Sooner or later, you might be what your report says you might be, which have to be complicated for Cronulla as a result of since 2022 they’ve had two of them.
There’s the common season one, which is imposing and spectacular — 48 wins from 72 begins is a formidable return in anybody’s language and places them behind solely Melbourne and Penrith for many wins in that point.
The Sharks have discovered a fast-paced, well-drilled fashion beneath Craig Fitzgibbon that works for them and from March to August it does a superb job.
However then there’s the opposite Sharks, those whose struggles want no introduction as a result of they have been talked about all week. Seven finals losses is unenviable but it surely’s the 4 straight beneath Fitzgibbon that basically makes for powerful sledding.
It isn’t a lot that the Sharks misplaced these video games, it is how.
Be it the slender losses to North Queensland and the Roosters or the heavy ones to South Sydney and Melbourne, there have been few intervals the place they appear like the aspect who discover the grind of the common season so comfy.
So Friday’s match wasn’t simply in opposition to the Cowboys, it was a battle contained in the Sharks as their finest and worst selves fought out to see which one would survive.
Each side had their moments however in the long run there was sufficient of the great things for a 26-18 win that may not silence the doubters completely, but it surely’s a begin.
For the primary half, Cronulla regarded very similar to their common selves. Lengthy intervals of set-for-set soccer — there have been simply three penalties all night time and never a single set restart — allowed them to get their recreation on, with Braydon Trindall main the way in which.
It was his fast pondering in damaged play that led to the opening penalty strive, which appeared to settle Cronulla’s nerves and allowed them to work their manner right into a rhythm and tempo they’re comfy with.
Between Trindall’s second strive — which concerned a superb piece of improvisation from Trindall and Jessie Ramien — and the sharp management he performed with all through, he was the most effective participant on the sphere and a lot of Cronulla’s 24-0 half-time lead ran by way of him.
Trindall taking such a number one position within the aspect is not any small factor given Fitzgibbon’s Sharks have been so constructed round Nicho Hynes and the issues he does properly.
It has been open season on the halfback in latest instances, particularly after an sad night time in Melbourne final week, as his large recreation performances come beneath the scrutiny that solely comes while you’re one in every of rugby league’s greatest stars.
Hynes has been a very dominant participant since arriving at Cronulla, even for a halfback. Over the previous two seasons, Hynes has averaged extra touches of the ball than any non-dummy half within the competitors.
Final yr, in Cronulla’s week one finals loss to an injury-hit Roosters aspect held collectively by good intentions and little else, Hynes touched the ball 87 instances, a really staggering quantity, whereas Trindall solely had it 35 instances.
This time, the break up was much more even — Trindall completed in entrance, 54 to 51. Hynes didn’t have one in every of his banner nights however as a result of their mixture is now extra well-rounded, he did not should.
From that base, the Sharks lastly acquired their recreation on when it mattered most. The again 5 acquired moving into yardage, the forwards labored off the again of that — particularly Toby Rudolf, Cam McInnes and Briton Nikora, who all performed as if a Cowboy had as soon as wronged them in some deep and private manner.
In the end, we had been seeing the most effective of the Sharks when it counted.
However the Cowboys are a tough proposition, even down a lot. They boast attacking presents which can not at all times be managed and that makes them harmful — to each themselves and others — always.
A nervous 18-point lead doesn’t appear to be one thing that may be attainable, however that is what settled on the SFS after Valentine Holmes scored simply after the break. As soon as Reuben Cotter scored, loads of throats had been getting tight.
The Cowboys aren’t as constant by way of their workforce because the Sharks however they managed to outlive on excellent particular person efforts. Cotter’s efficiency was one and Tom Dearden, who was on the coronary heart of every little thing they did properly, supplied one other.
If Scott Drinkwater, the final word rugby league gunslinger, had been capable of fireplace just a few bullseyes, it might properly have been sufficient for North Queensland to run down the Sharks.
He was nonetheless doubtless, and fast on the draw, however the magic would not come. Passes went ahead, drop-outs went out on the total and when he did burst into house, a last-second ankle faucet from Will Kennedy saved a sure strive.
Cronulla dominated possession and discipline place within the second half and closed the sport out by way of Trindall’s kicking recreation. It was not as flashy as the primary half, but it surely was efficient and that is all it needed to be.
It can take a much more full effort if the Sharks are to match it with Penrith in subsequent week’s preliminary last.
They have not scored a strive in opposition to the Panthers since July of 2022 after being outscored 70-0 throughout their two matches over the previous two seasons, together with a 42-0 smash-up — at Shark Park, no much less — earlier this yr when Cronulla had been high of the desk and using excessive.
They will not have forgotten that they usually’ll be after revenge. Forty good minutes will not be sufficient. Eighty of their finest nonetheless won’t be.
However by the top of this weekend, there might be 4 groups left within the competitors and Cronulla might be one in every of them and after the collapses of latest years, that is value one thing.
Certain, a thumping, riotous victory in opposition to the Cowboys may need slayed just a few extra demons however the losses they’ve copped previously meant it did not matter how their first win collectively occurred, simply that it occurred in any respect.
