Updated ,first published
They don’t have a hair on their heads between them, and command little hype. But Cronulla’s largely unheralded playmakers Will Kennedy and Braydon Trindall have spearheaded another point-scoring blitz in a 36-22 victory over the Warriors.
While the Kiwi side were left sweating on a late hamstring injury to Luke Metcalf, injuries to Jesse Ramien (MCL) and Tom Hazleton (ankle) will take some of the shine off the Sharks’ win and Trindall’s fine early season form.
Both Ramien and Hazleton will be sent for scans, while Braden Hamlin-Uele also failed a HIA in reserve grade on Saturday, ruling him out as a bench option for next Saturday’s clash against the Roosters in Perth if Hazleton is sidelined.
Outside back Mawene Hiroti looms as Ramien’s replacement after Cronulla knocked back an approach by the Titans to release him this season.
For the visitors, a tough day at the office for Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad – the centre was found wanting more than once by the Sharks playmakers – ended early with a neck issue, but coach Andrew Webster said while Metcalf “will miss some football”, the five-eighth had indicated his injury wasn’t as bad as previous hamstring issues he has had.
Injuries aside, the Sharks thrived as Trindall and Kennedy cut the Warriors to ribbons more than once at Shark Park, repeatedly targeting the visitors’ right-edge defence and coming up trumps.
Kennedy’s shaved pate was impossible to miss in the afternoon sunshine as he scythed through the Warriors twice in the space of four minutes – scoring his first when Trindall held the defensive line up and his second from a well-worked scrum play.
The fullback had to take a reduced one-year deal to stay in Cronulla colours for this season and is one of more than a dozen first-graders coming off-contract at the Sharks.
You wouldn’t know it based on his start to the season, and he told reporters on Sunday that he is open to moving on if a rival club trumps Cronulla with an offer for 2027 and beyond.
“I’ll do whatever is best for my family. I just had a newborn, so it was only right for me to stay that one more year here,” Kennedy said of his current one-year deal.
“I want to keep playing footy. If I stay here, happy days. I love this club. But if I have to do what’s best for my family then I have to do it.”
Trindall underlined his status as one of the game’s form halves after he and Nicho Hynes repeatedly skewered the Warriors defence.
A 24-10 halftime lead was deserved given the Sharks’ ascendancy and willingness to play expansively despite pre-game drizzle.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak’s hat-trick kept the Warriors just about within reach in the first stanza – particularly a 90-metre intercept that would have produced another Sharks try had the veteran winger not latched onto it.
But with KL Iro also muscling his way onto the scoresheet and Billy Burns also charging over from a Hynes short ball, the Sharks were never truly worried by an out-of-sorts Warriors side.
Coach Craig Fitzgibbon was miffed by a 10-1 penalty count against his side, but chuffed nonetheless with Cronulla’s ability to weather early setbacks and regular pinging of the whistle.
“The most pleasing thing was whatever was going against us in the run of the game, I didn’t think we flinched, we kept going,” Fitzgibbon said.
“We haven’t won [a penalty count] this year, but we’ve got to look at why that keeps happening… I’m not sure what’s happening there. They probably were penalties, they might be fair. But if we’re dominating we might have more than a penalty in a game.”
