Sharks strike biggest blow yet in quest for NRL respect
Jasper Bruce |
Nicho Hynes spent the week pondering why Cronulla aren’t given more respect, then helped the Sharks take their biggest step to finally earning some in the Craig Fitzgibbon era.
For the first time since their finest hour – the 2016 premiership season – the Sharks have won consecutive finals games by ending the NRL season of minor premiers Canberra with a stunning 32-12 victory on Saturday night.
Cronulla had won just one of their past nine finals before this year and were assumed once again to be making up the numbers as they entered the 2025 play-offs from fifth spot.
The bookmakers had them the seventh-likeliest of the top eight to win the premiership before the finals began, despite a sneaky good run of form heading into the business end.
That situation had clearly frustrated Hynes, who confronted a pack of reporters in the bowels of Shark Park to say as much after last week’s elimination final defeat of the Sydney Roosters.
“I just don’t think we ever get any respect,” the halfback said at Cronulla’s media session a few days later.
The Sharks did little to silence their apparently numerous doubters early on a chilly Saturday, watching their completion rate dip below 60 per cent at one stage.
Superstar prop forward Addin Fonua-Blake had limited impact on the opening exchanges as errors prevented them from rolling forward, despite some steely goal-line defence.
They lost Tom Hazelton to a head knock in this period as well, with the towering prop to miss Friday’s preliminary final.
But everything changed once the Sharks, down 6-0, finally found some cohesion with the ball.
Their season had begun with questions as to which of Hynes and five-eighth Braydon Trindall would be the dominant playmaker once both were fit and available for a full campaign.
The answer has never been clearer than on Saturday night. The Sharks are at their best when neither is dominant – when both are working together.
“Let’s be straight, we’ve eaten it under a pressure for a while,” said coach Fitzgibbon.
“I felt like those boys were the two that were always going to get together and get it going.”
Hynes swung to the left to give the Sharks an extra man to attack the Raiders’ porous right side and threw the cutout pass that put Ronaldo Mulitalo in for their first try just before the half.
In the set after points, Hynes put KL Iro into a hole down the left side, and then stayed there to grab Trindall’s flick pass for an unlikely 12-6 halftime lead.
“(Hynes) deserves some credit,” Fitzgibbon said.
“He doesn’t get much. He’s had a strong season.”
Once again, the Sharks were flying under the radar.
In similar fashion, the ultimate journeyman Billy Burns sneaked up on the Raiders for Cronulla’s third try by crabbing across the left side and past Jamal Fogarty and Zac Hosking.
Again, the Raiders were caught napping in the final minutes as Teig Wilton closed the game out by putting boot to ball with a try at close range.
Asked about Hynes’s media comments the day before the game, Fitzgibbon suggested the Sharks would only ever earn “ultimate respect” by winning a second premiership for the club.
After eliminating two of the premiership’s most dangerous sides, and with another awaiting in Melbourne next week, they’re surely guaranteed that respect if they can get there this year.
“That’s a challenge but we’re ready for that,” Fitzgibbon said of next week’s game.
“That’s all I can say. We’re ready.”
AAP
