Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan wants his side to find their consistency – and quickly – after the Sharks needed a late James Maloney field goal to secure a nervy 19-18 over a gutsy Newcastle on Saturday afternoon.
Cronulla fullback Valentine Holmes added another long-range effort to his career highlights reel to have the Sharks seemingly cruising towards a professional win before producing a calamitous knock-on to gift Newcastle a try that saw the Knights level the score at 18-all with eight minutes remaining.
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The Sharks had led 18-6 before two Newcastle tries in the last 10 minutes gave the Knights a sniff of victory, before a clutch Maloney field goal from 30-metres out secured the result.
Chris Heighington celebrated his 300th NRL appearance in the one-point victory at Southern Cross Group Stadium as Cronulla recorded their first home win of the season.
But despite the victory, Flanagan was at loss to explain his side's late collapse that invited Newcastle back into the game.
"It was a lot tighter than I would have liked. We were our own worst enemy. We should have put it to bed a couple of times and it wouldn't have been tight," he said.Â
"It was a bit clunky, it wasn't our best performance but I'm just happy to get away with the two competition points. We can't really put our finger on why we weren't that good, clinically. But that's football, we'll move on."
With an eye on next weekend's grand final replay against the Storm in Melbourne, Flanagan said he was left frustrated with the performance as the Sharks continue to struggle to find the consistent form that led them to the premiership last season.
"The frustrating thing is I thought against Canberra we played 60 minutes of near perfect footy. We were relentless there. Probably Parramatta there was at least one half there. It's been scattered," he said.
"We've just got to get more consistency and put big blocks together. If we put a game together I'll be real happy. When we put a half together we're hard to beat but that's a challenge for us to find that consistency somehow."
The Sharks, wearing replicas of their traditional kit as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, opened the scoring with the first attack of the game. Chad Townsend drifted to the line before rolling a neat grubber into the in-goal area for Gerard Beale to score.
But the Knights hit back almost immediately with nearly an exact copy of Cronulla's try. This time it was Knights five-eighth Brock Lamb threading the ball through for Joe Wardle to touch down for the former Huddersfield man to score his first NRL try.
Knights back-rower Sione Mata'utia was forced from the field for a head injury assessment after looking wobbly after copping a clearing kick from Townsend in the head but returned before half-time. Cronulla captain Paul Gallen was also in the wars, treated for a nasty cut after a head clash with Jack Stockwell.
A Maloney penalty goal put Cronulla back in front as Heighington entered the game for the first time on the half hour mark. Cronulla extended their lead to 14-6 at half-time, with Holmes finding Sosaia Feki with a perfect cut out pass for the winger to cross in the corner.
Mata'utia was forced off eight minutes after the break after copping another head knock, before Holmes looked to have settled the result with another long-range try.
The fullback gathered a Hodkinson bomb 20 metres out from his own line before bursting between two defenders and racing over halfway. He then offloaded to Jack Bird who showed good strength to hold off a covering Knights defender and find Holmes backing up on the inside.
But just when Cronulla looked to be coasting to victory, Brendan Elliot gave the Knights hope with a 90-metre effort of his own 11 minutes before full-time, with the Newcastle fullback slicing through from a scrum win to have the Knights trailing by six points.
Two minutes later and they were level, with former Sharks winger Jacob Gagan making the most of a disastrous Holmes error to score out wide. Knights centre Peter Mata'utia put an innocuous looking kick down field with the ball bouncing past Holmes into the in-goal. Holmes tried to gather it but lost the ball behind himself, with Gagan steaming through to touch down.
Hodkinson's conversion from wide out drew Newcastle level but despite their gutsy comeback it was to be heartbreak for Newcastle, with Andrew Fifita putting Cronulla in position with a strong run before Maloney sealed the result with a drop goal.
The performance was a vast improvement from Newcastle, not only from their disappointing 40-point loss to Penrith last week, but their two matches against Cronulla last season where they were beaten 98-4 on aggregate.
Knights coach Nathan Brown was heartened with his side's effort but was left frustrated with Newcastle losing another close game.
"We've certainly showed with four out of our five games this year that we're really digging in. But we did lose a close game again," Brown said.
"We've definitely improved a lot on last year. Now we've got to understand that we've got to come up with a good defensive effort every week and when we get in situations in close games we've got to learn to win them.Â
"The teams that generally are at the top... they win the clutch games. The sides that don't win them end up in the situation we're in at the moment."
Originally published on The Sydney Morning Herald as James Maloney rescues Sharks from shock Knights comeback.