NRL Preliminary Final: Cronulla conceding plenty of big game experience to rivals

Cronulla know that nobody gives them any hope of defeating the NRL’s juggernaut on Saturday night - and that’s just how they like it. See the damning stats that should worry the Sharks.

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The battle of David and Goliath turned out all right for the little guy. Why not Cronulla?

That’s the mindset the Sharks will march into Accor Stadium with, knowing just how close to perfect they need to be to defeat the Penrith juggernaut and reach the grand final on the other side.

Ahead of Saturday’s NRL preliminary final, statistics from Fox Sports Lab have laid bare the experience gap between the three-time NRL premiers and the little team that could.

“You look at it and go, everyone else has had Origin stars and players competing at the highest level, Roosters, Panthers, Storm, all these origin stars,” says Sharks winger Ronaldo Mulitalo.

“But we’re a bunch of battlers, so I like it that way.”

Cronulla’s Ronaldo Mulitalo is embracing the underdog tag. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

THE REPRESENTATIVE GAP

In representative experience alone, the numbers are stark.

Cronulla has the lowest total number of rep games of all four finals teams, with 58, compared to Penrith’s 138, Melbourne’s 114 and a whopping 242 for the Roosters.

Ten of Penrith’s starting 13 have either State of Origin or international Test experience, with a combined 137 games between them.

Skippers Isaah Yeo and Nathan Cleary are top of the tally with 14 Origin games each, while Yeo has eight Kangaroos caps to Cleary’s five.

Compare that to Cronulla’s combined total of 58, with New Zealand star Briton Nikora topping out with 13 games for the Kiwis, followed by Ronaldo Mulitalo with eight.

Nicho Hynes (two games for the Kangaroos) and Braden Hamlin Uele (one match for the Kiwis) are the only other players with tier one representative honours.

While there’s just five Origin games between Hynes, Talakai and Cameron McInnes.

“You look across everyone else’s spine’s in the top four and that they’ve got so much experience, Origin experience and international experience,” Mulitalo says.

“Most of us have only just played 100 NRL games.

“We’ve still got a young squad, and our spine members … Nicho is playing his 100th game this weekend, Will (Kennedy) has just played his 100th game, Tricky’s (Braydon Trindall) has played 70, and Blake (Brailey) has been the most consistent one.

“People are quick to forget that.

“It’s nice to know that we don’t have all those accolades, we don’t have all those Origin stars, we don’t have all these international stars, we’re just a couple of battlers coming through and working their backsides off to get something out of it.”

Nicho Hynes' path to 100 NRL games

NICHO’S 100TH

The halfback and leader, Hynes will tick over into triple digits against the Panthers on Saturday night.

Most of the Sharks team is at a similar stage in their NRL career.

Only McInnes has hit the 200 mark, and he’s also the only player to have played more than 150.

It’s a milestone five Panthers have reached; James Fisher-Harris, Moses Leota, Cleary and Yeo, while Dylan Edwards gets there on Saturday.

“We’re all getting to the 100-game club now, we’ve all grown and matured and become a family and a good group of players,” Hynes says of the Sharks.

“That is a blessing at the moment. We want to continue to grow and hopefully we can play 200 games together and build a real strong club like Melbourne and Penrith.

“You have to look at the Storms and Roosters who are powerful clubs.

“You admire what they are doing and you want to have that same vibe. I feel like right now the coaching staff, board members and everyone up top are doing a good job to do that here.

“Us as leaders need to help develop the younger players so we don’t have to go looking outside of this club (for players).”

It’s created a close-knit team who think of each other as family.

“These are my best mates that I see every day, but all that aside, it’s a good feeling coming and seeing them and competing with them every week,” Mulitalo says.

“You see these guys every day from November, and you spend more time with them than your family. That’s what I really enjoy about it all.”

THE BATTLE

In reality, the Sharks are at long odds to beat the greatest rugby league team of this generation on Saturday.

It’s an enormous challenge. The biggest game of their young lives.

“I’m not naive to think everyone’s backing us, so I’ve got no hate towards anyone who doesn’t think we’re a chance to win. There’s no ill feeling towards anyone that feels like that,” Mulitalo says.

“It comes with it, so I understand it, but also I’m really excited about the challenge.

“They’re world class players. They’ve done it for a long time in the biggest games, at the hardest times. They’re proven. “They’ve done it multiple times on the big stage.”

But it has to come to an end at some point.

Why not now?

“Obviously you got to respect it,” Mulitalo continues.

“They’re a world class team, and they’re at the top for a reason, right?

“But we play this game to compete for the big one, and we don’t play this game to give up or to go into games feeling like we’re not going to get it done.

“There’s a big mountain to climb, but so be it, this is why we play the sport for this pressure and for these type of games.

“So I get all the noise, but it’s pretty external for us.

“It’s who’s inside our four walls and the people who love us, and they’ve got our back. I’m pretty sure they’re the only people who will have our back this week.

“Those are the people you go out and represent and as long as they’re believing in us, that’s all that matters.”

Originally published as NRL Preliminary Final: Cronulla conceding plenty of big game experience to rivals