They were two special plays from two special players that got Cronulla over the line against Canterbury on Saturday night.
The fact that neither will be playing State of Origin on Wednesday night is a debate for another time. But once again, Paul Gallen and Valentine Holmes undeniably showed their value to the Sharks in their 9-8 win over the Bulldogs.
A massive crowd of 20,497 packed into Southern Cross Group Stadium – the sixth largest crowd at Shark Park and ninth time above 20,000 – to see two teams without a combined seven players through Origin duty.
Cronulla’s James Maloney, Jack Bird, Andrew Fifita and Wade Graham along with Canterbury’s Brett Morris, David Klemmer and Josh Jackson will all line up for the Blues against Queensland in Brisbane. But their absence did nothing to take away from the spectacle.
It was played at a high intensity, with the Bulldogs desperately defending their line time and again. They led 8-2 with 13 minutes remaining and it looked like it would be another frustrating night for the Sharks.
But, as they did all last season, Cronulla simply refused to quit. That attitude and spirit was personified by their captain, Gallen.
With the Dogs looking to manage the game with a six-point lead well inside the final quarter, it was Gallen who somehow got back to field a grubber kick next to Cronulla’s posts. Why was he even there? The 35-year-old then managed to charge his way out of the in-goal area.
From the next play Holmes bounded out of dummy-half, breaking tackle after tackle, as he danced his way 30 metres up field. All of a sudden, Canterbury were on the back foot.
From there, Chad Townsend shifted right, Gerard Beale found a gap. And just like that, Cronulla were level.
It was a similar effort from Gallen that had Townsend in the perfect position to kick the match-winning field goal. Twice it looked as though Gallen had been stopped but he refused to hit the ground. He dragged defenders with him until he was right in front of the posts with the Bulldogs defensive line again rolling backwards.
Townsend couldn’t miss.
“It was two really big plays in particular that [Gallen] pulled off for us. Having Gal back during this period, we got something out of him tonight,” Sharks coach Shane Flanagan said.
“I don’t think Gal needs to give anything back to the club. He’s given to the club as long as he’s been here. He works his butt off and tries that hard every week. He’s one of the most competitive blokes I’ve ever seen in my life.
“He’s at a stage in his career that he quit from Origin [but] he’s still good enough to play there. But he’s made a decision it’s time to give somebody else a crack. That’s hard for Gal, I know he wants to be there on Wednesday night. But it is what it is and we reaped the benefit of that today.
“[Val] came up with some big plays, similar to Gal. He played busted there for the last 10 minutes. He’s getting better each week and he’s a quality player. Some of those runs out of our end got us in position to kick the field goal.
“Young blokes these days brush those things off and get on with it. Val’s played for his country and I know he wants to play for Queensland. But I think the non-selection of Billy Slater sort of eased the pain for Val a little bit. Because I know Val really looks up to Billy. So Val will get on with it.”
As for Gallen, he’ll be watching on Wednesday night. There’s no doubt he would still be in the Blues’ best team. But he is still comfortable with his decision.
“I just do my job every week to be honest. I probably made the same amount of runs as I normally make and same amount of tackles. Just sometimes you get lucky and one of those runs lead to a break,” he said.
“When I got out of the in-goal it was just one of those things that happened for me. It’s what I do every week, just put myself in the game. Me and Flano had a chat the last couple of weeks, I find my job in this team really easy now. It’s just really simple and if I get it done effectively I’ll keep doing it.
“I don’t have a lot of regrets about Origin, to be honest. I made the decision last year I wasn’t going to play along with my family. [I] had a good chat to Flano about it. I haven’t missed the week. I missed the game, I admit that.
“I still take a bit of pride in that NSW side. Bar Nathan Peates I’ve had something to do with every player there. I can see good things for them. If I’ve got a small part to do with that I’ll be proud. I’ll be really happy to see them win the trophy at the end of the series hopefully.”