{"id":897174,"date":"2026-09-19T01:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T01:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897174\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T01:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T01:14:13","slug":"newcastle-immortal-encourages-targeting-injured-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/897174\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle immortal encourages targeting injured stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby League<\/a> immortal Andrew Johns has implored players to target injured opposition stars during finals matches.<\/p>\n

Cronulla Sharks<\/a> playmaker Braydon Trindall<\/a> was clearly not at 100 per cent on his return from a shoulder injury during the elimination final against the North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He is expected to play through the pain as the Sharks take on the Sydney Roosters<\/a> in their semi-final on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Penrith Panthers<\/a> playmaker Nathan Cleary<\/a> is also harbouring an injury heading further into finals. During his match against the Sydney Roosters<\/a> last week, he seemed to be dealing with a stress-related foot injury. This affected his kicking, and he will most definitely not be 100 per cent when Penrith play their preliminary final in two weeks.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have confirmed they expect Cleary to play, but at this time of year, that could mean a multitude of things as to what a players health actually is.<\/p>\n

During Nine’s broadcast of Freddy and The Eighth,\u00a0 this week, Andrew Johns posed a question to his co-host Brad Fittler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re coaching against Nathan, are you telling your players to stand on it and stomp on it? Every scrum, stand on it,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n

\"BRISBANE,BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – MAY 04: Nathan Cleary of the Panthers celebrates after scoring a try during the round nine NRL match between the Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on May 04, 2025, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Brad Fittler<\/a> left no surprise to his answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo whatever you can,\u201d he said in response.<\/p>\n

Like Trindall, Cleary will be playing through his foot pain and will be looking to take the Panthers to the grand final.<\/p>\n

Trindall is an enormous factor for Cronulla; he represents the Sharks’ hopes for finals and must play if the Sharks are to have any hope of the premiership.<\/p>\n

He has a staggering 30 try assists this year, and there is little coincidence the Sharks form fell off a cliff during the final weeks of the season with him sidelined.<\/p>\n

Cleary has also had a monstrous year, and Penrith will be glad for the week off to try and get him ready to go.<\/p>\n

The Penrith half isn’t the only player battling, with lock forward Isaah Yeo<\/a> playing the finals series through a pectoral muscle injury.<\/p>\n

Trindall spent much of the game against the Cowboys defending out of the way on the wing, but Fittler believes that in itself could be exploited.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’ve got to bring some tactics in, not just to get him to tackle, but try and get him to be out of position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’ve got Marky Mark [Nawaqanitawase] or Daniel Tupou<\/a> on him and he’s on the wing … don’t worry about his shoulder, just get him out of position.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby League immortal Andrew Johns has implored players to target injured opposition stars during finals matches. Cronulla Sharks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-897174","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\/897174","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=897174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}