Daly Cherry-Evans follows Cooper Cronk in Sydney Roosters move, Trent Robinson, premiership bid

Like Cronk, Cherry-Evans arrives at Bondi with high expectations. The former Melbourne Storm halfback said that from his “personal experience”, the bar — externally — will be high.

How high? Well, anything less than reaching the grand final is likely to be considered a failure. “That’s the expectation”, Cronk said on the Kayo Sports NRL podcast earlier this year.

Now speaking to foxsports.com.au ahead of the Roosters’ season-opener, Cronk once again reiterated that while it may take time for Cherry-Evans to develop his combination with Walker, results on the field and nothing else are the best way he can silence his doubters.

“It’s obviously a little different in terms of the change of scenery and the players and everything, but there’s probably more external pressure than there is internal,” Cronk said of the task facing Cherry-Evans joining the Roosters juggernaut after playing nearly his entire career at Manly.

“At the end of the day you’ve spent three months getting to know the players and understanding the system that they want to play, but it ends up being a highlighted point that the spotlight is on Daly for this first game.

“So it shouldn’t change the way he goes about it. They’re will probably be a little bit of excitement for him, but at the end of the day it’s about performance and performance is king.

“He can make the noise go away through good performances and that will be the challenge.”

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The key driver of Cherry-Evans’ success or failure with the Roosters will be his relationship with new coach Trent Robinson, with the pair set to be the masterminds of the club’s 2026 title charge.

Cronk recalled being drawn to Robinson from their first meeting and believes his unique coaching style can help get the best out of an ageing Cherry-Evans.

“Trent and I got in really well from our first meeting and we still do now,” Cronk said.

“Trent has probably got a wider view of rugby league and high performance and winning. He searches the globe for different edges. While rugby league is our game, I think he really looks at corporate Australia, other professional sports, other forms of people at their peak and tries to bring a little bit into rugby league.

“So that was naturally a connection point to start with, but he was on a path that he really wanted to be successful.

“I think the Roosters had won a couple of minor premierships, lost three preliminary finals in a row when I arrived, so there was a drive to take that next step and that’s exactly what I was looking to do as well.

“So it was a pretty good relationship built on respect first and then a friendship formed. And then being part of a common cause is pretty exciting as well.”

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History shows Cronk won a title in both seasons he was at the Roosters, but it is easy to forget there were critics of him and Robinson after the club lost four of their first eight games in 2018.

Despite the lack of early consistency and success on the scoreboard, Cronk pinpointed Robinson’s stoicism as the reason the Roosters stuck to their guns and ultimately won back-to-back titles.

It is that same fierce loyalty to his players that should give Cherry-Evans the confidence that even if results don’t come early, he will still have the backing of his new coach.

“He has to stay stoic in his belief, confident in the way that he plays and have confidence in the work that he’s done since November because ultimately that will be the thing that determines whether he and the Roosters can go and do something this year,” Cronk said.

“Not what he’s doing in terms of reports or the opinions from rounds one to six.

“I’m pretty certain history would show that people were probably calling for my head at some stage in those first six to eight weeks in 2018.

“But I certainly remember looking back and speaking to Trent saying that, ‘No the training intensity is where it needs to be and there is little glimpses of the combination with Keary and Tedesco coming through’.

“I think we were four wins and four losses after the Dragons smashed us on ANZAC Day and we all thought that yes while the results weren’t there yet, we wouldn’t change anything because we believe what we’re doing is right.

“If we had of shifted our approach after that day, would we have gone on to win the title? Maybe or maybe not, but we firmly believed in the work that we had done and the scoreboard is just one indicator of whether you’re doing the right thing or not. It’s a big indicator, but it’s only one thing.”

Robinson’s ability to instil belief in his players and the Roosters system and block out the external noise is what sets him apart, according to Cronk, who said his former mentor is “very comfortable in his own skin”.

“He’s done this before and he knows what it takes to make a premiership winning team,” added Cronk.

“So the media could say some things, but he’s very stoic in his belief of the way that his team needs to operate and the scoreboard is one indicator, but I feel that he sees a lot of other things during a week that tells him more of the trajectory of his team than just the scoreboard does.”

HOW ROOSTERS MOVE COULD ‘REINVIGORATE’ CHERRY-EVANS

One of Cherry-Evans’ closest friends and long-time teammate Kieran Foran knows him better than most on and off the field.

After playing over 350 NRL games for Manly, Foran believes Cherry-Evans has a new lease on life from joining a new club and training environment.

“I think in Daly’s situation, having knowing him the way that I know him and having the conversations that I’ve had with him, he feels reinvigorated,” Foran said The Matty and Cronk podcast.

“I think he personally felt like a change was probably needed at this stage of his career and having had the conversations I’ve had with him, there’s a real spark about him at the moment.”

Foran feels it is easy to get stuck in your ways in the same environment and a change can often help bring new energy and drive to a player, especially late in their career.

In the case of Cherry-Evans, after so long at Manly it almost got to the point that he had “become part of the furniture” according to Foran and while his former teammate had no doubt DCE was still the ultimate professional and far from complacent, there is something to be said about having to prove yourself again as is the case now.

“I almost feel that there’s an element when you do go to a new club that you’ve got to earn your stripes again,” Foran explained.

“15 seasons at Manly, he had become part of the furniture.

“He could roll in day one of pre-season, and although he’s a true professional and he keeps himself in tip-top shape, if he didn’t have to do all the reps or didn’t have to do all the sessions, it wouldn’t have mattered.

“But he’s turned up to the Roosters, and I suspect that those guys there, they don’t care what’s been done beforehand. They want to know what’s under the bonnet now.”

Cronk agreed that Cherry-Evans had nothing left to prove at Manly, but by starting a new chapter at the Roosters he suddenly has a whole new squad and coaching staff to drive his standards.

“He’s got a bit of a point to prove, and that’s a dangerous driver,” Cronk said.

“My move to Sydney wasn’t because I needed a change. I could have stayed at Melbourne.

“I think for Daly at the Roosters, him and Sam Walker apparently have formed a good combination, and his influence on Walker is going to determine a lot of whether the Roosters can go further than what they did last year.

“There is not a single part of me that hopes that they fall over. I genuinely hope that the Roosters can achieve everything they deserve this year, and I hope Daly’s front and centre of it.”

WHY THERE COULD BE GROWING PAINS… AND CRONK’S ADVICE FOR DCE

Even if that may be the case, Cronk warned there would be growing pains with the Cherry-Evans and Walker combination, much like he experienced with Luke Keary back in 2018.

Specifically, he warned opposition teams could target both Cherry-Evans and Walker in defence, declaring both “need to aim up” on that side of the ball.

“Given he will be 37 in the early part of the year, there’s a couple of technical things that he needs to improve in,” Cronk said.

“One, the physicality defensively. You’ve got Sam Walker and Daly Cherry Evans, so whether it is Jahrome Hughes or Nathan Cleary, they’re going to target those two guys on either edge.

“There’s a spot there, so defensively, they both need to aim up.”

From an attacking standpoint, Cronk had one concern in that Cherry-Evans and Walker attack the line in a similar way, perhaps due to the fact they are both halfbacks.

It means that one or both will need to work on straightening the attack.

“Daly and Sam have this tendency whether they are first or second receiver to put their hips on a 45 degree angle and go overs,” Cronk explained.

“Now if you have two halves that are going overs and overs, the sideline is your worst enemy.

“So technically I think one of them or both of them need to improve and hold up the attack, otherwise Tedesco is going to run into a cul-de-sac most times.

“I hope they can do it, but I think there is a couple of technical things Daly and Sam need to improve in and at 37 years of age that is hard to do.”

On a broader level, drawing from his own experience moving from Melbourne to the Tricolours, the difference in playing style will also take an adjustment from Cherry-Evans.

“That was probably one of the key changes that I had to adapt to,” Cronk said.

“Every player is good at something and they are the things that you should always bring, but then you also as a halfback need to bring in the team and what they’re all good at as well.

“When I was at Melbourne I used to attack the third in defender with the back-rower and Billy Slater all the time. That was sort of my position on the field.

“At the Roosters that changed a fair bit. We played from wider field positions because we had Luke Keary and Tedesco there, who had the ability to move across field faster than most, so my job became about engaging or condensing a couple of defenders immediately off the ruck, but from wider field positions.

“So naturally my attacking opportunities changed because I wasn’t in the same position as normal, but that’s probably why it took a little bit longer for us to click and understand because we were just navigating that through the first six to eight weeks and I imagine that’s probably going to be the same for Daly.”

However, Cronk’s advice for DCE is to not change the player he is, but to incorporate the strengths of his new teammates into his own uniques style.

“He’s still going to be the same player,” Cronk said.

“He’s going to have to change slightly to bring in players like Walker and Tedesco, but Daly’s all of a sudden not going to change the way he’s played for the last 15 or 16 years.

“But Tom Trbojevic is a different fullback to James Tedesco and Sam Walker is definitely a different player to Luke Brooks.

“It’s about bringing his strengths to the team, but probably just incorporating some other guys around him that have got different skill-sets to what he’s been used to.”

You can watch Daly Cherry-Evans make his Roosters debut LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on Friday at 6pm AEDT with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.