Sunday Territorian

SHARKS BITE EELS LATE IN DREAM HOMECOMING

- MARTIN GABOR

HE WAS forced to watch Cronulla’s first game from home, but new coach Craig Fitzgibbon overcame a “bizarre” week to watch on as Nicho Hynes booted a late conversion to hand the Sharks an amazing 18-16 NRL win over the Eels to celebrate their return to the Shire in style on Saturday.

Fitzgibbon was a late scratching from the round 1 loss to Canberra due to Covid, and had to sit on the lounge at home as the Raiders scored late to snatch the win.

But eight days later, the Sharks produced an almost identical play through back-rower Teig Wilton who bounced back from a couple of costly penalties to level the scores in the final minute before Hynes converted after the siren.

It wasn’t the relaxed start any new coach would have wanted, but Fitzgibbon won’t care as he chalked up the first win of his career and didn’t even need to waste a halftime spray to help them do it.

“We did it the hard way, but it was a good experience. I was just proud of the way we played,” Fitzgibbon said.

“It (the halftime message) was pretty simple and to the point. I didn’t go overboard with it.

“We were in a ding dong game at halftime so we didn’t need a whole host of messages from me.

“We just needed to do what we were doing in the first half again.

“I learnt that I didn’t want to be sitting at home watching a game.

“It was a difficult week. It was bizarre and another curveball of coaching.”

IN THE NICHO TIME

This is why the Sharks spent so much money to lure Nicho Hynes from Melbourne.

The former Storm man had missed his three previous shots at goal but Hynes held his nerve to guide the Steeden through the posts to snatch a stunning two competitio­n points.

Hynes had struggled all night with his kicking game, but his running game was one of the key reasons why the Sharks fought back in the second half after the Eels had looked in control thanks to a glut of possession and territory.

The kick alone will make Hynes a local hero for many years to come.

UP, UP CRONULLA

Parramatta thought they had crashed the party when Shaun Lane broke free and found Reed Mahoney in support to give his side the lead with 18 minutes to go.

Young gun Will Penisini is still waiting for that breakout performanc­e in attack, but he had a huge moment in defence to chop down a rampaging Siosifa Talakai from five metres out to stop the Sharks from levelling the scores late.

That looked to be the winning moment, but it’s now an afterthoug­ht after Hynes’ heroics with the boot helped Cronulla celebrate their first game in the Shire since 2019.

“I was happy with the effort … but we’ve got to be able to close that out,” Eels coach Brad Arthur said, adding Mitch Moses picked up a cork in the loss.

The crowd of 11,459 was as rowdy as ever throughout the game, but they were simply wild at full-time and celebrated in true Cronulla fashion with three renditions of the southern Sydney club’s famous song.

 ?? ?? Cronulla forward Teig Wilton celebrates with teammates after scoring at the death against the Eels at PointsBet Stadium on Saturday. Picture: Matt King/Getty
Cronulla forward Teig Wilton celebrates with teammates after scoring at the death against the Eels at PointsBet Stadium on Saturday. Picture: Matt King/Getty

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