Ronaldo Mulitalo helped himself to a double in Cronulla’s comeback.Credit: Getty
KEY POINTSHOW TO SKIN A CAT: Craig Fitzgibbon is as polite as an NRL coach gets, but he will bristle when his team’s ability to compete with the game’s best is questioned. Twenty-five minutes into this one, there was no questioning it. Cronulla weren’t competing at all. And that’s what will please Fitzgibbon most given the final scoreline. The Sharks came to life against the Warriors and again stared down Canberra for two impressive comebacks against 2023 finalists. Their back five put in big stints with each man running for more than 100 metres and Brayden Trindall returned to form in the halves. Their starts to each game are a massive concern, no doubt. But the Sharks are 3-1 with two wins they probably wouldn’t have jagged in previous years. Not bad.
WHAT HAPPENED TO CANBERRA?: For 10 minutes they were happy to trade errors with Cronulla. For the next 15 they absolutely smoked them. And then after that… nothing. With big-name big men Josh Papalii and Joseph Tapine taking a breather possession swung, and the Raiders just couldn’t cope. Basic mistakes cruelled any chance they got and gave the Sharks plenty of their own - Xavier Savage’s casual trot back for a kick that resulted in Blayke Brailey’s try won’t look pretty on replay. Cronulla went after their right-edge defence and found critical second-half tries.
BIG SHARKS TAKE A BIG STEP: Take Dale Finucane, Toby Rudolf and Royce Hunt out of any front-row rotation and the opposition will fancy their chances, but Cronulla’s first-half revival came on the back of their back. Underrated middle Jack Williams had a serious impact when he entered the fray, as did former Rooster Tuku Hau Tapuha, who was playing just his second game for the club after moving to the Shire early last year. Cameron McInnes did not stop moving in the middle - finishing with 150 metres, 20 runs and 47 tackles - as usual either but for the youngsters, especially Tapuha, this was a big performance.
WHAT THEY SAIDSHARKS COACH CRAIG FITZGIBBON: “I love that we did something about [the slow start], but we need to be stronger than that. Everyone just started getting their job done. We’re proud of the fact that it was a backs to the wall performance. But it’s round four and there’s a long way to go… We won’t get away with too many more like that.”
RAIDERS COACH RICKY STUART: “We played a patch of 12 or 14 minutes of half-decent football. Outside of that we were embarrassing. It was awful… That’s not us. In the off-season we changed a lot of those really bad habits that crept in there tonight and that’s what we’ve got to deal with and get that out of us... That was abysmal. We weren’t going to pin them back with the way they were playing. We won’t be forgetting that night quickly I can promise you. That was really poor and it will be dealt with. There might be changes. It was a performance that every individual out there, they were below par.”
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