Cronulla overcame Melbourne 14-4 to continue their early season resurgence on Friday night but it was the massive penalty count that overshadowed the result.
A whopping 33 penalties were blown by referees Matt Cecchin and Alan Shortall at Southern Cross Group Stadium as the 2016 grand finalists were involved in another gritty contest.
Melbourne conceded 19 penalties – the most by a team in a single game in the NRL era. The Sharks lost Luke Lewis to the sin bin for a trip on Billy Slater early in the first half. Melbourne also lost captain Cameron Smith for 10 minutes – to the biggest roar from the parochial shire crowd of the night – early in the second.
Neither side could gain much momentum in the stop-start contest as penalty after penalty was blown. The genuine dislike between the sides was laid bare at full-time as all 26 players on the field were involved in a melee that started with a push and shove. Wade Graham was seen to throw a ball at Slater. It ended with Paul Gallen and Will Chambers being dragged away by teammates.
But it was the penalty count that overshadowed what was an intense contest.
It overshadowed Cronulla’s effort in holding Melbourne tryless.
It overshadowed the Sharks winning without star recruits Josh Dugan and Matt Moylan as well as Jayson Bukuya.
It overshadowed Cronulla finally winning at home again in front of more than 13,000 fans.
Sharks coach Shane Flanagan called on NRL CEO Todd Greenberg to solve the issue as high penalty counts continue to plague the start of the season, saying it had changed the game.
“The referees are just doing what they’re told to do,” he said.
“We’ve talked about this for a month now. What you saw at the end of the game was because of the 19-14 penalty count. The players are getting frustrated. Penalty after penalty.
“You can’t blame the referees. It’s not the referees’ fault.
“I think it definitely impacts on what the game looks like. You saw there tonight if there’s that many penalties there’s a lot more stoppages, there’s not a lot of ball in play. So it has changed our game definitely.
“It’s all started from set starts, no consistency in it. But at our club we’re focused on working with them. If they’re the rules we’ve just got to work with them.”
Sharks captain Paul Gallen said his side had tried to work with officials to no avail.
“There’s not a lot of time to stop and talk about it with them on the field,” he said.
“We talk about it during the week and we’re really just trying to work with them. We did really well last week as far as giving penalties away. This week especially the first half we worked well for three or four tackles and gave a lot away tackle four and five.
“They’re picking everything up. There’s no flow to the game at the moment. If someone is half a metre offside they’re penalising them. That’s just the way it is.”
Storm coach Craig Bellamy said he didn’t want to criticise match officials and was more concerned with his side’s poor performance.
It was a brave victory for Cronulla, already without Dugan and Moylan with niggling leg injuries. Both are expected to be fit to take on the Sydney Roosters next Friday.
Edrick Lee came into the side on the right wing and crossed for Cronulla’s only try with Lewis in the sin bin on 24 minutes. Young centre Jesse Ramien did brilliantly to set up the try, a lightning fast in and away was followed by a sublime flick pass.
Chad Townsend had opened the scoring with a penalty goal. Joe Stimson kicked a penalty goal for the Storm just before the break to reduce Cronulla’s half-time lead to 8-2.
Townsend added another three penalty goals after the break as Stimson added one more for the Storm.
Leader Scoreboard
Cronulla Sharks 14 (Edrick Lee try. Chad Townsend four goals)
defeated
Melbourne Storm 4 (Joe Stimson two goals)
at Southern Cross Group Stadium, Woolooware
Crowd: 13,196
Leader man of the match: Chad Townsend (Sharks)
Sharks’ next three: Roosters (home), Dragons (away), Panthers (home)
