Two decades after coaching DCE, Woolf out to end his NRL career

One of Daly Cherry-Evans’ first representative coaches 20 years ago will be the same man looking to end his long NRL journey on Friday night.

It’s a little known story about Cherry-Evans’ 16-year career in the top flight and how Kristian Woolf, then working in pathways at the North Queensland Cowboys, picked him in an under-16s representative team.

The Cowboys squad was made up of players from Townsville, Cairns and Mackay, where Cherry-Evans was residing, along with former premiership winner Ben Barba.

The team was meant to inspire kids in the region to get excited about the chance to wear the Cowboys’ colours.

Woolf, the Dolphins head coach, this week recalled how he first met Cherry-Evans and his family two decades ago. That representative team even played a game against Manly, the club Cherry-Evans would go on to call home for 15 seasons.

Woolf will be in the head coach’s box at Suncorp Stadium, trying to lead the Dolphins to their first NRL grand final, while Cherry-Evans will be doing his best in the Sydney Roosters’ No. 6 jersey, hoping to keep his own title dream alive before joining Hull FC in the Super League.

“I’ve known Daly and his family for a very long time, he’s a North Queensland boy, and I had the opportunity to coach him when he was 16,” Woolf said.

“I’ve had a lot to do with him and his father, Troy, since then. They are a terrific family.

“I was coaching a Cowboys’ development team, Daly was in Mackay at St Pat’s [College]. We came to Sydney to play a couple of games, including a game against Manly.

“He was very smart, very diligent, and just a good young man – he comes from a very good family, so none of those [traits] caught me by surprise.

“I have an enormous respect for Daly and what he’s done in the game, how he’s played the game, and how he’s carried himself for such a long period.

“The fact he’s still able to do what he is doing, and doing it at the level he is, it’s a real testament to him as a person and him as a professional – he’s obviously looked after himself extremely well.”

Cherry-Evans was widely linked with a move to the Dolphins last year when it became clear his time at the Sea Eagles was about to end. He played for Redcliffe as a kid, and could not believe his luck that he would be playing an NRL game there for Manly when the competition was relocated to Queensland during COVID.

“My best memory was playing there at half-time during a Queensland Cup game,” Cherry-Evans said at the time.

Now 37, Cherry-Evans appreciated the media was keen to ask him about his junior days with the Dolphins ahead of the countdown to the preliminary final, but did not want the spotlight on him, and said “they are just storylines”.

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.