‘It’s round one’: Sharks stay cool after mauling Titans
Jasper Bruce |
Craig Fitzgibbon is playing down Cronulla’s electric start to the 2026 NRL season after a Braydon Trindall masterclass powered the Sharks to a 50-10 mauling of Gold Coast.
As former Cronulla assistant Josh Hannay’s head coaching debut at the Titans ended in despair, Fitzgibbon’s Sharks fired an early warning that this may be the season to finally end the club’s 10-year premiership drought.
Trindall nabbed two tries and three assists as Cronulla ran out to a 34-0 lead before Hannay had the chance to deliver his first halftime address as Titans coach.
Playmaker Trindall added a fourth try assist and a 40-20 kick in a more even second half on Saturday.
Fitzgibbon is all too aware that Cronulla’s hopes of seriously contending for a second NRL title will not be determined by a round-one demolition of perennial underachievers Gold Coast.
But things could not have started much better for the back-to-back preliminary finalists as they look to finally take the next step in 2026.
“We obviously put a hell of a performance in there but it’s also important to cool the jets. It’s one round,” Fitzgibbon said.
It has never been clearer that the Sharks are at their most dangerous when Trindall is in charge, not when he and Nicho Hynes are trying to split organising duties evenly.
“It’s not any different to what we’ve always done. The only thing I’d say is that they’re getting better at it,” Fitzgibbon said of the Sharks’ oft-maligned halves pairing.
Hynes, for his part, played second fiddle with aplomb, scoring once off a short ball from Trindall and then spinning away for a second try that helped take the home team’s score beyond 50 points.
Trindall had the Sharks on the board in their first set by lofting up a high kick that winger Sam Stonestreet tapped back for Will Kennedy.
He then swung right and sent a grubber kick though the line for a try to Briton Nikora, one of the NRL’s most dangerous running second-rowers.
In the set after the Sharks’ third try, Trindall got in on the action by dummying straight past Arama Hau for his first four-pointer, and had a second when Keano Kini spilt his kick.
After the break, Trindall put Jesse Ramien in for his second four-pointer.
Gold Coast’s 40-point drubbing was a brutal introduction to fulltime head coaching for Hannay, the latest in a long line of highly-rated candidates tasked with inspiring success at the Titans.
Gold Coast had 10 more red-zone tackles than the Sharks but seven fewer tries, struggled to match their rivals physically and made some worrying mistakes with the footy.
Most egregiously, the Titans coughed up possession when no player made it to dummy-half a during first-half attacking raid deep in Sharks territory.
“I’m not discouraged at all after one performance,” Hannay said.
“Disappointed for the players and disappointed for the club because I think there’s been a lot of hope built up over the last four months and you walk in here tonight with high hopes.
“(But) one game’s not going to diminish all that.”
In a judiciary concern, Titans captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui was placed on report in the first half for a late shot on Sharks counterpart Blayke Brailey.
AAP