NRL 2020: Daly Cherry-Evans has a shocker as Dragons beat Manly – NEWS.com.au

Daly Cherry-Evans has produced plenty of highlights over the years but hell want to wipe last night from his memory.The Manly halfback, on a $10 million deal that will make him a Sea Eagle for life, had an absolute stinker in his side’s 34-4 loss to St George on Sunday.
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He dropped the ball multiple times, threw an intercept that led to a Matt Dufty length-of-the-field try and was responsible for a couple of poor defensive efforts.
Even an accidental deflection off his back from a kick saw Dufty scoop up the loose ball and make a beeline for the tryline, only to be taken out illegally by Jorge Taufua who was sin-binned as the Dragons were gifted two points with a penalty goal.
Apart from a short ball to set up Joel Thompson for Manly’s only try, nothing went right for Cherry-Evans, who is carrying extra weight on his shoulders as the chief playmaker without his usual partners in crime Dylan Walker (five-eighth) and Tom Trbojevic (fullback), who are missing through injury.
“Daly Cherry-Evans today, he was off,” Fox League NRL reporter James Hooper said on the Big League Wrap. “He had a hard day at the office.”
Daily Telegraph journalist Phil Rothfield told the Big Sports Breakfast “Cherry-Evans had a rare shocker and just couldn’t hold the football”, while former NSW hooker Michael Ennis said Manly’s lack of depth was being exposed.
“He’s really struggling, Daly, to be honest. Without Tom, no doubt, he’s a huge part of what Daly’s been able to do the last couple of seasons,” Ennis said on Fox League.
“I think they’re really missing … Api Koroisau (former Manly hooker now playing for Penrith). A lack of spark out of dummy-half. You look at the sides that are dominating up the top of the ladder and the dummy-halves and the halves and the form that they’re in at the moment, it’s an area where Manly are really lacking any creativity.
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“That’s putting a lot of pressure on Daly without Dylan Walker and Tommy by his side.
“Manly have got so much money tied up in four or five players. Obviously Jake and Tom (Trbojevic), Daly, Addin Fonua-Blake and also Martin Taupau. So when you lose key players like Dylan and also Tom, the depth is thin and at the moment it really brings them back to the field.”
Manly coach Des Hasler isn’t concerned with Cherry-Evans’ form, confident his halfback — who has been outstanding for the Sea Eagles for a long period of time — will bounce back to his best.
Instead, Hasler was more worried with his side’s inconsistency, which has seen it lose three games in a row since a gutsy win over Canberra in round six.
“Sometimes you just have those games,” Hasler said of Cherry-Evans. “It’s very rare, but he’ll fix that. He’ll be a real professional about the way he goes about his preparation this week.
“It’s the week-in, week-out performance I’m concerned about. I thought we started well and changed a few things up with our attack in the first 20 minutes, but we’re not just competing for long enough.
“We need to fix it. No doubt we’ll lick our wounds and come back Saturday night against a red-hot Parramatta side.”

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