Source : ABC NEWS
Throughout their long and storied history, Manly has never needed any help finding an enemy.
As one of the oldest and most weathered signs at Brookvale Oval is happy to tell the world: “Guess what, Manly hates you too.”
For the Sea Eagles, if it ain’t maroon and white, then it just ain’t right. And they know how to weaponise that feeling, especially at Brookvale.
That has always been their way, through good times and bad. And as the 2026 season teeters on the edge of the latter after their 33-16 loss to the Roosters, the Manly way was turned on former club legend Daly Cherry-Evans for the first time.
It was always going to be an emotional night as Manly’s modern-day figurehead returned in enemy colours for the first time.
Despite a furious storm hitting the ground an hour before kick-off, cutting power to parts of the oval and dumping heavy rain, the place was still heaving.
Lightning could have struck the hill itself and it would still have failed to keep supporters away — they can only welcome back their former skipper for the first time once.
The newly minted Rooster said all the right things during the lead-up, insisting the good memories overrode any potential bitterness.
But there’s no way to pretend a game 15 years and 352 appearances in the making is just another match. The blood between Cherry-Evans and Manly doesn’t have to be bad for it to mean something.
So it was fitting that the Manly faithful welcomed Cherry-Evans home the only way they knew how — the former hero was booed in the warm-up, during the team introductions and as he ran on the field.
Through the first half, he got the treatment with every touch, but there was a pantomime quality to much of it.
Cherry-Evans played his part amid heavy treatment from the Manly crowd. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
More often than not it devolved to laughter, as did the “Cherry’s a w*****” chant that rang out through the rainy night. Everyone knew the score and, if there was some true venom to be found, it was never in high supply.
And why would it be? You would be hard-pressed to find a Manly fan who wanted Cherry-Evans gone in the first place.
The saga of his departure was long and winding but it’s clear the fallout has not followed the 37-year-old out the door. The fans, at least, do not seem to blame him for this late-in-life divorce.
But they are lashing out in its aftermath. As the game slipped away in the final quarter, you could feel them rumbling, hungry for answers as the questions and Rooster points mounted.
After an 0-3 start to the season, with all three losses playing out at Brookvale, the pressure is building and the frustration is turning inwards.
Coach Anthony Seibold was a popular target by the end. With 10 minutes remaining, “Seibold out” chants were ringing through the main stand.
As the game slipped away, the crowd’s frustrations began to turn inward. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer )
Jake Trbojevic, the club’s longest-serving player now Cherry-Evans has gone, came under serious fire in the lead-up to this game, which shaped as a personal replay of the first two Sea Eagles matches this year.
He tackled ably but had just two runs in 46 minutes of game time, bringing his season total to eight runs for 70 metres across three games.
The rest of the forward pack struggled mightily to dent the Roosters’ defence, although Taniela Paseka did what he could.
In Tom Trbojevic and Tolu Koula, they still have enough gas to score from miles out, but getting the ball up the field is a serious issue.
Trbojevic scored a blistering, 90-metre try just 30 seconds after kick-off and Koula followed up with a magnificent solo effort later in the half, but after 30 minutes they had just one more tackle in the Roosters’ half (three) as they did long-range scores (two).
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Those two tries energised but their third effort of the night, another long-range one from Trbojevic that was started by Koula, merely tantalised. They look like a team capable of so much and so little simultaneously.
As a result, serious changes beckon for Manly after just a month of the 2026 season, some of which may come sooner rather than later. And strangely enough, it’s the Cherry-Evans move that has made some of them possible.
If a player so steeped in the club’s history can hit the road, there’s nobody who can’t follow, especially if they cannot escape the competition’s depths.
They do not return to Brookvale Oval for another month, and the team that runs out that day may bear little resemblance to one that took on their former leader.
As for Cherry-Evans himself, it was a tidy display. The Roosters still feel like they’re far from what they might become but, at the very least, they look like they can become something.
Naufahu Whyte was outstanding at prop again, running for more metres than Manly’s starting three middles combined, and Reece Robson settled in nicely in his second start for the club at hooker.
James Tedesco was typically prominent, and the attack ran through Cherry-Evans more than it did Sam Walker as they continued to iron out their combination.
He kicked well and ran the right edge smartly — his combination with the impressive Siua Wong will be one to watch in the weeks to come — and he played his part as Mark Nawaqanitawase and Robert Toia both scored doubles.
There was no headline moment for him, no late try or cheeky field goal or even a honking error that would have sent the Manly fans into a frenzy.
He was at the heart of the game but he kept a saddle on it and, despite a couple of missed tackles under heavy pressure from Manly, it never turned on him.
It was tight and controlled, with Cherry-Evans playing to his strengths and doing what he could to hide his weaknesses.
It was recognisable, the kind of game he played a hundred times or more at this very ground.
Such a performance might not have saved Manly. And even if Cherry-Evans had stayed, their fate might not have changed, but as the Sea Eagles’ season threatens to fall apart around them, there will have been comfort in the familiar.
Late in the night, well after full-time, Cherry-Evans emerged from the tunnel and back onto the pitch he has played on hundreds of times but never once like this.
The place was empty, with the fans long since departed. Everything felt still. He sat behind the Manly bench by himself and stared out into the night, just him and the light and the silence. And right then, at the end of it all, it was easy to see that Cherry-Evans meant it when he said he’d bring no bitterness back with him.
He didn’t need any. He leaves his former home with bragging rights and the promise of a few brighter tomorrows while Manly face a long, hard road from way down in the hole.
