Daly Cherry-Evans price tag shows what a bargain South Sydney Rabbitohs got with Adam

• Christian Nicolussi


• The Daily Telegraph


• February 25, 2015 12:00AM

>IF THE money on offer for Daly Cherry-Evans is spot-on, then South Sydney have landed an absolute bargain with their own half-back Adam Reynolds. While Cherry-Evans is shopped around by his management for around $800,000 a year, red-hot Reynolds showed tremendous loyalty to stick around at Redfern for roughly $300,000 less.

While Reynolds is yet to play Origin or an international like Cherry-Evans, he is the reigning premiership No. 7, was crowned man of the series at the Auckland Nines, and produced another starring role for the Bunnies in their World Club Challenge victory early Monday.

If his pre-season form is anything to go by, then South Sydney have to be considered a fair dinkum chance of becoming the first team to make it back-to-back titles in a unified competition in more than 20 years.

Reynolds could have fetched more money had he wanted to test the market, but loves Souths, knows they’ll remain a premiership threat, which is why he recently extended his deal until the end of 2017 for an estimated $500,000 a season.

According to Fox Sports Stats, Reynolds had more try assists, forced more dropouts, and made much fewer errors than Cherry-Evans last season.

He also happens to be one of the best goal-kickers in the game.

With all that in mind, is Cherry-Evans really worth $300,000 a year more than Reynolds?

Titans and Cronulla fans will certainly be hoping he is because their clubs have gone public with their hopes to lure the half-back away from the northern beaches.

“Adam wanted to show Souths loyalty, but at the same time our focus was to source his market value,’’ Reynolds’ agent Steve Gillis said.

“His deal puts him within the club’s top-earners bracket, bearing in mind most players in premiership-winning teams are often prepared to make sacrifices to keep the group together.

“He’ll continue to benefit from playing behind Souths’ aggressive forward pack, and I anticipate rep footy will now be well within reach.’’

Breaking into the NSW side won’t be easy with incumbent Trent Hodkinson helping the Blues to a drought-breaking series win, and Roosters half-back Mitchell Pearce also sure to mount his own case for a recall.

Given Reynolds’ efforts in Souths’ 39-0 thumping of St Helens, he couldn’t have asked for a better start. The heavily-inked little right-footer touches down in Sydney with the rest of his teammates today.

Bunnies great Mario Fenech said of Reynolds: “I’m really impressed with Adam, he’s really matured and he’s got better as the years have gone by. He’ll play an instrumental role in our success.’’



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Daly Cherry-Evans price tag shows what a bargain South Sydney Rabbitohs got with Adam