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Nerd’s Eye View: Fitzgibbons needs to put bite back in Sharks' defence

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Expert
20th February, 2022
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Cronulla’s defensive woes last season ultimately cost them a seventh straight trip to the finals.

If you need help in this area, you can’t do much better than bringing in Craig Fitzgibbon, Dale Finucane and Cameron McInnes for an immediate fix.

In a bizarre season in which they sacked their coach, John Morris, after just five rounds, the Sharks finished ninth under caretaker boss Josh Hannay, just missing the finals on percentages when they were gazumped by the Storm in the final round while the Titans leapfrogged them by pummeling the Warriors.

Losing to Melbourne should not have been a surprise – they finished 2-9 against the teams which made last year’s finals. They were as middle of the road as a median strip.

When you look at the main statistical categories, the Sharks were, for the most part, good but not great.

At the crux of their inability to make the leap into finals contenders was their missed tackle rate. They were the second-worst in the 2021 NRL season at 34.4 per game, with behind only the leaky Cowboys (36.8) falling off more tackles.

This led to the Sharks conceding many more running metres than they otherwise would have done. They were fourth-worst in this category at an average of 1537, ahead of the bottom three teams on the ladder – the Dogs, Broncos and Cowboys.

Despite their inability to hit and stick in tackles, they were still a commendable seventh in the NRL when it came to points (23.4) and tries (4) conceded per game.

Fitzgibbon, a renowned elite defensive specialist as a player and assistant coach for more than two decades, should be the ideal new mentor to come into the Sutherland Shire and put some bite back in the Sharks’ tackling efficiency.

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Big forward Toby Rudolf (74) and hooker Blayke Brailey (71) were two of the chief culprits, ranking fifth and sixth in the NRL in this unwanted area, while second-rower Briton Nikora (54), and utility duo Matt Moylan (52) and Connor Tracey (49) also need to improve.

McInnes, despite sitting out last season at the Dragons with a torn ACL, and Finucane love tackling in almost unhealthy way and another player who hopefully will be able to strengthen Cronulla’s defence is Wade Graham, who is on the comeback trail after concussions ruined his 2021 campaign.

The 31-year-old skipper only added 11 games last season to his career tally, which now stands at 259 since his debut in 2008. With his lucrative contract up at the end of this year, it shapes as a crucial season for the premiership-winning former international.

One category which went under the radar last year was that Cronulla (83%) were just shaded for top honours by Canberra (84%) in goal-kicking in 2021. For the Sharks, who lost a record five matches due to inferior goal-kicking just a couple of seasons beforehand, this was a massive improvement.

Their main kickers from last year, Chad Townsend and Shaun Johnson, are no longer at the club but new halves duo Braydon Trindall (81%) and Nicho Hynes (74%) are more than capable off the tee.

Trindall and Hynes will also have to pick up the slack from Johnson in particular when it comes to forced drop-outs. Cronulla were second in this category (2.1) behind Penrith (2.2) and this is a telling stat as it’s no coincidence that seven of the top eight teams who were the best at getting those repeat sets were playoff sides.

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Hynes had five at the Storm last season and Trindall came up with nine at the Sharks while much-improved fullback Will Kennedy also showed he was adept with the little grubber into the in-goal area by conjuring up 10.

Another area where the Sharks were statistically high was completion rate, being one of three teams to finish the year with an average of 80%. But to show how much this harped-on-about stat is over-rated, the other two teams at the top were premiers Penrith and wooden spooners Canterbury so make of that what you will.

They kicked off their pre-season with a 34-6 loss to Penrith on Sunday but not much should be read into that result with only four players at the most likely to be part of the round-one team as Fitzgibbon used the game as a way to see what his baby Sharks could do, do-doo-do-doo.

With a new coach, key recruits and a young roster on the rise, Cronulla have been widely tipped in the pre-season as the team most likely to make the leap from outside the eight into the finals this year.

If Fitzgibbon fixes their defence, they could potentially challenge for a top-four berth but if they keep missing tackles, in the left, right and centre thirds of the field, they will again be stuck in the middle of the pack.

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