- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
In an effort to underline why Manly owe Daly Cherry-Evans either a far better deal or a release from his current contract to test the open market, Gavin Orr underlined the exact reason why Manly don’t owe Cherry-Evans anything.
“When Daly signed the (Manly) deal, no one wanted him. I tried to sell him to every club but the so-called geniuses in recruitment didn’t want him,” Orr told the Daily Telegraph.
No one wanted him, Orr’s exact words. So Manly were the club kind enough to give the kid a go – and not just a speculative one-year deal but one that would take him through until the end of the 2013 season.
Three years for the bloke that “no one wanted”, which Cherry-Evans understandably jumped at.
Meanwhile, at the end of February this year, Penrith announced they had re-signed Blake Austin on a three year deal which, if certain incentive clauses are triggered, could see the local junior earn up to $700,000 in his first two seasons alone.
When the deal was done, Austin had played a grand total of two NRL games and has since played the opening two games of the 2012 season off the bench. Yet this untested utility is still a good chance of making the kind of money Orr wants to see Cherry-Evans on.
Exact details of the deal Orr brokered for Cherry-Evans remains unclear, although the Daily Telegraph reported Cherry-Evans is earning $85,000 for this season which will increase to $125,000 next.
Obviously this is well beneath the market value of a premiership winning halfback, particularly when you add a Dally M rookie of the year medal, a Kangaroos jersey, and the Rugby League International Federation’s world halfback of the year award to the young man’s list of achievements.
But this was the contract Cherry-Evans signed, at a time when no one wanted him, so Manly are within their rights to keep him on it.
Nevertheless, Orr asked Manly for a release from the final year of his contract.
“I asked for the release for next year so we could have a look around if Manly can’t match his market value. I told them they could have the final right of refusal. They said no straight away. At least I put it out there.
“If you don’t ask the question, you don’t get answers.”
The question Cherry-Evans should be asking is why the hell his manager got him a contract without performance clauses.
Orr was quick to deride the recruiters who didn’t see Cherry-Evans’ potential, but if Orr was so certain of his young earner’s abilities, why didn’t he get him a contract which would see him make more if he was picked for representative honours?
The very notion that no one wanted Cherry-Evans at all seems a pretty big stretch.
While Cherry-Evans was playing Queensland Cup in 2010 he wasn’t going unnoticed. He captained the Gold Coast Sea Eagles and won the Queensland Cup’s best and fairest award as well as the rookie of the year award.
He was also captain of the Queensland Residents team that season and was reported to have been noticed by none other than Mal Meninga when the Residents faced the Maroons in an opposed match.
The notion that a bloke who had won every major individual award possible in his first year in the Queensland cup – and made the Queensland State of Origin coach sit up and take notice – couldn’t get a deal with a few representative-based incentive clauses inserted in to it says one thing.
Dud management.
Orr is trying to make out that Manly are the bad guys in all of this, but if he had the kind of faith in Cherry-Evans he makes out, this situation would not have come about to begin with.
“If they can’t afford him then why keep him for another two years?” Orr said.
“Let the kid go and play somewhere else. They can’t hold him to ransom on a contract that isn’t acceptable to the level he is now at.”
It’s not ransom, Gavin.
It’s the crappy deal you put together because you didn’t believe your player could reach the level he is now at.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.