Flanagan: Sharks On Right Track
Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan hopes his side's gritty win over the finals-bound Roosters is the first step towards rebuilding the club's respect in the NRL.
http://www.sharks.com.au/?s=article-display&id=29139
Flanagan: Sharks On Right Track
Sportal
16/08/2010 4:09:47 PM
Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan hopes his side's gritty win over the finals-bound Roosters is the first step towards rebuilding the club's respect in the NRL.
The Sharks looked headed for the seventh straight defeat when they trailed 12-6 at half-time before they grabbed two second-half tries to clinch the match and hand Flanagan his first win as a top grade coach.
It was a victory built on that back of a colossal defensive effort, particularly in the first half, when the visitors enjoyed a massive amount of possession but squandered a number of great scoring chances.
The Roosters had an off-night and were a shadow of the side that surged up the table by winning five games in a row last month but Flanagan said his side deserved all the credit.
"Because of where we are on the competition table we're always going to get that the Roosters didn't play well," he said.
"But it's how you allow them to play."
"Our defence was very good; they didn't make too many line breaks."
"Those three minutes before half-time was the only time they put some points on."
"It's how we defended against them, that's what pleased me, we didn't attack great but we defended great."
"We played well and we deserved what we got tonight.....hopefully we can build on that now."
While they are no hope of playing in the finals, the Sharks still had plenty of motivation to win with retiring winger Luke Covell playing his 150th match while half Tim Smith only confirmed he'd play a little over an hour before kick-off.
Smith spent most of the last couple of days leading up to the match at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where his new-born son had been battling breathing problems.
But with little Slayter Aiden Smith given the all clear on Friday afternoon, the 25-year-old decided to play and played an important role, setting up Dean Collis' try in the second half that brought the scores level.
"He (Smith) had a big 24 hours and I wasn't sure whether should play but he toughed it out," Flanagan said.
"He didn't have much sleep last night but the baby's doing good."
"It's great that we could win, especially with the preparation Timmy had."
Asked how he felt about picking up his first win as an NRL coach, a relieved Flanagan said: "It was tense right until the end....I just kept thinking they were going to take it away from us."
"It would have been heartbreaking. But we hung in there, that's the determination of this playing group."
The Roosters were easily the better side in the first 40 minutes but simply failed to take their try-scoring chances when they were on offer.
The defeat leaves the Tricolours' top four hopes in jeopardy, with a clutch of teams closing in with a logjam on the NRL ladder from second down to eighth spot.
Coach Brian Smith said his players simply lacked the composure to come away with the victory.
"We looked like a team that wasn’t confident on the amount of energy we had to expend in the game," he said.
"We were trying to get it all done at once instead of doing all the little details," he said.
"We had more than enough chances to score tries in first half to put ourselves in reasonably comfortable position but we fluffed those opportunities."
"Most of the time it was because we were in a hurry."
"We were just beaten by a team that had more energy and were prepared to do all the hard stuff."