Round 20
Brisbane Broncos 30 d. Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 16

2007 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

Stuart slams Sharks as Broncos win without Lockyer
Mon July 30, 2007
Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart has slammed his players following Brisbane's 30-16 victory at Suncorp Stadium yesterday.

The Sharks top eight ambitions are now looking very grim slumping to 14th position on the table and if the Wests Tigers can topple North Queensland tonight they'll be six points out of the top eight. If the Cowboys can win tonight, they'll still be four points outside Finals contention and their healthy for and against record could come in handy should they mount enough wins to finish in equal 8th position.

Stuart after the match said, "I can't cover up a disappointing performance. We played very, very poorly.

"When your season is on the line and you turn up and have that type of display, it's disappointing for everyone because we know we're a better football team than that.

"We had young Luke Douglas take on Petero (Civoniceva) and a real tough, strong forward pack on his own without getting any help. That's disappointing.

"We needed to play fast and control the football and it would have been enough today, but we couldn't even do that."

Brisbane led 18-4 at half-time with tries to Steve Michaels (7th minute), Corey Parker (10th) and Dane Carlaw (27th) with Parker landing three conversions.

Cronulla's only try in the opening 40 minutes came through Isaac De Gois in thew 23rd minute and they appeared to be back in the contest when De Gois scored his second try 12 minutes after the break.

Tries to Greg Eastwood in the 60th minute and Craig Frawley six minutes later opened up a comfortable 20 point lead for the Broncos with Parker again being online with the boot.

A late try to Adam Dykes with 11 minutes remaining brought some respectability back to the scoreboard and both the tries scored by Cronulla in the second half were converted by Brett Seymour.

Stuart did afford the Broncos some praise and said, "The good thing they've got is time on their side to build combinations without Darren.

"They'll have Karmichael (Hunt) and Justin (Hodges) coming back soon.

"They've got time to build some momentum heading into the finals. Had it happened a week or two from the end of the comp, then no, I don't think so.

"But they've certainly got enough time and they've certainly got enough good players."

Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett was delighted with their victory and said, "There were a lot of good players out there today, but you can't do that without a good team effort."

Hodges and halfback Michael Ennis are due back for the Broncos blockbuster clash against Manly this weekend where a crowd of over 40,000 is expected for the 20-year celebration clash. Brisbane in their first premiership match under the NSWRL banner walloped Manly 44-10 with Terry Matterson the star scoring 24 points from two tries and eight goals.


Gallen returns from suspension to lead Sharks
Tue July 24, 2007
NSW forward Paul Gallen will return from a one-match suspension to lead Cronulla into battle against Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.

The Sharks fought bravely against Manly last week despite being massively under-strengthed and coach Ricky Stuart has stuck largely with that squad with the only two changes being the returns of Gallen and Jacob Selmes at the expense of Paul Stephenson and Dane Neilson. Eddie Su'a drops back to the bench to accomodate the return of Gallen in the second-row.

Luke Covell captained the Sharks last week in the absence of players including regular skipper Brett Kimmorley and other captaincy options Adam Dykes, Gallen, Lance Thompson and Greg Bird.

Gallen will have a huge task in front of him leading the Sharks against an equally injury hit Broncos outfit in Brisbane.

Brisbane Broncos v Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Suncorp Stadium
Sunday 29th July
2:00pm

1 Mitch Brown
2 David Simmons
3 Ben Pomeroy
4 Fraser Anderson
5 Luke Covell
6 Henry Perenara
7 Brett Seymour
8 Luke Douglas
9 Kevin Kingston
10 Craig Stapleton
11 Paul Gallen (c)
12 Cameron Ciraldo
13 Reece Williams

Subs:
14 Eddie Su'a
15 Jacob Selmes
16 Dayne Weston
17 Isaac De Gois

PLAYERS IN
Paul Gallen - from suspension
Jacob Selmes

PLAYERS OUT
Lance Thompson - knee - 1-2 weeks
Adam Dykes - quad - 1-2 weeks
Ben Ross - suspension - 1 week
Greg Bird - thumb - 3-4 weeks
Brett Kimmorley - knee - 5-6 weeks
Brett Kearney - quad - indefinite
Dustin Cooper - ankle - season

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