As Andrew Voss observed last night, sometimes it’s harder to defend a premiership than to win a premiership.
For many of us, myself included, there was a pretty strong expectation that the Cowboys would manage to make it through to the next round.
While the Sharks may have had the upper hand on paper, and the Cows hadn’t enjoyed the luxury of a week off, North Queensland have an uncanny knack for making good on the kind of adrenaline and momentum that fuelled the dying minutes of last round’s clash against the Broncos.
From the opening minutes of the game, however, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be Townsville’s night.
With the wind against them, the Cowboys only managed to complete two sets in fifteen minutes, struggling to retain or control possession across a litany of errors that extended well into the second half.
Despite a nifty move from James Tamou at the eighteenth minute, the Sharks also dominated offloads, with North Queensland struggling to match their dexterity.
If there was a single moment that seemed to signal the Cronulla landslide that was in store, it probably came in the twentieth minute.
Midway through a Sharks set, the Cowboys almost intercepted, only for James Maloney to regain possession and restart the tackle count.
Four tackles into this subsequent set, Matt Scott grabbed the Steeden and promptly knocked it on right at the Cronulla line, giving the Sharks yet another set. This quickly led to their first try of the night, an incredible four-pointer by Sosaia Feki in the left-corner off the back of a brilliant offload from Andrew Fifita.
Managing to ground the ball with Michael Morgan clutching onto his shoulder and Justin O’Neill slamming down his leg, Feki personified a Sharks outfit that was determined to win at any cost.
It was Maloney, though, who was the star in the Sharkies’ crown, with his intercept save foreshadowing his own brilliant intercept midway through the second half.
As penalty after penalty rained down on the Cowboys, Maloney managed to intercept the ball and run the length of the field to plant yet another Cronulla try in the corner of the field.
He would have converted it a moment later if the ball hadn’t bounced off the upright, with ten points in two minutes.
As it was, Maloney was responsible for a staggering 20 of the Sharks’ 32 points.
That’s as much as the entire Cowboys managed to score combined, while the final Cronulla scoreline represented the most that North Queensland have conceded in any game this year.
What went wrong for the defending premiers?
Obviously, the fatigue of a ninety minute game against the Broncos has a bit to do with it, plus the fact of the Cowboys having to play yet another game on the road.
Let’s not forget, too, that for all that North Queensland have been pretty good at getting it together for finals footy, inconsistency – especially at away games – is part of their signature.
Let’s not forget, either, that the Cows’ win at home last week was only so momentous and memorable because it was so close in the first place.
Leaving aside those obvious factors, I can’t help wondering whether Lachlan Coote’s issues in the first half had something to do with North Queensland’s incapacity to find any real momentum across the match.
While the No. 1 regained his form in the second half, a number of errors meant that the North Queensland side were put on the back foot during those crucial early minutes of the game.
Shades of last week’s match against Brisbane came back to haunt the team as Coote fumbled the first bomb, gifting the Sharks another set.
At the eighth minute, again, Coote waited just a bit too long for the ball to roll over the dead ball line, giving Chad Townsend the opportunity to dash up behind and ground it in what would have been the try of the night if it hadn’t been deemed a knock on.
For all that Cronulla were dominant, the Cowboys were pretty lucky that the Sharks didn’t manage to capitalise more on Coote’s errors – and the disorganisation of the back line – in those opening minutes.
Meanwhile, Johnathan Thurston had a fairly forgettable night – at least for him – tossing out a rare forward pass at the fifteenth minute and losing his cool in the closing minutes.
For a team that so often seems to set the gold standard for team unity, cohesion and vision, it was strange to see the Cowboys trumped by such a slick Cronulla outfit.
If last night is anything to go by, the Sharkies are now well and truly ready to beat the Raiders again, who they managed to topple down in Canberra by a narrow margin.
They may even be ready to take on the Storm.
Whatever happens, we’re in for a scintillating finish to the NRL season.
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