This Saturday afternoon Daly Cherry-Evans will play his 350th NRL match when Manly hosts the Dolphins at Four Pines Park.
It’s an achievement as impressive as it is rare, as the 36-year-old will become just the third player in NRL history to achieve the milestone at the one club, joining legends Cameron Smith and Darren Lockyer.
After playing his junior footy with the Sarina Crocodiles near Mackay and moving back to Redcliffe (where he was born) in his teens, DCE’s NRL journey officially began when given a first-grade debut by Manly coach Des Hasler in Round 1 of the 2011 season.
The assignment for his first match was about as steep as it gets—a fired up Melbourne Storm squad at AAMI Park, playing their first match for NRL points since the ignominy of being stripped of their 2007 and 2009 premierships for salary cap breaches.
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Cherry-Evans started at halfback alongside Kieran Foran, who is the only other NRL first grader still active in 2025 from the 34 who featured.
The other consistent face from that night, of course, is omnipresent Storm head coach Craig Bellamy.
Cherry-Evans played the full 80 minutes making two tackle breaks, three errors, 21 tackles and kicking for 323 metres.
Yet to no-one’s great surprise DCE and the Sea Eagles lost, 18-6.
The two sides met again in Round 25 at Brookvale with Manly turning the tables on the eventual 2011 minor premiers in a spiteful contest, 18-4.
Even better for the Northern Beaches faithful, the Sea Eagles went on to claim the 2011 Grand Final delivering Cherry-Evans the first, and still only, premiership of his 15-season NRL career.