Daly Cherry-Evans joins Sydney Roosters amid halves crisis: what it means for the club

Daly Cherry-Evans has joined the Sydney Roosters on a one-year deal, adding veteran experience to a halves position in flux since Cooper Cronk’s retirement in 2023.

What’s happening at the Sydney Roosters?

The Sydney Roosters are hunting for a long-term halfback after Cooper Cronk left in 2018. Since then, the club has cycled through Sean O’Sullivan, Kyle Flanagan and Sam Walker without locking in a permanent solution. Luke Keary’s retirement in 2024 left a gap, and the Roosters turned to Chad Townsend as a stopgap mentor rather than a first-grade partner.

Why Daly Cherry-Evans changes the halves puzzle

Cherry-Evans brings elite experience but his short-term deal clashes with the club’s stated goal of developing homegrown talent. Youngsters like Sandon Smith and Hugo Savala have seen their paths disrupted, with Smith already leaving for Newcastle in search of more minutes. The Roosters’ under-19 and Jersey Flegg teams sit at the bottom of their competitions, and the club hasn’t won the NSW Cup since 2004.

How the halves carousel has hurt development

The club’s development pipeline is broken. The NSW Cup has missed finals in two straight seasons, and the Roosters failed to place a single player in the 2025 Australian Schoolboys squad. Jake Elliott, once tipped as a future star, has been shuffled around the field without a clear path to first-grade minutes. Toby Rodwell’s recent debut offers a glimmer of hope, but the halves picture remains unsettled.

What comes next for the Roosters?

Cherry-Evans is expected to retire soon, so his signing looks like a band-aid rather than a long-term fix. The club’s next move will test whether it can finally nurture its own halfback or keep chasing ready-made stars at the cost of its own young guns.