‘Like some clarity’: Sharks skipper questions referees over ‘costly’ denial of captain’s challenge

Cronulla’s captain wants clarity after he was denied a captain’s challenge on a crucial call that went in his side’s loss to the Panthers.

Sharks skipper Cameron McInnes wants clarity after he was denied a captain’s challenge on a crucial lost ball call that went against Cronulla in their 28-22 loss to the Panthers.

With 16 minutes to go in the game and the Panthers leading 24-16, the Sharks were hot on attack when McInnes had the ball squeezed out of his hands as he went to play-the-ball.

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The Panthers players appeared to hold onto the tackle too long and an arm appeared to be in and around the ball, but referee Ashley Klein ruled a lost ball against the Sharks.

McInnes immediately called for a captain’s challenge but was denied by Klein and the Sharks missed a golden opportunity to narrow the gap.

“I’d like some clarity on that because the dialogue to me was with that surrender call, which again, I want clarity on as well because there was a lot of surrender call tonight,” McInnes said in his post match press conference. .

“He said that I’m not allowed a challenge, which I wasn’t aware of that. I thought you could challenge any play, so, like some feedback on that.”

Cameron McInnes tried to challenge the call.

Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon was equally perplexed by the call.

“I just thought, as a rule, that if he rules that, that’s a stop in play that you are allowed to challenge, but we’ll figure that out,” Fitzgibbon said.

“It was costly.”

Regardless Fitzgibbon was proud of his players after pushing the four-time premiers all the way after falling behind 24-10 at one stage.

“I thought it would be a cracking game really, high intensity, particularly the first half and then when the game was on the line,” Fitzgibbon said.

“It’s a really good first hit out for us, but obviously they’re four time premiers for a reason.

“They know what to do when it gets into those situations and those stakes and then they just got too far ahead.

“They were able to close a little bit better than us and we had plenty of lessons and it’s probably been better than the last few times we played them, so we’re getting closer.”

McInnes denied the occasion got the better of the players and called on his team to be better in the big moments.

“I think any experience you get in games with a big atmosphere is obviously valuable,” McInnes said.

“What I would say though, I think on our journey we’ve had enough of those now to be able to accept that and play our way in those games.

And without going into too much detail, I think we missed the mark on a couple of things tonight which we’re disappointing because the occasion shouldn’t be too big for us now.”

Fitzgibbon also defended his players’ performance.

“No, I thought it was a cracking game,” Fitzgibbon said.

“They’re four-time premiers and we threw down with them and fell just short, so I can’t say the occasion got the better of us at all.

Craig Fitzgibbon and Cameron McInnes.

“We just weren’t clear enough on our details and some roles and some little things bit us in the back side.”

McInnes found more positives than negatives about the unique start to the season in Las Vegas.

“I don’t think it sapped energy,” McInnes said.

“I thought the boys enjoyed themselves and made the most of the opportunity that was in front of us.

”Ten years ago, he would have thought that this would be happening and we get to play the game we love in the bright lights of Vegas.

“We looked at it as a massive opportunity once in a lifetime and I thought we left it all out there.

“There’s things we need to improve on, but the boys used that energy and made the most of it.”

Halves Braydon Trindall and Nicho Hynes were solid, with the former appearing to have a larger role with his kicking game than last season, but Fitzgibbon believes it just depends on how the game pans out.

“No, they’ll share depending on where we land,” Fitzgibbon said.

“Obviously, Tricky (Trindall) kicks the ball really well to Ronny (Mulitalo) there is a good combination there.

“But they haven’t played a great deal together Nicho and Tricky has kind of been like a 60-40 split, 70-30 split, whatever it may be. But that’s the way the game lands tonight on that.”

One player who was superb for the Sharks was new recruit Addin Fonua-Blake, who ran for 142 metres to go with 25 tackles and a superb solo try to get the Sharks back in the contest.

“We put him back out there for some impact and he gave us that,” Fitzgibbon said.

“I thought he was hard to handle.

“I think everyone in the first sort of 20 minutes, that was like really good, intense footy, so we probably couldn’t get enough momentum or control to show what he’s capable of.

“But I thought he owed his gloves up really well in that period and then obviously when the game was on the line, he found a spark for us that we needed.”

The Panthers were again superb in the big moments and Fitzgibbon believes they are still the team to beat in the NRL in 2025.

“I thought they played with the same intensity,” Fitzgibbon said.

“You might lose some players, but they’ve got some pretty good ones coming in.

“I thought they played really well, controlled it with field position, like they always have. “They’re going to be strong. I don’t think anyone’s under any illusion that, they’ve lost players for the last three or four years and hasn’t changed.

“I wasn’t silly enough to think that it was going to change tonight either.

“We needed to prepare well, we needed to play better, end the story for us. We just got to focus on what we needed to do better.”

Originally published as ‘Like some clarity’: Sharks skipper questions referees over ‘costly’ denial of captain’s challenge