Congratulations to the Cronulla Sharks, the 2018 Harvey Norman Tarsha Gale Cup Minor Premiers.
Just don't expect too many celebrations just yet - their eyes are firmly on the main prize.
The Sharks entered their Round 9 clash with Illawarra ready to battle it out for top spot, but Colin Dodd’s team simply blew the Steelers off the park, making quite the statement to record a 70-12 victory over their closest rivals on the competition table.
“I’m really proud of the girls, their week-to-week effort,” Dodd tells NSWRL.com.au.
“The girls are happy, the morale is up and everyone’s enjoying the footy – it’s a great achievement.”
For Dodd and his team, though, the next steps are most important, especially after last season where they finished second on the ladder but fell one step short of the decider, losing the preliminary final to Canterbury-Bankstown.
“Semi-finals, they’re a whole different ball game,” Dodd says.
“Last year we were disappointed with how we finished, this year we’re aiming to go one better.”
For the Cronulla Harvey Norman Tarsha Gale Cup side, it’s been an eye-opening and enjoyable journey under the Sharks umbrella – creating a bond amongst the club they now call ‘family’.
“We had an induction night and (Cronulla NRL coach) Shane Flanagan came along. It was a big plus and really added belief to the group… to be under the Cronulla development and pathways system is great.
“We’re really keen to put our best foot forward now. We’re determined to go one better.
“Hopefully we can go all the way.”
Stay locked on NSWRL.com.au in coming days for more about the 2018 Tarsha Gale Cup Finals Series.
