Cherry-Evans backs Hasler's decision to sit out Suli

Daly Cherry-Evans stands by Des Hasler's decision to cut Moses Suli from the Sea Eagles line-up to face South Sydney on Saturday, despite the centre's solid start to the season.  

Manly on Tuesday announced that Suli had been dropped from their 21-man squad after the outside back failed to meet the club's disciplinary performance standards. 

This comes just a year after the 21-year-old was punted from both the Wests Tigers and Canterbury Bulldogs in the 2017-18 off-season due to a lack of commitment. 

"You have to back your coach's decision on these things," Cherry-Evans said, while admitting the players were disappointed the damaging centre would not be available on Saturday.

"He's laid the platform for himself to play more footy later on in the year - but that's the way it goes sometimes."

Cherry-Evan however is glad to have Tom Trbojevic is back on deck after the fullback played an integral part in their round three 46-12 thrashing of the Warriors at Christchurch Stadium, producing two tries, two try assists, three line-breaks and 175 run metres. 

The Manly skipper said aside from the 22-year-old's impressive stats his presence on the park was enough to lift the side's morale. 

"Just in case anyone forgot what sort of a player he (Trbojevic) was, he quickly reminded everyone how important he is to our team," Cherry-Evans said.

"I'm certainly grateful he's back playing.

"He has such a big impact on the players around him; he definitely lifted a lot of players' confidence going into last weekend. 

"He deserves all the credit he gets and his impact for us on the weekend was obviously very noticeable."

A sterner test awaits Manly this Saturday when they host the unbeaten Bunnies at Lottoland. 

Cherry-Evans said finding a way to contain South Sydney's halves in five-eighth Cody Walker and halfback Adam Reynolds will be the key to Manly's success. 

"They (Walker and Reynolds) are probably the form halves of the competition at the moment," Cherry-Evans said. 

"They're playing some good footy and they're going to be hard to contain this weekend. We're certainly going to make sure we do our homework on them and do the best we possibly can to nullify them.

"They're two very good players so to limit their impact to nothing will be very hard to do, so minimising it is probably the most optimistic thing we can do this weekend with those two.

"We need to carry over that confidence we have from the weekend around defending our try-line and I'm sure that's going to go a long way in helping us."