Yesterday’s Country v City clash at Mudgee saw the curtain drawn on a game which has provided so much over the years, with our Sharks players not disappointing.
1. Gallen leads the City charge
No stranger to representative Rugby League, Paul Gallen was at his consistent best yesterday in leading his City side to a 20-10 victory.
Running for a team-high 215 metres, Gallen showed that even at 34 years of age he still has plenty in the tank at this level.
As we have seen so far in 2017, Paul Gallen is determined to play his best football week in week out and Glen Willow Regional Sports Stadium was given a genuine showing to just how much the ‘G-Train’ still has in the tank.
2. Sharks players did Origin selection no harm
With four Sharks players selected for the fixture, none put a foot wrong in pitching their names up for selection in Laurie Daley’s New South Wales Blues squad.
Chad Townsend controlled the match well for the City side and played well with both Bryce Cartwright and Nathan Cleary in the halves at different times of the match.
Townsend also caught the attention of his fellow City teammates this week, with Nathan Ross outlining the Yarrawarra junior to be in the mix for State of Origin “no matter what”.
Matthew Prior was solid for the Country side, coming off the bench to play a total of 45 minutes, run for 68 metres and make 31 tackles. An outsider for the Origin arena however did his chances no harm in Mudgee.
Joseph Paulo was given limited action, taking to the field for 30 minutes however ran for 70 metres along with making 15 tackles.
3. The bush love League
How good is it seeing our NRL stars playing outside of the major centres and taking the game into rural towns?!
With the bush providing so many great Rugby League players over the years, none more so at the Sharks than Gavin Miller and David Peachey, there is a great love for our game that comes out of these regional areas.
With a rich talent pool of players outside of the metropolitan areas along with a huge supporter base, it was great to see the stars who make our game so great getting their shot at performing in a town such as Mudgee.
4. Will we see ‘Gal’ pull an ‘Alfie’?
State of Origin 2001. Wayne Bennett puts out an SOS call to Alfie Langer for Game 3. The little Queensland master responds and in style.
Will Paul Gallen be given this same chance in 2017?
Now we’re not saying that it will happen and nor are we saying that New South Wales won’t have the cattle to get the job done.
Jut imagine though. It’d be good theatre.
5. Back to work for our lads
With the Representative Round now done, our Sharks boys can get back to business and for them, that means focussing on the St George Illawarra Dragons.
Both teams are sitting in equal second on the NRL ladder on 12 points and the Friday evening derby will see one shift ahead of the other.
The Sharks will be looking for redemption following the 16-10 defeat handed to us by our bitter rivals at home in Round 2.
The Dragons on the other hand will have history on their side, with the Sharks not victorious at Kogarah since Round 13 of the 2007 NRL season.
Keep a close eye on this one folks, it’s set to be big! But hey, we guess any derby match is…
Up Up Cronulla!
