{"id":539999,"date":"2026-03-14T13:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T13:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539999\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T13:16:10","slug":"craig-fitzgibbon-disappointed-in-sharks-performance-pointed-out-two-suspect-referee-decisions-press-conference-panthers-defeat-sharks-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/539999\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Fitzgibbon disappointed in Sharks\u2019 performance, pointed out two suspect referee decisions, press conference, Panthers defeat Sharks, news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon admits his side were served a reality check by Penrith in a 26-6 loss but lamented that a few things failed to go his side\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

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While he said the better team won in Bathurst, Fitzgibbon pointed to a couple of first half referee decisions that went against his side that shouldn\u2019t of.<\/p>\n

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Just two plays before Brian To\u2019o\u2019s 7th minute try, Panthers outside back Tom Jenkins appeared to have knocked the ball on but ref Ashley Klein ruled it went back, much to the surprise of several Cronulla players.<\/p>\n

Fitzgibbon also noted that Jesse Ramien was hard done by to be penalised for an early tackle late in the first half when the game was in the balance at 6-0. <\/p>\n

In the next set, Jenkins crossed and Penrith jumped out to a 12-0 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cPenrith outplayed us tonight convincingly and it shows on the scoreboard, but I think we rocked up with a bit of hope, hope that things would go our way and hope that things would fall in our lap and hope things would be okay,\u201d Fitzgibbon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we got that first knock on from Tom Jenkins which has been a knock on for 117 years and we conceded points off the back of it. Then the call on Jesse Ramien. If that\u2019s a (penalty) I don\u2019t know the rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping for something to do us a solid there but I thought Penrith were more connected, more clinical and they exposed us. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to sit here and complain about the rules, I just don\u2019t think we played well enough and we got a lesson in where we\u2019re at and we\u2019ll adjust that. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a long way to go but it hurt, so we\u2019ve got get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Sharks were tough in the first half but their attack lacked any potency, a week after looking like world-beaters in a 50-10 win against the Titans. <\/p>\n

Fitzgibbon was left disappointed by what he saw but was keen to praise the opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was disappointing. We\u2019ll take some lessons out of it. But no, disappointed as I thought we were a better side than that,\u201d the Sharks coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201dTo be fair, Penrith were fantastic. They were last week and then were again tonight. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve asserted their level in the premiership and we didn\u2019t. So it\u2019s pretty straightforward in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon admits his side were served a reality check by Penrith in a 26-6 loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-539999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539999","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=539999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}