Red- hot Holmes compared to Slater
VALENTINE Holmes enters the finals as arguably the NRL’S hottest player after spearheading Cronulla to a 30- 18 win over Canterbury in their regular- season finale.
Holmes scored a try and set up three others yesterday in a performance that even had Bulldogs coach Dean Pay comparing him to retiring champion Billy Slater.
“Billy’s retiring and someone’s got to take that mantle. These sort of players, for what he has done, he’s up there with the top players in the competition,” Pay said.
Sharks coach Shane Flanagan stopped short of crowning Holmes the game’s form player but admitted needing his star fullback to continue his purple patch in the finals.
“He’s definitely in form in our team. Not quite sure about the whole competition, there’s some good players going around at the moment,” he said. “( But) we need him in form. You need players like that if you’re going to go along in the semi- finals to rely on to score those tries, make a break, do something special.”
Holmes’ performances – he also had two line break assists and ran for more than 100m – has coincided with the Sharks ending the regular season with four wins.
No other finals contenders have more confidence than the 2016 champions, who will face minor premiers the Sydney Roosters in next week’s qualifying final.
The Bulldogs showed plenty of bite to stay within striking distance, but Holmes had an answer for every Bulldogs attack. The Queensland State of Origin representative set up the opener for Luke Capewell, and replied to back- to- back Bulldogs tries by sending Sosaia Feki over just before halftime.
Holmes did it himself moments after the break to score his 21st try of the season – a career- high – and pull within one of the NRL’s top tryscorer, David Fusitu’a.