After showing his talent in game No.5 with a left-foot field goal to set up a win against Cronulla, it was against Brisbane in Friday night football that Cherry-Evans truly announced himself. With the game in the balance he set up a try with a bomb, before dummying and jinking through the line shortly after to score and make his first big mark on the sport.
2011 - Premiership winner as a first-year half
Manly entered the 2011 season with the youngest halves pairing in the competition, before Kieran Foran and Cherry-Evans took them to the grand final against the Warriors. The No.7 laid on Manly's first try with a perfect inside ball for Brett Stewart, before going himself to score the Sea Eagles' second on the way to a 24-10 win.
2013: The forgotten Clive Churchill win
Cherry-Evans' 2013 Clive Churchill effort is often derided given it came in a losing team, but the half was still great in Manly's 26-18 defeat to the Sydney Roosters. His kicking game was brilliant, while he helped lay on a penalty try when stepping through the line and toeing ahead for Jamie Lyon. Ultimately though, it was all in vain.
2014 - Destroying the Raiders in the wet
It remains one of Manly's great missed opportunities that they only won one premiership with Cherry-Evans and Foran in the halves. This game in the wet against Canberra was arguably Cherry-Evans' most dominant of that era, as he laid on six tries and Manly took a 42-0 lead inside 35 minutes. His short kicking game was on point, as were the long looping passes out wide.
2017 - One off the left, one off the right to sink the Warriors
It wouldn't be a Cherry-Evans list without a golden-point winner, with a record seven in his NRL career. None were better than in an epic against the Warriors in the penultimate round of 2017. With Manly's finals hopes fading while down 21-20, the No.7 first nailed a field goal off his right boot to send it to golden point. And while running into a howling wind, Cherry-Evans then sent home the winner off the left as he stepped two charging defenders.
2023 - A clinic on the Dolphins
Cherry-Evans' 2023 and 2024 seasons were two of his best at Manly, and few matches showed that better than a 58-18 flogging of the Dolphins two years ago. He had a hand in seven of the Sea Eagles' tries, with everything from early kicks, long cut-out balls, short inside passes and playing both sides of the ruck as Manly ran riot.
2024 - One last finals hurrah
Manly's epic to beat Canterbury in last year's finals was one of the Sea Eagles' best wins of Cherry-Evans' era, and it had his hands all over it. With Manly down 22-12 and 25 minutes left, the halfback called and helped execute the perfect scrum play to go over. Then with the clock ticking down, he took the option to run it on the last from inside Manly's own half, before they went 70 metres to score and win the match.
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