Veteran Queensland State of Origin halfback Daly Cherry-Evans is likely to finish his career at the Manly Sea Eagles after signing a two-year extension to his current contract.
Cherry-Evans was originally off-contract at the end of the 2023 season, however the early show of faith in the club means he is now locked in until the end of 2025 - avoiding any chance of a bidding war for his services after he would have become a free agent to negotiate with other clubs on November 1 this year.
The deal will see Cherry-Evans, who is currently 33 years of age, remain with the Sea Eagles until he has turned 36.
He would be 37 by the beginning of the 2026 season, with his birthday in February, meaning it's unlikely he would play on beyond the end of this deal.
Apart from a brief period when he had signed with the Gold Coast Titans, only to backflip and stay on the Northern Beaches, Cherry-Evans has been a Manly player through and through, now having clocked up 265 games for the club.
He is fourth on the all-time list behind Cliff Lyons (309), Steve Menzies (280) and Anthony Watmough (280).
Only 44 games behind Lyons, Cherry-Evans, not including finals and assuming he would miss one game per year due to State of Origin, is currently set to break the record held by Lyons in Round 3 of the 2024 season.
Chairman Scott Penn expressed his happiness at Cherry-Evans re-signing.
"We have always wanted Daly to be a one Club player and are delighted to extend his contract with the Sea Eagles till the end of 2025," Penn said.
โHe is our Club Captain, an inspirational leader and this contract extension will take him well past 300 games for the Sea Eagles.โ
The Sea Eagles sit with a 2-2 record to start the 2022 season, and Cherry-Evans will undoubtedly have an increasing role to play in the coming weeks with the Sea Eagles to miss Tom Trbojevic for the next month.
