SHARKS LIVE ON, TIGERS BOW OUT
ROBBIE’s finished, Gal’s alive.
In a day of high drama at a jam-packed Leichhardt Oval, Cronulla steamrolled Wests Tigers 25-8 to book a sudden-death final against Manly on Saturday night at Brookvale Oval.
Retiring Sharks skipper Paul Gallen’s premiership dream remains alive for at least another week. And to totally insult Wests Tigers, Gallen kicked a rare field-goal inside the final minute.
Defeat sent hapless Wests Tigers crashing out of finals contention for an eighth successive season. Not even the acquisition of a premiership-winning coach, Michael Maguire, could take Wests Tigers to the Promised Land this season.
And the loss ended the stellar career of Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah, who has now retired.
Playing in front of hysterical and expectant home crowd of 19,491, Wests Tigers blew it. Ahead just 6-4 at half time, Cronulla scored three tries in seven minutes early in the second half to secure a match-winning lead.
Despite a modest season, the Sharks are now playing finals footy against an injury-ravaged Manly side. And leading from the front, yet again, will be the relentless Gallen in his 348th NRL match.
Given their star-studded roster – which includes NSW stars Gallen, Josh Dugan, Wade Graham, Aaron Wood, Andrew Fifita and Josh Morris – there is no reason why Cronulla cannot inflict some heavy duty damage in the finals.
Farah was officially ruled out pre-game and named 19th man just after lunchtime yesterday.
Yet in dramatic pre-game scenes, fullback Corey Thompson injured his ankle in the warm-up with Farah told he was playing just 11 minutes before kick-off.