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Cronulla’s surge towards the top four has continued with a 36-12 win over the Wests Tigers, but questions remain about their performances after their lowly opponents game them an almighty scare late in the first half.
The Sharks were cruising at 12-0 before a double salvo from Tommy Talau and Shawn Blore caught them cold and gave hope to a home support that previously had none.
Craig Fitzgibbon’s men ran over the top of their opponents in the second half, but required a little luck along the way: having gone back in front via Sione Katoa, they were very lucky not to be pegged back again after Talau had a try wiped off for the slightest of knock-ons.
Within 90 seconds, Jesse Ramien claimed a kick in similar circumstances but was adjudged to have held on. Cronulla ran away with it thereafter. Katoa went on to score a hat trick and Siosifa Talakai got two, but it was hard to shake the feeling that this was an underperformance.
“Both (Tigers) tries were poor defensive reads,” said Fitzgibbon. “I thought we defended strongly so to have two simple lapses is frustrating, but we had a big period in the second half of goalline D which is good to see.
“I know everyone is trying to shape up the draw and who’ll win, but there’s heaps to go. We’re where we’re at. We need to be better.
“We’re working on parts of our game, we’ve not shot ourselves in the foot these last couple of weeks and there’s a long way to go.
“We just need to be better – we’re not where we need to be but we feel like we’re improving in the parts that have let us down previously. We can get better.”
The Sharks are now second on the live ladder, but have enjoyed all three byes. Their ten wins are good enough for equal with Souths, Canberra and Melbourne, although the Raiders can overtake them with a win tomorrow over the Dragons.
The Tigers, who were smashed 74-0 last week by the Cowboys, were determined if limited. Their job was to show something better than their previous outing, which they achieved, though expectations would have gone little further than that.
Tim Sheens’ side faded badly late on, as might be expected given the amount of youth on display, but emerged with some credit. What they lack in talent they made up for in application, which is more than could be said in Townsville.
“I said to the guys that last week, we got beat, tonight we lost the game,” said Sheens. “People don’t understand that there’s a difference. The effort was there.
“We were in the game at half time, we’d come back really well after really copping a pounding by way of field position.
“Coming off what happened last week, it showed that there’s plenty of spirit in the boys.”
Call it playing with their food, call it complacency, call it getting ahead of themselves. The Sharks cruised the first 25 minutes, scored two fairly straightforward tries and thought they had it sussed.
From kick off until the 25th minute, Cronulla had twice as many sets as the Tigers and the vast majority of them in the attacking half. At that point, the Tigers had only crossed halfway for four tackles.
But after sitting pretty at 12-0, the cue went straight into the rack. The possession and territory swung back for the final quarter hour of the first half and the points flowed with them.
It was a totally unnecessary loss of focus from Cronulla, and at this level, even against one of the competition’s lesser lights, that will get punished.
The tries that saw the Tigers square the game were softer than soft and should really worry Fitzgibbon. The goalline defence has been the big problem in 2023 and there was no evidence that it has improved at all.
This would have taken a monumental swing of possession for Cronulla not to win and the results was never in doubt. In the second half, they pulled away with ease as the Tigers tired.
But all the lingering fears over resilience and the ability to match with the best were not assuaged here.
Perhaps this was a hiding to nothing: if the Sharks had put 70 on the Tigers, the commentary would have been about how poor their opponents were anyway.
As it stands, the narrative is that the plucky Tigers made them work much harder than they needed to – aided by the lackadaisical play late in the first half.
The Tigers are a really bad football side. Most teams will beat them on talent alone. Cronulla just did exactly that.
At this stage, fans aren’t that bothered about results because they know they won’t come, and on the back of a towelling up at the hands of North Queensland, expectation levels were through the floor. All that mattered this time around was that they show some dig.
Wests did that, and more. At 12-0 down it looked like it could have been anything, but the way the Tigers fought their way back to parity before the break showed the sort of team they can be for the rest of the year.
This is a team that wasn’t great to start with and have lost an entire spine. Guys like Blore and TTalau, who scored their only tries, exemplified this.
They’re far from world-beaters, but have struggled with injury over long periods and seemed determined just to have a red hot crack.
Realistically, a side that starts with Brandon Wakeham and Will Smith in the halves is unlikely to score many points, and Cronulla are too good an attacking team not to score enough points.
Talau was robbed of a second by a borderline, finickety Bunker call, but in truth, it wouldn’t have massively mattered. Performance is everything and the Tigers did at least hold their end of the bargain this time.