Success for junior Sharks in round four

That was followed by a 28-20 triumph in the under-19 SG Ball clash. Cronulla led 20-0 at halftime and were almost overrun by Manly, who levelled the scores with 15 minutes remaining, but the visitors rallied to see off the challenge.

On Sunday, the under-17 Lisa Fiaola women's side were brave as they went into the break down 8-6 before the Sea Eagles skipped away with a 22-6 win.

In the final fixture, the under-19 Tarsha Gale Sharks salvaged an 18-18 draw after trailing by eight with seven minutes remaining. Unconverted tries to Koreti Leilua and Arianna Ruwoldt squared the ledger in the nick of time.

Harold Matthews coach Brad Kelly was pleased that his troops kept up the intensity for the entirety of the game after some patchy performances.

"We stuck to what we've been practising and they saw how it works," he said.

"A big thing in last week's game was the amount of errors we made and they were really clean with that (against the Sea Eagles).

"We had a lot of possession, completed really well, kicked really well, did all the little things really well, all the hard work off the ball.

"That's the stuff that pays off in the end.

"We scored some good tries and only had the one blemish with one try getting scored against us. The defensive efforts were really good and our attack was just nice and simple, played through the middle."

Meanwhile, SG Ball coach Dave Howlett noted his side didn't fully take advantage of their momentum in the opening 35 minutes but were "good enough to dig themselves out of a hole" when Manly had the ascendancy. 

"I thought we played well in the first half but just didn't quite respect the football enough to get the points to reflect our dominance," Howlett said.

"I'll take a 20-point lead at halftime, no one knocks them back, but I thought we still left some points out there in the first half because we pushed the footy a bit.

"The second half was a combination of us cruelling ourselves with the hands and them playing well. They're a good team with some very good players and they got on a roll. We were struggling to stop them there for a while.

"That's the way SG Ball footy is, you've got to earn the ball back and we weren't quite getting our defence right. They just had us under the pump the whole time."

Lead image and quotes courtesy of Steve Montgomery from ourfootyteam.com.au