Meninga heaps praise on Cherry-Evans after man of the match performance in Game I

Queensland Maroons captain Daly Cherry-Evans has added another accomplishment to his storied State of Origin career after he took out his second man of the match award in the 2024 series opener on Wednesday night.

Cherry-Evans was instrumental in the 38-10 win, leading his side in attack with a sensational kicking game that gave the Maroons plenty of much-needed momentum.

The Maroons’ skipper, without his usual partner Cameron Munster, excelled on the night and was one of the key reasons the visitors were able to rack up such a high score.

Former Maroons coach and legend Mal Meninga gave Cherry-Evans his flowers and admitted he was impressed with the way in which he controlled the contest.

“I thought Cherry-Evans was really good and for the fact that he led the side really well,” Meninga said on SEN 1170 The Throwdown.

“Obviously the Blues are down to 12 (players) you can get sort of in front of yourself, look at space everywhere and you could try to play into space all the time but he kept the team in check.

“His kicking game was excellent, he was kicking on fourth, he was kicking out of dummy half, he was leading the fray, he ran the ball really well, defensively he was really good.

“He was a great leader on the night and he played the conditions, (he) played to the way that Queensland needed to play to win that footy game. “He was outstanding.”

Meninga did state that the strong start to the second half for the Blues did have him worried but the extra man advantage became too much for NSW to handle.

“I was worried in that first 20 minutes of that second half,” Meninga added.

“I thought the Blues were coming home, they were camped deeply in Maroons’ territory, Maroons were coming up with errors coming off their line, they were just seemingly hanging on.

“Anything could’ve happened but again it comes back to what we said before, 12 men against 13 is very difficult.”

The Maroons will look to close out the series for a third straight year when State of Origin heads to Melbourne for Game II on the 26th of June.