Furious Cronulla coach John Morris has apologised to fans after what he described as a nightmare NRL performance against Newcastle on Friday evening.
With three rounds of the season until finals, a 38-10 loss to the Knights could the Sharks four players with Chad Townsend sent off and Wade Graham, Braden Hamlin-Uele and Toby Rudolf all put on report.
Townsend in particular will be sweating on the NRL match review committee’s charge sheet on Saturday morning after his shoulder charge on Knights fullback Kalyn Ponga.
The sensational moment was just one of a number of discipline issues for the Sharks, with Graham, Rudolf and Hamlin-Uele all on report for lifting tackles.
Afterwards, Morris lashed the effort of players.
“It was a nightmare, literally,” Morris said.
“We kicked off, it went out on the full and it was just awful.
“I didn’t think I’d be in this position to apologise to our fans but I have to after that.
“It was so far outside the standards of what we set ourselves at the club… we just didn’t turn up with the right attitude and absolutely got our pants pulled down and bums smacked in front of everyone.
“It’s really disappointing for where we are in our season.
“It’s round 17, we’re still in the eight but after games like that we don’t deserve to be.
“Blokes have got to have a real good hard look at themselves.”
The Sharks need to beat at least one of the Warriors, the Sydney Roosters or Canberra to secure their spot in the top eight.
A win against the Roosters or Raiders would be their only victory against a current top eight side this season.
“It’s not ideal,” Morris said
“It wasn’t ideal when we lost to Penrith the other week and I said to the boys then that we can’t afford to have another big slip up like that, but here we are again two weeks on.
“I’m really disappointed about that.”
Adding to the pain is the extensive casualty ward at Cronulla, although star half Shaun Johnson is a chance to return against the Warriors next week.
“If we can get our best 17 back, no doubt we can still do something in the season but we need to see a big response after that display,” Morris said.