When Cronulla signed Josh Dugan and Matt Moylan there was an air of expectation in the shire.
An incumbent Test centre and a young star looking to return to the representative arena slotting into Cronulla’s back line that would give the Sharks the x-factor their attack has lacked since the loss of Ben Barba.
But injuries have hampered the duo’s start to life in the black, white and blue – which has hampered Cronulla’s start to the season.
The Sharks fell to a third loss in their opening five matches to the Sydney Roosters on Friday night, going down 28-10 at Shark Park.
They had enough chances but couldn’t break down a resolute Roosters side, who bounced back strongly from their poor performance against the Warriors a week earlier.
Of Cronulla’s spine that started the season only halfback Chad Townsend and young hooker Jayden Brailey remain after five rounds. After spending most of the pre-season at fullback, Valentine Holmes was shunted to the wing after just one game.
Dugan performed strongly in the role against St George Illawarra and Parramatta but has missed the last two games with a groin complaint. That saw Holmes get a brief reprieve in the No.1 jersey for last week’s win over Melbourne.
Dugan’s late withdrawal forced another reshuffle, with Trent Hodkinson coming into the halves and Moylan moving to fullback – Cronulla’s third No.1 in the opening five rounds.
The constant chopping and changing has hurt Cronulla’s continuity and ability to score points They have now scored just eight tries in their opening five games.
Defensively they were strong, only giving up one line break. But the Roosters managed to hang tough without the ball before hurting Cronulla with it, mostly thanks to the boots of Cooper Cronk and the excellent Luke Keary.
More concerning for Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan was again his side’s lack of discipline, refusing to blame the defeat on personnel changes but on their own behaviour.
“I think it has a bit to do with the clunkiness [of our attack] but it’s not the reason we lost tonight.
“We gave penalties away late in the tackle count and gifted them field position. We spent too much juice in that first half defending. They’re a pretty good attacking side when they get down on the try line but they couldn’t break us. They had to kick over the top and we should have caught two of them. But we didn’t.
“But I’ve got a brave footy team who defended really well. It just took too much petrol out of us.
“I was really proud of their defensive effort but our offense looked a bit clunky in the end. We worked against ourselves in that first half [with] stupid penalties.”
Roosters coach Trent Robinson was happy with the improvement in his side, particularly from his forwards.
“They’ve copped it but we haven’t had the ball. And they have copped it and I hear it a lot and they hear it. And some of it’s not their fault and some of it they wanted to stand up tonight and play better,” he said.
“After last week that was one week. We need to keep doing it. But possession allows those guys to run and that happened tonight.
“I thought [Cronk and Keary] allowed the guys to roll their sleeves up. We’re finding our way there a bit and getting better. It’s our best completion rate for the year and it’s a good result.”
