Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan has delivered a message to his big men – win us Saturday’s blockbuster against the Sydney Roosters and a top four spot.
Flanagan laid down the challenge to his starting props ahead of the high-stakes NRL clash at Southern Cross Group Stadium, praising Roosters’ props Dylan Napa and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
In a thinly veiled attempt to stir his troops, he then described his starting middle forwards Matt Prior, Andrew Fifita and Paul Gallen as the side’s linchpins.
The defending premiers will climb as high as third with a win and drop as low as sixth with a loss.
The game will feature big match-ups all over the park – including Roosters playmaker Mitchell Pearce coming up against his NSW Origin teammate James Maloney.
With Flanagan’s side’s hopes of earning a second bite at the cherry during the finals on the line, he said it was his big boppers who will decide the result.
“I think (Maloney and Pearce) are going to have a major input into the result but I think if we start well and Matty Prior, Andrew and Gal are the ones that are going to decide the result for me,” he said.
“They get over their opposition, we win.”
The Sharks have had the wood on the Roosters for the last three years having won their last six match ups.
The Roosters haven’t beaten the Shire boys since round seven in 2014 and earlier this year were humiliated 44-12 at the hands of the Sharks on the Central Coast.
“They’ve got Hargreaves and Napa and quality forwards and we like to test ourselves against those sorts of players,” Flanagan said.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it why there is competition between the two clubs.”