Robinson praises DCE's courage for making Roosters move

One of the biggest storylines coming into this season was how Daly Cherry-Evans would fare in his first and only NRL season away from playing in the maroon and white of Manly-Warringah.

And with the Roosters now 80 minutes away from potentially lifting the Provan-Summons Trophy, Roosters coach Trent Robinson has discussed the reasons as to why the club pursued his signature.

Having begun his NRL career in 2011 with the Sea Eagles, the 37-year-old enjoyed instant success at the first-grade level, claiming a premiership and seeing his stock as one of the competition’s best halves rise substantially.

Throughout the remainder of his career, Cherry-Evans received plenty of club, state and international accolades with Manly but was unable to taste premiership success, prompting him to leave Manly-Warringah at the end of the 2025 season for a shock move to their rivals in Sydney.

Following the announcement of Cherry-Evans’ move to the Roosters, the parallels between this signing and the Roosters’ bringing in experienced half Cooper Cronk in 2018 – who went on to win two premierships with the club - were evident to all.

And those parallels continued through the start of the season with the Tricolours losing their first game of the year, going 3-2 through their first five before charging through into the top four at the end of the home and away season.

A qualifying final loss against Penrith did throw a spanner in their plans, wins against Cronulla in the semi-final and the Dolphins in the preliminary final have seen them through into their first Grand Final since 2019, when Cronk played his last NRL game as a premiership winner.

With Cherry-Evans also playing his 379th and final game in the competition before joining Super League side Hull FC, Robinson will be hoping those similarities continue come Sunday night.

Reflecting on the decision to bring him to the club, the three-time premiership coach admired the bravery shown by the former Queensland and Australian representative to leave the Sea Eagles for one last premiership.

“I think the first thing is just even the courage that he showed,” Robinson told SEN’s Kick Off.

“It's so easy to finish your career, a legend at Manly and walk out; surely that's the right thing to do.

“But he felt he was just jogging to the end, and that's not in his DNA.

“Then he made a choice which wasn't going to be popular outside of the Roosters.

“It was going to be, why would you do that? You have to do this as a legend player and all of that.

“And he said, I want to sprint to the end; that was his decision. So, he made a really tough choice, and then that makes it really clear about why you play the game.”

Alongside the on-field success, the signing of Cherry-Evans has also boosted the development of their halves, in particular Sam Walker.

The 24-year-old, learning off the experienced halfback, earned his first call-up to the Maroons this year in a stellar season.

Whilst there were concerns around having two No. 7s playing together, Robinson believes the pair has found their rhythm towards the latter stages of the season.

“If you're gonna make a tough choice to leave Manly to come to Roosters, then your purpose about playing each week is really clear,” he continued.

“And he's shown that, and then for us, I thought the balance, two halfbacks don't usually work. It's not usually traditional, but Sam's not traditional, Daly's not traditional.

“I thought if we could put them together with the strength of each player, they could complement each other, and it took a few months to do that, but I feel like we've really sort of led into a really good balance between the two.”

Cherry-Evans will look to win their second premiership in his final NRL game on Sunday when the Roosters face the Knights at Accor Stadium.

SEN League will have live coverage of the 2026 NRLW and NRL Grand Final across our radio network and on the SEN app from 12pm AEDT with Crunch Time NRL.

Kick-off takes place at 4pm and 7:30pm, respectively.