Million Dollar Man: The cake, not the Cherry on top

And here it is, the granddaddy of all big, long, fat, expensive contracts. Daly, you diabolical!

After a season in which Tom Trbojevic absolutely tore the competition to pieces, living up to his long-established potential and winning the Dally M with a mix of speed, skill and, at times, absolutely terrifying power, he remains second at his club in terms of weekly pay-packet stature.

Because back in 2015, Daly Cherry-Evans signed a deal with the Gold Coast Titans that led the Sea Eagles to counter with an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Eight years. Ten million dollars.

I want to write that out again. Ten. Million. Dollars.

That’s rest of your life money. But more importantly for Manly, it’s an era for your footy club (and at a cost far more substantial than Paul Kent led his readers to believe – I’m still fuming that demonstrably incorrect story has been allowed to stand).

The Daly Cherry-Evans era. We’re not calling it that – we probably never will – but that’s what the past decade and change have been at the Sea Eagles.

(Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images)

At this stage, they’ve got a single premiership to show for it and that grand final victory came when DCE was a rookie on a reported $85,000.

So, the inevitable question that has to be asked, have they got value for money?

There are a number of ways to pull that apart, but the way I’m choosing to is to say that in year seven of the eight-year deal, Cherry-Evans is the incumbent Queensland Origin captain and, according to Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga, still the preferred candidate to play No.7 for Australia.

(There are also reports that the Dolphins are keen to snare DCE’s signature, but there are rumours they’re keen on me, my nine-month-old daughter and my deceased grandmother, so we’ll take that with a grain of salt.)

When people sign long, expensive deals at a young age, the fear is what kind of value they’re going to offer at the back end. Well, DCE is evidence of how this can go right.

Manly may not have secured the kind silverware they wanted during Cherry-Evans’ tenure as the highest-paid player in the game, and he’s had some years that were worse than others, but the fact he’s still in the top-three halfbacks in the comp at this stage of his deal suggests it was decent business by Manly.

They would have hoped there’d be at least one more replica of the Provan-Summons Trophy at Brookvale when they signed their Clive Churchill-winning half to this massive contract, but you can hardly say they lack another because they’ve had a dud seven and skipper.

(Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)

What’s more, he’s still got two full years to get it done.

And, ooooh, just maybe he’s got the troops around him to do it in that time.

He’s got that one dude I mentioned earlier, Tommy Turbo, who has Craig Bellamy reaching for the shotgun, two of the most exciting young backrowers in the game, a great mix of experience and promise in the middle-forward rotation, and DCE’s fellow premiership-winning half Kieran Foran back where he belongs.

Cherry-Evans is leading a team that went from being statistically one of the worst in Australian rugby league history over the first month of 2021 to a top-four finisher.

And there are two obvious ways to take that.

The first being that yeah, Trbojevic was out injured but no one getting paid $1.25 million should be heading up a team as bad as Manly were over the first four rounds of last season.

To that though, it’s important to note the club snapped its losing streak before Turbo made his return from injury, when the Sea Eagles beat the Warriors 13-12 in Round 5.

(Photo by Getty Images)

Tight game, hey? Who do you reckon booted the match-winning field goal in the 79^th minute?

The second is that this, with Tommy Turbo on board, is a team that has the firepower to smash the comp up.

No, they didn’t have the best record against the decent teams last year – they went 4-6 against their fellow finalists in the regular season, only winning games against the sixth-placed Eels and eighth-placed Titans – but that was last year.

With 12 months more experience under their belts? Yeah, as stated above, ooooh, just maybe.

Million Dollar Man series
A look at each club’s million-dollar man – the player broadly acknowledged to be taking up the largest individual chunk of the salary cap (even if they aren’t actually quite grossing seven figures).
» Can Tevita Pangai Jr finally put it all together at the Bulldogs?
» An off year or the beginning of the end for Jason Taumalolo?
» Scorned by Souths, it’s Reynolds to the rescue in Brisbane
» How much blame does Luke Brooks deserve for the Wests Tigers’ finals drought?
» Addin Fonua-Blake took the green but can he stop seeing red?
» Ben Hunt and how a single moment can define an entire career
» Jack Wighton wins awards but can he win a comp?
» Andrew Fifita’s busted knees, induced coma and $100K per game
» David Fifita, the richest benchwarmer in NRL history
» Is Kalyn Ponga red and blue, Redcliffe or misread?
» Mitchell Moses and Sterlo’s curse
» How much can a Teddy bear?

Best-case scenario
Along with Parramatta, this is the only team that you could reasonably say can end the Storm-Roosters-Panthers triumvirate of premiership victories we’ve seen over the past five seasons.

And, just quietly, even if they’re not my pick, they’re my preference.

Get Manly back up on the dais on the last day of the season, Daly Cherry-Evans holding the trophy aloft – even if Tommy Turbo wears the Clive Churchill Medal, which he will if they win, because that particular award is about narrative rather than performance – and, unless it’s Newcastle players sitting slumped on the field in defeat, I’ll be pretty happy.

Hate ‘em. But we beat ‘em in ’97. So I kinda like ‘em. I dunno.

Anyway, my point is that Des Hasler is working his wizardry with his troops right now, instilling an unfailing belief in all of them that they are destined to be this year’s premiers.

I don’t know that he would have done that in, say, 2020 but in 2022, he’s doing it because it can be true.

And if that comes to pass, then good luck to Nathan Cleary claiming the Kangaroos’ No.7 jersey for the World Cup.

(Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

Worst-case scenario
With the talent he’s got on board, a bottom-of-the-eight finish would be the bare minimum Des would accept.

Bottom of the eight, however, also means you’re in the logjam between seventh and 12^th or so.

If 12^th is to be the case, it would logically be on the back of the old stagers suddenly showing their years and the youngsters being struck down with a pretty bad case of second-year syndrome (yes, some of these youngsters are in year three, but you know what I mean).

If that comes to pass though, it won’t be on the back of DCE dropping his standards. He might not have a great year, but the difference between his best and worst over 261 games has been narrow.

Still, a losing season would surely guarantee DCE is just a bit-player at the World Cup and, if he’s not locked away soon, have Manly wondering whether it’s time to start a new era at the club come 2024.