Shane Flanagan has described Cronulla’s preliminary finals exit at the hands of Melbourne as a missed opportunity.
The Storm downed Cronulla 22-6 in Melbourne on Friday night to advance to their third consecutive grand final.
Melbourne have the chance to become the first team to win back to back premierships since Brisbane in 1992-93 when they take on the Sydney Roosters at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.
But the depleted Sharks – without captain Paul Gallen and Wade Graham through injury – were blown away by the Storm in the first half to end their season one game short of a second grand final in three seasons.
“I think you get to these grand final qualifiers you want to play your best football. And the disappointing thing is we didn’t play our best,” Flanagan said.
“If we played our best and had a really good crack and come off the field [I’d be happy]. I thought two weeks ago when we played the Roosters there’s not too many times you come off the field [after a loss] as a coach and you’re reasonably happy with your performance.
“When we played the Roosters we lost [but] I was quite happy with the way we played even though we did lose because we had a crack at them and they were just too good. Cooper Cronk got them into field position, kicked a field goal.
“But [against Melbourne I was] just really disappointed because we didn’t play our best.”
Cronulla said farewell to veteran Luke Lewis who has retired after 18 NRL seasons.
Jesse Ramien and Edrick Lee have also played their last games for the Sharks having joined Newcastle for 2019. Premiership-winners Ricky Leutele and Joseph Paulo will leave the shire to join English Super League clubs Toronto Wolfpack and St Helens respectively.
Lewis, who captained Cronulla in his final match, and Flanagan said Storm fullback Billy Slater should not have his career ended by suspension.
They said Slater should play in the grand final despite being charged with a grade one shoulder charge for a try-saving hit on Sharks winger Sosaia Feki in the first half.
Slater will face the judiciary on Tuesday night.
