They may take their name from one of nature’s greatest predators but it is the Cronulla Sharks who have become the NRL’s hunted.
Cronulla’s 35-18 loss to Manly on Sunday was their fifth loss at Southern Cross Group Stadium already this season, a far cry from last year when Cronulla built their premiership-winning season on their almost flawless home form.
The Sharks won 11 of their 12 home games in the shire to secure a top four spot in 2016 but the reigning premiers, who have played nine of their first 15 games at home, have become the NRL’s biggest scalp.
Brisbane and bitter local rivals St George Illawarra inflicted defeats in Cronulla’s opening two home fixtures before the Sharks also were beaten by the Gold Coast, Melbourne and the Sea Eagles.
Their four victories at Shark Park have been by a total of eight points. One-point wins over struggling Newcastle and Canterbury, a two-point success over the Wests Tigers and a four-point win over a North Queensland side without Johnathan Thurston have been their only triumphs in front of their home fans.
Cronulla halfback Chad Townsend said the players had felt visiting teams lift their game against the Sharks on their own turf.
“It’s been like that all year, to be honest,” he said.
“I’ve definitely noticed it. Teams come here and obviously we’re a pretty successful team here and our record shows that. So we need to improve as well if we’re going to continue to be successful. We can’t just rest on our previous success.
“I’ve been told this since I was young, it’s always a good sign of a team when you're winning and not playing your best. There’s been times where we haven’t played our best this year and still managed to scrap to a win. And that just shows the quality of the individuals in our team. We’ve got guys who are just willing to do anything to win.
“And we don’t care if we win by one point or by 30 it’s the same thing. We do have a lot of improvement in us and we want to get there.”
While the Sharks slipped out of the top four with their loss to the Sea Eagles, Cronulla have surprised many by making a decent start to their first premiership defence. Without playing their best football Cronulla are still only two points away from second place, defying many who predicted them to miss the top eight after the loss of Michael Ennis and Ben Barba.
Added to that, the fact that no team has won back to back premierships since Brisbane in 1992-93 seemed to suggest that Cronulla would find this season even tougher than last.
But that sentiment has not been shared by Cronulla’s playing group.
“Last year I had this mentality that if we didn’t win the comp it would have been a waste of a season. That’s just how I felt,” Townsend said.
“And this year at the start coming back from the World Club Challenge was a bit draining and then I honestly thought to myself ‘why not? Why can’t we do it again?’
“People at the start of the year were saying we couldn’t go back to back and no team has done it. A lot of [media] coverage was saying it. Our philosophy is we can do it, we’ve got the team to do it.
“We know if we can grind out wins and finish in the top four who knows what can happen. We’ll back ourselves to beat anyone on any day at any place. That’s just our mentality.”
