Cronulla’s minor premiership ambitions could be thrown in disarray with star James Maloney facing a three-game ban for a dangerous tackle in Monday’s 18-18 NRL draw with Gold Coast.
The match review committee on Tuesday hit the Sharks five-eighth with a grade two dangerous contact charge for his 88th-minute tackle on Titans centre Konrad Hurrell.
He can take cop a two-game suspension with an early guilty plea.
Maloney wrapped his arms around the left leg of a standing Hurrell before bringing the former Warriors star down by driving his shoulder into the back of his leg in a delayed cannon-ball type tackle.
An upset Hurrell stayed down, allowing the bunker to review the incident, however the tackle went unpenalised and he was ordered to play the ball.
The grade two charge carries a 250-point base penalty, however a non-similar offence for Maloney in the past two years bumped up the charge to 300 points.
The Sharks’ final five games are against Canberra (home), St George Illawarra (away), South Sydney (away), the Sydney Roosters (home) and Melbourne (away).
The Sharks, who are one point ahead of Melbourne at the top of the ladder, have until midday Wednesday to decide whether to fight the charge.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
"Apologise for my appearance as well, boys - I usually look better than this!"
Nicho Hynes has not quite made an undeniable case to be Nathan Cleary’s halves partner for NSW but he should be the first five-eighth…
The Sharks halfback backed it up with a try from a few seconds later, through some more tired Canberra defenders.
The Sharks were scoring plenty of points, but equally impressive was their defence - stopping this near certainty!
After the Raiders hooker bombed a near-certain try, Sione Katoa scored at the other end of the field in a 12-point turnaround.
There is only one way for Cronulla to shake off their reputation for being flat-track bullies. They are off to an impressive start in…
