NRL Round 24 2016 - Cronulla Sutherland Sharks vs South Sydney Rabbitohs @ ANZ Stadium - Monday August 22 7:00pm

Did Holmes have to get carried off after the game?

And yeah. Really no point dwelling on this game.

We play best when no one backs us. Much better off now going into the finals not expecting to win the big one. 2 games left. Just need to go into the roosters game playing freely, get our minds off the result, then hopefully gain some confidence and play a grinder against the storm.

D.D said:

And yeah. Really no point dwelling on this game.

We play best when no one backs us. Much better off now going into the finals not expecting to win the big one. 2 games left. Just need to go into the roosters game playing freely, get our minds off the result, then hopefully gain some confidence and play a grinder against the storm.

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That's just bull**** mate. We have been favourites in most of our games this year.

At least the enthusiasm seemed to rise in the second half.

slide rule said:

At least the enthusiasm seemed to rise in the second half.

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Yay.

We havnt been Minor Premiership and grand final favourites all year. Settle down.....

Did anyone hear Gorden Tallis crack up laughing when Val was shown limping off the field during the Matty Johns Show?

**** that guy is a fat head.

D.D said:

We havnt been Minor Premiership and grand final favourites all year. Settle down.....

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I can only go off what you said which was "we play best when no one backs us". Plenty of people have backed us throughout the course of the year and we were winning games.

I actually don't mind the deflection of attention away from us.

We have shown that we are capable of playing good football. Hopefully the enthusiasm rises and we click in the finals.

Putting away the razor blades, all teams we've lost against have lifted to play us. I can't remember a time where the dragons, titans or souths played with less errors or penalties than they did against us. Sure we have been poor in attack but it doesn't help when teams have their best game of the season against you. The tactic of running at Chad all night is a great one, it really tuckered poor Chaddy out. I'd give Nu a run in the halves for the last two games and give Jimmy and Chad a week off.

To look on the positive side, Souths only just scraped home against us, and they should have beaten Storm by two points if not for a brain snap. Raiders beat us and then pumped the storm too. I don't think we are as far off as we think. Raiders are in top form but have no finals experience. If we can put in a good show against Roosters and Storm then I'll be confident going into the finals, regardless of if we win or lose our last two.

I think the tough run home we've had (playing against in form teams/a miracle dragons performance) will only help us in week 1.

Raiders will be flying high on confidence after they no doubt smash Manly and Wests but it might not be as valuable as playing an in form Roosters and Storm team.

Finals is a new comp and I'm sure we'll have something up our sleeve. We've shown in the past we can lift for the big moments. Rd 24 vs Souths is not a 'big moment' so I can understand the boys not going hammer and tong to get the win.

Napolean said:

Putting away the razor blades, all teams we've lost against have lifted to play us. I can't remember a time where the dragons, titans or souths played with less errors or penalties than they did against us. Sure we have been poor in attack but it doesn't help when teams have their best game of the season against you. The tactic of running at Chad all night is a great one, it really tuckered poor Chaddy out. I'd give Nu a run in the halves for the last two games and give Jimmy and Chad a week off.

To look on the positive side, Souths only just scraped home against us, and they should have beaten Storm by two points if not for a brain snap. Raiders beat us and then pumped the storm too. I don't think we are as far off as we think. Raiders are in top form but have no finals experience. If we can put in a good show against Roosters and Storm then I'll be confident going into the finals, regardless of if we win or lose our last two.

I think the tough run home we've had (playing against in form teams/a miracle dragons performance) will only help us in week 1.

Raiders will be flying high on confidence after they no doubt smash Manly and Wests but it might not be as valuable as playing an in form Roosters and Storm team.

Finals is a new comp and I'm sure we'll have something up our sleeve. We've shown in the past we can lift for the big moments. Rd 24 vs Souths is not a 'big moment' so I can understand the boys not going hammer and tong to get the win.

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Mate that's hardly ground breaking, any decent halfback has to contend with that every week.

slide rule said:

At least the enthusiasm seemed to rise in the second half.

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People are underestimating the importance of this. It was the first time the side looked like its old self during the 15 game streak.

Where has the enthusiasm been? To a man they must be thinking about the finals and playing everything safe so as not to get injured. It is the only explanation I can really come up with since we have been getting out enthused by also rans for the past month.

I'm still in a state of shock after last night so I don't really know what to say.

I don't have the answers, I don't have the magic wand that can fix all this and I don't know if any others have too.

I know we are all critics of Gal last night but not having him the last two games has surely had to have some effect on us.
I really thought the retirement announcement from Ennis would have the opposite effect as well - surely you would want to send him out a winner. Unless of course he didn't want to retire and has been forced into it and the players aren't happy about it.

I won't say we can't turn it around - I have to admit I don't like the posters on here that have totally given up and said we won't win another game. I know you are angry and have every right to say it but I can't bring myself to do that because I love the club so much.

But someone has to start talking tough now and get to the bottom of why we are losing. Yes, opposing teams have muscled up on us but we should be able to counter that.

I'll be at the Roosters game but I won't be expecting to win. Unless there is a massive change of attitude during the week we are looking at another loss and giving up that top 2 spot. It is absolutely unbelievable that it is under threat now.

Napolean said:

Putting away the razor blades, all teams we've lost against have lifted to play us. I can't remember a time where the dragons, titans or souths played with less errors or penalties than they did against us. Sure we have been poor in attack but it doesn't help when teams have their best game of the season against you. The tactic of running at Chad all night is a great one, it really tuckered poor Chaddy out. I'd give Nu a run in the halves for the last two games and give Jimmy and Chad a week off.

To look on the positive side, Souths only just scraped home against us, and they should have beaten Storm by two points if not for a brain snap. Raiders beat us and then pumped the storm too. I don't think we are as far off as we think. Raiders are in top form but have no finals experience. If we can put in a good show against Roosters and Storm then I'll be confident going into the finals, regardless of if we win or lose our last two.

I think the tough run home we've had (playing against in form teams/a miracle dragons performance) will only help us in week 1.

Raiders will be flying high on confidence after they no doubt smash Manly and Wests but it might not be as valuable as playing an in form Roosters and Storm team.

Finals is a new comp and I'm sure we'll have something up our sleeve. We've shown in the past we can lift for the big moments. Rd 24 vs Souths is not a 'big moment' so I can understand the boys not going hammer and tong to get the win.

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Yep these sides have really aimed up on us. Teams that aren't going to make the eight have been treating their Sharks' games as their grand final and using it to prove to themselves they they coulda been a contender if the football gods hadn't duded them earlier in the season.

CrankyShark said:

People are underestimating the importance of this. It was the first time the side looked like its old self during the 15 game streak.

Where has the enthusiasm been? To a man they must be thinking about the finals and playing everything safe so as not to get injured. It is the only explanation I can really come up with since we have been getting out enthused by also rans for the past month.

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Yes it's weird. They have just looked completely flat. A complete contrast to the winning streak. You'd think they were coming 12th with no hope of going any higher or lower.

CrankyShark said:

Yep these sides have really aimed up on us. Teams that aren't going to make the eight have been treating their Sharks' games as their grand final and using it to prove to themselves they they coulda been a contender if the football gods hadn't duded them earlier in the season.

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Pretty sure teams will be aiming up in the finals as well, like the Cows last year. We're in all sorts.

Also, people have been saying we've had nothing to play for recently. Well we had a home final to play for last night. We had a top 4 spot to play for in round 26 last year. What will be our next excuse?

HaroldBishop said:

Pretty sure teams will be aiming up in the finals as well, like the Cows last year. We're in all sorts.

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We'll be aiming up too.

HaroldBishop said:

Pretty sure teams will be aiming up in the finals as well, like the Cows last year. We're in all sorts.

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hahaha mate I don't get how people can say 'those teams have lifted' like it's ok we lost. if we can't beat those teams when they lift how the **** are we going to beat the top sides when they lift.

HaroldBishop said:

Also, people have been saying we've had nothing to play for recently. Well we had a home final to play for last night. We had a top 4 spot to play for in round 26 last year. What will be our next excuse?

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there's always an excuse mate. Always

by no means am I packing it in for the year because I honestly believe it will only take one good 80 minute performance to turn things around. The problem is we are in a pretty deep hole and we need to dig ourselves out. Whether the playing group and coaching staff can do that is another question.