The Manly captain was loudly booed after the Sea Eagles ended Canterbury’s NRL season.

The Bulldogs had a brilliant season and their fans had plenty to cheer about, but they disgraced themselves on Sunday when they booed Daly Cherry-Evans after full-time. Manly ended the Bulldogs’ season in stunning fashion, coming back to win 24-22 in the dying stages.

It was a cruel way for the Bulldogs’ season to end after they enjoyed a bounce-back year and led 22-12 against Manly. Fans would have been left heartbroken, but the booing of Cherry-Evans in a post-game interview left a sour taste in many mouths.

The Sea Eagles skipper was interviewed on the field by Brad Fittler for Channel 9 after the game, and was loudly booed by the mostly-Bulldogs crowd at Accor Stadium when he appeared on the big screen. Cherry-Evans momentarily stopped speaking when the boos rang out, and delivered the perfect backhanded compliment in response.

“This is awesome, this is what it’s all about,” he said. “The Dogs fans have been amazing all season and they gave us everything today, but it’s nice to get the last laugh.”

The booing sparked anger on social media, with some labelling it “pathetic” and “embarrassing” on social media. All Cherry-Evans did to deserve the booing was play a starring role as his team sent the Bulldogs packing. Rather than denigrate one of the veteran champions of the game, maybe Dogs fans should have shown some class and kept quiet.

Cherry-Evans scored a brilliant try from a scrum to get Manly back to 22-18, before playing a part in the winning try for Tolu Koula. Reuben Garrick nailed a clutch conversion from out wide, before Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton missed with two long-range attempts at a two-point field-goal.

Manly dismiss Tom Trbojevic concerns ahead of Roosters clash

Manly will now meet the Sydney Roosters in a semi-final at Allianz Stadium next Saturday, with Tom Trbojevic set to line up despite landing awkwardly on his shoulder in the first half and appearing in pain all match. The fullback suffered an AC injury just two weeks ago, but played with the aid of pain-killing injections on Sunday.

“He’s fine. He’ll be right to go again,” Manly coach Anthony Seibold said after the win over Canterbury. “It was a real finals football game, the scoreboard was close, the Bulldogs were probably on top for the bulk of the game. We just hung in and the longer the game went, the scoreboard didn’t get away from us. I was really proud of the guys.

“[Trbojevic] had another needle at half-time, but that was always planned. He did land on it (the shoulder) in the first half … you probably saw that he got more involved in the second half.”

Cherry-Evans said of the match-winning try: “They had one marker over-chased and then I thought the space was going to be up the middle and it closed pretty quickly. Tom was good enough to get the ball and then everything that happened beyond that was awesome.”

Manly’s late try left the Bulldogs to wonder what might have been after making the finals for the first time since 2016. “We came here with a really clear plan. I thought we were executing it for long periods of time,” said Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo. “We knew we weren’t going to win every moment, but we probably just lost a few too many there, and they were big moments.”