Tuesday update:
TWO months ago, Paul Gallen spoke to his Cronulla teammates about keeping their NRL finals destiny in their own hands.
The Sharks achieved that dream on Saturday with a comprehensive 40-18 thrashing of the Wests Tigers.
In front of their biggest home crowd of the season, Cronulla ran in seven tries to three to confirm what all Sharks fans had been desperately waiting for after the despair and frustration of last year: that the black, white and blue will be playing finals football in 2015.
Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan said it was a relief to have a top eight place secured with two rounds remaining, with the Sharks to now set their sights on the NRL top four.
‘‘At the start of the year [for] every club or every coach, the top eight is a minimum,’’ he said.
‘‘We’re there now with two weeks to go so the ball’s in our court.
‘‘It’s a good position to be in.
‘‘I know Gal eight weeks ago was addressing the group, he wanted to make sure that our destiny was in our hands and we didn’t have to worry about results.
‘‘And we’re pretty much in that position with two weeks to go.
‘‘We’d like to think we’ve a chance for that top four.
‘‘We’ve got to win our next two and if we do we’ll be a chance,’’ he said.
Both Gallen and Flanagan paid tribute to young superstar Valentine Holmes, who crossed for his 15th and 16th tries of the campaign and made a stunning try-saving tackle.
‘‘It’s good to have someone like Val,’’ Flanagan said.
‘‘Probably over the last couple of years him and Birdy and even Gerard Beale and Ricky Leutele and Feki, we [now] have those type of players in the team that can go the length and score tries.
‘‘We’ve been a grinding and grafting team while I’ve been the coach here so it’s just nice.
‘‘It’s something we haven’t had in our team for a while.
‘‘It’s a real pleasure to have those players in our team.’’
Flanagan said it was crucial they bounced back from last Monday night’s loss to Melbourne.
‘‘We were up for a while and won a few in a row and came up against a committed Storm side,’’ he said.
‘‘[So] it was really important that we came out here today and won at home on a Saturday afternoon with a good crowd.’’
Cronulla are fifth on 30 points, level with fourth-placed South Sydney.
The Sharks could finish the round sixth pending the result of last night’s clash between Storm and Newcastle.
Saturday match report: The question for Cronulla after Monday night’s loss to Melbourne was always going to be whether that result was an aberration or something more worrying.
But the Sharks proved there can be no doubt about their finals credentials with a comprehensive 40-18 win over the Wests Tigers at Remondis Stadium on Saturday.
With the temperature hovering around 28 degrees at kick-off on a glorious day in the shire, the Sharks got off to a perfect start in front of a bumper home crowd as Luke Lewis strolled over for his 10th try of the season inside four minutes.
With Cronulla attacking the Tigers’ line, the Sharks shifted right for young five-eighth Jack Bird to find Lewis with a well-timed flat pass to score.
Michael Gordon extended the lead to 8-0 with a penalty goal after 10 minutes as Cronulla dominated all of the early possession and field position.
It took until the 17th minute for the Tigers to get on the scoreboard and it came totally against the run of play.
With Cronulla attacking the Tigers’ line, Luke Brooks stole the ball one on one from Jack Bird and raced 95 metres downfield only for Valentine Holmes to reel him in with a spectacular try-saving tackle.
The Tigers went left from the next play and, with the Sharks unable to regroup, Tim Simona scored for the visitors.
Cronulla hit back almost immediately as Michael Ennis began to put his stamp on the game.
With the Sharks again attacking the Tigers’ line, Cronulla’s hooker dummied to the open side before slipping down the blind.
Ennis found Ricky Leutele whose quick hands set up Sosaia Feki to score in the corner.
Cronulla continued to dominate and further extended their lead on the half hour mark, as this time Ennis did it all himself.
Ennis shot out of dummy half close to the Tigers’ line and had enough strength to plant the ball down to give Cronulla a 20-6 lead.
The Sharks started the second half as brightly as they did the first, with Holmes crossing out wide.
But just when it appeared Cronulla might run away with it, the Tigers rallied.
Martin Taupau and then Curtis Sironen crossed to reduce the deficit to 24-18 with 20 minutes to play.
But Holmes was to seal the result with another show-stopping moment.
With the Tigers attacking inside the Sharks’ half, the 20-year-old scooped up a loose pass to run 60 metres and score under the posts.
There was even time for the Sharks to extend the margin, as Jayson Bukuya set up Wade Graham to score with a damaging run and pass before Michael Gordon finished off a dynamic attack that started from inside Cronulla’s half.
The result means Cronulla could finish the weekend back in fifth place if Melbourne fail to beat Newcastle on Monday night.
The Sharks can guarantee a top eight finish against Parramatta next weekend but wins against the Eels and Manly in their final two games could see them crack the top four.
Leader Scoreboard
Cronulla Sharks 40 (Valentine Holmes 2, Michael Ennis, Sosaia Feki, Luke Lewis, Wade Graham, Michael Gordon tries. Michael Gordon 6 goals.)
Defeated
Wests Tigers 18 (Tim Simona, Martin Taupau, Curtis Sironen tries. Pat Richards 3 goals.)
At Remondis Stadium.
Crowd: 15,738.
Leader man of the match: Michael Ennis.
Sharks’ next two: Eels (away), Sea Eagles (home).
