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Mounting pressure provokes Shane Flanagan's Barbed comments

14th March, 2015
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Cronulla Sharks coach Shane Flanagan had a dig at the referees after his side were dumped from the finals. (AAP Image/Jane Dempster)
Roar Guru
14th March, 2015
21
2997 Reads

Following the Sharks’ shambolic 10-2 loss to the Broncos on Friday night, Shane Flanagan took to the press conference to proclaim that superstar signing Ben Barba simply didn’t touch the ball enough.

Although Barba was far from his brilliant best, to single out a player who did not have an overly horrible game shows that ‘Flanno’ may already be feeling the pressure.

The Sharks came into the season with a new belief after their coach returned from his suspension, as did the players wrapped up in the ASADA investigation.

Without that stigma hanging over their head, players and officials should be free to focus purely on their football.

Unfortunately for long suffering fans in the Shire, the club has dished up two well below par performances in 2015, frustrating fans, and obviously their coach.

Many fans took to social media to blast their coach’s comments, rightfully pointing out that other players were far more at fault for the Sharks’ woes than they’re struggling five-eighth.

Former Kangaroo and Blue Andrew Fifita committed a series of errors that took the sting out of the Sharks attack on Friday night. He was far from the only one to do so.

To make Barba the scapegoat is perhaps a little unfair, especially so early in Barba’s reign in the halves.

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Darren Lockyer struggled at first after moving into the halves from the fullback position, and everything worked out pretty well there.

Not to mention the obvious point that it’s hard for a five-eighth to touch the ball when his forwards keep dropping it.

Fans are calling for the usually ‘play it safe’ Flanagan to take a risk with his selection decisions this Tuesday. Calls for young star Valentine Holmes to move to fullback have intensified after the Sharks’ stuttering start to the season in attack.

Jacob Gagan, who is famous for ending the Sharks’ multi-week scoreless run last season, is expected to come into calculation, while youngster Jack Bird must surely be in the frame.

The Sharks, and especially Flanagan, were always going to be under intense scrutiny this season following the goings on of the past two years and we can expect said scrutiny to grow following two straight losses.

I doubt many fans of the black, white and blue would be happy having dropped two home games to sides they’ll need to beat to play finals.

Things certainly aren’t going to get any easier as the Sharks travel to Melbourne next week to play the Storm.

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Although Flanagan obviously has strong support from the Sharks board, a third straight loss, especially should he name an unchanged line-up, will certainly see the fan-based pressure grow on both club and coach.

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