Elgey thankful to Cherry-evans for having taken him under his wing

KANE Elgey refused to hold Daly Cherry-evans’ Gold Coast backflip against him, revealing a moment of kindness led him to dismiss any preconceptions about the Manly skipper.

Elgey and Cherry-evans look set to form a partnership in the Sea Eagles halves this NRL season following the 25-year-old’s move from the Titans to Sydney’s northern beaches.

The pair were expected to be teammates at the Gold Coast in 2016 but that was scuppered when CherryEvans reneged and inked an eightyear $10 million deal to stay at Manly.

In the aftermath, the representative playmaker became public enemy No.1 for Titans fans and has routinely been booed at Cbus Super Stadium since. But Elgey said he came to Brookvale with only a positive opinion of Cherry-evans following an un- solicited offer to tutor him on halfback play.

“Two years ago I played him at home on the Gold Coast,” Elgey said.

“It was around that time (of the backflip). At the end of the game he said to me ‘do you want to catch up at the end of the year and just work on your game?’ I was sort of like ‘ woah’. We have the same player agent but that wasn’t really related.

“He said he didn’t have that help growing up,” Elgey said. “Ever since then we sort of kept in contact. You hear stuff about people but you’ve got to meet them before you can judge.”

While Elgey never got the chance to pick the brains of the Queensland and Australian No.7, he said CherryEvans had gone out of his way to take him under his wing since signing with the Sea Eagles.