{"id":82162,"date":"2021-06-08T04:10:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T04:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=82162"},"modified":"2021-06-08T05:01:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T05:01:18","slug":"dce-lifts-the-lid-on-infamous-origin-retort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=82162","title":{"rendered":"DCE lifts the lid on infamous Origin retort"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland skipper Daly Cherry-\u200bEvans<\/a> has opened up on his development as a leader at club and state level, revealing how after initially feeling "a little bit scared," he had now discovered himself as a captain.<\/p>\n

Cherry-\u200bEvans will tomorrow night captain an underdog Queensland Maroons<\/a> side in this year's series-opener. It will mark his 14th game in a Maroons jumper and seventh as skipper.<\/p>\n

His journey as an NRL captain started in 2017 when he replaced Manly great Jamie Lyon, who had announced his retirement from the game.<\/p>\n

At the time of his club captaincy, Cherry-\u200bEvans had been exiled from the Maroons after six appearances and had controversially turned his back on the Gold Coast Titans<\/a> after agreeing to terms on a multi-million dollar contract.<\/p>\n

Now 32, Cherry-\u200bEvans revealed it was former Manly coach Trent Barrett who gave him the confidence to take his leadership skills to a new level despite admitting he had inner demons holding him back.<\/p>\n

\"Daly<\/p>\n

"When I was first confronted with leadership, I baulked," Cherry-Evans wrote in his column for Athletes' Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

"When the Manly coach at the time, Trent Barrett, asked me I actually said: 'Are you sure you want it to be me? I don't think I'm the right person.'<\/p>\n

"I guess I was a little bit scared from where I was at in my career.\u00a0I had just been dropped from Origin a couple of years before. I was going to leave Manly for another club at one point. So everything was a bit all over the shop and I was still finding my feet and my identity as a player and a person.<\/p>\n

"But I knew where I wanted to go with my footy career and that was to get back into the rep sides and play finals footy for Manly.<\/p>\n

"Baz gave me that final boost of confidence when he said 'I think you're ready and I don't think you quite understand how naturally you're leading and how the people are watching you within the team. I think it's time.'"<\/p>\n

\"DCE<\/p>\n

While Cherry-\u200bEvans won an NRL premiership with the Sea Eagles in his rookie year playing at halfback in 2011, arguably as impressive was his role in last year's unlikely Origin series victory.<\/p>\n

The Queensland skipper was tasked with leading a side labelled the 'worst Queensland team in history'<\/a> before the Maroons pulled off one of the greatest upsets in rugby league history<\/a> to win the series 2-1.<\/p>\n

Moments after the win, and in front of home fans at Suncorp Stadium, Cherry-\u200bEvans took a cheeky shot at NSW critics who had doubted the Maroons, which he admits is all part of his transition into a more confident leader.<\/p>\n

"Last season turned out well and I got to give a speech at the end \u2013 'on behalf of the worst ever Queensland team' – which caused a few headlines," he said.<\/p>\n

"I always knew that the best thing we could have done while it was all going on was win and that's ultimately all that mattered. If we'd lost, then maybe we were the worst Queensland team ever – so there was only ever one way to prove that wrong and that was to win.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"We spoke about it in camp as a team and it did motivate us a bit extra.<\/p>\n

"As for the speech: I've been very private for a long time and I guess one thing that I'm starting to get a bit better at is showing people who I am by showing a bit more of my personality.<\/p>\n

"I can be that cheeky halfback – whether it's taking the piss out of myself or my teammates. And I thought that was a really good opportunity to show that.<\/p>\n

"That speech was just my way of saying 'you know what? You guys gave us a bit of shit, here's a bit back'."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Queensland skipper Daly Cherry-\u200bEvans has opened up on his development as a leader at club and state level, revealing how after initially feeling "a little […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82164,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82162\/revisions\/82164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}