Daly Cherry-Evans has avoided being suspended for the first time in his 14-year career, rolling the dice to dodge a three-match ban after having his dangerous throw charge downgraded at the judiciary.
Manly’s skipper fronted the judiciary on Tuesday night to argue he should have only received a $1000 fine for his role in the dangerous throw on Parramatta’s Shaun Lane in Friday’s clash.
The Sea Eagles had earlier accepted a two-match suspension for Haumole Olakau’atu, but elected to try and downgrade Cherry-Evans’ charge for his role in the same tackle.
DCE’s positive verdict means he will be free to face the Raiders this Friday at Brookvale.
Cherry-Evans was represented by legal eagle Nick Ghabar while Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold and football manager John Bonasera were also by his side for the hearing with Lachlan Giles SC representing the NRL before panel members Tony Puletua and Greg McCallum, with Geoff Bellew the chairman.
Daly Cherry-Evans. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The hearing was shown several replays of the tackle from various camera angles.
DCE argued that he had made “a lot of these types of tackles and never put anyone in a dangerous position”.
He said this one started to feel different as Olakau’atu brought momentum into the tackle.
Giles countered by saying DCE deserved to be banned because he had placed Lane in a dangerously elevated position even before Olakau’atu had added his considerable bulk.
Ghabar showed video evidence of a tackle by Joe Ofahengaue and Jackson Hastings during their time at the Wests Tigers in 2022 in which both players were assessed grade one charges.
The veteran halfback’s Manly teammates had earlier called for the NRL’s judicial system to get an overhaul, adamant their captain should have received some kind of discount for his clean record.
Across 313 games for Manly, 22 State of Origin matches for Queensland and 21 Tests for Australia, Cherry-Evans had faced one prior charge, in 2018, and never been banned.
“He definitely should be (given a discount),” star fullback Tom Trbojevic said. “If someone comes in and plays their first game and it’s their first offence it’s (considered to be) the same thing as someone who has played 313 first-grade games. You’d like to think there’s some leniency.
“I don’t think it’s in the NRL policy, but it’s something to be looked at. Maybe even a 50 per cent (discount) or something like that.”
Highlighting Manly’s argument, South Sydney’s Taane Milne copped his fifth charge in 20 months following his cannonball tackle on Melbourne’s Cameron Munster last weekend.
But in the eyes of the judicial system, he and Cherry-Evans have the same history in terms of priors.
The NRL previously had a system based on stronger loading for prior offences and good-behaviour discounts, but that was scrapped with critics labelling it too confusing.