DCE to make Origin call after dropping Manly bombshell

Maroons captain Daly Cherry-Evans is set to make a decision on whether to continue playing State of Origin after announcing that this season would be his last with Manly.

Cherry-Evans, who has played 333 NRL matches in 15 seasons for the Sea Eagles, dropped the bombshell on Nine’s 100% Footy program and said that he wanted to take his time to consider whether to play on for another club in 2026.

However, the 36-year-old said he would decide within the next month whether to make himself available for the upcoming Origin series, which begins in Brisbane on May 28 and includes games in Perth on June 18 and Sydney on July 9.

“That's probably the next thing on my mind,” Cherry-Evans said. “When you talk about parts of the game that you love, I mean I don't love doing weights and I don't love doing cardio, but I love playing State of Origin.

“That's something that's going to be really hard for me to separate from. My heart's definitely still in it but I reckon over the next month or so, I'll get really clear on if that's going to be the best thing for me and my body, and the Manly club.

“It'll be really hard to say no to playing Origin again this year.”

The veteran halfback has refused to rule out playing again next season but said he wanted to enable the Sea Eagles to plan for the future without having to wait on him to make a decision.

Sea Eagles CEO Tony Mestrov revealed that Cherry-Evans had previously indicated that he was planning to retire or move to the Super League in 2026 and would not be at Manly.

Cherry-Evans broke the news to his Sea Eagles team-mates after Sunday night’s defeat of Canberra at 4 Pines Park.

“I thought the best thing that I could do was to let everyone know where it's at, and where it's been at for a while, so, that was why I felt like it was best after yesterday's game to come out and just openly say where it's at," he said.

No more footy at Manly beyond this year.

“It certainly hasn't been a decision that was made overnight, but I definitely feel a lot better for letting everyone know about it.

“It’s obviously not an easy decision. I've spent a long time there and made a lot of lifelong friends, but the main reason for doing it is I felt that as my career comes to an end, I wanted to take my time - whether that's retiring or playing on.

“By cutting ties with Manly this year, I felt like that was the best chance for me to have freedom throughout the year to take my time to choose, and from there they were then able to move on and find the next halfback for them.”

The 2011 premiership winner said he had been in constant discussions with the Sea Eagles about his playing future and ruled out a change of heart if the club made him an offer.

“Prior to Christmas was when I was officially off contract, so we spoke to a couple of clubs and we made the club aware that that was going to happen,” Cherry-Evans said.

“There were no formal offers from any other club, so in turn Manly said that they weren't going to offer anything unless another club offered something.

"Those offers didn't come through from the other clubs, so Manly didn't need to offer anything, which was fine. There’s no animosity there.

“That gave me a lot of comfort to then just say, ‘I think the best decision here is for me to be able to sit back and take my time this year’, and then to just give Manly the heads up that this was the last year for me with them.”

Sea Eagles officials contacted NRL 360 on Fox League earlier on Monday night to advise that they now plan to offer Cherry-Evans a two-year deal, which Manly CEO Tony Mestrov confirmed had been officially tabled on Tuesday.   

Asked if he would now reconsider, Cherry-Evans told 100% Footy: “Respectfully, no, because as I said, I've been sleeping on this decision since December.

“Talking to my family, we're OK with the decision, we're at peace with it," he continued.

"We understand that it's not going to make everyone happy and there's going to be a lot of Manly fans that are really upset with this, but as a family we've, we've been aware of it for a while now”.

Mestrov told a media conference on Tuesday that if Cherry-Evans decided to play on the Sea Eagles wanted it to be at Brookvale.

"We have this morning put a 2 year offer to DCE for the 2026-27 seasons," Mestrov said.

"Daly is a legend of this club, he has played more games than anyone else at this club. He has the right to stay at this club and play at this club, and if Daly does play in the NRL we want him to play with the Manly Sea Eagles.

"Daly did speak to us in December, he was either going to retire or go overseas. He said it would be his last year at Manly. We respected that. We did not want to make him an offer or [influence] him in any way."

Rival clubs are now expected to try to persuade Cherry-Evans - a Redcliffe Dolphins junior - to play next year, but he insisted his focus was helping the Sea Eagles to win a premiership this season before he departs.

“I'm not looking to engage in any chats anytime soon. I'm hoping by coming out and saying this, everyone can understand what the full focus is on Manly and charging towards the finals this year,” he said.

“I obviously have a lot of belief in the club and the team, so the whole focus is going to be there, and then if I do feel like I've got more in me to keep playing on, I think when the time's right later in the year, I'll engage those conversations, but at the moment it's very much up in the air.”