Daly Cherry-Evans has claimed he has been the victim of an ugly and nasty "smear campaign", but says fans showed they saw through it during Manly's 26-12 defeat of Parramatta.
Six days after announcing his impending Manly exit, Cherry-Evans led the Sea Eagles to second on the NRL ladder on Sunday with their third win in four games.
The victory came at a serious cost, with Tom Trbojevic suffering a suspected medial ligament tear in his left knee that is expected to sideline him for around five weeks.
After missing last week's win over Canberra through hamstring tightness, Trbojevic struggled for 15 minutes on his injured left knee before not returning after halftime.
He will have scans on Monday, but this was one of the rare times that a Trbojevic injury was not the focus of attention at Manly.
After a very public fallout from his decision to make this 15th season at Manly his final one, Cherry-Evans was not booed but instead given the biggest cheer of anyone at Brookvale on Sunday.
After the match he told the Nine Network there had been a "smear campaign" against him.
"I know who it's coming from and it's not appropriate to talk about it," Cherry-Evans said later at the post-match press conference.
"There was a fair bit spoken after the announcement was made on Monday night.
"I feel like it could have ended pretty quickly early in the week, but it obviously didn't.
"Which means conversations were continuing to happen outside of the ones happening between the club and I.
"That's where I felt like it got a bit nasty and a bit ugly."
In the six days since Cherry-Evans' announcement, the halfback has knocked back a two-year deal worth $1.4 million from Manly.
It has also emerged that he requested a release from the club at the end of 2023, along with details of Manly's discussions with the No.7 at the end of last year.
Cherry-Evans admitted he had been hurt by the fallout, after so long with the club.
And while he said a decision on if, and where, he would play on next year was some time off, it did little to impact matters on Sunday as he clearly won any PR battle.
The Manly captain was given the biggest cheer by the crowd before the match, and helped set up the first try and forced two line dropouts.
The 36-year-old then finished the game posing for photos with fans after a celebratory lap, while a banner was hoisted from the northern end of the ground reading "Daly Stay".
"There is a human element, so your emotions and feelings do get hurt sometimes," Cherry-Evans said.
"The reception, definitely I was a bit nervous. Honestly, I was really emotional today when I heard the hill supporting me.
"I was a little bit worried it wasn't going to go that way based on what was being put in the media, but I reckon they saw right through it and made me so proud."
Sunday's loss left Parramatta winless, guilty of squandering good ball late in the first half and only crossing while 14-0 and 26-6 down.
They defended poorly on the edges early, gave away too many penalties in the opening 20 minutes and played themselves out of the match.
"Our fight and our effort were there, but we just put ourselves under too much pressure," Eels coach Jason Ryles said.
"We're alright for periods, but we can't do it for long enough."
Manly, in comparison, did what they needed to do to remain second on the ladder.
Trbojevic put Lehi Hopoate across for Manly's second try before his injury, while Hopoate moved to fullback and sent Tolu Koula over for a second-half four-pointer.
Corey Waddell also got a try in the win, put across by Luke Brooks to seal the victory on a dramatic day at Brookvale.
