The real Sharks come out in brutal Melbourne loss

A heart-breaking last-minute Melbourne try has crushed the Cronulla Sharks and all their faithful filling Ocean Protect Stadium tonight.

The Sharks did incredibly well to get back in the contest after a horror start, but buoyed by three brilliant debutants and a refusal to lay down, they dug themselves out and went oh so close to a memorable victory.

That result means Cronulla finish the regular season in 5th on the NRL ladder and have locked in a home final next weekend against the North Queensland Cowboys.

You couldn’t have written up a more difficult start to a game for the Sharks if you tried.

Cronulla debutant Michael Gabrael was sin-binned in the 5th minute, before Ronaldo Mulitalo followed suit in the 9th minute.

The Sharks were down to 11 against a 13-man Melbourne, and to somehow make matters worse, the Storm were gifted a dubious try minutes later.

Then Melbourne scored from an alleged forward pass and had another from a controversial put down.

That adversity would only strengthen Cronulla’s resolve as it returned to 13 on 13, but with Melbourne up 12-nil after 19 minutes.

Up stepped Sharks debutant Riley Pollard with a magic pass for Sione Katoa to get the black, white and blue on the board.

Niwhai Puru nailed the first conversion of his NRL career from the right touchline; the left-footer curled it in beautifully.

Then minutes later it was all square when club debutant Riley Jones scored the first try of his NRL career, and Puru popped it over to make it 12 all.

But they weren’t done there, with Pollard putting Billy Burns through on half-time to send Cronulla somehow up 18-12 at the break.

In the second stanza, both teams got into the grind, as Melbourne scored 6 minutes in to level things at 18 all.

The Sharks snuck back in front with a penalty goal after 61 minutes, with Puru perfect from the boot despite multiple difficult attempts.

Cronulla hung on bravely for the remainder with multiple try-saving efforts, but the Sharks ran out of petrol in the end and fell to a last-second Storm try, falling agonisingly short, 24-20.

Coach Craig Fitzgibbon said he saw the real Sharks today and was incredibly proud of his side's gutsy effort, believing they did enough to win.