‘Proud to stand here as a Rooster’: Cherry-Evans enters strange new world

It’s not that it didn’t feel right to see Daly Cherry-Evans up there in the Sydney Roosters tricolour — it will just take some getting used to.

Even after the long goodbye from Manly, even after his switch to Bondi was finally confirmed two weeks ago, even after he was papped in training gear on the way to a session — actually seeing Cherry-Evans in red, white and blue still marks a trip to the uncanny valley.

Short of poorly executed AI slop, a trip to an alternate reality, or in a video game set on franchise mode and then abandoned to go feral and indulge in whatever godless ideas it could muster, this did not feel possible until it happened. Cherry-Evans himself said it felt a bit uncomfortable but also exciting.

In the new colours, Cherry-Evans looked and sounded the same as ever. He always presents well, and he knows how this part of the game is played.

He’s as polished a media talent as rugby league has, and boxes too clever to ever give anything away that he doesn’t want to, especially at something like a jersey launch in November.

There will be no gotchas, no lightning rod quotes on his exit from Manly, of which he’s adamant there is no bitterness one way or the other.

He’s looking forward to his return in Brookvale in Round 4, at which he’s sure to be received warmly by a fanbase who never wanted him to leave.

“How it was all managed and why it ended the way it did, they’re stories for another day, and I think it’d be silly for me to stand here in a Roosters jersey talking about what could have been at Manly,” Cherry-Evans said.

“I’m really excited to be here, and I’m proud to be standing here as a Rooster. I’m also proud of my career at Manly. I don’t look at that and think of it as a sad situation.

“It was great to be part of that club’s history for so long, but now I’ve got the opportunity to do it here with another club, and that really excites me.

“The way that the relationships were when I left the club — I get that you guys might make it sound differently — but it’s actually going to be a great experience to go back there and play against my good friends at a place that I’ve got so many good memories of.

“It’s maybe not as daunting or ugly as you guys make it out to be.”

That doesn’t mean there’s no feeling, though, and how couldn’t there be? Given Cherry-Evans spent almost half his life as a Sea Eagle, it would be strange if there wasn’t.

Counting lower grades, 2026 will be the first season in 19 years he has saddled up in something other than maroon and white.

The last time he did was back in 2007, when the man he’s fixing to replace in the halves, Hugo Savala, was four years old.

There were no promises of retribution and revenge on the only NRL home he’s ever known, and no proclamation that the oldest man in the league is going to give all these young fellas one last lesson they’ll never forget.

But there’s no mistaking what he has come here to do. Cherry-Evans said he considered other clubs and retirement before settling on the Roosters, who like to say they don’t play the game, they play for premierships.

The Tricolours are the kind of club which can have the New South Wales Origin utility, Connor Watson, at dummy half for a season, then welcome in Reece Robson, the New South Wales Origin starting hooker.

Any team that can do that and still not have it be their biggest transfer of the summer might just be proof that money really can buy happiness.

Combine that with James Tedesco’s lion in winter Dally M victory, and the rest of the established quality on the roster, plus the emergence and rapid improvement of new talents like Savala, Robert Toia, Mark Nawaqanitawase and Naufahu Whyte in last year’s surprise finals berth, and this is a side, on paper at least, that can cast a long enough shadow that nothing good nor godly can grow in it.

But paper’s not worth much, and there’s a long way to go before they reach those heights. Finding the balance between Cherry-Evans and expected halves partner Sam Walker shapes as the key for them to get there.

Walker missed much of last season with a knee injury, which eventually led to Savala’s emergence, and the two complimented each other quite well down the stretch with Savala’s kicking game and composure pairing nicely with Walker’s attacking class.

A complementary role is one Cherry-Evans is vastly over-qualified for, so he faces the kind of challenge he hasn’t had to deal with for years.

He was such a part of the furniture at Manly that new faces were moulded around him, and now he himself must be moulded into this new style, which means, as he admitted himself, he’s out of his comfort zone for the first time in a long time.

Changing gets harder as we age, and at 37, he is ancient in rugby league years, but Cherry-Evans’ attacking game is still watertight — in 2025 he finished with more than 20 try assists for the seventh year in a row and the 11th time in 15 seasons in first grade.

His game might seem unchanging, but you don’t last as long as he does, or as successfully as he has, without being able to adapt, and he’ll have to do that again if this is to succeed.

He’s likely to partner Walker first up, and despite starting more games at halfback than any other player in first grade history — all 352 of his NRL appearances came in that position — he believes there’s something he can learn from him and the 23-year-old Savala.

“I think before we get to the seven-six part, we probably have to figure out how we want to play,” Cherry-Evans said.

“It’s really important that we complement each other and we complement the team.

“Anytime you think you know it all in rugby league, you’re not going to last much longer.

“I’m really open-minded about how much I’m going to learn from this playing group.

“I’d love to be able to help young players in their development along the way, and it’ll work both ways.”

What is certain is Cherry-Evans will be without one of his great weapons in 2026, and that’s time.

Through his long and winding career and eventual transformation into rugby league’s ultimate survivor, Cherry-Evans weaponised his longevity to the point where he outwitted, outplayed and outlasted whatever came his way.

But even he cannot play forever, even if it seemed that way for a while. That’s why he’s only signed the one-year deal, and the ticking of the clock will define Cherry-Evans’ time as a Rooster — for worse, or, if it goes how he’s planning, for better.

“This club is open about how they measure success, and that’s one of the many reasons why I wanted to join this place, because they’re the high expectations I place on myself,” Cherry-Evans said.

“I’m taking it one year at a time. Too old to be going any longer than that, but I’m excited by that. I’ve got one year to prove that I still have what it takes to play at this level.”

The search for that proof has taken Cherry-Evans off the edge of the map because the only real comparison to what he is doing is Cooper Cronk’s move to the Roosters from Melbourne in 2018.

Cronk, and recently crowned premiership winner Ben Hunt, are the only players to make a significant impact upon joining a new club after their 300th NRL game.

Cronk’s transition was equally jarring at first glance, but those awkward first looks end up buried underneath the mountain of victories and back-to-back premierships which followed.

So the path forward, for Cherry-Evans and the Roosters, is clear. It’ll take some time to develop the taste for this strange new world in which they find themselves, and only wins will make it go down smooth.