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Find your frequency hereWarriors put Sharks to slaughter in heavy NRL win
George Clarke, AAP • June 7th, 2025 9:58 pm
Photo: David Neilson/Photosport
The Warriors have brushed Cronulla aside in a 40-10 win that has helped create a breakaway pack of four in the race for the NRL minor premiership.
Marshalled by one-time Cronulla playmaker Luke Metcalf, the Warriors kept pace with fellow top-four contenders Canberra, Canterbury and Melbourne with victory in front of 13,727 at Shark Park on Saturday.
Metcalf will take the plaudits for the Warriors' round 14 victory, but some of the Kiwi outfit's young forward talent - namely Demetric Vaimauga and Leka Halasima - trumped the Sharks for both flair and fight.
The win for Andrew Webster's side opens up a four-point buffer between the top four and Cronulla, who remain stuck in fifth after a second straight defeat.
Photo: David Neilson/Photosport
The Sharks are in real danger of slipping back into the chasing peloton, and a large number of the home side's supporters made for the exit when Warriors five-eighth Chanel Harris-Tavita crossed in the 66th minute.
Craig Fitzgibbon's men were once famed for their defensive steel, but the Sharks have conceded 108 points across their past three games.
The early warning signs were there for Cronulla as the rising Warriors started with promise and took the lead after just five minutes.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak caught a chip and touched down, before centre Adam Pompey dived on a Will Kennedy fumble to extend the Warriors' lead.
Mawene Hiroti and KL Iro both hit back for the Sharks to leave the home side trailing 12-10 at halftime.
Cronulla had an avenue back into the game, but they failed to take it, and in their first defensive test of the second half Fitzgibbon's side wilted.
The Sharks remain in fifth place on the ladder after suffering a second straight defeat | Photo: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Vaimauga created the confusion as the young forward played a no-look short ball for James Fisher-Harris close to the goal line that allowed the prop to stroll in untouched.
Vaimauga then nabbed a try of his own backing up a Metcalf break, before Halasima got in on the act by outjumping Sione Katoa and touching down in the in-goal.
Harris-Tavita scored two tries in the final quarter of an hour, the first off a show-and-go that left the Sharks defence clutching at air.
His second was an 80-metre runaway effort after intercepting a Nicho Hynes pass that will only add to the pressure on the Sharks.
