Daly Cherry-Evans had two timid moments on the weekend that were red flags for an older player, NRL legend Cooper Cronk says, as conjecture over the halfback’s future rages.

Cherry-Evans has been touted to join the Roosters on a $1 million contract next season in a Cronk 2.0 scenario: adding a veteran No.7 to push for a premiership.

But while Cronk won the Tricolours back-to-back titles in 2018-19 after arriving from Melbourne, Cherry-Evans is now facing calls to retire before joining the club — and Cronk says it’s clear that the Manly great is struggling to engage with contact.

FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every game of every round in the 2025 NRL Telstra Premiership, LIVE with no ad-breaks during play. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

“He’s 36 years of age, may or may not be playing on next year, we’ve got no idea,” Cronk said on Matty and Cronk.

“But there’s one thing that you need to be able to do as a halfback at the latter stages, is you need to stay physical. And on the weekend, there’s a couple of moments where Daly sort of removed from physicality.”

After the Sea Eagles copped a shock upset from Wests Tigers on Sunday, Cronk highlighted two pieces of play in which DCE opted out of necessary contact (watch in the video above).

The first came in defence, as Tigers winger Sunia Turuva ran past him to score and a tackle was barely attempted.

“The ball goes through here and Daly has an opportunity to come back through here on Turuva, and missed him. That’s a hips tackles, legs tackle every day of the week,” Cronk said.

The second came in attack, when he had an opportunity to run through the defensive line for a try but instead threw a pass that went over the sideline.

“When you’re running the football, you need to be able to take advantage of a run,” Cronk said.

“This one here, that is a left-foot, run-the-ball, carry-over, do-we-score every day of the week. He just finessed it to the left-hand side.”

READ MORE

‘His own doing’: Brutal claim over ‘toxic’ DCE environment as star urged to backflip on Roosters

‘Very much ‘last game’ areas’: Post-game wife chat sparks DCE theory

‘Really sad’: Drastic decision urged as ‘terrible’ DCE decline poses ugly Roosters situation

Cronk said that Cherry-Evans “should be celebrated as one of the greatest Manly Sea Eagles players of all time” and deserved whatever accolades came his way upon reaching 350 NRL games this weekend, at home against the Dolphins.

But he said that DCE playing on as an effective halfback was another matter, saying that he risked letting teammates down if he couldn’t handle contact.

“The advice to Daly is, mate, if you want to play on, do whatever — but find your physicality,” said Cronk, who famously played the 2018 grand final with a broken shoulder blade.

“Because I know at the back end of my career, I limped to the finish line. Getting a whack (in attack), squaring up defenders wasn’t enjoyable at 36 years of age.

“But, you have to do it because it created space for other people. Once I stepped away from it, that would have hurt the team’s performance.

“As a half (in defence), once you lose that physical nature, no shoulder contact, falling over, you’re missing the contest.”

Cherry-Evans’ own form is one thing. The other big question is whether his arrival at the Roosters would impinge on the spectacular growth of superstar halfback Sam Walker and potentially cost the club exciting young five-eighth Hugo Savala.

While not commenting on DCE’s potential Roosters arrival, former Kangaroos No.6 Matty Johns said that Walker was entering a supreme phase of his career, having blended natural talent with professional nous; largely thanks to Cronk’s tutelage. Johns said that a long layoff from football due to an ACL injury may have been beneficial in rethinking his game.

“He’s the sort of kid, Sam, he’s have had a football in his hands and boots on his feet before he was out of nappies. And he was just one of the best instinctive footballers I’ve seen,” Johns said of the 23-year-old.

“But instincts in the NRL only carry so far. You have to have a football education, and when you go into an NRL system and you’ve just come through on your instincts and spotting what you see and playing reactive football, being taught structure feels like being fitted for a straightjacket. It take a long time to sort of blend those together.

“The work that you put into him, Coop … I think he’ll look back on the 12 months out of the game and say it was actually a blessing, because it’s enabled him to sit away from the week-to-week pressure and actually process all the information. What you’re seeing now, he’s in a really sweet spot. Instinct meets education.

“And since he’s returned, it’s the best he has ever played, but look at the difference in the Roosters.”

Cronk said that Walker had produced one of his finest games last round in an upset of the Bulldogs, and showed off a new ruthlessness in attack by targeting a clear mismatch for winger Daniel Tupou. The Roosters are 4-2 since his comeback, with credible losses to top-eight sides Cronulla and Melbourne, and they are currently on a three-match winning streak heading into Saturday’s game against Parramatta.

Cronk said that he hadn’t interfered with Walker’s instincts, but tried to add some pragmatism.

“I think anyone that works with Sam, now or into the future, you’re never gonna touch the cool stuff. You just don’t say, ‘Mate, don’t do that anymore’. It’s just like, ‘Keep doing that, back yourself, but if you can pick up these basic fundamentals, I think it will complement’,” Cronk said.

“So he’s played some really good games for the Roosters. I would argue that’s one of the best (last round against the Bulldogs), based on a couple of things.

“He ran the football. He knew that (Jacob) Preston was going to come after him, so he avoided contact by stepping, weaving. And he still had the cool, sexy things that we all love, the highlight reel stuff.

“But the thing that I was impressed with: he kicked the ball to (Tupou), he saw that (Enari) Tuala was out of position and nervous. Normally, Sam would go for another trick shot — but he kept going back.

“That’s understanding the science of the game and when it’s a game of chess, when you’ve found a crack. Don’t go away until they’ve fixed it; and I thought they’d put (Stephen) Crichton on the wing (in defence) but they didn’t. Kept Tuala there, Sam kept kicking the ball, a couple of tries. It was a pretty good performance.”

Johns also lauded the form of Savala, 23, the rangy five-eighth who is earning just $85,000 this season. He can negotiate with rival clubs from November 1, and could be targeted whether or not he is forced to bide his time behind Cherry-Evans next season.

“He has been so impressive. It’s the explosion of Sam coming back and his form that has sort of stopped Hugo getting the raps he deserves,” Johns said.

“You know what I love about Hugo? And this has to be the basis, when you come through into the grades, you have to have really strong core fundamentals. He’s very good at recognising three-on-two situations, he’s got really nice hands, he’s got a beautiful pass; and that is the core when you’re a playmaker.”

Cronk highlighted how Savala negotiated the challenge of Dogs enforcer Viliame Kikau’s brutal rushing defence, matched Matt Burton’s long kicking game and showed expertise in exploiting backline overlaps for James Tedesco.

“He understands the smarts of footy. He’s intelligent,” Cronk said.