Daly Cherry-Evans says he did not mislead the Gold Coast Titans after backflipping on a deal to join the club to remain at current club Manly.
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The 25-year-old playmaker has faced harsh criticism both before and after the decision, with some suggesting that both Cherry-Evans and his management team had played out negotiations publicly in an attempt to snare a more lucrative deal.
Cherry-Evans told Fox Sports denied he had purposely fuelled media reports over his future, saying the offer from the Sea Eagles was only put on the table 48 hours before it was announced.
“I can honestly say that I gave absolutely no indication to Manly that I was going to stay,” Cherry-Evans is quoted as saying by AAP.
“Any dealings (my management) may have been doing was with me not to know – and that’s how I wanted it. I didn’t want to know if there was something going on behind the scenes.
“I just wanted to worry about what I had committed to at the time and playing good football.
“I’m not going to deny there would have been work going on behind the scenes to get a deal, but I kept at arm’s length and I wasn’t given a deal until the last 48 hours.
“When that came through it was a decision I made pretty quickly.”
Cherry-Evans backflipped on the deal just one day after the NRL announced it would scrap the ’round 13′ rule which allows players to pull out of deals halfway through the season.
Titans boss Graham Annesley said that whilst he acknowledged Cherry-Evans had called Titans coach Neil Henry of the decision, he said he was left “disillusioned” after finding out through news reports.
“You would like to think that when someone makes a commitment that they honour that commitment,” Annesley is quoted as saying by AAP.
“For his own reasons he has decided not to do that and we can’t do anything about that.”
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