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Year in Review - Cronulla Sharks
Written by: Stephen O'MearaNov 11, 2008 9:23pm
LeagueUnlimited.com's Stephen O'Meara looks at the Cronulla Sharks' 2008 NRL season.
More season reviews for other NRL clubs to follow in the days ahead.
3rd Place – Cronulla Sharks
Reasons:
Belief: While the previous year was a tale of close but honourable defeats, most of this season was about grinding out narrow wins. It wasn't always pretty, but a team that had got used to losing the tight games suddenly learned the knack of holding on and doing enough in defence to make up for a sometimes sparse attack.
Bash: Bird and Gallen, the self-styled Bash Brothers put a bit of mongrel back into the team without succumbing to the mindless penalty giveaways of the Anderson years. Well, mostly. Bird’s absence following well-documented off-field issues had a major impact on the team’s momentum into the finals.
Buster: Released by the Broncos, picked up by the Sharks only to be dropped to park footy with the Engadine Dragons, reportedly for attitude problems. A lesser man might have given up, but Brett Seymour forced his way back and became first-choice five-eighth. Key to the attacking revival towards the end of the season, a cruciate ligament injury in a training ground soccer game ended his year before the preliminary final. Like Bird, Buster’s absence was eventually too great a hurdle for the team to overcome.
Gains:
Anthony Tupou – Sydney Roosters
Trent Barrett – Wigan Warriors
Corey Hughes – Canterbury Bulldogs
Losses:
Isaac De Gois – Newcastle Knights
Brett Kimmorley – Canterbury Bulldogs
Bryson Goodwin – Canterbury Bulldogs
Danny Nutley – Retired
Adam Peek – Celtic Crusaders
Kevin Kingston - Parramatta
Best Win of the Year: For the first time in a few years, there’s a few to pick from. Wins over the Dragons are always candidates but this year were dour affairs; beating both grand finalists in rounds 1 and 2 built momentum but without great attacking flair. The great memories came from individuals – Luke Covell picked up two hat tricks during the season but it was three tries to Misi Talaupapa against Canberra in the first week of the play-offs that really stood out. Part of a seven try haul, the 36-10 scoreline brought a week off and generated a real sense of optimism around the Shire, among supporters more used to the grey cloud than the silver lining. The porchlight was well and truly lit for a fortnight, even if Harold didn’t make it home this year.
Worst Loss of the Year: And then the crash. Sharks supporters headed for the SFS with hopes of a Grand Final rematch against Manly in mind. Revenge for '73 and '78. With Cameron Smith out in controversial circumstances, this had to be our chance. Except it wasn’t. Not by a long shot. We went down 28-0 and were probably lucky to get the nil. In hindsight, a win against a depleted Canberra and then a week off in which we lost our five-eighth is not ideal preparation for finals footy against the defending premiers. What hurt, though, was the sense of a plan coming together at long last and then falling apart. Still, there’s always next year.
Statistics:
A low scoring year. Despite finishing third on the ladder and tied on points for the minor premiership, we scored fewer points (average 19 per game) than anyone else bar the spoon-winning Bulldogs. Success came from conceding fewer (16 per game) than all except the grand finalists and, oddly, the Dragons.
Paradoxically, though, we had the highest individual points scorer, with Luke Covell bringing home 206 points – almost half our total. In addition to 15 tries, the Cov bagged 73 goals.
2009 Headline:
"They're a club without a premiership and I'm a player without being able to achieve winning a premiership yet." - Trent Barrett
Odds to win the Competition:
$6.50 third favourites
Author's 2009 Prediction:
2nd
LeagueUnlimited.com's 2009 Prediction:
7th
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