Titans’ pursuit for star halfback Daly Cherry-Evans sours following drug scandal
CHRIS GARRY AND PETER BADEL THE COURIER-MAIL FEBRUARY 20, 2015 11:00PM
THE Gold Coast Titans’ cocaine scandal has put their pursuit of Daly Cherry-Evans on life support.
The Titans were already struggling to come up with third party sponsorship deals to match Manly Sea Eagles’ offer and now two of their players have been charged for supplying cocaine.
The Titans are trying to institute a “no wankers” policy at the club and have repeatedly quelled Cherry-Evans’ concerns their culture was not up to NRL standard and their resources could not produce a premiership.
Culture, not money, was the Titans’ main pitch to Cherry-Evans but now they can’t even promise him that.
Already without a major sponsor, the charging of two Titans players is a serious blow to the club’s brand rebuild.
Titans’ staff were quietly confident of snaring Cherry-Evans, but the charging of Beau Falloon and Jamie Dowling with cocaine supply has them privately fearing the Manly star is now no chance of moving north.
The Titans were selling Cherry-Evans on being part of the re-birth of a club, a chance to do what Greg Inglis did when he joined South Sydney and transform a club from rebuilders to premiers.
Cherry-Evans’ manager Gavin Orr gave the Titans hope on Friday that his client remained in their sights.
Orr said the Test playmaker, who turned 26 on Friday, was seriously weighing up whether to join the Titans next season.
“He’s celebrating his birthday today and hanging out with his family,” Orr said.
“Daly will make his decision in the next week. The Titans are a genuine option, he wouldn’t have visited them if he wasn’t. ”But whether this incident affects his opinion, I can’t answer that right now.
“Daly values his brand but one incident doesn’t make the Titans a bad club. I’ll talk to him in the coming days and we’ll make a call in the near future.”
From 2011 to 2014, the Titans’ culture lurched into disgrace.
This year was meant to be a new beginning but an incident from last year has destroyed the solid foundations coach Neil Henry and the off-field staff had built.
The new Titans regime has been working tirelessly to restore the club’s credibility, which began when they stripped Greg Bird of the captaincy for urinating in public.
It was a direct confrontation to the playing group, that this version of the Titans would not tolerate poor behaviour.
Then they sacked Paul Carter for repeated alcohol offences to reinforce their message.
Now the poor behaviour of players has seriously impacted the club’s future as an NRL entity.