1. Daly Cherry-Evans was born on 20 February 1989 and is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who captains and plays as a halfback for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Rugby League and Queensland at State of Origin level.
Daly Cherry-Evans captained the Prime Ministers XIII in 2018 and 2022 and vice-captain in 2023.
Daly Cherry-Evans was born in Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia to an English-born mother and an Australian father.
Daly Cherry-Evans began playing rugby league for the Redcliffe Dolphins at 5-years-old.
At 12 years of age Daly Cherry-Evans moved to Mackay, Queensland with his family and continued to play junior rugby league for Mackay Brothers, Sarina Crocodiles and South's Sharks.
Daly Cherry-Evans attended St Patrick's College during his high school years.
Daly Cherry-Evans attended Redcliffe State High School and was a part of the reddy boys.
At the beginning of 2008 Daly Cherry-Evans was invited by Dennis Moore to trial with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and later signed a contract to play for their under-20s National Youth Competition team.
Daly Cherry-Evans played 46 games for the National Youth Competition team of Manly Warringah Sea Eagles over the 2008 and 2009 season where he scored 246 points in total including 24 tries.
Daly Cherry-Evans was named on the interchange bench of the 2009 Toyota Cup season's team of the year.
In round 13 against the Bulldogs, Daly Cherry-Evans crossed the try line untouched from a scrum, performed a one-on-one strip on Dene Halatau, and had 3 try assists in a dominating display that saw him named as halfback in the BigPond Sport Team of the Week.
In October 2011, English coach Steve McNamara offered Daly Cherry-Evans a starting spot on the England team for the 2011 Four Nations as he is eligible for England through his English born mother Kellie.
Daly Cherry-Evans declined the offer, declaring himself available only to play representative football for both Queensland and Australia should he be selected.
Daly Cherry-Evans won the 2011 Dally M Rookie of the Year award, and scored a try in Manly's victory over the New Zealand Warriors in the 2011 NRL grand final.
Daly Cherry-Evans gave a perfect inside pass for Brett Stewart to score the first try of the match in the 30th minute of the game.
Daly Cherry-Evans's own try just before the game's half time was set up by an audacious grubber kick by Clive Churchill Medal winner Glenn Stewart.
Daly Cherry-Evans finished his excellent debut year in the NRL in the 2011 NRL season with him playing in all 27 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles matches, scoring 7 tries, kicking 25 goals and 3 field goals.
Daly Cherry-Evans was named by the Rugby League International Federation in its annual awards as the world's best halfback for 2011.
Daly Cherry-Evans played in all 27 Manly Warringah Sea Eagles matches and scored 7 tries, kicked 3 goals and kicked 1 field goal during the 2012 NRL season.
Since he made his debut for Manly in Round 1 of the 2011 NRL season, Daly Cherry-Evans had not missed a single game of the NRL.
Daly Cherry-Evans is the third player since the award's inception in 1986 to win the Medal from a losing Grand Final side and one of four who have achieved the honour, joining Canberra's Bradley Clyde, St George's Brad Mackay and Canberra's Jack Wighton.
Daly Cherry-Evans played in 27 matches, scored 11 tries and kicked 2 field goals for the Sea Eagles in the 2013 NRL season.
On 14 February 2014, Daly Cherry-Evans was selected in the Sea Eagles inaugural 2014 Auckland Nines squad.
On 22 September 2014, Daly Cherry-Evans was selected in the Australian Four Nations train-on squad.
On 29 September 2014, at the 2014 Dally M Awards, Daly Cherry-Evans was named 2014 Dally M Halfback of the Year.
Daly Cherry-Evans captained the Sea Eagles during the 2015 Auckland Nines competition.
Daly Cherry-Evans's team lost each of its matches throughout the pre-season competition.
On 6 March 2015, Daly Cherry-Evans revealed he had agreed to join the Gold Coast Titans team in 2016 on a 4-year contract.
Daly Cherry-Evans was booed at later games in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
In June 2016, Daly Cherry-Evans suffered an ankle injury that kept him out of action for a month.
Daly Cherry-Evans had a poor 2016 season with the Sea Eagles finishing off the season in thirteenth place.
On 13 January 2017, following the retirement of long time Manly premiership winning captain Jamie Lyon, Daly Cherry-Evans was named as Manly's club captain for the 2017 NRL season.
Daly Cherry-Evans hit back at former critics by having a great 2017 season, leading the Sea Eagles to their first finals series since 2014, where they were defeated in the first round by the Penrith Panthers.
Daly Cherry-Evans was named Player of the Year by the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at the end of the 2017 season, having played all 25 games, scoring 6 tries, and kicking 9 goals.
On 28 May, Daly Cherry-Evans was not selected to play in Queensland's 2018 State of Origin squad.
On 2 July, Daly Cherry-Evans was named to play in the game 3 of the 2018 State of Origin series due to injuries suffered within the Queensland squad.
Daly Cherry-Evans made a total of 21 appearances for Manly in the 2019 NRL season as the club finished 6th on the table and qualified for the finals.
Daly Cherry-Evans made a total of 20 appearances for Manly-Warringah in the 2020 NRL season as the club finished a disappointing 13th on the table.
Daly Cherry-Evans played 25 games for Manly in the 2021 NRL season including the club's preliminary final loss against South Sydney.
Daly Cherry-Evans played a total of 22 games for Manly in the 2022 NRL season as the club finished 11th on the table missing the finals.
Daly Cherry-Evans played 22 games for Manly in the 2023 NRL season as the club finished 12th on the table and missed the finals.
In round 5 of the 2024 NRL season, Daly Cherry-Evans became Manly's record appearance holder overtaking Cliff Lyons.
In round 18, Daly Cherry-Evans kicked the winning field goal in Manly's golden point extra-time victory over North Queensland.
Daly Cherry-Evans played 24 games for Manly in the 2024 NRL season as they finished 7th on the table and qualified for the finals.
On 24 March, Daly Cherry-Evans informed Manly that he would not be with the club in 2026.
On 21 April 2018, Daly Cherry-Evans was fined $10,000 by Manly after an altercation with fellow Manly player Jackson Hastings.
The incident involving Hastings and Daly Cherry-Evans resulted in Hastings being ostracised from the playing group.
In 2011, England coach Steve McNamara offered Daly Cherry-Evans a starting spot on the English team for the 2011 Four Nations tournament.
Daly Cherry-Evans declined the offer, declaring himself available only to play representative football for both Queensland and Australia should he be selected.
Daly Cherry-Evans made his test debut for Australia against Wales and scored a try at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham.
Daly Cherry-Evans was selected for Australia's 2012 Anzac Test against New Zealand but did not take to the field.
Daly Cherry-Evans was selected in the Kangaroos 24 man squad for the 2013 Rugby League World Cup squad, playing in 5 matches and scoring 2 tries.
Daly Cherry-Evans made his State of Origin debut for Queensland as an interchange in Game II of the 2013 series in front of a home crowd at Suncorp Stadium.
Daly Cherry-Evans remained on Queensland's bench for Game I of the 2014 State of Origin series, in which incumbent halfback Cooper Cronk suffered a fractured arm, rendering him unavailable for Game II.
At the start of the 2019 State of Origin series, Daly Cherry-Evans was named as the 15th Captain of the Queensland Maroons.
Daly Cherry-Evans was selected by Queensland for the 2020 State of Origin series.
At the presentation ceremony following the conclusion of Game 3, Daly Cherry-Evans said "On behalf of the worst ever Queensland team, thank you very much".