- Mark Carroll reveals fiery incident with Sea Eagles captain
Former Manly hard man Mark Carroll has revealed details he tried to crush the hand of Sea Eagles captain Daly Cherry-Evans during their explosive dressing-room bust-up recently.
Carroll, who has been critical of Cherry-Evans’ decision to quit the club, was in the Manly sheds before the Round 18 clash with the Rabbitohs at 4 Pines Park when he claimed he saw Cherry-Evans ‘staring daggers at me.’
‘What’s he so filthy about, I thought to myself,’ Carroll wrote in his column for The Nightly.
‘I walked over to him and said, “Congratulations on what you have achieved here and good luck wherever you go”. He responded, “Do you really mean that?” and I shot back “What do you mean by that?”‘
Carroll said that Cherry-Evans was unhappy with a previous column in which the footy legend had criticised his decision to quit the Sea Eagles on live TV just three rounds into the season.
‘DCE thought my article was harsh and out of line,’ Carroll wrote.
Manly legend Mark Carroll (pictured) had a heated confrontation with Daly Cherry-Evans at Brookvale Oval
Carroll believes Daly Cherry-Evans’ decision to leave the club derailed Manly’s season
The legendary rugby league enforcer played 185 games from 1987 to 1999
‘And he felt I was now contradicting myself by congratulating him.’
‘I told him: “At least you’re reading my stuff and I don’t back away from what I wrote. You’re a legend of this club and played for your state and country and I thought it would be nice if you put all your energy into helping Manly make the eight.
“Instead, you come across as trying to be some sort of superhero and I feel your decision derailed the season. As for playing Origin, that backfired. You were the captain and got punted.” He told me he was okay with that decision and I replied: “I certainly wouldn’t be.”
‘I then gave him a special Spudd handshake – which has been known to make eyes pop – and we went our separate ways.’
Carroll said he has thought about his column and the incident since and doesn’t regret a single thing that he said or wrote.
He believes that Manly would be playing finals footy had Cherry-Evans not decided to ‘abandon ship’ the way he did.
Cherry-Evans delivered in his final match wearing Manly colours, slotting home a match-winning field goal in Friday’s 27-26 victory over the Warriors.
Carroll, played 185 games from 1987 to 1999 for teams including the Penrith Panthers, South Sydney Rabbitohs and Manly Sea Eagles.
