Hat-trick for Cronulla’s Sione Katoa lands heavy blow on Bulldogs

Cronulla may have handed Dean Pay’s coaching career a hammer blow after grinding out a win over a gutsy Canterbury.

Cronulla’s Sione Katoa bagged a hat-trick of tries against the Bulldogs at Bankwest Stadium on Sunday night. Picture: Getty Images

Cronulla may have handed Dean Pay’s coaching career a hammer blow after grinding out a win over a gutsy Canterbury.

With the Bulldogs board due to meet this Thursday, Pay needed a win to push his claims for a contract extension. But instead a sloppy Sunday night at Bankwest ended in more heartbreak for Bulldogs fans with rival coach John Morris receiving his own timely pressure release. With Morris’s job also up for debate, the Sharks played with plenty of determination and spirit to close out a four tries to three win.

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The Sharks looked to be cruising to victory when they skipped to a 16-6 lead early in the second half on the back of Sione Katoa’s first NRL career hat-trick.

But the Dogs set up a thrilling final quarter when Kieran Foran latched onto a clever Adam Elliott grubber kick to pull the margin back to four points.

Foran then gave away a vital six-to-go set restart – and from there a Chad Townsend kick set up Bryson Goodwin to celebrate his first game for his new club in the best possible way.

The Dogs never gave up and scored a late 90m intercept effort to Christian Crichton off a Shaun Johnson pass in the 76th minute. Young Jake Averillo then landed a sideline conversion to cut the margin to 20-18 and push the game to the final hooter.

It wasn’t a match that reached the spectacular heights of what we saw from the Roosters and Eels on Saturday night but nevertheless it was tough and bruising with two desperate teams giving it their all for the entire 80 minutes.

There was no greater example of the commitment than when Dallin Watene-Zelezniak absolutely hammered Matt Moylan with a shot that will make the career highlights of both players, while Jesse Ramien produced another bone-jarring effort earlier on Will Hopoate.

It was a tough but scrappy contest with two sin bins and a total of 16 six-to-go set restarts.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH