The Maroons mentor has resisted the temptation to leave the decision on Cherry-Evans' troublesome knee until game day.
Meninga was also confident centre Greg Inglis (ankle) would be cleared this afternoon.
Meninga said he was still unsure of the interchanges make-up with halfback understudy Ben Hunt possibly earning a utility bench spot if Cherry-Evans is cleared to play.
Rookie Hunt, armed with just 13 NRL games as Broncos halfback, trained at No.7 throughout the team's Gold Coast camp ahead of Wednesday night's game two.
Fullback Billy Slater (shoulder) received the green light on Monday.
Meninga said Cherry-Evans had been upbeat despite his frustrating preparations.
"DCE will go through the session today. We will test it out with defence work and see how he sits at the back end of that session," Meninga said.
"He is upbeat which makes me positive. He knows his own body, we trust him to make the decision."
Meninga said his preference would be to pick four bench forwards, namely Jacob Lillyman, Ben Te'o, David Taylor and Chris McQueen.
"In my mind, I like to go with four forwards but if DCE plays and there is some doubt on whether he can get through the game we will look at it (a utility spot) with Ben," he said.
