SHARKS ATTACK CHOOKS
CRONULLA have made a bold statement about defending their NRL premiership with a 44-12 hammering of fellow contenders the Sydney Roosters yesterday.
On the same weekend Melbourne flexed their premiership muscle with a smash-up of Brisbane, the Sharks sent a reminder the premiership isn’t a one-horse race.
The Sharks leapfrogged the Roosters into second place after turning in their most complete performance of the season in front of a record crowd of 20,060 at Central Coast Stadium.
Coach Shane Flanagan didn’t have a bad player on the park but Wade Graham led with two try assists and 108m.
Penalties, completions and handling errors have been Cronulla’s Achilles heel this year, however, they looked finely tuned in the seven-triesto-two rout.
They completed 33 of 37 sets, made just four errors and won the penalty count 6-5.
“It’s amazing what happens when you hold the football,” Flanagan said. “We’ve been guilty the last couple of weeks of poor completion rates and poor start. We got both of that right tonight and it showed on the scoreboard.
“We’ve shown that we’re hard to handle and it was back to what we know.”
The Roosters went into the break down by just eight points, however, a three-try avalanche in 11 minutes broke their backs.
“Possession, field position, whatever you want to call it but they were better than us by a long way,” Roosters coach Trent Robinson said.
“If you want to play against premiership winners, you’ve got to hold on. We didn’t hold on for long enough when we had our chance … we ended up leaking tries.”
With Sydney Roosters and NSW skipper Boyd Cordner sitting on the sidelines, Graham proved he was ready to answer the call should he be drafted into the Blues’ starting side for State of Origin III.
He was sharp all day down the Sharks’ left edge, running and creating space for Ricky Leutele’s four-pointer 11 minutes after the resumption.
And when Andrew Fifita popped an offload, despite the attention of three defend- ers, Gerard Beale crossed in the corner to open up a 20point lead.
The Sharks now have the bye while the Roosters take on South Sydney on Friday night.