Cherry-Evans reflects on crazy start as Roosters thrash Manly

The Manly Sea Eagles suffered one of the toughest starts to an NRL finals match in history, with captain Daly Cherry-Evans labelling the opening minute “surreal” in his post-match comments.

With just 23 seconds on the clock in the semi-final clash against the Sydney Roosters on Saturday night at Allianz Stadium, the Sea Eagles were down two men.

“It’s not a bad word ‘surreal’. You just don’t ever plan for anything like that,” the halfback said.

Forward Jake Trbojevic and centre Tolu Koula were both pulled from the field for head injury assessments off the back of the first two tackles of the game.

Koula was not allowed to return, and while Trbojevic did rejoin after 15 minutes, the damage was done as Sydney romped out to a 40-16 scoreline after building an 18-0 lead.

NRL betting sites had Manly as $2.58 underdogs coming into the match, and Cherry-Evans explained that the loss of Koula and Trbojevic early was just too much to overcome.

“I thought we did our best considering but ultimately that’s just not the start you need in a semi-final game.

“We just tried to calm down.

“We obviously started with the greatest of intentions and sometimes with that you can get yourself in the wrong spot when you’re going a bit too crazy and a bit too hard.

“Our physicality, our intent was all there to start the game but ultimately we were really unlucky with some head knocks in the first two tackles.

“From there we did try and settle into the game we just weren’t good enough tonight.

“There’s a lot to be proud of this year and there’s a lot to be proud of tonight but ultimately we just weren’t good enough and that’s disappointing at the moment.”

Coach Anthony Seibold echoed Cherry-Evans’ sentiment, saying that “what could go wrong, did go wrong tonight”.

“It was really tough obviously,” he said.

“The start was a little bit surreal in some ways, losing Tolu and Jake the first two tackles of the game but they were the cards we were dealt.

“The guys I thought kept fighting really hard.

“The Roosters were too good tonight and that was the reality if it and we fought hard and tried to stay in that contest.”

Just four teams remain in the chase for premiership glory, with the Roosters taking on the Melbourne Storm next weekend, while the Penrith Panthers face the Cronulla Sharks.

Both the Storm and Panthers are heavy favourites, paying $1.30 and $1.25 to win their respective preliminary finals with top sports bookmakers.

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