Rich pickings for Sharks as Flanagan’s mission sinks without trace

Picture the rainiest of rainy scenes, and that was Shark Park on Sunday afternoon. It was the shirtless prison-break rejoice in The Shawshank Redemption. It was the iconic kiss from The Notebook. It was Brad and Janet walking naively to Frank N. Furter’s mansion. Anybody got a spare newspaper?

Now picture Cronulla’s chief executive, Dino Mezzatesta, walking the aisles of Bunnings on Sunday morning for pressure pumps and hoses. Just a CEO on a low-key trip to the hardware store because his home ground is flooded and kick-off is in a few hours.

The corners of the field were drowned, as was the entrance and car park. Mezzatesta would have had his windscreen wipers up at full speed – this was hazard-lights weather. Questions were asked about whether the local NRL derby could be played at all. “More hands on deck, the more pumps working the better it is,” Mezzatesta said pre-game.

By the time 4pm rolled around the place was in pretty good nick, all things considered. At half-time, when the hosts trailed 10-6, it might have been fair to ask: was the hasty clean-up worth it? Because the hot chips were still soggy underneath the umbrellas on the hill – and their team weren’t even winning.

The dedicated souls who braved this deluge had done their bit, turning up and booing diligently as the Dragons ran out, adding a little additional depth to the “ooo” just for Flanno.

Shane Flanagan’s return as an opposition coach has been the undercurrent to this fixture ever since ANZAC Day, when – directly after a 60-18 loss to the Roosters – he volunteered that he was “really interested in beating” the club he led to the 2016 premiership, and noted they had not won one since.

Mikaele Ravalawa scored two first-half tries.

Quite what influence this complicated-legacy narrative had on the outcome is near-impossible to tell, given how much the wind interfered with kicking and other elements of the game. But the messy nature of Sunday’s 80 minutes did indicate Flanagan may have had a point, because his Dragons troubled Cronulla in exactly the sort of manner other teams have during the finals of the past two seasons.

If Craig Fitzgibbon’s Sharks were, well, Sharks in this underwater encounter, then the Dragons were maybe angler fish. You know those freaky-looking deep-sea creatures with oversized mouths and fang-like teeth? They were shining those little lights on their heads to lure in their prey, even while seemingly doing not much at all.

Nicho Hynes came to the rescue.

Inviting the Sharks to give up penalties and also discipline to blow an early lead by letting Mikaele Ravalawa score, and then stopping Talakai on the line only to let Ravalawa in again in the last play before the break.

In the end, of course, they won – as they always do against St George Illawarra – and are back on top of the ladder. The second 40 was improved. Nicho Hynes was a wet-haired prince to the rescue. Tom Hazelton was a campervan against a row of tents.

But what does it mean when the whole thing was a bit bedraggled from both sides? Does this mean Cronulla are title contenders? Or do we reserve judgement until mid-June, once they have faced second-placed Melbourne Storm, the in-form Roosters, three-peat premiers Penrith, Parramatta and last year’s grand finalists Brisbane?

Fitzgibbon was equal parts philosophical and prickly regarding the external assessments of Cronulla’s potential in 2024, based on a relatively kind early season draw featuring wins over the Warriors, Canterbury, Canberra, South Sydney and North Queensland and a heavy loss to the Wests Tigers.

“We keep hearing it, it’s just distracting,” he said after the game. “If you can assess our premiership credentials in three weeks, do you reckon there will be a twist after that? It’s hard to tell … it’s a fair question because it’s a narrative around us.

“We don’t do anything other than try and better than where we’ve been, and we’re constantly trying to work on things and get better. Where we’re at after that three weeks will be where we’re at, but it won’t be the end of the year.

“The only thing I can see with that, which everyone seems to be excited about [is that] we’re getting better. But whether we’re there or not, we’ll figure it out. But we’ve got Melbourne [next week], and Melbourne’s the only thing we’re going to fixate on this week.”

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