By Adam Pengilly
The Sharks threatened to pull off the biggest comeback in the NRL era before Manly breathed life into their finals hopes with a nerve-jangling 30-26 win at PointsBet Stadium on Sunday.
Trailing 30-0 early in the second half, Cronulla scored five unanswered tries in just 28 minutes to set up a grandstand finish, with Craig Fitzgibbon ruing a frenetic ending in which winger Sione Katoa left his station after Jesse Ramien batted back a bomb into space and then Lachlan Croker dived on a loose kick.
Daly Cherry-Evans produced a first-half masterclass to drag the Sea Eagles to within one point of the top eight, but the win came at a cost with Taniela Paseka (knee) and Josh Aloiai (dislocated shoulder) facing stints on the sideline despite Matt Lodge’s pleasing club debut.
Frustrated Dally M Medal winner Nicho Hynes was placed on report for an alleged trip and copped a stern rebuke from referee Peter Gough for admonishing match officials as the Sharks’ season was left teetering, despite the wild comeback.
No team has ever recovered from a 30-point deficit during a game in the NRL era, but it was only a couple of desperate efforts in the final five minutes which spared Manly’s blushes.
The result leaves the Sharks in sixth spot – just two points above eighth-placed Parramatta – with a horror fortnight against the Panthers and Rabbitohs to come.
Reuben Garrick celebrates a Manly try.Credit: Getty
“We were just discussing that then, to miss the kick and have a really flat energy about us to start the game, it’s bitterly disappointing and ended up costing us,” Fitzgibbon said. “The ball never bounces your way when you’re not in control of the energy, and it just kept happening.
“We showed some resolve to get back into the game and ran a bit harder, tackled a bit harder and that’s what we’re capable of when we do it.”
The closest thing Cherry-Evans found to a stern opposition in the first half was referee Peter Gough, who barked at him after he protested a first-half decision: “As captain, you need to be better than that. I will not accept it going forward. There’s a way to come and a right time.”
That right way is down Cronulla’s left edge, every time. Fitzgibbon might have just shuffled the deck chairs on the Titanic this week. Out went Teig Wilton, Matt Moylan and Siosifa Talakai, and in came Jesse Colquhoun, Braydon Trindall and Connor Tracey. It mattered little.
Will Kennedy contests a high ball for the Sharks.Credit: Getty
All five of Manly’s first-half tries were scored down that side, albeit a couple off lucky bounces when Lachlan Croker and Haumole Olakau’atu were more desperate than their rivals to get to kicks.
With the benefit of a howling southerly, the Sharks finished the first half with a set of numbers which not only makes it impossible to win, but can leave mental scars destroy a season; just 34 per cent of possession, seven penalties conceded, 22 missed tackles – and one fuming coach. He didn’t need to look at his players’ faces to know they were trailing 24-0, the last dagger coming seconds before the break when Reuben Garrick finished off a move which started inside Manly’s half.
Having failed to get even close to a 40-20 in the first half, the Sharks watched Manly take all of three minutes to achieve the feat in the second stanza. Tolu Koula got a second shortly after.
The Sharks added some respectability to a glaring scoreboard when wingers Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa touched down, but in between Cherry-Evans’ opposite Hynes copped a dressing down from Gough for blowing up at a disallowed try for a forward pass to Katoa.
“Don’t say another word,” Gough said. “Don’t walk away from me, come here. You don’t have the right to speak to me or my team in any manner. You do it again you’re going to find yourself off the field. Enough.”
The Sharks fans thought the same.
Then the comeback, a miracle which would only seem possible at PointsBet Stadium.
Hynes set up a bloodied Cameron McInnes, then Jesse Ramien. Mulitalo miraculously kicked infield for Will Kennedy to score. Still five minutes left. But it wasn’t enough.
“I don’t want to be like the Grinch and be unhappy because we came here to get two points to stay alive in the competition, and we did it,” Manly coach Anthony Seibold said. “I was proud of the guys’ performance, particularly for that first 50 minutes.
“[In the last five minutes] I was thinking s—, what’s going on? I was just thinking there’s one team coming home and it wasn’t us.”
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