They have been written off by many already but Cronulla have shown they will still be a force this season, scoring a 42-16 drubbing of Canberra on Saturday night.
Having had an interrupted pre-season that included the loss of key players Michael Ennis and Ben Barba and missing Valentine Holmes through injury, as well as a World Club Challenge loss to Wigan, many saw Cronulla’s task of becoming the first team to win back to back premierships since 1992-93 as near impossible.
Added to that an opening round defeat to Brisbane and some even tipped the reigning premiers to not even play finals football.
But Cronulla demolished the highly-fancied Raiders in front of a hostile crowd in Canberra, racing in seven tries to sound a warning to the rest of the competition – the black, white and blue aren’t going anywhere.
Cronulla were still without young star Holmes with a hamstring injury but the Sharks also had to do without his replacement, with Gerard Beale also ruled out with a hamstring complaint. That saw another backline reshuffle with Jack Bird shifting to fullback and Kurt Capewell moving into the centres.
The Sharks had plenty of stars, with Bird outstanding at fullback as halves James Maloney and Chad Townsend ran amok on the back of a dominant Cronulla forward pack.
In truth the game didn’t live up to its billing in the opening 20 minutes, with both sides making a number of errors in what was a scrappy start.
Cronulla opened the scoring through a Maloney penalty goal before an Andrew Fifita error from the resulting kick-off led to Canberra’s first try.
The Raiders shifted left with fullback Jack Wighton showing too much speed for Capewell to score in the corner.
Cronulla hit back 10 minutes later with Maloney and Bird combining to set up Ricky Leutele.
The Sharks extended their lead on 32 minutes when Maloney laid on Wade Graham’s first try with a quality short pass before the Raiders hit back against the run of play.
Blake Austin sliced between Graham and Maloney and ran 40 metres before finding Jordan Rapana to score in the corner, reducing Cronulla’s half-time lead to 12-10.
As poor as they started the first half, Cronulla were equally as brilliant in their opening 20 minutes of the second half as the Sharks laid on three quick tries to blow away the Raiders.
Maloney extended Cronulla’s lead to 14-10 with another penalty goal before Townsend found Luke Lewis with a perfect angled run. Young hooker Jayden Brailey backed up on the inside to score his first NRL try.
Moments later the Sharks were in again, this time with Townsend and Maloney combining to put Graham through a hole with the representative back-rower doing enough to hold off Wighton to score.
Four minutes later and Graham completed his hat-trick on the back of a Maloney 40/20, barging over from close range, with Maloney’s sideline conversion giving Cronulla a 30-10 lead.
Cronulla’s joint Monty Porter Medal winner Matt Prior sealed victory with 10 minutes to go, slamming the ball down after some good lead up work from Graham.
Captain Paul Gallen added further insult to Canberra, scoring a late try from a Joseph Paulo grubber before Wighton scored a consolation for the Raiders.
Earlier, Cronulla’s under-20s side scored a massive 74-12 win over Canberra in the Holden Cup, with winger Jesse Ramien scoring a hat-trick of tries.
Leader Scoreboard
Cronulla Sharks 42 (Wade Graham three, Ricky Leutele, Jayden Brailey, Matt Prior, Paul Gallen tries. James Maloney seven goals)
defeated
Canberra Raiders 16 (Jack Wighton two, Jordan Rapana tries. Aidan Sezer goal)
at GIO Stadium, Canberra
Crowd: 15,807
Leader man of the match: James Maloney (Sharks)
Sharks’ next three: Dragons (home), Eels (away), Knights (home)
