Although Jamie Lyon and co. are claiming the club is confident of re-signing both of their superstar halves, salary cap pressures would suggest that surely they can only keep one of their international pairing.
Both players are likely to attract offers of around the million dollar range, and surely a club cannot have almost two million dollars tied up in two players, no matter how talented.
At the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Greg Inglis is supposedly on close to one million per season. Johnathan Thurston is on around the same at the North Queensland Cowboys. Neither of these sides would have a player on anywhere near that.
I simply don’t see how the Manly Sea Eagles could tie up such a percentage of their cap on two players, whilst also attempting to keep Jamie Lyon, Brett Stewart, Steve Matai and the like.
Although they’ve lost two big name players in Anthony Watmough and Glenn Stewart, the signings of Feleti Mateo and Willie Mason, as well as an upgrade to Peta Hiku would have taken a chunk of the money saved.
One of, if not both of the players in question, will have to sign for well under market value if they are to stay at the Manly club.
This is always a possibility, however at 24 (Foran) and 25 (Cherry-Evans) they’d be signing themselves out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even a million dollars, across a four-year contract.
So, if it does indeed come down to signing one player and letting one go, as I suspect it might, which player would you chose?
For mine, although not an easy decision, Manly should move heaven and earth to re-sign their New Zealand international five-eighth in Kieran Foran.
This is in no way a knock on Daly Cherry-Evans, who is reported to be the target of a million dollar a season plus offer from the Cronulla Sharks, but Foran is Manly to the core.
There have been rumours, and they remain just that, of Cherry-Evans falling out of favour with the elder players at the club.
Something that has been on show this season is that Foran however, remains close mates and allies with the leadership group.
In terms of football ability, there probably isn’t a lot between the two superstars.
If anything, I’d say Foran is a little more consistent, although DCE seems more likely to pull off that amazing play out of nowhere.
Manly are arguably the most consistent team in recent years. They never seen too far off the top of the competition and seem to have played deep into the finals for ever.
Foran has been at the source of everything. His partnership with Trent Hodkinson almost won a premiership. The general consensus was that the Sea Eagles made a big mistake letting their talented number seven go, only for Cherry Evans to emerge.
I have no doubt that Foran helped facilitate Cherry-Evans’ rise to prominence.
To say DCE would not have been a superstar if not for the presence of his partner in crime would be crazy, but I truly believe that if it comes down to a straight shoot out of which player Manly keeps over the other, Foran is the man who gets the nod.
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