Matt Moylan shows glimpses as Cronulla see off Manly 30-14 at Southern Cross Group Stadium
STAR signing Matt Moylan had a mixed night in his first official hitout in Cronulla colours as his side downed an undermanned Sea Eagles outfit 30-14.
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STAR signing Matt Moylan had a mixed night at the office in his first hitout in Cronulla colours as his side downed an undermanned Sea Eagles outfit 30-14 at Southern Cross Group Stadium on Saturday night.
Moylan showed glimpses of his slick ball-playing and probed both sides of the field but he struggled with his handling and dropped the ball cold on a couple of occasions.
His combination with new halves partner Chad Towsend was clunky but showed plenty of promise and if the two can gel will form a dangerous pairing.
Coach Shane Flanagan praised his playmakers after the match but admitted they are still a work in progress.
“That’s what today was about [game time]. Get them to play in game conditions together. “They did some nice things together. They made an error on that first set but they tidied things up and they are only going to get better and they got our team around the park well,” said Flanagan.
It was hardly the ideal start for the Sea Eagles as captain Darcy Lussick went down injured clutching his ankle in the opening two minutes of the match.
He seemed to fall awkwardly in a tackle and was unable return to his feet and had to be carried off the field.
Coach Trent Barrett said the club was waiting for scans to determine the extent of the injury but The Daily Telegraph understands the forward has suffered a fracture to his lower left ankle.
“We’re still waiting to see how bad it is. It doesn’t look particularly good at this stage which is a shame for Darcy he’s had a really good preseason. We’ll just cross our fingers and hope he’s all right,” he said.
Manly had the upper hand early, winning the battle through the middle and were first to cross the line after a pin point kick from halfback Cade Cust found a flying Brad Parker on the right hand side after only seven minutes.
Hooker Manase Fainu’s kicking game was as slick as his shiny pink books. An enterprising cross-field kick from the Sea Eagles rake in broken play found centre Brian Kelly, who put Parker over to score his double with an inside flick pass. Winger Parker was a handful each time he touched the ball in the opening forty minutes.
Cronulla’s new look spine had a hand in putting dynamo winger Sione Katoa over for the Sharks’ first try of the match with Jayden Brailey, Townsend and Moylan all linking up. Katoa finished the movement with some fancy footwork to cross the line.
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The Sharks looked to have scored what would have been a brilliant try if not for some sloppy finishing. Townsend and Moylan combined brilliantly and opened up Manly’s left edge. With some work to do, Katoa busted his way through three defenders to crash over but he lost the ball in the process.
Townsend’s boot was in fine touch, he helped to get his team out of trouble with a timely 40/20, heaping pressure on Manly’s line
Eventually Manly’s defence buckled under the weight of possession against it and boom centre Jesse Ramien powered his way over to put Cronulla in the lead 10-8.
The referees made good on their promise to scrutinise the play the ball with Manly backrower Frank Winterstein sin-binned for repeated infringements on his own line in the 30th minute.
A show and go from James Segeyaro put the Sharks further ahead right after halftime, darting through the line from dummy half to take the score to 14-8. New recruit Trent Hodkinson easily adding the extras.
It wasn’t long before Cronulla were over again. A nice short ball found from Kyle Flanagan found the chest of young gun backrower Briton Nikora and he barged over to score, extending the lead to 22-8 in the 22nd minute.
Moylan and Townsend didn’t return for the second half with coach Shane Flanagan opting to hand the reins in attack to the newest recruit, halfback Trent Hodkinson. Hodkinson was up to the task, marshalling his young side with confidence. He even set-up Edrick Lee in the corner with a grubber, needling the ball through two defenders to find his man.
Flanagan says he will give Hodkinson more time to find his feet at the club but was overall happy with his performance on Saturday night.
“He’s fit and he’s healthy and he’s training well and we have to do a bit of work with him to get him up to speed in our systems in what we do defensively and some of the stuff he wants to do offensively as well. We have some depth there with Hokko [Hodinson] there now,” he said.
In the end Trent Barrett’s men had no answer for Cronulla’s dominance in the second half but picked up a consolation try to forward Lloyd Perrett with five minutes left on the clock