The real reason the Sydney Roosters wanted Daly Cherry-Evans

One of the biggest reasons Daly Cherry-Evans was brought to the Sydney Roosters was staring him right in the face on Thursday.

The veteran halfback was unveiled in club colours about an hour after the Roosters confirmed skipper James Tedesco would remain in Bondi until the end of 2027.

Good luck stopping any team that has those two players running out each week.

Tedesco won premierships with the Roosters in 2018 and 2019 but has not tasted success since then, and there is a fear brewing within the club that their premiership window closes the moment their inspirational fullback calls it a day.

Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend and Anthony Minichiello are all premiership-winning captains in the coach Trent Robinson era, and Chooks powerbrokers want Tedesco to be remembered the same way.

The addition of Cherry-Evans, with his big-game experience and kicking prowess, will go a long way to helping the Roosters and Tedesco return to rugby league’s promised land.

As the club declares in its latest TV commercial, which promotes new jersey sponsor adidas: “The Roosters don’t just play the game – we play for premierships.”

Tedesco’s one-year extension will take him through to 10 years at the club. He was in such good form last season, Tedesco had the Dally M medal won by July.

Like Cherry-Evans, Tedesco is capable of playing on until he is 36 or 37, although fullback is a lot more taxing on the body compared to being a halfback.

Asked on Thursday if there was a sense of urgency to win another title as he inches closer to the end of his career, Tedesco said: “I’ve won two, there’s no real urgency [to win a third].

“For me, when I became captain, it was a goal to win a premiership as captain. The captains before me who have won are legends of our club, and legends of the game, and I really want to be a part of that.

“That’s a long-term goal. It’s more about the short-term goals, that starts in the pre-season, building our combinations, getting myself healthy, fit and fast … I definitely feel like the talent we have, we can give it a good shake, but it’s about keeping our focus narrow.”

The sight of Cherry-Evans in red, white and blue will take a bit of time for fans to get used to, especially those on the Northern Beaches who were convinced he would finish a Sea Eagle for life.

Cherry-Evans’s switch to the Roosters was one of the game’s worst-kept secrets last season, but when pressed on when he actually struck a deal, the Queenslander said: “Even if I had made my decision during the year, the best thing wasn’t to announce it out of respect to the fans at both clubs.

“We often talk about how hard it is for fans to look at their players, or not treat them differently when they know they are going somewhere else. Having that in mind, I actually felt like the most respectful thing to do was to wait until the season was done, and the new era could start.”

Manly have parted ways with CEO Tony Mestrov, who was in charge when Cherry-Evans announced he would not extend his Sea Eagles deal, and appointed Jason King, a premiership-winning forward in 2011, in his place. But Cherry-Evans said it was impossible to know if he would have remained in maroon and white had King been given the top job earlier.

“People are underestimating my role in this,” he said. “It’s easy to want to blame people at Manly, but the reality is I didn’t get traded, I didn’t get swapped, I was a free agent – and at the end of the season I made a decision to go somewhere else.

“How it was all managed, and why it ended the way it did, they’re stories for another day, but I think it’d be silly for me to stand here in a Roosters jersey talking about what could have been at Manly.

“I’m proud to be standing here as a Rooster. I’m also proud of my career at Manly. I don’t look at that and think of it as a sad situation.

“It was great to be part of that club’s history for so long – now I’ve got the opportunity to do it here with another club, and that really excites me.”