The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks bounced back from a slow start to the 2021 NRL season but fell just short of finals football.
Here’s your Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Season Review for 2021:
- The Season In Brief: Stats and Summary
- Takeaways From 2021
- Things I Liked: Connor Tracey, Will Kennedy
- 3-2-1: Braydon Trindall, Ronaldo Mulitalo & Sione Katoa, Siosifa Talakai
- Summer Notepad: Nicho’s Partner
- Preseason Prediction Throwback
- Way Too Early Thoughts On 2022
The Season In Brief
We’re summing up the NRL season in a few words before getting into the nitty-gritty and breaking down some of the key moments in 2021.
By The Numbers
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks finished 8th in attack scoring 21.7 points per game and 7th in defence conceding 23.2 points per game. They really should have finished 7th or 8th on the NRL ladder while finishing in the top half in possession (50.6%), set completion (79.7%), running metres (1,674m), post-contact metres (545m), line breaks (4.7) and try assists (3). However, their NRL-high 37.9 missed tackles and second-worst 17.8 ineffective tackles per game cost them dearly.
The Season In 200 Words
Another slow start to the season put the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks on the back-foot in 2021. A horror first ten rounds saw John Morris sacked and the Sharks win just two games. However, like 2020, they bounced back to make a run at the Top 8, falling just short after the Warriors lost to the Titans in Round 25.
A Top 8 team at their best (thrashing the Titans in Round 12, Bulldogs in Round 19 and Tigers in Round 23) but mindbogglingly bad at their worst (Losing to Bulldogs in Round 7, Panthers in Round 9 and Warriors in Round 21), the Sharks struggled for consistency all season. Much of that had to do with the turnover of players in key playmaking positions.
Chad Townsend, Matt Moylan, Shaun Johnson, Braydon Trindall, Connor Tracey and Luke Metcalf all spent time in the halves, disrupting development and stalling momentum. Will Kennedy and Blayke Brailey stood out at fullback and hooker to offer hope of a cohesive spine in 2022 while playing behind a pack that still managed to get up the field despite the turnover of game-managers.
A frustrating season, it’s one Craig Fitzgibbon will be able to learn from heading into 2022.
Takeaways From 2021
Things I Liked
Jason picks out a few moments, matches or players that he liked most throughout the 2021 NRL season.
Connor Tracey
Speed, mobility, ball skills and versatility is a combination more coaches are looking for in a bench rotation player these days. The speed of the game allows for a smaller man to fill the #14 jersey, and while he only played three games off the bench in 2021, Connor Tracey displayed all the signs of a top tier utility player.
He started in 21 of his 24 games out of necessity more than anything else. Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa both spent time on the sideline forcing Tracey onto the wing where he performed well. Quick on his feet and dangerous in good ball areas, his tackle breaking and finishing ability made up for the relative lack of success in yardage. If not for Matt Burton, Tracey may have received more attention as a half successfully moving in to the centres he looked that good out there. With Matt Moylan, Shaun Johnson and Chad Townsend all in and out of the side, he popped into the halves as well, but perhaps not as much as he would have liked. His creativity is underrated and I’d have liked to see him spend more time in a #6 or #7 jersey throughout the season.
Still only 25-years old, Tracey is beginning to enter the prime years of his career. He has been hampered by injury up until this year but showed what he can do when remaining healthy. If he can find some consistency in where he is named, even if his role changes each week in a #14 jersey, we will start to see the best version of Tracey. Utility players haven’t always been seen as such a key component of a football side, but Tracey will be an important part of the 2022 Sharks regardless of where he’s named.
Will Kennedy
I put a poll to Twitter around the time Matt Dufty peaked in 2021 asking which fullback people would prefer to have on their team between the Dragons #1 and Kennedy. The large majority said Dufty. Two months later – before Dufty was dropped from the side – the tide had shifted to where it should have been all along – Kennedy in a landslide.
He’s not going to reach James Tedesco, Latrell Mitchell or Tom Trbojevic levels of dominance, but Kennedy is towards the top of the third tier of fullbacks already. Solid enough in defence, Kennedy is a dual-threat when the Sharks run their shapes out wide. He’s deceptively quick and doesn’t need much space to get on the outside of his man and through a gap.
Kennedy doesn’t seem to take the attention of the defence in the same way other fullbacks do, but they should. If the Sharks can name a consistent halves pairing who then develop combination with the edge backrowers, Kennedy is going to have a field day out wide in 2022.
A decent pair of soft hands gives Kennedy and the Sharks options too:
Again, he’s not Latrell-levels of quickness when it comes to releasing a pass, but his timing on these sweeps is superb and he has the hands to release his winger down the edge and into the corner. He finished up the 2021 season with 14 try assists to go with his 14 tries.
The Sharks are always a solid team and Kennedy is solid to a tee. I put him in the same category as Chanel Harris-Tavita in that they’re not the flashiest players and won’t feature in too many fan-made highlight reel packages, but they’re solid at worst and never play themselves out of the team. With Nicho Hynes around to provide some flash next season and Braydon Trindall a good looking prospect for the #7 jersey, Kennedy is an well-rounded compliment to the spine.
~ Jason
3-2-1
True rugby league fans will know there’s nothing more legitimate than the Dally M’s 3-2-1 voting system…With that in mind, Oscar picks out three elements from the 2021 season that deserve a mention.
3 – Braydon Trindall
I think I might be the keenest bloke in rugby league on Cronulla halfback Braydon Trindall.
From his very first game in the NRL it was clear he had some work to do on his defence, but it was also clear that he had the skills to be a first-grade quality half. He also has the temperament. Despite his age and experience, Trindall plays the game the same whether it’s the opening set or if he’s down by 20. He’s got wonderful vision and a ballplaying skill set that allows him to challenge the defence in a number of ways and at any stage in the game.
He’s primarily a ballplaying half but Trindall is still more than capable of challenging the line himself.
When used off the bench through the middle earlier in the season, Trindall was able to expose tired forwards around the ruck with some footwork and get a pass away to a player in support. The better halfbacks in the game – Nathan Cleary, Daly Cherry-Evans, Ben Hunt, Jahrome Hughes – can all threaten the line themselves in actions like this which inevitably creates extra space for teammates out wide as the defence compresses. He doesn’t have to run often, but having this option in Trindall’s bag of tricks only makes his passing game more dangerous.
This action against the Raiders in Round 18 shows it perfectly.
With a skip to the outside, Trindall burns Joseph Tapine for speed easily and engages Sam Williams in the defensive line. Williams is forced to turn in to contain Trindall which leaves Sebastian Kris in no-man’s-land on the edge with two Sharks players running at him. Trindall sums things up in an instant, floating a slick cut-out across the face of Teig Wilton to put Connor Tracey into space. Tracey draws the winger in and Ronaldo Mulitalo goes over in the corner.
Trindall looked good running these short side raids as a five-eighth but by season’s end we started to get an idea of how Trindall might work as a halfback.
I think we’re going to see a lot more of this action from Cronulla in 2022. It’s a stock-standard block shape but it’s all done with good depth to allow Cronulla’s ballplayers time to pass or run – something that all three of Trindall, Hynes and Kennedy can do effectively next season. In actions like these, all three players can threaten enough with a run that the defence can’t slide early and all three are clever enough ballplayers to straighten and create space before passing if the defence is too tight. Cronulla will effectively have a genuine scoring opportunity not only when each player takes possession but when they pass the ball as well, and with finishers like Sione Katoa and Ronaldo Mulitalo (more on them below) waiting out wide it’s an action that screams potential for the Sharks in 2022.
I’m really, really big on Trindall next year. He won’t be asked to do nearly as much with Cameron McInnes and Dale Finucane taking on some of the ballplaying duties through the middle and he’s now got a halves partner that will demand plenty of attention from the defence himself in Nicho Hynes. Couple that with a classy dummy-half feeding him clean ball and the most underrated fullback in the competition supporting him out the back and it feels like things are falling into place for Trindall in 2022. I hope I haven’t just jinxed him.
2 – Ronaldo Mulitalo & Sione Katoa
The Cronulla Sharks are blessed with one of the best winger pairings in the NRL. Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa are safe under the high ball, reliable in yardage, elite finishers on the end of backline shifts and both are capable of producing a big play from nothing when their team needs it.
Katoa has been the main beneficiary of Shaun Johnson’s right boot over the past two seasons, but he will have to manage without that in 2022. Braydon Trindall looms as the man to take Johnson’s place and he certainly has the skills to get the most out of Jesse Ramien and Katoa outside him.
This one from Round 24 was an absolute special.
Trindall does a good job to engage the defence and create the overlap out wide and Will Kennedy provides some lovely soft hands to put Katoa down the sideline. Using a mix of speed, skill and smarts, Katoa goes 50+ metres in a winding effort to evade five Broncos defenders and link with Connor Tracey on the other side of the field – try time. At just 24 years of age Katoa’s best footy is still ahead of him and he’ll average plenty more than the nine tries he scored this season by the end of his career.
On the other flank, Mulitalo is a player I’ve had to truly reconsider.
He burst onto the scene as a flashy young talent who didn’t mind making things personal on the field and it rubbed a few noses – including mine – the wrong way. Since then he has kicked on to become one of the more exciting attacking wingers in the competition while also doing some fantastic charitable work in the community. His Origin saga this year put a smudge on what was a stellar season for Mulitalo and if he can play 20+ games next year (and if the Sharks’ new-look spine can click) he’ll give the top try scorer gong a red hot crack in 2022.
Mulitalo is ultra reliable as a finisher on a Cronulla left edge that will feature Nicho Hynes, Wade Graham and Connor Tracey next season. Throw in Will Kennedy who is adept sweeping down both sides of the field and Mulitalo has four good ballplayers inside him who know how to give him the ball. He’ll pick up plenty of tries in that far left-hand corner but Mulitalo’s point-of-difference is his ability to make something out of nothing when returning the ball.
Mulitalo makes a mockery of four would-be tacklers here as he busts up the Tigers’ middle and streaks into the backfield. He then sells Moses Mbye a filthy dummy before gifting his mate Luke Metcalf his first NRL try – nice touch, Ronaldo. There aren’t many wingers in the competition who can pull this off, and Mulitalo did it more than once in 2022. At 21 years of age his ceiling is sky-high and if Cronulla’s spine can gel like they hope, the Sharks have a first-class winger who can turn that potential into points.
1 – Siosifa Talakai
Everybody has a question they’re waiting for new coach Craig Fitzgibbon to answer when it comes to the Sharks in 2022. I’ve got a few of my own, and one of them is how will he get the most out of boom forward Siosifa Talakai.
Having debuted for South Sydney back in 2016 as a centre, Talakai has developed through the grades into a genuine utility forward. He’s listed at 178cm and 100kg but he plays like he’s 120kg and was unstoppable at times for Cronulla this season. Adept on the edge or through the middle, Talakai feels like he might have a bit of Isaah Papali’i about him if the Sharks can learn to use him effectively in 2022.
He runs this unders line as good as any backrower in the comp and even the best defensive halfback is going to struggle bringing Talakai down here.
Cronulla’s lack of cohesion in the halves hampered Talakai in 2022. He wasn’t afforded an opportunity to link regularly with a playmaker and failed to find himself in repeatable actions like this with the ball as a result. Thanks to his own size and power Talakai was often able to turn his involvements into positive ones but he’ll have the luxury of a little more consistency around him in 2022.
Wade Graham’s return will push him out of that left edge spot which leaves Talakai to fight Briton Nikora for the right edge role or to play off the bench. Wherever he plays, I’m keeping an eye on Talakai to see if he can improve on what was a career year in 2021.
~ Oscar
Summer Notepad
The NRL Notepad is a feature that has run all season. With the 2021 campaign wrapped up, we’re starting to think about what we’d like to see between now and March next year.
Nicho’s Partner
As a long-term occupant of the Nicho Hynes Hype Train, I’m excited to see him take on more of a senior role at the Sharks in 2022.
He killed it when given the chance in 2021. While he spent most of his time at fullback for the Storm, he filled spots in the attack similar to a five-eighth. He often took the ball at first or second-receiver and showed a creative side to his ball-playing.
Hynes’ combination with Will Kennedy has a tonne of potential, but who plays beside Hynes in the halves will be a big factor.
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