Maloney kick a heart-breaker
James Maloney came back to haunt his old team by kicking a field goal in the 87th minute to give the Sharks a 19-18 golden point win over the Warriors.
The five-eighth managed to send over the kick with players in both teams out on their feet in a lungbusting match.
Given the form the Sharks had been in this season, with this being their 11th straight win, it was certainly no disgrace to lose to them in a golden-point thriller.
‘‘It was what we expected with Cronulla,’’ Warriors coach Andrew McFadden said.
‘‘A real arm wrestle and a real battle. We wanted to take them the distance and we had a good plan.
‘‘Although I didn’t think we played our best footy, we really stuck at it for the 90 minutes in the end.’’
In that extra time, the Sharks attempted two field goals before Maloney nailed the winner but the Warriors never got into position for a shot at goal.
‘‘They did a pretty good job at winning some of those early plays,’’ McFadden said of that period of the game.
‘‘That’s something we’ll look back at the tape on and say we really need to find a way to get forward early.
‘‘Once you get the momentum early, it’s difficult to stop it at that time in the game and that’s where they probably got us right at the end.’’
Surprisingly, McFadden made the call to switch David Fusitu’a from wing to fullback and drop Tuimoala Lolohea to the bench. Jonathan Wright took Fusitu’a’s place on the wing, with Nathaniel Roache dropping out.
McFadden chose to do this because he had been so impressed with how Fusitu’a had played at fullback recently.
The Warriors blew a couple of their early opportunities, while they defended well to keep the Sharks out when they attacked.
In the 21st minute the deadlock was broken with Fusitu’a breaking through the line, then flicking a pass inside him to Blake Ayshford to beat fullback Ben Barba. In the 27th minute the Warriors got their second try, coming from Jonathan Wright, who finished off a nice backline move.
Then came the fightback. Five minutes before break Michael Ennis threw a huge dummy then snuck through a gap to score.
Three minutes later Ricky Leutele took the ball on the right edge with an overlap, Maloney’s kick putting the Sharks up 12-10 at the break.
Early in the second half Warriors prop Sam Lisone was smashed by Luke Lewis when making a charge for the line, then a few minutes later Wright dropped the ball cold when he had no one around him and the tryline just metres away.
In the 49th minute, the Sharks were awarded a penalty try when Simon Mannering held back Jayson Bukuya as the former Warrior was running to try to ground the ball in goal.
While agreeing that it was a professional foul from Mannering, captain Ryan Hoffman felt it was uncertain Bukuya would have been able ground the ball if he’d been untouched.
The Warriors needed something special to get back in the game and got that from Thomas Leuluai, who contorted his body around three tacklers to ground the ball.
Lolohea replaced Wright for the last 20 minutes and with seven to go Luke goaled a penalty to make the score 18-18.
Maloney missed with a field goal in the 78th minute and Chad Townsend had an attempt charged down with five seconds left.
Barba couldn’t hold onto the ball one minute into extra time after Townsend’s break and neither side took a shot at goal over an exhausting first five minutes.
But two minutes into the second period, Maloney got over an ugly kick that just flopped over the bar.
DAVID LONG
Sharks 19 (Michael Ennis, Ricky Leutele tries; penalty try; James Maloney 3 goals, field goal) Warriors 18 (Blake Ayshford, Jonathan Wright, Thomas Leuluai tries; Issac Luke 3 goals). HT: 12-10.