NRL 2018 season review: Cronulla succeed by being as Cronulla as possible
CRONULLA secured a top four spot and a preliminary final berth but a second premiership remained tantalisingly out of reach.
Sharks
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CRONULLA bolted from the blue late in the season and secured a spot in the top four and we were treated to that most repetitive tradition of the Sharks being dubbed the premiership dark horses.
Injuries struck at the wrong time and the 2016 premiers ran out of bullets in the end but on the whole it was a tidy season for Cronulla – they’ve successfully transitioned into a very different roster than their premiership year while remaining in title contention.
They may rub people the wrong way, but Cronulla, above all, keep winning and if a couple more things had gone their way they could easily have been preparing for another grand final.
In style, these Sharks resemble the teams of the pre-premiership era - hard-nosed, defensive minded and capable of dragging almost anyone in the competition into their world.
Where they finished
4th (preliminary final)
What went wrong
Injuries at the wrong time. Wade Graham’s role for Cronulla is unique among backrowers across the league – he’s a distributor, a playmaker and an organiser on the left edge in addition to the usual backrow workload. When he’s there, the Sharks can be a premiership side and when he’s not it becomes much more difficult.
Losing him in the qualifying final to a serious knee injury helped end the club’s premiership chances and could have a ripple effect into next year. Gallen also went down in the penultimate game of the season, while Josh Dugan struggled to string matches together in his first season in the Shire.
From a footballing perspective, errors and penalties made life hard at times for the Sharks. They are a staunch defensive team, but at times they made their job harder than it needed to be.
What went right
Matt Moylan started to find his feet as a five-eighth towards the back end of the season and played the toughest game of his career in the finals win over the Panthers. His style is unconventional but with Graham and Chad Townsend beside him it seems to work for the Sharks and he’ll form a big part of their future going forward.
Valentine Holmes had a rocky start at fullback but by the end of the season he’d become one of the most damaging players in the competition. Cronulla are right to offer him whatever it takes to keep him in the Shire. Holmes led the league in line breaks and was second only to David Fusitu’a for tries. He’s already one of the top fullbacks in the league and as his ball-playing improves he may well take the top spot.
Paul Gallen and Andrew Fifita were as good as ever with Fifita touching career best form at stages during the season. Special mention must go to Aaron Woods, who revived his career after switching from the Bulldogs and quickly becoming adept in Shark-style football, as well as up and coming centre Jesse Ramien, who is leaving for Newcastle with rep football in his future.
Stats that sum up the season
Cronulla led the league in errors (287) and were second in penalties conceded. (226)
Main area they need to improve.
Staying injury-free is more about luck than anything else so there’s not much Cronulla can do about that and the penalties are partly a construct of their defensive style – they like to push the envelope in the ruck and get under the skin of their opponents. When you play like that penalties are inevitable.
But they can cut the errors. Only one Sharks player – Matt Moylan – finished in the top five for most handling errors yet the club had the most in the league. Sixteen Cronulla players made more than ten errors over the course of the season. Players should be encouraged to try their hand and completion rates are not the be all and end all but the Sharks put so much unnecessary pressure on themselves. Against most sides they’re good enough to get away with it but when it becomes big time – like the finals losses to the Roosters and Storm – it can come back to get them.
Highlight of the season
A 17-14 win over Melbourne in Melbourne was Cronulla’s most impressive performance of the season but the first victory over the Storm – a 14-4 fight at Southern Cross Stadium that broke penalty records, ended with punches being thrown and Cameron Smith in the sin-bin – was much more classically Sharkian.
Lowlight of the season
There were extenuating circumstances, but the preliminary final defeat was disappointing. Given how undermanned the Sharks were it was difficult to expect a victory but the history and magnitude of the clash got the better of them and the 22-6 loss was well below the standards the club had set.
Big name recruits
Josh Morris (Canterbury)
Big name losses
Kurt Dillon (Souths), Edrick Lee (Newcastle), Jesse Ramien (Newcastle), Ricky Leutele (Toronto Wolfpack), Luke Lewis (retired), Joseph Paulo (St Helens)
2019: Best possible scenario
The new look backline clicks together, more of the juniors filter through, Valentine Holmes does it all again and the Sharks make the top four.
2019: Worst possible scenario
The points dry up, the years catch up with Gallen, there’s more bad Fifita than good and Holmes checks out after signing with North Queensland. Cronulla miss the finals.
Coach safety rating – 9
Shane Flanagan is the best and most long-serving coach in Cronulla history. Like it or not, he’s one of the best mentors in the NRL and intimately understands how to get his squad going and what they need to do to compete with the best.
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Originally published as NRL 2018 season review: Cronulla succeed by being as Cronulla as possible
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