Queensland coach Mal Meninga and captain Cameron Smith have defended the performance of halfback Daly Cherry-Evans after NSW levelled the State of Origin series at one-game all with a stirring 26-18 victory in Melbourne.
Filling in for the injured Cooper Cronk, Cherry-Evans was repeatedly targeted by several of the Blues forwards, including Ryan Hoffman.
Meninga was confident Cronk would recover from his shoulder injury in time for the deciding game three in Brisbane on July 8.
But he felt Cherry-Evans stood up well in the Storm champion’s absence.
“I thought (halves Johnathan Thurston and Cherry-Evans) played extremely well under a lot of pressure,” said Meninga.
“They ran at Daly quite often.
“I don’t know how many tackles he made but it was considerable.”
It was an opinion supported by Smith.
“Daly – I thought he was good,” said the Queensland skipper.
“There’s no doubt they sent Ryan Hoffman at him a few times.
“I think he was up to 20 tackles at halftime, so he would have finished at close to 40 and for a half that’s enormous.
“The effort was great and when you’re only making 15 or 16 tackles a week for your club and you make 40 it does take a bit of starch out of your attack.
“But I thought he was good, he was composed.
” … it’s his second game starting at No.7 on his back in a State of Origin match so it takes guys a fair while to get used to that role.”
Meninga said he did not know whether champion fullback Billy Slater would be sent in for shoulder surgery in the next few days, potentially ruling him out for the season.
“No idea really,” said Meninga.
“I think it’s all about how he pulls up tonight.
“He will be assessed tomorrow I imagine by the Melbourne club and I guess we will know later on in the week.”
Bulldog
Guest
At what stage did I say I hate him or that I have a problem with him resigning with Manly??? I actually call him a great player in my comment. You are reading way too much into my comments which is more of reflection on you than me. In my opinion I think he had a poor game. OK he made a heap of tackles but that is going to happen in the halves regardless of who it is. It looked to me that Hoffman was running over him all night and that the right side defence for QLD had big issues all night (once again just my opinion). In attack he just seemed to be running around in circles... You think that was scheming - I think he was running around like a chook with his head cut off - no direction or purpose. Contrast his performance to JT - who in my opinion was tremendous. Lots of purpose, great defence on Dugan all night and you can see what I mean about performance at origin level.The point of my original comment is that sometimes great NRL players (see how I called him great not hate) just do not aim up in origin. Nothing to do with resigning etc etc or what ever other issues you have with the world about DCE....
The Barry
Roar Guru
He looked rushed to me. There were a ton of times that he was looking to play to his outside but got caught out by the defence rushing up, so he stopped, looked inside, nothing doing and then decided to run. It was all a bit ponderous. He's normally such a fluent and instinctive player for Manly. It says to me that he hasn't found his groove yet at Origin level which I think is fair enough. I don't know the answer to how many chances you give him. One thing though is that for someone who has 'struggled' so far at origin he has a pretty good highlights reel. There was a try he set up with a big break and then a beautiful little deft kick for Smith or Slater to score and then his little grubber where he looked like scoring until Josh Reynolds got back and booted the ball out of his hands.
Jaime O'Donnell
Guest
Fair enough Joe, valid points... I am more disappointed with the lack of analysis shown from generic responses like Bulldog's. Easy to be critical from afar and go with the popular view.
Joe
Roar Rookie
I don't think anyone can say that DCE had a good or even OK game. Even though he made a lot of tackles which would have tired him out in the later stages, even in the first half he was pretty poor in attack. The guys outside were running lines and giving him options and he just died with the ball. Its like he couldn't' trust himself to make the right pass.I think he still isn't used to the lack of space in an origin or international game that he gets in NRL. His space was cut down and since his first instinct is to run he was pretty much well contained all night. Once it got to the back end of the game his sideways running was pretty poor. His only try assist was for Gillett but I think that try was more Gillett than anything who by the way I had been bagging all week but he played ok last night. His main job is to run the plays on the right and he didn't do that well at all...watch it in comparison to Cronk in game 1 and you'll see what I mean. Maybe he needs more experience in the 7 role at that level...I don't know. As for defence I think James Tamou said it best when he said Cronk is the strongest and best defensive halfback in the comp. Apart from DCE I think Slater had an average game....even though he was an intergral part of GIs try he barely ran any ball back because of his injured shoulder which put more workload on the wings which led to tired legs and defensive lapses. In Origin everyone has to put in 100% and Slaters looks more like 70-80%.
Kirk
Guest
I think DCE is being harshly criticized. It would be hard to come into that QLD side who are all so used to playing with each other and just slot in so fluidly. He did look uncomfortable with the ball at times but I don't think he was quite as bad as some QLD fans are making out.
Jaime O'Donnell
Guest
What do you mean his defence was terrible? He made 30 tackles (the most of any back in the game), more than twice as many than JT and more than both starting QLD props... He missed 1 tackle. Mate if that is bad defence I'd love to see good defence. As for attack, the inside ball for Gillett's try was very good, and he was scheming all the time. The inside ball to Chambers (I think it was) that was dropped, had more to do with the runner than DCE's ball playing.. As anyone who has played the game knows it is very difficult for a half to establish their game when the forwards are not making ground.... In this regards maybe you should look at the match stats.... Matt Scott 55m gained, Nate Miles 91m gained, Sam Thaiday 38m gained. The only QLD forward to run over 100 metres was Corey Parker. Compare this to NSW forwards where all starting forwards, bar Beau Scott, ran for at least 100m, that gives some idea of what the QLD halves had to deal with. So what would Cronk have been able to do differently given the circumstances? Just cause you don't agree with him resigning with Manly, there is no need to hate on him and get confused with a very good footballer.
Bulldog
Guest
He was rubbish, his defence was terrible - sometimes you get a great NRL player who is just not great in the Origin arena. It happens.
Ronald M
Guest
Cherry was good but not great. He is no Cooper Cronk that is for sure but the big story should be the great success story of Origin in Melbourne. 91513 crowd, front page headline in the Herald Sun cannot have failed to capture the curiosity of those aerial ping pong followers to the fact that a real game existed in the town. The Storm must benefit from this, the NRL must benefit from this and all RL fans should celebrate the massive success that is Origin in Melbourne.