DCE proves anything Blue can do, I can do too

Incumbent Origin halfbacks Daly Cherry-Evans and Nathan Cleary kicked their clubs to victory in golden point thrillers less than 24 hours apart but Manly's skipper insists he wasn't out to mimmick Penrith's playmaker.

In fact, Cherry-Evans didn't even see the clutch play by Cleary against the Wests Tigers 9-8 on Friday night.

"To be honest, at 8-2 I thought Penrith were no chance of winning so I turned it off and went to bed," Cherry-Evans said after booting the winning field goal in the 13-12 victory over the Rabbitohs on Saturday.

"So when I woke up and read my phone this morning I was shocked. That would have been an outstanding game to watch.

"If you are a rugby league fan and you watched again today you're certainly getting your money's worth this weekend. It was really exciting today too."

Cherry-Evans admitted post-match that his legs felt like lead after the regulation 80 minutes due to the heat of the afternoon sun at Lottoland.

"Someone asked me what I said to my team-mates at full-time but I was that tired I couldn't say much," Cherry-Evans said. "But I know everyone was feeling the same because there were a lot of drained faces out there."

Cherry-Evans managed to dig deep and hit a sweet field goal from 40 metres out that never looked like missing.

"It felt really nice off the boot. You don't want to take those uncomfortable, awkward shots in golden point because the result is a seven-tackle set," he said.

"But it felt like I had enough time to set myself and get a good strike to it. When it came off the boot I was confident it was going in the right direction."

Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler knew it would be a fait accompli.

"They are those big moments and Cherry is a big-moment player. He's been there before and knows those situations well," Hasler said.

"I know Cherry would say, 'That's what I'm there for' and 'That's what the players expect me to do'."

The skipper preferred to deflect the praise to props Martin Taupau and Addin Fonua-Blake, who each made good metres in that final set.

"As much as I'm comfortable at taking the shot, I'm probably even more comfortable with my teammates getting me in a position to take the shot," Cherry-Evans said.

"That's something we did really well. We were patient in golden point and eventually off the back of some good carries from our big men, we were in a position to take the shot."

It was the 19th field goal of the 30-year-old's NRL career. And it came in his 199th NRL game – the major milestone comes next weekend against the Knights.

"It's just another game. We'll build into something bigger than my little individual game next weekend," he said.

"I will be excited for it but in the context of where we are in the season, there's so much more that lies ahead."