Flegg Sharks bow out

The 2023 season has come to an abrupt end for the Jersey Flegg Sharks, the young Cronulla side beaten 20-6 by the Eels in their elimination semi-final.

After a strong regular season the Sharks had gone into the five-team Finals series in third position on the ladder, however after consecutive losses to the Bulldogs and now Eels, have been left wondering what might have been.

Putting the disappointment of the Eels loss aside, coach Andrew Dallalana was proud of the efforts of his team during the season.

“There was lots of adversity throughout the year, so to finish where we did was pleasing,” Dallalana said. “As a group they were successful in making the semi finals to give themselves an opportunity.

As for the game against the Parramatta side, the Eels jumped out to an 8-0 lead, held that advantage until half time, with a Sharks try bridging the gap to just two-points at 8-6.

But that would be as close as the Sharks would get, a weight of possession and a heavy penalty count against them tipping the ledger firmly in favour of the Eels.

“I wanted them to defend their butts off, and I think they did that for long periods of time, it’s just that we did too much of it again and that seems to be the theme over the last couple of weeks,” Dallalana explained. “Or errors were high and we just had to defend too many sets.

“It was a hard one to swallow, there was maybe a couple of dubious calls, but it really doesn’t come down to that. A 12-6 penalty count, it was constant so we just had to keep turning up for each other.

“And while you create your own luck in this game, we just didn’t have much of it on our side,” the coach added.

While not the finish to the season the Sharks were looking for, with 14 wins on the year to finish third on the ladder, and at the same time unearthing a few potential NRL players of the future, the season could only be rated as a successful one.

“I hope the club was proud of them. It was one of the best groups I’ve been involved with. The connection throughout, relationships, bonds, there’s lots of different personalities and they all came together as a team,” Dallalana said.

SHARKS 6
Manaia Waitere try, Kristian Dixon goal
lost to
EELS 20