Cronulla Sharks halves Chad Townsend and Connor Tracey prepare to make club history

Not since Adam Dykes and Mitch Healey 21 years ago have the Sharks featured local juniors starting in the halves in a finals game.

Chad Townsend is the only member of the Cronulla spine to have tasted finals football. Picture: Getty Images

The last time Cronulla featured an all local junior halves pairing in a finals game Connor Tracey was a pre-schooler. Tracey and Chad Townsend will combine to become the first local Cronulla juniors to start a finals match in the halves together since Mitch Healey and Adam Dykes 21 years ago.

The Healey-Dykes combination led the Sharks to a win against Brisbane before losing to St George Illawarra in the 1999 preliminary final.

Dykes presented Townsend with his debut jersey in 2011 and contacted Tracey on Friday imploring him to trust the hardwork he has put in and told him not to wait for the game to come to him. Townsend remained close with Dykes.

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Adam Dykes runs the ball against the Melbourne Storm in 2001. Picture: Mark/Evans.

“I still keep in contact him quite regularly,” Townsend said. “And I see Mitch around too. It’s pretty cool and it means a lot to me being a local junior and playing for the Sharks.”

The 1999 team also featured local product Dean Treister at hooker. Another local product in Blayke Brailey will wear the No 9 for Cronulla in their do or die match against the Raiders on Saturday night. 

The match will also double as the first time Tracey and Townsend have started in the halves alongside each other.

Mitch Healey gets a pass away during his days with the Sharks.

Townsend remembers a fresh-faced Tracey training with the first grade squad as a teen.

“The speed he had and he was skin and bones but one of the fittest kids I’ve seen,” Townsend, a Yarrawarrah Tigers product said. “Our game compliments each other. We’ve done plenty of work together at training. We’ve simplified our roles with how we’re going to play. His strength is his running game and my strength is my organising and kicking game.

“The message I’ll give to him is to keep it simple, back yourself and run with the ball.”

Tracey is just 17 games into his NRL game career. His career has followed a similar path to that of Townsend with both players leaving the Sharks to chase opportunities elsewhere before returning.

For Tracey the destination was South Sydney where he made his NRL debut last year. While replacing the injured Shaun Johnson may seem daunting it is nothing compared to what Tracey, a De La Salle Caringbah junior, has faced just to get back on the field.

Connor Tracey has seized the opportunity in the absence of Shaun Johnson. Picture: AAP.

Tracey said after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee for the third time he had serious doubts regarding his career.

“If you told me I was playing finals I wouldn’t have believed you,” Tracey, 24, said. “I didn’t know if I could come back. It drives me to be hungrier but I wouldn’t change anything. It’s made me who I am.

“My goal was to get that utility spot in round one. Now we have a huge opportunity with nothing to lose.”

Townsend is the only member of the Cronulla spine to have tasted finals football with fullback Will Kennedy also playing his first finals game against raging hot favourites Canberra.

The Daily Telegraph