Why Keary expects Cherry-Evans to live up to the Cooper Cronk comparisons

A veteran halfback still playing elite footy joins a genuine contender after over a decade at his previous club to partner a young half full of potential in a bid for one last bite of premiership success. Sound familiar?

It does to Roosters’ fans, who welcome Daly Cherry-Evans to the club nine years after they welcomed Cooper Cronk in nearly identical fashion.

Cherry-Evans is one of the most high-profile moves heading into 2026 having spent the past 15 seasons at the Sea Eagles, and the similarities to Cronk’s move have placed immediate expectations on the veteran half to deliver the Roosters their first premiership since 2019.

Alongside Sam Walker, who plays the role of Cronk’s partner Luke Keary, new signing Reece Robson, and James Tedesco, who was also there when Cronk arrived, the Roosters’ have all the pieces of a premiership side.

Having joined the Roosters this season in a halves coaching role, Luke Keary believes Cherry-Evans can be the missing piece that brings it together.

“He came in a little bit earlier. Sam’s (Walker) been back and they spent a bit of time together before Christmas,” Keary revealed on SEN 1170 Breakfast.

“He’s going to bring stability and experience. He’s been awesome around the group, everyone likes him (and he) gives you that confidence.

“This dude’s done it all for a long period of time. You look beside you and you know exactly what you’re getting out of him so I’m really looking forward to seeing it.

“I know how it would feel as a player of his age, he's gonna have a fresh start. I reckon he's gonna be super excited and he'll do a good job for them.

“He’s going to get (compared to Cronk), I think he knows that.

“It’s quite obvious, like how Cooper’s (Cronk) come at this stage of his career, where Daly’s come at this stage of his career… everything that happens for them next year, it’s going to be compared to what Cooper did.

“In saying that, the first 10 weeks with Cooper were tough. I still remember myself, Teddy (Tedesco) and Coops (Cronk) went and had brekkie after ANZAC Day where we got hammered and Coops was just like, ‘relax boys’.

“He was copping it left, right, centre. Teddy had just got to the club (and he) was copping it… everyone had to band even closer together but it wasn't smooth sailing.”

Cherry-Evans has played 352 games in the NRL, lining up in every single one at halfback; a record for most games played without playing another position.

Cronk won back-to-back premierships in his first two seasons with the Roosters in 2018 and 2019, including playing the 2018 grand final with a broken shoulder.

Keary recalled the crazy week leading into that game that has since gone down in rugby league folklore, and his experiences heading into the favourite game of his career, one where he became a Clive Churchill medal winner.

“It was my second year there, I knew how much it meant to them, they were chasing it from 2013.

“They went all in. They brought Cooper over, they brought James Tedesco over, things didn't go to plan at the start of the year, you had to fight and scrap and it wasn't a pretty season, but it meant so much to everyone involved with that club.

“All the media stuff happens on the Monday (of grand final week), Coops actually got up and spoke and… said, ‘I'll probably not play.’

“It actually took a lot of pressure off us because everything was about him. All the other storylines went to the wayside.

“We had a few meetings with Robbo (Trent Robinson) during that week and it was about ‘what's the plan’... we had a few different options for halfback. I won’t say who it was but one bloke ruled himself out completely from playing halfback who we thought would probably be the person to do it and Aubo (Mitchell Aubusson) went, ‘I’ll do it’.

“It was more myself and Teddy knew straight away whatever was gonna happen, we were both just gonna play both sides of the field and go from there, but honestly we had no idea he was playing.

“In my head I just went, he's not playing, I don't care. So that was our mentality as a team.

“Even on the day of the game, I remember rooming with him the night before and he’s still icing himself. I'm going, ‘you got a broken shoulder, what are you icing’.

“I didn't have a clue because he had to get the needles maybe 30 to 40 minutes before the game, (and) you start warm-up about 20 minutes before and then he wasn't there in the warm-up.

“It didn't matter anyway cause he was gonna play the same role as Aubo. Aubo was just going to sit on the right and kind of cruise around and tackle, but he would've walked into the warm-up, I reckon for 10 minutes and said, ‘I'm ready to go’, and that was it.”