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Cronulla’s climb up the table has continued with a fifth win from six, turning over Newcastle 26-6 in Coffs Harbour.
As is becoming routine, Nicho Hynes and Will Kennedy were the stars, with the halfback pulling the strings and the fullback invariably adding the finesse.
His Origin chances, again, will have been done no harm by this showing – especially after he reveled that he had been battling illness all week.
“It would be a dream come true,” he said of the chance to pull on a Blues jumper.
“All I can do is keep my fingers crossed now and hope I played good enough footy to hopefully get the call-up.
“If not I will just keep working hard and try and get into that arena at some stage. I try to remain as humble as possible, but I feel like I have played the best footy I have played in my career, so hopefully that’s enough.”
It was an afternoon to forget for the Knights, particularly fullback Lachie Miller, who endured a horror afternoon back on the Mid North Coast, where he grew up. The former Shark lost his radar completely in defence, regularly letting balls bounce, and sent a few to the turf himself in attack.
Kalyn Ponga, too, had a mixed afternoon. He had a concussion scare in the first five minutes, then scored an excellent try, but ended the game with a bizarre incident in which he completely failed to play the ball.
I stayed down a little bit just from the contact, but in terms of my head and concussion side of things, I felt pretty good,” he said after the game.
“I’ve been through this more than enough times now, I know what the procedure is and what to go through and I felt really good. I felt confident to come back.”
Adam O’Brien will wonder what to do with his side after this. Their attack was disjointed and struggled to find their best players at the right moments, while also looking terrified every time Hynes kicked the ball.
Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon, on the other hand, takes his side into their second bye of the season with a 7-4 record and well set for the top four.
The first Origin clash is 12 days away and Maroons coach Billy Slater would have had his heart in his mouth after just four minutes, when his prospective fullback was withdrawn for HIA after copping a shoulder to the face while effecting a tackle.
The five eighth passed the test and returned to the game, but it was a timely reminder of the concerns regarding Ponga’s history of head knocks.
He has already missed time this year, having been withdrawn in similar circumstances very early in Newcastle’s win at Leichhardt Oval against the Wests Tigers in Round 2.
Ponga also missed the end of last year after repeated concussions, and has suffered four in the last year, prompting a trip to Canada to see a specialist.
He was the player of the match in last year’s decider, so Slater will be more than aware of his talents and ability to change games on the big stage.
But that’s if he’s on the pitch. With Reece Walsh putting in stellar performances in the 1 jumper at Brisbane, it might be a risk that isn’t worth taking.
When he returned, Ponga was among the Knights’ best – just don’t mention the moment when he lost the tackle count and handed the ball over on the fourth.
The same could not be said for Dane Gagai, however, who is testing Queensland’s levels of loyalty with his form.
Cronulla are excellent on both edges, but they found particular joy by running at Gagai, who was given a bath by Connor Tracey for his try and left stranded by Kennedy for his.
In between, the Knights centre left his winger Dom Young high and dry for Ronaldo Mulitalo to score. Later, it was his drop that gave the Sharks field position from which they took the two points that clinched the game.
Origin Gagai is a thing, and the veteran has risen to the occasion before. But as auditions go, this one was flunked spectacularly.
This was a battle of Cronulla’s two fullbacks from last year, with Will Kennedy facing up with Lachie Miller, the man the Sharks let go.
It was a decisive win for the Shire incumbent. Kennedy was exceptional, probably the best in black, white and blue, and from the moment he opened the scoring he didn’t look back.
He was averaging ten metres a run in yardage, which anyone will take, and picked up both line breaks and line break assists on the creative front, along with a frankly ridiculous ten tackle breaks.
On the other side, things weren’t as rosy. Miller looked very shaky indeed under the high ball, regularly allowing the footy to bounce rather than going for the catch.
While his running game was decent, it came with a bucketload of errors, several of them in crucial yardage situations.
It was a shame for Miller, who grew up down the road in Sawtell and will have wanted to put on a show. Motivation would have been strong.
It was as if his unease spread through the team, too. Young was being forced to come well inside to defend kicks as Miller looked uncomfortable, while Greg Marzhew on the other wing also let a few bounce.