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Opinion

The Sharks' ups and downs

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Roar Guru
4th March, 2020
25

In 2016 the Sharks won the premiership against the Melbourne Storm and four years later let’s see how they’re going.

Paul Gallen has retired, Shaun Johnson came to the Sharks in 2019 in hopes of winning a premiership (which is very unlikely to happen), Kyle Flanagan, who looked very good in 2019, has left the club to play for the reigning premiers, Josh Morris wants out of the club to also play for the Roosters alongside his brother Brett, Bronson Xerri declined a five-year deal worth 500k a season to stay at the Sharks, they lost Jayden Brailey to the Knights and lost recruit Cameron King to an ACL injury earlier this year.

When the Sharks signed Johnson from the Warriors in 2019, Sharks fans were really happy with this signing but Johnson was injured for six games and his points at the end of the season were his lowest (102) since he started playing in 2011 (24 points).

Shaun Johnson scored three tries, 15 forced dropouts and 16 try assists in 2019 which wasn’t too bad for the number of games he played. He looked good in some parts but was very inconsistent.

The Sharks bowed out of the 2019 finals series in Week 1 after their loss to the Sea Eagles 28-16, which also ended Gallen’s 19-year career.

The Sharks look very good so far in 2020 with them winning their trial match against Manly 28-16, with new recruit Connor Tracey scoring in the 17th minute and Josh Morris, who wants out of the Sharks, may have scored his last try for them in the 40th minute.

On the field, they look very good but off the field, they have a lot of distractions especially around Morris who wants to play with his brother Brett at the Roosters after they lost Latrell Mitchell (Souths) and young prospect Billy Smith to an ACL injury.

Jack Williams looked very good with ten runs for 130 metres, one tackle break, one line-break, 24 tackles and one try assist in the trial game. Royce Hunt, who previously played one game for Canberra, looked very good with 14 runs for 168 metres, four tackle-breaks and 28 tackles.

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Matt Moylan will miss the first month of the season with injury and along with that the Sharks first five games of the season will be played against South Sydney, Storm, Knights, Bulldogs and the Roosters. Those first five games will really show where the Sharks are at in 2020.

Matt Moylan

(Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

The Sharks are hoping to find some consistency under second-year coach John Morris.

Josh Morris has been predicted to line-up as fullback for the Sharks until the return of Matt Moylan, but until then Andrew Fifita and Aaron Woods will need to create a platform for players like Shaun Johnson, Chad Townsend and Blayke Brailey, which will enable them to give a good ball to Briton Nikora, Wade Graham, Xerri and new signing Jesse Ramien.

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