Toothless Cronulla Sharks make it too easy for North Queensland Cowboys to claim first away win
NORTH Queensland claimed their first away win of the year, with an easy 36-18 victory over the toothless Cronulla Sharks.
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AN inspired performance from Johnathan Thurston on Friday night lead the Cowboys to their first away victory of the season _ but the superstar halfback’s effort was overshadowed post match as refereeing controversy again stole the spotlight.
Cronulla captain Wade Graham let rip in the wake of his team’s 36-18 defeat after a total of 19 penalties were blown but inconsistency was Graham’s biggest gripe.
Graham labelled match officials Gavin Morris and Alan Shortall as bad as the Sharks and in a fiery post match analysis declared that the game “deserves better”.
“There is no shying away from the fact that we are struggling as a team. We haven’t had the best season. But mate, the men in the middle are on par with us,” Graham said.
“Their consistency, their decision making. Over confidence or under confident. It is frustrating as a player in the game, let alone week to week.
“The ruck was all over the shop, it is very frustrating.
“We can’t use that as an excuse. At the end of the day we weren’t good enough. We didn’t win. But I will tell you what, we are struggling and so are they.”
On a night when the NRL community came together in honour of Alex McKinnon, Thurston swapped his regular number seven jumper for McKinnon’s number 16 and then produced a memorable performance.
He crossed for two of his teams six tries and also kicked six goals before revealing he plans to sign and donate his jersey to be auctioned on the Newcastle Knights website to help raise more money for McKinnon’s cause.
Graham even apologised for taking the focus away from the opposition skipper’s brilliance but said the fact was the referees right now just aren’t up to the job.
Thurston’s second try was at the centre of some debate after Thurston stripped Michael Gordon of possession despite Matthew Wright also having contact with the Sharks fullback.
Wright didn’t appear in contact with Gordon when Thurston stole the ball but Graham’s argument again went back to consistency.
“The frustrating thing is that you see that decision tonight and we will probably see another game over the weekend where the same thing will come up and it will be a different decision,”
Graham said.
“That is what is most frustrating as a player.
“It happens in every game. Every game you hear a captain talking about it.
“The game deserves better.
“We should be talking about JT playing well. Instead we are here talking about that.”
Asked if he had an opportunity to speak with the refs, Graham said: “There is no dialogue”.
“You can’t talk to them.
“You try and it is just too frustrating.”
But for the Cowboys the win couldn’t have come at a better time.
Winless on the road this season, Friday night’s victory takes them to 20 competition points and reignites their finals hopes.
They now take on the Bulldogs next Saturday at ANZ Stadium but four of their last six games will be played at home against the Titans, Tigers, Sharks and Sea Eagles.
Asked how it felt to finally get a win away from Townsville, Paul Green quipped: “Good to get the monkey off the back. Hopefully you blokes will stop asking me about it now, for a while at least.”
The Cowboys dominated the early exchanges on to race to a 10-point lead before the Sharks even gained possession.
Cronulla fullback Michael Gordon had a horror start when he fumbled two early kicks balls that led to North Queensland tries but the home team showed character to fight back to trail 16-12 at halftime before a Cowboys’ onslaught in the second half ended their hopes.
Asked if he was surprised by the number of penalties, Green added: “Yeah, I was a little bit.”
Asked if it was over the top, he said: “There were a couple there that I wasn’t too sure about but it was a funny game for that reason.
“It didn’t seem to get any flow. It was very stop start.”
NORTH QUEENSLAND 36 (J Thurston 2 G Hall M Morgan T Sims A Winterstein tries J Thurston 6 goals) bt CRONULLA 18 (M Gordon L Lewis J Wright tries M Gordon 3 goals) at Remondis Stadium. Referee: Alan Shortall, Gavin Morris. Crowd: 9,366.
Originally published as Toothless Cronulla Sharks make it too easy for North Queensland Cowboys to claim first away win
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