WEAKENED WARRIORS FIRE
AN undermanned Warriors have continued making headaches es for NRL finals hopefuls, this time me upsetting Cronulla 18-16 to ensure the Sharks will drop out of the top eight by round’s end.
The Warriors have won back-to-back games for the first time this year, having defeated Wests Tigers last week and effectively ending their chances of finishing inside the top eight.
The Sharks had the chance to jump into the eight, having been bumped down by Newcastle’s win on Thursday, but failed to do the job against a club that has been crushed by injuries and exits.
To make matters worse, Cronulla had chances late in the piece to win or at least square the scoreboard.
But without experienced halves such as Matt M Moylan and Shaun Johnson John on the field, the Sharks Sh did not know what to do.
“With five minutes to go, down by two, they had a penalty directly in front, and the Sharks decided to go for the try,” Cooper Cronk said.
Interim coach Josh Hannay was asked about that specific moment post-game, and he took partial blame. “The decision to play on, that was from me,” Hannay said.
“I just backed our guys.”
Josh Curran busted five tackles, had four offloads, two line-break assists, a try assist and ran for 108m while making 35 tackles for the Warriors.