Foran's warning to NRL

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Manly five-eighth Kieran Foran has put the rest of the NRL on notice, declaring his thriving partnership with half-back Daly Cherry-Evans still has plenty of room for improvement.

The young duo are two of the brightest stars in the NRL and combined brilliantly again on Friday night to help Manly overcome a six-point half-time deficit to beat the Wests Tigers 22-18 in Gosford.

Cherry-Evans scored one try and set up Jason King's four-pointer, while Foran assisted in Tony Williams' try and was brilliant in marshalling his side around the field.

The Sea Eagles are desperate to secure the off-contract pair to long-term deals with rival clubs circling to take them away from Brookvale.

While Foran was reluctant to discuss his own future, he can see their partnership getting even more dominant in the future and believes Cherry-Evans can have an even better season than his breakthrough year in 2011.

"He's not going backwards and he took it to a new level tonight," Foran said of his No.7.

"Everyone could see after half-time he blew that game away in that first 10 minutes."

"He put a try on, scored one himself and that was the game. I think he's really stepping up."

"We're great mates off and on the field, we're both still young and trying to grow our games a lot."

"We've still got a lot of improvement in our games. It's just about making sure our games get better individually then as a combination it will just get better naturally."

Sea Eagles coach Geoff Toovey paid tribute to the pair's influence on the side, especially without stars Glenn Stewart and Steve Matai through injury.

The Manly boss said Cherry-Evans, who made it two man-of-the-match performances in two weeks against the Tigers, had taken his game to a new level since getting a taste of international football on the Four Nations Tour last year.

"It did give him some confidence, being on camp and being away with those great players can't do anything else but good for you," Toovey said.

"He's a confident player to start with but being away with those superstars that they are helped him out enormously."

Asked how important it was to keep the pair at the club, Manly co-captain Jason King said: "I'm not going to comment on their contract situation but all I can say is they are tremendous players who work well together."

"They are a fantastic asset to any club."

"I'm glad they're on my team and I'm working with them week in, week out."

"They are leading the team around excellent and combining well."

When asked whether Cherry-Evans had gone in front of Melbourne's Cooper Cronk for the Maroons No.7 role, Foran said: "It's only a matter of time before you see him in a Queensland jersey."

"It's tough to say he can go ahead of Cooper. Cooper's been doing it for many years now and probably deserves a chance but who's to say if Cooper goes down Daly can't step in there and do the job."

"It's only a matter of time before you see him play in the Origin arena."

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