Stats show Sharks bite in games without key players
Cronulla players credit a “keep it simple” mindset for winning games when without key players.
This year’s Sharks have won eight of 11 matches when at least one of their first-choice halves, Nicho Hynes or Braydon Trindall, has been missing.
If that 73 per cent win rate was extrapolated across the 20 games they have played so far, Cronulla would have sat third on the ladder heading into round 24.
For comparison, triple reigning premiers and competition heavyweights Penrith had won 75 per cent of their games prior to this week’s fixtures.
In contrast, the Sharks have won only five of nine games – 56 per cent – when Trindall and Hynes have been on the park together this season.
Cronulla’s tendency to lift without key players stretches beyond the halves – they hold a 3-1 record in games when either of their leading tryscorers Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa has been unavailable.
The Sharks’ two games without both Trindall and Hynes have produced two of their most impressive wins of the season – a gutsy 25-18 defeat of Melbourne on the road in round 10 and last week’s 44-0 thrashing of Gold Coast.
Jack Williams was one of a handful of players tasked with lifting against the Titans, promoted to the starting side for only the third time this season.
The 27-year-old scored a try and ran for 218 metres in his best performance of the year.
“It’s surprising,” Williams said of the Sharks’ record without key players.
“I think we just strip back our game, we try to make it as simple as we can. That definitely helps.
“(Adaptability) is probably a strength of ours, even though we’ve got our set positions there we can sort of float about.”
Prop Tom Hazelton said it was never a case of rewriting the game plan when stars went down.
“It’s more about just simplifying it,” he said.
“If you go back to our best games, I think what’s worked for us is how simple our game plan has been. We tried to simplify it again last week and it paid off.”
Hazelton hopes the Sharks’ adaptability can serve them well on the run to finals with the club still unsure about Hynes’s exact return date from his ankle injury.
Trindall will also race the clock to recover from his hamstring issue in time for Sunday’s clash against a Newcastle side fighting to keep its finals hopes alive.
“As the year goes on, everyone’s improving. We just have to keep getting better every week as well,” Hazelton said.
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