Sharks tries to Luke Douglas, Paul Gallen, Mitch Brown, Kade Snowden.  Luke Covell 4 goals.

This game had the best atmosphere of any NRL game at Shark Park during the 2009 season.  Sharks fans turned out in very healthy numbers to watch their embattled team give their best, and possibly cause a big upset in the final round of the regular 2009 NRL season.

South Sydney had smashed premiership favourites St George-Illawarra by 41-6 in round 25, and they were expected to inflict a loss on the Cronulla Sharks at Shark Park.

But Cronulla Sharks fans were also optimistic about their team’s prospects after the Cronulla Sharks had come very close to causing one of the biggest upsets in the club’s history in round 25.

And up until a few seconds before the full-time siren sounded, it looked like the enthusiastic and vocal crowd would get their wish.

Even though South Sydney were able to snatch victory from the Sharks in the dying seconds of the game, there were many highlights from the game for Sharks fans suffering from the worst season in the club’s history.

Off the field, it was impressive to see the healthy crowd of Cronulla Sharks fans that turned up to watch the game, and the mood of the crowd was fantastic.  This was increased further by the good feelings shown by coach Ricky Stuart in letting departing players farewell Shark Park in the NRL, Atelia Vea in particular.

On the field there were two main highlights.  One was the form displayed by Paul Gallen, who played at five-eighth and was clearly the best player on the field that night.

The other main highlight in the game was the form of all the other Cronulla Sharks players, particularly when Paul Gallen was sin-binned for ten minutes late in the first half.

Not long after Paul Gallen had been sent from the field for ten minutes, the Cronulla Sharks were facing another six tackles in defence on their try-line, after a 50-50 call by the referee went against the Sharks.

The twelve Cronulla Sharks players not only resisted the attack of the thirteen Souths players on their line, but once they regained possession near their line, a fantastic territorial attacking set of six tackles by the Sharks saw them attacking Souths on their line.  David Simmons in particular recorded a very strong run in that attacking set.

With the Sharks on the attack, a great kick by Luke Covell into the Souths in-goal lead to the Cronulla Sharks receiving the ball back from the drop-out, and a few tackles later Mitch Brown was able to stretch out and score the Cronulla Sharks second try of the night, and put Cronulla in front.

Another highlight of the game was Luke Douglas’s try for the Sharks, the first try scored in the game.  Although a crowd favourite like Luke Douglas will always inspire loud cheers from the crowd, there were no louder cheers from the Shark Park crowd in 2009 than when ‘Dougie’ scored that try.

Six Cronulla Sharks players gained more than 100 metres in the game: Paul Gallen (253 m); Luke Douglas (168 m); Ben Pomeroy (145 m); Kade Snowden (112 m); Mitch Brown (110 m); Blake Ferguson (107 m).

Corey Hughes and Paul Gallen made Big League Magazine’s Team of the Week for Round 26.

Sharks tries to Luke Covell, Grant Millington.  Luke Covell 4 goals.

In a game that everybody thought Manly would win by 50 points, with Brett ‘Ladies man’ Stewart returning to the Manly team after 20 weeks on the sidelines, the Sharks came close to causing one of the great upsets of all time, at a ground where the Cronulla Sharks have only won 6 times in their 43 seasons in first grade rugby league.

In the lead for 78 of the 80 minutes played, the Cronulla Sharks were clearly superior to Manly in both attack and defence.  The referee was the difference on the day.

After 26 minutes, the Cronulla Sharks were leading Manly 10-0, and the Brookvale Oval crowd had been silenced by a poor defensive effort against a Cronulla Sharks team that was breaking tackles easily and offloading frequently.

Then the crowd gave their loudest cheer of the day when, to everybody’s amazement, Cronulla Sharks prop forward Luke Douglas was sent off for a high tackle.

While the Brookvale Oval crowd were inspired to again envisage a Sunday afternoon shark slaughter, with Brett Stewart to feature, the initially stunned Cronulla Sharks regained the confidence to believe that they could still win the game.  And if some calls had gone their way, they would have.

After 76 minutes, Cronulla Sharks centre Mitch Brown was taken off the field after receiving a high tackle from Manly forward Brent Kite.  As was typical of the referee, who was clearly Manly’s man-of-the-match, no penalty was awarded, or warning given, and minutes later Manly scored a try by attacking the Cronulla Sharks line where Mitch Brown would have been defending.

On a bright note, it was fantastic to see the Cronulla Sharks playing like men possessed.  The first 25 minutes of the game, and the first 35 minutes of the second-half showed the Cronulla Sharks have real heart.  It’s become commonplace for the media to say ‘the Sharks are a team who still give one-hundred percent’, and the Sharks are a ‘team who play for each other’.

It wasn’t a cliche yesterday.

Perhaps unheralded was the defensive performance of Blake Green, who was targeted by the big men in Manly’s attack, and didn’t seem to ever flinch or fall in the face of it.

Kade Snowden outplayed all of the high-profile Manly prop forwards, and Anthony Tupou, Paul Gallen, and Luke Covell showed the strong leadership that senior players in a young team should.

In fact, it’s hard to think of a Cronulla Sharks player who had a bad game, and it’s hard to think of a Manly player who had a good game.

The Cronulla Sharks team had only one change from the team named the week before.  Lancen Joudo was replaced by Terence Seu Seu.

Paul Gallen and Kade Snowden made Big League magazine’s team of the week for round 25.