Newcastle Knights keep their NRL finals hopes alive with a 26-4 win against Cronulla Sharks
NEWCASTLE kept their season alive and left the Sharks more than a little nervous with a 26-4 win at Hunter Stadium.
NEWCASTLE refuse to lie down. Cronulla can't afford to.
That's the upshot from the Knights' win over the Sharks at Hunter Stadium last night.
The win kept the home side's season alive for at least another week and left Cronulla more than a little nervous about their own finals prospects.
Match Centre: See how the game played out
With five-eighth Jarrod Mullen in superb touch, the Knights cruised to victory against a Sharks side that all but kissed its top-four chances goodbye with a sub-par performance.
With games remaining against Souths, Melbourne and the Cowboys and still needing at least one competition point to cement a top-eight berth, the sixth-placed Sharks remain in danger of missing the cut altogether after losing four of their past five games.
But coach Shane Flanagan shows no sign of panic.
"I'm not too concerned," he said. "We've got three games to go and we've got to win a couple of those on the way home."
Sounds simple enough. But they will need to execute a whole lot better than they did last night against three teams higher up on the ladder.
With five-eighth Todd Carney well below his best, Newcastle clearly won the aerial battle on the back of Mullen's influential kicking game.
"Their kicking game compared to our kicking game, that was the difference," Flanagan said. "They wanted to get into the arm-wrestle and we sort of took a few shortcuts."
Mullen scored the opening try and had a hand in three others in his best performance under coach Wayne Bennett.
He said coming up against Carney helped him raise the bar.
"He's one of the best five-eighths in the game, so I knew if I could go well against him tonight, it would help us get the result," Mullen said.
"There is still a lot of belief in this team that we can get there. It's Manly at Brookie next weekend and we haven't won there for a while. But don't worry, we will be up for it."
As for Newcastle's play-off hopes, Bennett is just happy his side is playing well at the right end of the season.
"We are doing that and the rest of it gives us the best chance we've got," Bennett said. "We are playing good football. Whether it is good enough to get us there or not I'm not sure but I'm pleased we are in the position we are in.
"While they keep playing like they're playing, they give themselves the best chance."
The win left the Knights in ninth spot, two points adrift of Brisbane and Wests Tigers with Manly, the Cowboys and Souths to come.
Prop Willie Mason was placed on report for a late hit on Jeff Robson in the second half, while the Sharks' Wade Graham re-injured his sternum.
Both sides coughed up possession and pushed passes in the opening 15 minutes last night.
The Knights had the better field position but could not crack the Sharks defence until a Mason off-load and a touch of class from Darius Boyd broke the deadlock 16 minutes in.
Mason wriggled his arms free in a tackle and found Boyd in support. From a standing start, the Knights fullback pushed off a defender and drifted sideways before finding a straight-running Tyrone Roberts, who speared through a giant hole.
Mullen loomed up in support and his halfback gave him a free passage to the tryline.
Roberts converted from in front for a 6-0 scoreline.
The home side opened up a 12-point advantage 13 minutes from half-time when Mullen drifted wide, dummied and scorched between Jeff Robson and Colin Best on his own 40m line.
He then offloaded to centre Dane Gagai to score.
NEWCASTLE 26 (D Boyd D Gagai J Mullen K Naiqama A Uate tries T Roberts 3 goals) bt CRONULLA 4 (J Williams try) at Hunter Stadium. Referee: Matt Cecchin, Gavin Morris. Crowd: 15,394.
Bennett escapes second fine
NEWCASTLE coach Wayne Bennett is likely to escape a second fine for breaching the NRL's new media rules tonight on a technicality.
Under new regulations, all coaches are obliged to make themselves available to the host broadcaster for a pre-match interview on the day of the game.
He was fined $500 for refusing to talk to Fox Sports prior to the Canberra Raiders game a fortnight ago.
But Bennett appears to have beaten the system tonight which may force an adjustment to the new rules.
He informed Fox Sports he would be available to do the interview between 8.30 and 10am this morning.
Fox declined the invitation.
NRL media director John Brady is aware of Bennett's stance and said he will look into the issue tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a win here for the Sharks will keep them in the hunt for a top four spot, while the Knights must win if they are to keep their finals' hopes alive