Sharks coach Shane Flanagan described it as Matt Moylan’s best performance in the black, white and blue. Moylan agreed.
Newcastle’s Nathan Brown called Moylan one of the best touch football players in the NRL. That gave Moylan a chuckle.
The 26-year-old had five try assists for the season before Cronulla’s 48-10 win over Newcastle on Sunday. By the end of the afternoon he had 11 as the Sharks ran riot for their sixth win in a row to climb into the NRL’s top four.
Niggling knee and hamstring injuries have plagued Moylan’s start to life in the black, white and blue. But his performance against the Knights was back to the best of Moylan.
His six try assists helped Cronulla bury a poor Newcastle. Like Moylan, the Sharks endured a slow start to the season but all of a sudden are just two points from the competition lead.
“Obviously it was disappointing personally for me. I wanted to hit the ground running and I felt I wasn’t contributing in the way I would have liked to,” Moylan said.
“I had a slow start to the season and [I’m] just happy to be able to play consistent footy for the last six weeks. We’ve been able to get some wins on the board, they probably haven’t been pretty but I think we’ve been building to a game like today where we had a fair few of our shapes come off. And we were able to play a good brand of footy.
“It’s taken me a while to find my feet but I think over the last few weeks I’ve slowly improved and found a bit of consistency that comes with playing regular footy. The combination is building with Chaddy and our hookers and Duges and Val.”
Moylan had Cronulla in front inside three minutes. Young centre Jesse Ramien will be wearing the red and blue next season but hurt his future club with the opening try. A delightful Moylan cut out pass saw Ramien power through Nathan Ross to score.
With the Sharks leading 22-6 at half-time the Knights needed to respond quickly in the second half but it was Cronulla who needed less than five minutes to extend their lead thanks to Moylan’s masterclass.
A slick backline move to the left saw Moylan run around returning back-rower Wade Graham to put Edrick Lee in the corner. He was at it again less than five minutes later, this time dancing across field before accelerating and putting another returning back-rower in Luke Lewis through a yawning gap to score under the posts.
Moylan then grubber kicked into the in-goal area for Holmes to score his second try of the afternoon.
He had a sixth try assist and fourth of the half with 16 minutes remaining with a perfect cross field kick allowing Ramien to catch and touch down for his second try.
Flanagan praised Moylan’s strong defensive contribution as well as his attacking flair. While Sharks captain Paul Gallen said he had spoken to the former Panthers star to push through his tough start.
“I’ve been positive with him all year. I’ve been talking to him every week at training. Just telling him to keep working hard. If you keep working hard eventually good things will happen. I think we’re starting to see that now,” Gallen said.
“He has had a lot of errors this year. Has had a few penalties. But he’s trying. He’s not making those errors through a lack of effort or not putting his body on the line and that’s the most important thing in our team. You put your body on the line and have that team first mentality good things will happen.
“I think he’s been doing that all year, it just hasn’t been paying off for him. Hopefully he can just build on today.
“He’s pretty relaxed. He’s quiet. I spoke to him most weeks and I’m sure Flano probably did as well. There was never an issue with him as far as his position or what he was doing for our team. All the noise was outside our four walls that we’re in and that doesn’t concern us.”
As for State of Origin selection, while game one has probably come too soon for Moylan, it will be hard to new NSW coach Brad Fittler to ignore Moylan for games two and three if he continues this sort of form.
“[Today is] obviously a confidence booster but that ship has probably sailed at the moment,” Moylan said.
“There’s a lot of people getting tossed up for that but I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about playing footy for Cronulla and playing good footy here. Hopefully I can build off the back of this and keep improving.
“[We’re] confident. And excited, I guess. We want to get back there and keep working hard. Making sure we’re preparing well and doing the best we can to get ourselves into the position we need to be.”