Cleary stunner as Broncos face dilemma; great\u2019s Nicho warning<\/a><\/p>\nSharks’ finals run built on defence | 02:04<\/p>\n
Veteran journalist Phil Rothfield highlighted the strength in the Sharks\u2019 defence in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last three weeks, against the Bulldogs, Roosters and Canberra, they\u2019ve conceded less than 10 points a game on average,\u201d Rothfield said.<\/p>\n
While Read wasn\u2019t convinced over the Sharks\u2019 title chances, he heaped praise on rejuvenated halfback Nicho Hynes. The $7 million star has come under fire this season but stepped up when Cronulla needed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll tell you who I think has answered the critics in the last two weeks, Nicho Hynes,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s been magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anasta agreed with Read.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Nicho, I thought that was a real moment for him, that game on the weekend,\u201d Anasta said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he\u2019s had his critics, and for good reason, but on the weekend, with all the pressure on him, going down to Canberra, he delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rothfield credits the Sharks\u2019 success with coach Craig Fitzgibbon, praising the coach for putting his trust in both Hynes and five-eighth Braydon Trindall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll tell you why they\u2019re still alive,\u201d Rothfield said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a trusting coach, knowing when there were bumpy sports during the year, and mid-year, he stuck with those two halves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sharks will face the Storm in a preliminary final at AAMI Park on Friday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sharks\u2019 premiership credentials have been called into question with claims the club has had a fortunate run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,689,7292,2667,4532,106743,4738,4565,12729,32121,106639,106640,98224,106744,2105,5098,761,762,158,677,26494,19095,13219,73369,106742,11368,85,26124,13125],"class_list":["post-160958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-capital-territory","tag-canberra","tag-canberra-raiders","tag-charmed-life","tag-craig-fitzgibbon","tag-cronulla-sharks","tag-daniel-ramus","tag-elimination-final","tag-face-dilemma","tag-fans-apology","tag-finals-draw","tag-fortunate-run","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-ivan-cleary","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-phil-rothfield","tag-preliminary-final","tag-premiership-credentials","tag-premiership-threat","tag-real-moment","tag-regular-season","tag-sports","tag-title-chances","tag-veteran-journalist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}