Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans has hit out at critics of Lachlan Croker, declaring his young halves partner has proven himself as a first-grader in their historic win over Parramatta.
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The Sea Eagles five-eighth had come under plenty of scrutiny after veteran Blake Green departed in the summer and the NRL club struck out on its pursuit of Mitchell Pearce.
Manly were also keen to lure Trent Hodkinson back from Newcastle before he opted to join Cronulla and they've recently been linked to Todd Carney.
The attention on Croker escalated when Manly lost their opening match in golden point last week but he answered his doubters with a strong effort in their 54-0 rout of the Eels on Sunday.
The former Canberra playmaker scored a try and assisted on another as he and Cherry-Evans piloted the Sea Eagles to a nine-try romp - their biggest win over their arch rivals.
"Until we won today and Crokes put in a good performance, 'youse' was always going to question him," Cherry-Evans said after the match.
"Surely the monkey's off the back for him now. Surely you guys can leave him alone.
"He's a first-grader, he fits in perfectly with our group, there's no question about him being in this side based on his individual qualities and strengths as a football player.
"Hopefully today was a step in the right direction for you guys to leave him alone now and start crediting him for being a first-grader."
Sea Eagles coach Trent Barrett praised Croker's performance after the match but admitted he had grown tired of those questioning the 21-year-old's credentials.
He had played just one game for the Raiders before switching to the Sea Eagles.
"It's his third game and he dominated that game at important moments. If that was someone else, he'd be front and back page," Barrett said.
"But for some reason, just because we got beat in golden point round one, a few circumstances, I couldn't understand it. We didn't worry about it.
"It was getting a bit annoying in the end. He'll be right now."
Australian Associated Press