Shark ‘won’t be silly’ and push taunting too far: Fitzy
Jasper Bruce |
Craig Fitzgibbon insists Cronulla’s pest-in-chief Ronaldo Mulitalo can keep a cool head for the sake of the Sharks’ season when he faces another famous firebrand in Hudson Young.
Match officials took a tough stance on argy-bargy during Canberra’s week-one finals loss, controversially sin-binning Young for chirping at Reece Walsh before also binning the Brisbane star for headbutting in retaliation.
The match turned on its head once tempers boiled over, with the Raiders extending their lead shortly thereafter before falling victim to a Broncos comeback once a spurned Walsh returned.
Canberra host Cronulla in Saturday’s sudden-death semi-final and coach Fitzgibbon is confident the energetic Mulitalo won’t also be tempted away from the task at hand by Young and co.
Mulitalo is known to relish getting in the face of opposition sides, but has impressed Fitzgibbon with his discipline in recent weeks.
“Ronnie engages in a battle with his opponent but his energy comes to our team, not towards the opponent,” coach Fitzgibbon said.
“Ronnie really hasn’t been getting in anyone’s face for a number of weeks now.
“He’s obviously our energy spark and he has gone too far at times but Ronnie knows that his energy is for us, not for the opponent.”
The passionate Young was Canberra’s best player in last week’s one-point loss, while Mulitalo nabbed two tries in Cronulla’s elimination-final defeat of the Sydney Roosters.
“Hudson and Ronnie, they’re the sorts of people you want in your team because they’re combative,” Fitzgibbon said.
“They’ll do anything for their teammates, coaches love having those players in their team.
“(But) I don’t think Ronnie or Hudson will be silly enough to get themselves into trouble this week.”
The Sharks silenced critics of their recent finals record by ousting the in-form Tricolours from finals last week.
Eliminating the runaway minor premiers would mark Cronulla’s first back-to-back finals wins since their fairytale 2016 premiership season.
While Sharks players said during the week it was time the club finally earned some respect, Fitzgibbon said there was only one way to change their critics’ minds.
“Respect, you can’t ask for it. It’s got to be earned and in our game, I think everyone agrees, there’s only one way you get it,” he said.
“The ultimate respect is a premiership. That’s a long way away at this stage, we’ve only got one more game ahead of us, which is the Raiders.”
Cult hero Tom Hazelton is a chance of returning from an infection in his knee and lining up in the Cronulla forward pack.
“He’s done a terrific job of getting himself healthy again off the back of last week,” Fitzgibbon said.
“He’s got a good bank of hard work this week so we’ll see how he responds to a last little hit-out today and then make a call after that.”
AAP
