Daly Cherry-Evans is a 23-year-old halfback who has proven himself in big games, won a premiership with the Manly Sea Eagles and represented Australia. You simply don’t get many young halfbacks that tick all of those boxes.
And I’m not just talking about in 2012…. I’m talking about the history of the game!
Right now Daly Cherry-Evans is one of the most valuable players in the competition for the simple fact that he has proven to be a star player, and yet he is still on the first contract he signed with the club.
That means he is earning less than $100,000 a year right now.
Star players that are still on their “rookie” contract are like diamonds in the NRL. They can be the difference between having a good team, and being a premiership winner in the NRL.
Like all of the young stars on their first contract, though, Cherry-Evans knows his true worth and he wants to be paid what he is worth. That is completely understandable, and you cannot hold anything against him for wanting that.
Yet here is where we run into problems.
The Manly Sea Eagles are running into salary-cap problems because a lot of the players they have signed in the past are on back ended contracts. Back ended contract pay you less in your first few years and more in the last years of your contract.
The idea behind these contracts is to hold onto your most important players while fitting them under your current salary cap. As years go on, the club is almost gambling on salary-cap rises to help ease cap pressures they may run into years later when that player on a back-ended contract is now earning a big salary in his last two years.
With the NRL salary cap expected to rise to $5 million dollars next season, I can’t for the life of me understand how any club can find themselves running into salary cap pressure right now. But plenty are. Some are because they planned for the $5 million dollar cap rise, others because they just poorly managed their salary cap situation in the past.
So where do the Manly Sea Eagles stand?
For what ever reason, the Sea Eagles have balked at signing long-term contract extensions with proven winners. Most notably, former coach Des Hasler, who all last season pushed for the clubs to give him a long term deal. The club refused, and the issue snowballed even as the club won last year’s Grand Final.
As a multiple premiership winner, and the coach that dragged the Sea Eagles out of the mud and made them the best team in the competition, Hasler knows his worth to the Sea Eagles. When they refused to offer him long-term job security he looked elsewhere, and the Canterbury Bulldogs swooped in and signed a proven, premiership winning coach for the start of the 2013 season.
Now we all know what happened from there. The Sea Eagles were furious with Hasler. They sacked him with allegations of misconduct. He went to the Bulldogs straight away and even to this day the Sea Eagles are threatening legal action against Hasler.
Just a few months on, and now its the Sea Eagles young halfback who wants a contract extension and to be paid what he is worth. So why aren’t the Sea Eagles locking him up before other clubs swoop in like the Bulldogs did last season?
It is being rumoured that the club will lose fullback Brett Stewart next season, possibly to the Dragons. Stewart is a player few expected to ever leave the Sea Eagles, however he is one of the best players in the competition and will demand top dollar. Sometimes, you just can’t hold onto those players.
Then there is young Kiwi five-eight Kieran Foran. He is reported to be looking for a 14% slice of the Sea Eagles salary cap, which will obviously see his salary raised any time the salary cap is raised by the NRL.
A ballsy move, but a smart one.
To have so many key players off contract right now, the Sea Eagles have screwed up somewhere. There is no doubt that winning a premiership places pressure on a club when it comes to retaining players. But few premiership-winning clubs lose all of their key players like the Sea Eagles possibly could. To get into that situation, you have to question the way the Sea Eagles have managed their salary cap.
Back to Daly Cherry-Evans, he is going to cost the Sea Eagles a hell of a lot of money. In the past the club has resisted the urge to sign certain people at the club to longer-term deals. To their credit, it seems to have worked out pretty well for them.
Trent Hodkinson was a former Sea Eagles halfback that was looking for more money and the Sea Eagles let him walk, knowing they had Cherry-Evans waiting in the wings. Do they have another very good halfback standing by now, waiting to take Cherry-Evans place?
If they do, you have to question whether he is as good as Cherry-Evans, and if so, what would happen when he wants a raise and contract extension? Even the luckiest club in the world can’t keep churning out top young halfbacks forever.
Daly Cherry-Evans is worth $500,000 a year. Easily.
He ticks so many boxes for what you want from a halfback. When you look at what the likes of Jonathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk and Chris Sandow are earning right now Cherry-Evans, at just 23 years old, is a steal at $500,000 a year.
He would be a perfect addition for so many teams out there: South Sydney Rabbitohs, Cronulla Sharks and Gold Coast Titans, to name a few.
Hell, he could go to the Brisbane Broncos and be a superstar in a young side that would win multiple premierships.
Whoever decides to go after Cherry Evans will no doubt have to make a number of moves with players currently under contract. Some clubs may even have to completely change plans they already have put in place. I’d suggest it would all be worth it though.
I think the Sea Eagles will hold onto Cherry-Evans. I just can’t believe that a club with a good young halfback like him would not do everything it could to hold onto him.
I guess it won’t be long before we find out.
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