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Gallen says pressure on Barba is "unwarranted"

12th March, 2015
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Paul Gallen says Cronulla teammate Ben Barba will never return to the lofty heights he reached during his Dally M season in 2012 – and nor should he be expected to.

Barba had a poor showing in the Sharks’ first-up loss to Canberra on Sunday and will have the magnifying glass on him again on Friday when he comes up against former club Brisbane for the first time.

Barba lit up the competition with his speed and skill in 2012, guiding Canterbury to the grand final, but has been unable to capture that form since.

He had a night to forget in his first outing in the Sharks’ No.6 jersey, coming up with two pieces of poor play that led to Raiders tries and also had a wayward performance with the boot.

Gallen said he felt sorry for Barba as he was being saddled with unrealistic expectations and he wasn’t expecting him to pull rabbits from his sleeve.

“I just want Benny to play the way he played in the trials. He’s had a really good pre-season. I thought even defensively last week he wasn’t too bad,” Gallen said.

“There’s a bit of pressure and expectation on him and it’s probably a bit unwarranted.

“He’s not going to have a year like he had in 2012. You just can’t do it. It just won’t happen for him and I’m sick of people talking about it. I feel sorry for him.

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“It’s three or four years ago now and we need him to play a role in the team and do his job and if he does that to the best of his ability he’ll become a quality player for us.”

Sharks coach Shane Flanagan said he had no plans to move Barba from five-eighth to fullback, where he played at during the early years of his career.

The season-ending knee injury to Nu Brown has reduced Flanagan’s options and said he would persevere with Barba at pivot.

Flanagan described Barba as a big-game player and backed him to bounce back against Brisbane at Remondis Stadium on Friday.

“He had some nice touches (against Canberra), he passed for two tries and he had some not-so-nice touches,” Flanagan said.

“Ben was a classic example of what I was talking about (in terms of the team’s performance). We were a little bit nervous and didn’t get our game right and didn’t get our focus right from the time we ran out there.

“He’ll be better for the run.”

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