clubs, a few heavy hitters who had spoken to hierarchy at Manly throughout last year and apparently they were shopping him around and were suggesting they were not going to re-sign him during last season. That has got the ears pricked on a number of teams.
“Now I don’t know DCE that well but I know a lot of people that are really close to him and he’s big on principles and big on values. Maybe none of this sat well with him and he made the call he wasn’t going to stick around.”
Ritchie believes an announcement on which club Cherry-Evans will join is imminent.
“I have no doubt he’s got another club and that they’re paying him top dollar and Manly know it, they’re not stupid,” he said.
“They fear him walking out the door because he’s got big money elsewhere and I reckon that will be announced in the next 3-4 weeks.”
The panel agreed that the Roosters are the favourites but the Bulldogs are the smokies to sign Cherry-Evans.
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