Daly Cherry-Evans

Cherry-Evans in 2008.

Cherry-Evans played 46 games for the National Youth Competition team of Manly Warringah Sea Eagles over the 2008 and 2009 season where he scored 246 points in total including 24 tries.[5] He was named on the interchange bench of the 2009 Toyota Cup season's team of the year.

At the conclusion of the 2009 Toyota Cup season, Cherry-Evans found himself behind Trent Hodkinson as Manly's first grade halfback after the departure of club captain Matt Orford. As a result, Cherry-Evans was sent to play for Manly's Queensland Cup feeder club the Sunshine Coast Sea Eagles. After captaining the team for most of the season, Cherry-Evans was named the Queensland Cup Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year. His performances in the side saw him selected to the Queensland Residents team where he was also named team captain.

With Hodkinson moving to play for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Cherry-Evans made his debut for Manly in Round 1 of the 2011 NRL season against the Melbourne Storm at halfback in the Sea Eagles 18–6 loss at AAMI Park.[6] In Round 12 against the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium, Cherry-Evans scored his first NRL career tries in the Sea Eagles 34–10 victory, one of which was set up by a flick pass from Fullback Brett Stewart who while diving for the ball had scooped it up one handed and passed to Cherry-Evans in the same movement.[7] In round 13 against the Bulldogs, Cherry-Evans crossed the try line untouched from a scrum, performed a one-on-one strip on Dene Halatau, and had 3 try assists in a dominating display that saw him named as halfback in the BigPond Sport Team of the Week.[8] In October 2011, English coach Steve McNamara offered Cherry-Evans a starting spot on the England team for the 2011 Four Nations as he is eligible for England through his English born mother Kellie. Cherry-Evans declined the offer, declaring himself available only to play representative football for both Queensland and Australia should he be selected.[9]

Cherry-Evans won the 2011 Dally M Rookie of the Year award, and scored a try in Manly's victory over the New Zealand Warriors in the 2011 NRL grand final. He gave a perfect inside pass for Brett Stewart to score the first try of the match in the 30th minute of the game. His own try just before the game's half time was set up by an audacious grubber kick by Clive Churchill Medal winner Glenn Stewart. The Manly Lock grubber kicked for winger Michael Robertson on his own 20 metre line. Robertson regathered and raced 50 metres down field, evading a desperate tackle from Manu Vatuvei (and colliding with Cherry-Evans in the process, causing a possible obstruction that was not called by the referees), before passing to Matt Ballin who continued the run until tackled only 5 metres out from scoring. On the next play Cherry-Evans received the ball from halves partner Kieran Foran, threw two dummy-passes and scored next to the posts to give the Sea Eagles a match winning 12–2 lead after Lyon's conversion. Manly went on to defeat the Warriors 24–10 to win their 8th premiership, with DCE the first rookie halfback to lead his team to premiership success since "Slippery" Steve Morris won with St George in 1979.[10][11] Cherry-Evans finished his excellent debut year in the NRL in the 2011 NRL season with him playing in all 27 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles matches, scoring 7 tries, kicking 25 goals and 3 field goals. He was named by the Rugby League International Federation in its annual awards as the world's best halfback for 2011.

Cherry-Evans at the 2012 Dally M Awards

Cherry-Evans played in all 27 Manly Warringah Sea Eagles matches and scored 7 tries, kicked 3 goals and kicked 1 field goal during the 2012 NRL season.

Since he made his debut for Manly in Round 1 of the 2011 NRL season, Cherry-Evans had not missed a single game of the NRL. Due to his selection for Qld in Game III of the 2013 Origin series, DCE missed his first game for the Sea Eagles, missing their Round 18 clash with North Queensland in Townsville. Cherry-Evans won the Clive Churchill man of the match medal in the Sea Eagles 26-18 Grand Final defeat by the Sydney Roosters.[12] Cherry-Evans is the third player since the award's inception in 1986 to win the Medal from a losing Grand Final side and one of four who have achieved the honour, joining Canberra's Bradley Clyde (1991), St George's Brad Mackay (1993) and Canberra's Jack Wighton (2019).[13] Cherry-Evans played in 27 matches, scored 11 tries and kicked 2 field goals for the Sea Eagles in the 2013 NRL season.

On 14 February 2014, Cherry-Evans was selected in the Sea Eagles inaugural 2014 Auckland Nines squad.[14] In Round 24 against the Parramatta Eels at Parramatta Stadium, Cherry-Evans played his 100th NRL career match in the Sea Eagles 22–12 loss.[15] On 22 September 2014, Cherry-Evans was selected in the Australian Four Nations train-on squad.[16] On 29 September 2014, at the 2014 Dally M Awards, Cherry-Evans was named 2014 Dally M Halfback of the Year.[17][18]

Cherry-Evans captained the Sea Eagles during the 2015 Auckland Nines competition. His team lost each of its matches throughout the pre-season competition.

On 6 March 2015, Cherry-Evans revealed he had agreed to join the Gold Coast Titans team in 2016 on a 4-year contract. He changed his mind to stay with the Sea Eagles on an 8-year deal on 3 June, before the NRL's Round 13 cooling off period expired.[19] During the announcement, Cherry-Evans was quoted as saying: "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 from Manly".[20] He was subsequently booed at later games in Brisbane[21] and the Gold Coast.[22] The deal was rumoured to be over $10m AUD or $1.3m per season.[23]

In June 2016, Cherry-Evans suffered an ankle injury that kept him out of action for a month,.[24] Cherry Evans had a poor 2016 season with the Sea Eagles finishing off the season in thirteenth place. Although he showed small glimpses of what he could do, the 10 million dollar man scored 5 tries during the 2016 season and played 19 games.[25]

On 13 January 2017 following the retirement of long time Manly premiership winning captain Jamie Lyon, Cherry-Evans was named as Manly's club captain for the 2017 NRL season.[26] After a poor 2016, Daly Cherry Evans hit back at the critics by having a great 2017, by leading the Sea Eagles to the finals since 2014.[27] The Sea Eagles were eliminated from the 2017 NRL Finals Series. At the end of the year he was named Player of the Year by the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles for this great season. At the end of the 2017 season Daly played all 25 games for the sea eagles scoring 6 tries and kicking 9 goals.[28]

On 21 April 2018 Cherry-Evans was fined $10,000 by Manly after an altercation with fellow Manly players Jackson Hastings. The incident involving Hastings and Cherry-Evans resulted in Hastings being ostracised from the playing group. An altercation on the training field in the lead-up to the side's 32–20 loss to The Gold Coast carried forward when the players attended a Gladstone strip club after the game and then flared up even further at the team hotel later in the night.[29]

On 28 May, Cherry-Evans was not selected to play in Queensland's 2018 State of Origin squad.[30] On 2 July, Cherry-Evans was named to play in the game 3 of the 2018 State of Origin series due to injuries suffered within the Queensland squad.[31]

At the End of the 2018 season Daly played 24 games, scoring 8 tries and kicking 65 Goals. Even though Manly finished 15th of the end of the 2018 NRL season, He was a stand out and was selected for the both of the test Matches between New Zealand national rugby league team and Mata maa Tonga were Daly Scored a try in the 34–16 win at Mt Smart Stadium.

In Round 3, Cherry-Evans scored 2 tries and kicked 7 goals as Manly defeated the New Zealand Warriors 46-12. On 27 May, Cherry-Evans was picked to play at Halfback for the Queensland Maroons side and was also picked as the 15th Captain of the Queensland Maroons side. Cherry-Evans played in all 3 games of the 2019 State of Origin series as Queensland lost the series 2-1.[32][33]

In Round 19, Cherry-Evans kicked the winning field goal in golden point extra-time as Manly defeated Melbourne 11–10 at AAMI Park.[34]

Cherry-Evans made a total of 21 appearances for Manly in the 2019 NRL season as the club finished 6th on the table and qualified for the finals. Cherry-Evans played in both finals matches as Manly reached the elimination semi-final against South Sydney but were defeated 34-26 ending their season.[35][36] On 7 October, Cherry-Evans was named in the Australian side for the Oceania Cup fixtures.

Season	Team	Games	Tries	Goals	F/G	Points
2011	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	27	7	25/40	3	81
2012		27	7	3/6	1	35
2013		27	11	0/1	2	46
2014		23	3	–	4	16
2015		23	5	0/4	–	20
2016		19	5	–	2	22
2017		25	6	9/11	4	46
2018		24	8	65/83	2	164
2019		21	5	21/26	2	64
2020		20	6	12/16	1	49
Total		236	62	135/187	21	539

^{Last updated: 18 October 2019}

Although Cherry-Evans was born in Brisbane, the fact that his mother is English made him eligible to represent either Australia or England at the test level. In 2011, England coach Steve McNamara offered Cherry-Evans a starting spot on the English team for the 2011 Four Nations tournament. Cherry-Evans declined the offer, declaring himself available only to play representative football for both Queensland and Australia should he be selected.[9]

In October 2011, coach Tim Sheens named Cherry-Evans in the Australian Four Nations squad. He made his test debut for Australia against Wales and scored a try at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham. He was selected for Australia's 2012 Anzac Test against New Zealand but did not take to the field.[37]

Cherry-Evans was selected in the Kangaroos 24 man squad for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup squad, playing in 5 matches and scoring 2 tries. His form in the tournament saw him selected to play from the bench in Australia's 34–2 win over New Zealand in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup Final played in front of an international record attendance of 74,468 at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester.[38]

Cherry-Evans' form in the early part of the 2014 NRL season saw him secure a position on Australia's interchange bench for the 2014 ANZAC Test in the Kangaroos 30–18 win over New Zealand at Sydney Football Stadium.[39]

Queensland coach Mal Meninga selected Cherry-Evans as the 18th man for Game I of the 2012 and 2013 State of Origin series but he did not play in either game. He made his State of Origin debut for Queensland as an interchange in Game II of the 2013 series in front of a home crowd at Suncorp Stadium. Cherry-Evans played his part in Queensland's record breaking eighth straight State of Origin series win, coming on late in Game III, again as a makeshift back rower, as the Maroons held on against NSW to win a close game 12–10 in front of an ANZ Stadium record crowd of 83,813 fans.[40]

Cherry-Evans also remained on Queensland's bench for Game I of the 2014 State of Origin series, in which incumbent halfback Cooper Cronk suffered a fractured arm, rendering him unavailable for Game II. This saw Cherry-Evans move into the starting halfback role for the loss which meant the end of the Maroons' 8-series winning streak. Cronk's recovery in time for Game III saw Cherry-Evans return to the interchange bench.

Game 3, 2018 saw Cherry Evans return from a three-year absence at origin level. Evans played at halfback in the dead rubber winning 18-12. His great form in the game received widespread praise.[41]

At the start of the 2019 State of Origin series, Cherry Evans was named as the 15th Captain of the Queensland Maroons.

Cherry-Evans was selected by Queensland once again for the 2020 State of Origin series. Queensland would go on to shock a highly fancied New South Wales side 2-1. Before the series had begun, some NSW media outlets described the 2020 Queensland team as the worst ever Maroons side. At the presentation ceremony following the conclusion of Game 3, Cherry-Evans said "On behalf of the worst ever Queensland team, thank you very much".[42]