Patience and pressure are the two valuable lessons the Sharks learnt from last week’s loss to Penrith when the attacking plays they perfected against the Titans in the opening round were shut down by the Panthers’ suffocating defence.
Cronulla’s attack was humming in their first game of the season when they scored 50 points at home against Gold Coast, but they ran into a brick wall in Bathurst against a Penrith side that has conceded just one try in 160 minutes to start 2026.
Having made eight line breaks against the Titans, the Sharks managed just two on the weekend and coughed up the ball 13 times, which is always a bad combination against a team that has won four of the past five grand finals.
“At the end of the day, I don’t think we built enough pressure on Penrith,” five-eighth Braydon Trindall said.
“If you try to get your plays on without actually working the defence over (you’ll struggle), so I think that played a massive part in our game.
“This week, that’s what we’re going to look to get better at to break their defence down a bit more before we try to attack them.
“You try to attack a defensive line that hasn’t done any work and they’re just going to defend it, so it’s a massive thing for us. We’ve got to earn it first and try to work them over, but we’ll just look to get better during the week first.”
Trindall had four try assists and scored a double against the Titans, but he and halves partner Nicho Hynes were unable to build enough pressure to break down the stingiest defence in the NRL.
Co-captain Blayke Brailey says it was frustrating given how well they attacked a week earlier.
“But we knew that was going to happen, it wasn’t a surprise to us,” he said
“We knew they’re going to be obviously a really strong defence, and that’s exactly what they did. They’re a hard team to play and to beat, and they showed their class again on the weekend.”
The Sharks now face a Dolphins side that famously loves to throw the footy around, but Brailey says his side can’t fall into the trap of playing all-out attacking rugby league.
“With the way we didn’t perform the way we wanted to, it’ll be more about leaning into how we can get better (this week),” he said.
“We can’t control if they’re going to throw the ball around and if they’re going to throw offloads. It’s more about how we can refine our systems and how we personally as a team can get better.
“They are unpredictable at times and they have strike everywhere, so we definitely have to stay on red alert and on our toes.”
That attacking threat is led by fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, who scored one of the tries of 2024 at Shark Park when the Dolphins star punished one overeager defender off a kick and raced 90m to score.
“If you try to solve things individually, it’s obviously going to make you pay,” Brailey said.
“So it’s all about staying in our systems, working together, (having) communication. He’s electric with the ball and it looks like he’s jogging and he’s so fast, so hopefully he doesn’t get into too much open space this weekend.”
Originally published as ‘Make you pay’: The one area Cronulla must fix after they were exposed by Penrith’s brick wall defence