Daly Cherry-Evans mentoring Manly’s young gun playmaker
“He taught me a lot of lessons, but the biggest one was to keep trusting your instincts. The structure of the game will come with time, he said, but I have to stick to my instinctive play because that’s what got me here.”
Walsh made his debut in the final round against the New Zealand Warriors in Cherry-Evans’ farewell match. He said this cameo made him feel even more confident around big players in training.
Joey Walsh will be a representative at Manly training on Friday.Credit: Peter Rae/SMH
Onitoni Large is also one of Manly’s young playmakers but is thought to be 12 months behind Walsh in his own journey.
Coach Anthony Seibold said it was impossible to ignore that Walsh played just 15 games in rugby league last year after dedicating the last few years to the union. However, his preparations for 2025 were disrupted when he caught glandular fever after Christmas, losing eight kilos and not being able to participate in any trials.
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“We’re projecting Jamal and ‘Brooksy’ to be top halves at the start of the year, but getting into that 17 is what we want from Joey; we want him to compete hard for a spot,” Seibold said.
“We have really high hopes that he will be a consistent NRL player in the future, but he is only 19 and it is our job to make sure we give him the opportunity to push for a starting position.
“He’s a good person outside of football, very well respected in the area, a humble and hard-working guy from a great family, really coachable.
“When I caught Joey and ‘Foz’ [Foran] I said to Joey last week: ‘Dude, I just hope that when you play your 100th game for Manly you’ll thank Foz for all the work he’s done with you.’ “That would be a really nice situation for many years to come.”
Fogarty will start training with his new club on Monday. Jake and Tom Trbojevic, Brooks and Brisbane winner Kobe Hetherington will return to action in the coming weeks.
Viliame Fifita has returned home after a brief stint with St George Illawarra, Josh Feledy has also returned to the beaches after a couple of seasons with Wests Tigers, while Seibold has high hopes for 19-year-old prop Simione Laiafi as well as 200cm outside back Nav Willett, who stood out at last year’s trials.
