what Watmough said:
Watmough told the Hello Sport podcast the halfback told him he wasn't going to turn up to training unless he was given a better deal, and says Cherry-Evans "turned into a f---wit" after his first year in the NRL.
“They (the board) really took a liking to Cherry-Evans. So after 2011, Dessie (former coach Des Hasler) left and so I sort of heard whispers, well it wasn’t whispers, it was on the back page of the f---ing paper (DCE demanding more money),” Watmough said.
We had a team meeting, I told Chezza to stay back and I said, ‘Mate what’s this we hear about what I’m reading in the papers?’
“I said, ‘Mate you just signed a f---ing four-year deal, you turn up to training.’ He goes, ‘Nup. My manager told me not to (turn up to training unless Manly pays him more).’
“Told him not to turn up to training, not to give a f--- about the boys. I’ve looked after him, gave him whatever he wanted as a kid, always made sure he didn’t want for anything."
Watmough said he spoke to then head coach Toovey about Cherry-Evans' attitude and urged him to not give the halfback the money he was asking for.
“I’ve walked out and went to Tooves and said, ‘Don’t give him any money. You’ve got him by the balls. If he doesn’t turn up (to training), fine him’. And Tooves just succumbed to the board,” Watmough said.
“Next thing we know he (Cherry-Evans) is up around the $500,000 mark after being on $50,000 (per season). So that’s where Tooves stopped worrying about the players and started worrying about his own back.
“The board wanted Cherry-Evans … Tooves chose one side of the board over the players and that’s where he lost me."
Cherry Evans has courted controversy this season when it was reported that he got into a scuffle with teammate Jackson Hastings, resulting in Manly players no longer wanting to play with Hastings.
Despite Watmough admitting to having never met Hastings, he said there was a fair chance Cherry-Evans bullied his younger teammate.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see he has probably p---ed one too manly people off in the game,” Watmough said. “I think people are starting to see it for what it is.
“They thought we were the issue and then we left. Then the next year Tooves was the issue, then they got rid of him. And then all of a sudden poor Jackson Hastings.
“I don’t really know the guy. I know people have different opinions of everyone but they, because Cherry-Evans didn’t like him, they f---ing bullied him into a corner which was pretty poor on the club’s behalf I think.
https://wwos.nine.com.au/2018/06/13...-tirade-on-daly-cherry-evans?ocid=social-WWOS