‘They are $1.03’: NRL powerhouse club firms to sign DCE after huge Origin call

"Not for Manly" DCE to play Origin | 02:15

Daly Cherry-Evans is set to become the oldest player in State of Origin history as the Roosters move into unbackable favourites to sign the veteran halfback for next year.

The 36-year-old has told Queensland coach Billy Slater he’s ready to go around again this season and potentially next, according to The Courier Mail.

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Cherry-Evans dropped a bombshell last month when he told the Sea Eagles he’d be leaving the club at the end of the season.

DCE said he was unsure if he’d play on in 2026 but has now declared he wants the Maroons’ No.7 jumper for the series opener on May 28 at Suncorp Stadium.

Slater wants Cherry-Evans to play and the Maroons coach believes his skipper will captain their state for a fifth straight year in 2025.

“I have spoken to Daly,” Slater told The Courier Mail.

“I would be very surprised if he wasn’t available.”

Cherry-Evans is reportedly also open to playing Origin next year which means he’d need to be playing NRL.

“He’s hinted at playing in 2025 and 2026,” Braith Anasta said on NRL 360.

“Well that becomes an issue for the next club. I guess they go into it eyes wide open, the Roosters,” Paul Crawley responded.

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Anasta’s ears pricked at the Roosters reference and he then asked the panel if anybody “had a scoop” on where Cherry-Evans was going to sign.

“If I was framing a market, they (the Roosters) are a $1.03,” Andrew Webster responded.

Anasta then queried if Cherry-Evans owed it to Manly fans to not play Origin this year.

“Mal said it best that when these opportunities come up in your career, you’re a long time retired so you take them all,” Crawley said.

“But from the Manly side of it, DCE won a premiership in his first year in 2011, he’s been at that club on big money for a long time and has played incredible football for them but they haven’t won the comp since and this is his last shot.

“I can’t see how a 36-year-old halfback is going to come back from a gruelling Origin series and be fresher for the run home to the finals.”

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