Daly Cherry-Evans silent on future ahead of becoming the fifth player to reach 350 NRL games

Departing Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans wants to be remembered as a reliable teammate who could be “counted on” but refused to answer questions about his future ahead of his 350th NRL game.

Speculation continues to rage around what the 36-year-old will be doing in 2026 having announced his exit from the Sea Eagles earlier in the season, with links to the Sydney Roosters as well as talk of retirement.

Reports on Wednesday indicated the former Queensland captain wouldn’t be walking away from the game and he did nothing to quell talk after pre-empting his silence on the matter at a press conference to mark his milestone game.

“Thanks for coming. I’ll just start off by saying hopefully we can stay away from the future stuff, I am not going to answer anything,” he said.

“I understand you might ask but I am just not going to answer anything. I want to try and keep the focus on this weekend and Manly and hopefully the celebrations this weekend.

“I hope you can understand that.”

Cherry-Evans declared he was “very private” and, while happy to give a “bit more of an insight” into his personality at times, would be keeping the matter of his future to himself, for now.

“I guess the privacy thing has always been around trying to protect myself. As you can understand, I’ve had some pretty rocky times through media,” Cherry-Evans said.

“My first thing to do is protect myself and that usually means don’t tell or do anything and just lock it down.

“So I guess over time I have tried to give more of myself for the fans, but I do as though my best work is done face-to-face with someone.”

Cherry-Evans will become just the fifth player in the rugby league’s history to play 350 first grade games, joining Terry Lamb, Darren Lockyer, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith in the elite club.

His achievement, however, comes with a tinge of sadness knowing his time at Manly, who can’t make finals, is drawing to a close.

“This weekend I feel is a great way to celebrate a milestone, whereas a farewell as such I feel like there’s an opportunity for that in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

“But not this weekend. I guess that’s how I’ve framed it. This week is not a farewell, this week is more of a celebration for the milestone.

“Then we can all laugh and cry on the hill together in the last round of the year.”

Cherry-Evans, who played 26 times for Queensland and 21 times for the Kangaroos, winning Origin series, Tests, an NRL premiership, and taking the Clive Churchill Medal as the grand final’s best player in 2013, said his legacy wouldn’t be about the personal achievements.

“I think at the end of the day all you want to be known for is being a reliable teammate that could do his job and be counted on,” he said.

“That’s the main thing you want to walk away with … the thing I am going to take away is the connections, the friendships, the relationships.

“That’s always the hardest thing, but I guess that’s the thing that over time you realise there’s players I have played with that have since gone on and retired but the relationship and friendship has still stayed strong.

“I trust that that’s still going to happen with a fair few of the playing group I have now.”