Assessing the Cronulla Sharks
The Cronulla Sharks are four games into life in the NRLW and have a one-and-three record to show for it.
There have some existing combinations from Cronulla’s Harvey Norman Women’s Premiership squad but for the most part, Head Coach Tony Herman is working things out on the run with a group of new and inexperienced players.
First-choice fullback Jada Taylor has just two NRLW games to her name but was a key member of this squad coming into the 2023 season. She’s been missing since Round 1 through injury while Emma Tonegato has shifted between five-eighth and fullback with Maddie Studdon coming into the halves.
Their attack is struggling as a result with just 12 points per game on average but their defence is sound to rank fifth in the competition with 17.5 points conceded each week.
Those numbers suggest the Sharks are perhaps unlucky to be one-and-three coming into NRLW Round 5.
They’ve lost to the Roosters, Tigers and Titans (the three best defensive teams in the competition) while making light work of the third-placed Raiders in Round 1 – significantly the only game Taylor has featured in this year.
Currently second-last on the NRLW ladder, there’s more positives to the Sharks in 2023 than what their ladder position suggests. They’re defending well enough while building themselves a platform from which a potent attack can develop.
Field position is king in the NRLW and thanks to the boot of Tayla Preston, Cronulla are playing with plenty of it. With the most kicking metres per game (avg 427.4m), the Sharks are dominating on fifth tackle and supporting a total yardage game that ranks fifth in the NRLW for 1,509 average running metres.
Key to this is Preston getting Cronulla into good areas on the park from which to kick.
She gets Vanessa Foliaki one-on-one here to generate a few extra metres and get the defensive line retreating before a fifth tackle kick.
With time and space to get it right, Preston brings the ball down inside the Roosters 10m line while the left edge provides a good kick chase.
Corban Baxter does a good job returning the ball here, but it’s still a net-positive result for the Sharks who ask Sydney to go 80 metres with one possession.
This is just a single example, but one that captures how Cronulla usually manage their fifth tackle options in yardage.
The longer the game went on last week, the better Preston’s kick options became.
Whenever the Roosters locked in defensively, Preston looked for the early kick to turn the pressure back on the opposition.
Preston doesn’t get the best kick chase support here but it doesn’t matter.
With the entire Roosters pack offside when Baxter plays the ball, Sydney struggle for metres in this set before losing possession in the tackle late in the count.
Suddenly attacking Sydney’s line, it takes one set-restart before the Sharks turn field position into points.
The Sharks don’t score this try without Preston’s kick two sets earlier. It’s smart footy and more importantly its repeatable footy, too.
It was only a good Roosters defence and some disconnected Sharks attack that denied Cronulla from cashing in again on a few occasions.
This set from last week highlights the positives of the Sharks attack right now and also shows us where they need to improve.
From a set start, Chloe Saunders carts it up through the middle on play one before Preston gets Holli Wheeler one-on-one with Tarryn Aiken on the right edge:
Wheeler wins that tackle like she should before Cronulla quickly swing it back to the other edge.
Ellie Johnston provides a nice pass option as the Roosters track the ball sideways, offering Talei Holmes some cheap metres when Studdon drops her back underneath.
Cronulla have now gone 20+ metres in two tackles and have Sydney under fatigue.
Preston immediately searches back down the right from the Holmes play the ball, dropping Biddle back underneath towards a fractured defensive line:
The target here was again Aiken, who would have struggled to bring down Biddle one-on-one. It’s a little bit of bad luck that Aiken was caught up in the previous tackle, leaving Keilee Joseph as the four-in defender to make a great stop on the charging Sharks centre.
With a 35+ metre gain in three tackles, Cronulla now have Sydney on the ropes.
As Brooke Anderson and Preston come back to the left, the Sharks have Holmes at Jocellyn Keleher’s outside shoulder and an overlap on the wing.
But despite all their good work in the lead up, Cronulla can’t find the last pass.
If that pass lands, Studdon is playing at a three-on-two situation down the tram line.
Instead, either Preston’s pass is off or Studdon is out of position, and the Sharks attack comes to a shuddering halt.
Keeping in mind that this is the first game Preston and Studdon have played together in the NRLW, let’s ignore the poor last pass and focus on the positives.
Isolating a prop one-on-one with a smaller body in yardage to generate momentum – good.
Dropping players back underneath to compress the line and target tiring middles – good.
Having multiple shots on both edges in a single phase – great!
The Sharks are showing signs of life in attack and might just be lacking some cohesion on the field. If they got two or three of those ‘last passes’ right in NRLW Round 4, the 36-12 scoreline would have ended up looking very different.
The important thing is that Cronulla are getting the lead up work right. Their forward pack is winning the ruck and Preston is turning the screws with her kicking game.
They aren’t executing perfectly in good-ball, but at the very least they’re consistently generating opportunities in the right areas on the park. That’s more than we can say for a number of other teams in the NRLW, four games in.
When combinations and cohesions develop – and when Tony Herman can pick his first-choice spine – I think we’ll see the Sharks attack quickly improve. Their yardage game and Preston’s boot give Cronulla a platform from which to build an attack that is just scratching the surface, four games in.
I don’t think we’ll see Cronulla in ninth place on the ladder for much longer.
Head Noise – What’s living rent free in my head this week?
Cheyelle Robins-Reti
I gave her a shoutout on the Neds NRL Punting Podcast this week and it’s still living in my head, today.
This in-and-away…
… and that back-handed flick pass are straight out of the specialist centre’s playbook.
Quick enough to skip outside her opposite number and skillful enough to get the pass away, Robins-Reti is going to be a rugby league handful this season in areas like this.
The onus is now on Apii Nicholls, Zahara Temara and Ashleigh Quinlan to get Robins-Reti quality ball from week-to-week, and scrums feel like a perfect place to start.
Tallulah Tillett
I didn’t know much about Tillett coming into the 2023 NRLW season but this pass stood out from Round 5:
The Tigers played this set smartly and had already created the overlap when Tillett takes possession here.
Still, that little studder at the line holds the defence perfectly and the pass is a bullet to Jasmine Peters in the centres.
Kirra Dibb and Emma Manzelmann control the Cowboys attack but if Tillett can convert these chances consistently, she can be the perfect foil in North Queensland’s spine.
NRLW Round 5 team list thoughts
Losana Lutu is named on the bench for the Wests Tigers after missing Round 4 due to injury. She’s yet to earn a starting jumper (is it a fitness thing?) but don’t let that fool you – she’s arguably the most influential player in this Tigers attack and they won’t wrack up the points without her. Their presumed dominance in yardage against the Dragons this week might do enough to offset Lutu’s absence, though.
Jamie Soward has tinkered with his forward pack for the third week in the row as St George slump to a one-and-three record. I think he’s got one thing right this week though – Tara MrGrath-West. She was eye-catching in her maiden NRLW season last year and can be a Tayla Predebon / Chelsea Lenarduzzi-like yardage merchant on potential.
Destiny Mino-Sinapati is named to replace Jamie Chapman in the centres for the Cold Coast this week. That’s a very small rookie winger coming in for one of the most physical outside backs in the NRLW. And she’ll be marking Jess Sergis…
The Parramatta Eels season is already on life-support and they’re without Elsie Albert again this week. With Kennedy Cherrington still sidelined, Parramatta are desperate for a leader in the forwards and have named an inexperienced pack in NRLW Round 5. The Eels starting pack this week has a combined 29 NRLW games between them. Canberra’s lock-forward Simaima Taufa has 25 by herself… this could be another long game for the Eels.