Paul Gallen’s golden day ends in heartbreaking 15-14 shootout loss to Raiders
Cronulla’s top eight hopes have taken a hit following a devastating 14-13 golden point loss to Canberra in Paul Gallen’s farewell to Shark Park.
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Cronulla captain Paul Gallen has revealed he would be “embarrassed” to finish his final NRL season without a playoffs appearance, saying: “I’m not going to hide away from that, it won’t be good enough”.
Unthinkable at the start of the year, Cronulla are now a chance of missing the finals after Canberra fullback Aidan Sezer kicked three field goals on Sunday afternoon - the last of which came after 85 minutes - to ruin Gallen’s farewell game at a sold out Shark Park.
Despite leading the Raiders by 12-zip at the break, and outscoring the visitors three tries to two, the Shire club must now beat Wests Tigers, who sit equal with them on 24 competition points, at that suburban burial ground otherwise known as Leichhardt Oval this Sunday.
Should they lose, it will also bring down the curtain on Gallen’s 18 seasons in the NRL.
Speaking after the loss, Sharks coach John Morris conceded he will now consider rushing superstars Matt Moylan and Shaun Johnson back from injury for the Tigers encounter saying “we have to play the game of our lives”.
Asked how it would feel if his stellar career ended without a finals appearance, Gallen said after the Raiders loss: “It would be embarrassing to be honest with you.
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“And I’m not going to hide away from that. It won’t be good enough.
“I can’t thank the club enough for today, they went above and beyond to make this memorable.
“But internally, all I cared about was the two points. And I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that we didn’t win.
“I’m, ah ... yeah, shattered.
“It’s an empty feeling.
“To walk away from my last game here not winning and, more importantly, not being where we need to be for making the finals, it’s really disappointing.”
Morris agreed.
“We knew we had to win one of our last two (to make the finals) and we were hoping it was going to be today,” he said.
“But destiny is still in our hands.
“So we now go to Leichhardt Oval to play the game of our life. We’re playing to stay alive so we have to pick ourselves up quick
“And if we don’t get that one done, it’s will be the last game for the big boy (Gallen) ... and we can’t have that.”
FLANNO THUMBS UP
Kyle Flanagan woke up Sunday morning with no game to play and the future of his club being questioned.
But rugby league ... well, funny game, right?
Called into the Sharkies backline only two minutes before kick off - when starting No.6 Johnson injured his quad during warm up - the 20-year-old playmaker proved strong over the opening 40 minutes, playing a key hand in two tries for winger Ronaldo Mulitalo and almost grubbering for a third for centre Josh Morris, who was outstanding for the home side.
Still, it wasn’t all beer and skittles for the Shire young gun.
FLANNO THUMBS DOWN
Specifically, Flanno missed all three conversion attempts in a game where Sezer and Sharkie Chad Townsend booted three and two field goals respectively.
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Afterwards, Raiders coach Ricky Stuart admitted Cronulla’s missed conversions undeniably kept his side in the game. Morris said: “It’s our fifth or sixth game where we’ve scored more tries and been beat.
“There were a couple of tricky kicks there for Kyle and he didn’t even know he was playing until two minutes before we kicked off so I can’t be critical there. But it is frustrating. We’ve found a way to lose a few games like that this year which has put us in this position now which is disappointing.”
CANBERRA 15 (N Cotric C Nicoll-Klokstad tries J Croker 2 goals A Sezer 3 field goals) bt CRONULLA 14 (R Mulitalo 2 J Brailey tries C Townsend 2 field goals) in extra time at PointsBet Stadium. Referee: Gerard Sutton, PhilHenderson. Crowd: 18,985
Originally published as Paul Gallen’s golden day ends in heartbreaking 15-14 shootout loss to Raiders
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