Canberra coach Ricky Stuart says Manly officials need to go and put fresh flowers on the grave of Immortal Bob Fulton for retaining Sea Eagles halfback Daly Cherry-Evans to an eight-year deal.
The scale and effectiveness of DCE’s kicking game was the backbone to Manly’s 25-6 win over the Raiders at Glen Willow Oval in Mudgee on Saturday.
The 33-year-old did not let up – 21 kicks for 651 metres – tries off two of his kicks, a 40-20 and a 20-40, two forced drop-outs, grubbers, cross-field and aerial bombs.
Fittingly Cherry-Evans scored the last points of the game with the 25th field goal of his career.
“It’s the smartest play that club has ever made in pinching him (Cherry-Evans) back off the Titans and offering him a million dollars (a year),” Stuart said, referring to the halfback’s back-flip on a multi-million dollar deal in 2015 to join Gold Coast.
“Everybody bagged Bozo for it – but it was a masterstroke.”
Manly coach Des Hasler was equally effusive of his influential skipper and No.7.
“I thought his kicking game today was exceptional,” Hasler said.
“It certainly got us back into the game in parts, it took pressure of us at times … it’s just those clutch moments – that’s what he does so well.”
Cherry-Evans himself deflected praise to his teammates with four of his forward pack making over 110 metres – Martin Taupau, Jake Trbojevic, Taniela Paseka and Josh Aloiai.
“A lot of it was just the momentum and ruck speed off our forwards. I just got lucky with a few kicks and bounces to be fair,” he said.
Raiders fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad certainly wasn’t having a good time trying to retrieve the plethora of kicks – fumbling two.
As if Canberra’s night could not have been more bleak, two players – Hudson Young and Corey Harawira-Naera – were placed on report for suspect tackles.
So much for the pre-match commentary that Manly’s slow start to the season could perhaps impact their finals run. They lost four on the trot last year and made the preliminary final. Now they find themselves at 2-2 in 2022 with all systems firing.
Fullback Tom Trbojevic made 25 runs last week and 26 for a game-high 289 metres this week.
That’s now back-to-back wins for Manly but leaves them just outside the top eight in ninth.
The Raiders overcame a 22-0 deficit to beat the Titans last week. But in Mudgee, while they fought back from 10-0 to go into the sheds 10-6 down at halftime, they had 15 unanswered points put on them in the second 40.
Three of Manly’s tries came from their back-five: fullback Trbojevic, centre Morgan Harper and winger Reuben Garrick. The fourth was scored by second rower Haumole Olakau’atu.
Canberra’s only try was scored by five-eighth Jack Wighton in the 25th minute.
The Raiders need to re-group quickly as Melbourne await next round while for Manly it’s another road trip – to Newcastle for the Knights.
