Sharks feast on drowned Cowboys to boost top-four hopes
Scott Bailey |
Cronulla have catapulted into the NRL’s top-four race, with a 32-12 beating of North Queensland putting the Sharks in a logjam of teams fighting for fourth spot.
On another wet day in Cronulla, the Sharks put the cleaners through a miserable Cowboys outfit who are now officially out of finals contention.
Cronulla led 26-0 at halftime with Blayke Brailey again starring, before the hosts’ defence held firm in the second half as North Queensland enjoyed more ball.
The home side’s fourth straight win means they finish the weekend in seventh, equal on points with Brisbane but behind on for-and-against.
Craig Fitzgibbon’s side now have as many wins as the injury-ravaged Warriors in fourth, with the Sharks still having a bye to come in round 25.
And while other top-four contenders Penrith and the Broncos have tricky runs home, Cronulla won’t leave Sydney or face a top-eight team until Canterbury in round 27.
“It’s out of our control, we’re going after performance, can we perform like a top team?” Fitzgibbon said.
“Where we land on the ladder is where we land. But we want to perform like we’re worthy of being up there.
“We haven’t done that yet but we’re getting closer and closer.”
After appearing slow in attack against South Sydney last week, the Sharks were anything but on Sunday afternoon.
They had 61 play-the-balls in the attacking red zone for two tries last week, but it took just 11 play-the-balls in the zone for their first two this week.
The home side found the right balance of attack and control in the wet, while Brailey was again involved in three of Cronulla’s five tries.
The hooker grubber-kicked for Braydon Trindall, before scurrying out of dummy-half and helping Nicho Hynes send Addin Fonua-Blake over.
Ronaldo Mulitalo also claimed for a first-half double, Siosifa Talakai was again impressive at centre and Fonua-Blake totalled 170 metres with four tackle busts.
And when the Cowboys had some early joy in the second half through a Robert Derby try, it was Brailey who helped seal the match.
With Tom Dearden in the sin bin for a professional foul, the Sharks hooker put Cameron McInnes through a gap to make it 32-6.
Brailey’s future remains a point of interest at Cronulla, with the local junior able to talk to rivals in November and the dummy-half knocking back the Sharks’ first offer.
Sunday’s outing won’t have hurt his asking price, as the form NRL No.9 in recent months.
Meanwhile the Cowboys have bigger concerns with only a late Braidon Burns try saving them from a bigger deficit.
Todd Payten’s men completed just six of 14 sets in the first half, gave away five penalties and made seven errors as they fell out of the game in the opening 40 minutes.
They were regularly their own worst enemies, with one Sharks try coming in the set after Robert Derby was penalised for being active in front of the play-the-ball.
“We’re beating ourselves, that’s the simplest way I can put it,” Payten said.
“There aren’t a lot of times this year that we’ve been outplayed. We’ve shot ourselves in the foot too often, and that’s highly frustrating.”
Making matters worse was a shoulder injury for Griffin Neame, while Derby’s knee was hurt in a tackle that left Jesse Colquhoun on report.
AAP
