It was a pretty different Cronulla outfit that lined up at GIO Stadium on Thursday night to the trial team that had tied against the Warriors for the first footy of 2025. Nicho Hynes, Jesse Ramien and Cam McInnes were back on the park along with Addin Fonua-Blake, who may turn out to be one of the most important buys for any NRL team this season. After a 12-12 scoreline last week they dominated Canberra 40-10, letting in Ethan Strange and Sebastian Kris in during the first twelve minutes but then keeping the green machine out entirely.

That made it a particularly compelling audition for the big stage in Vegas, especially since the GIO field had been modified to 94.5m long and 63.1m wide in preparation for their clash with the Panthers at Allegiant. The refs also continued to crack down on play-the-balls, with three handovers in the first eleven minutes. Fonua-Blake and Briton Nikora were among those penalised, although it didn’t make much difference to the Sharkies’ dominance in position, as they picked up bonus points for nabbing more than five linebreaks and five tries.

On the Cronulla side it was rousing to see Hynes drawing upon his Dally M form with a try and assists for both Sam Stonestreet and Braydon Trindall, who he paired well with in the halves, where the Sharks seemed to be experimenting both with different combinations and kicking options. Nicho left the park in the second stanza with an adductor issue but word from the sheds was that it was a planned break. Apart from that it was a injury-free game, with the Raiders looking forward to get Zac Hosking back after his shoulder surgery and calf tear.

The Sharkies’ forward pack was also pretty dominant, with McInnes, Nikora, Oregon Kaufusi, Tom Hazelton, Braden Hamln-Uele all having good hit-outs. Young gun Tuku Hau Tapuha scored a try too. However, the main story from the big men was Fonua-Blake’s first appearance in Cronulla colours. His opening carry was tough, he scored well on post-contacts, scored a try in the second stanza, and finished with 103 metres and 5 tackls breaks, suggesting he may well be the missing piece the Sharks need for their premiership aspirations.  

On the other side of the Steeden the Raiders are clearly developing the next generation of players, with Ethan Strange, Ethan Sanders, Chevy Stewart and Kaeo Weeks all having strong moments. That said, this is still an emerging squad, and it was no coincidence that the Canberra pointscoring dropped away when the younger players came off the bench. Discipline was also an issue with a 7-2 penalty count while the unanswered forty points put down by Cronulla from the 24^th minute indicate that defence must be a focus this season.

Nevertheless, the green machine started the game 10-0, thanks to a superb synergy between the veterans and young guns. Eight minutes in Trindall aimed for a 40/20 on tackle four, and while he got the distance he didn’t quite nail the angle. That set the stage for Weekes to have one of his best returns to date, as he dodged three defenders in a questing run from right to left, before breaking into space and timing the pass perfectly for Strange to burn up the middle and cross untouched. You couldn’t have asked for a better next generation combo.

Four minutes later the old guard took up the clarion call, with Jamal Fogarty launching an elegant bomb to the left edge, where Stonestreet’s inexperience cost him the catch, leaving it open for Sebastian Kris to sneak in and pop it down. With Fogarty failing to convert this try the Raiders remained at ten points and would remain at ten points for the next sixty-eight minutes, as Hynes and Trindall both took bombs in turn, getting their attack in gear for the first great halves combination of the evening, ten minutes and a Matty Nicholson error later.

At the 24^th minute Trindall bombed, Stewart contested it, Ronaldo Mulitalo banged it back, and Hynes crashed over. The brief question of whether the Cronulla winger had knocked on only enhanced the catharsis of seeing Nicho go over in all his glory, especially once he added his only conversion of the evening to narrow the deficit to four. Six minutes later, the Raiders had a chance to hit back, as they hit the Sharkies’ twenty, where Stewart hesitated and passed some of his restlessness on to Fogarty, who shaped to kick but passed at the last second.

Albert Hopoate was the recipient, beating a couple of defenders before turning around to offload back for Fogarty to take his third touch in this set. Bunched in the wing, the Canberra half put it on the boot but weighted it a little too hard, gifting the Sharks an extra tackle. While they didn’t come up with points then and there, it only took five minutes for the hosts to turn Hynes’ putdown into a tryscoring flow. Again, Trindall took the spotlight but this time Blayke Brailey also stepped up, with one of his most inspired dummy half sequences of the night.

Brailey started with a deft ball out for Trindall to bounce off two defenders just outside the left padding, meaning it was up to Danny Levi to absorb the brunt of his charge. He was even better on the next tackle, scanning the entire field now, before setting up a right sweep that saw the Steeden move through Kennedy, Hau Tapuha and finally on to Hynes, who sailed a gorgeous harbour bridge ball out to the wing for Stonestreet to smash over. Trindall capped it off with the conversion and so the Sharkies were two ahead heading into the sheds.

Four minutes into the second stanza Hynes went for an even more ambitious parabola ball to Stonestreet, who wasn’t quite able to scoop it off the ground. Still, it didn’t take long for Cronulla to find their groove again. At the 46^th minute marquee man Fonua-Blake proved his worth, receiving the footy from McInnes thirteen out, getting past last week’s tryscorer Noah Martin, and then defying Myles Martin and Ata Mariota as they tried to sandwich him at the ten, before plunging into a low shot from Stewart as final desperate line of defence.

By the time Stewart made contact AFB’s whole torso was already hanging over the chalk, Levi on his back. He’d arrived at Cronulla in style, rousing the team into a spectacular string of tries, the next two of which came off bombs to the halves. Two minutes later Hynes hoisted it to the left edge, where Jensen Taumoepeau got both hands to it first in the air but knocked on. Even then Manaia Watere and Adam Cook were close enough in the line but it was Trindall who read the bounce beautifully and got it down, in a scintillating piece of halves synergy.

Three minutes after that Trindall took over bombing duties, sending his one to the right edge, where Michael Asomua, cautious after Taumoepeau’s cough-up, managed to collect it clean, only for Stonestreet to slam in with a low shot that forced him to spill it over the line, where Ramien was lurking to slam it down, Nikora storming up in support. Even against an emerging Raiders outfit this had been a stunning display from Cronulla’s halves and the spine show ended with two tries in the fourth quarter off Jayden Berrell’s dummy half vision.

At the 67^th minute, Berrell had his finest moment, darting left from the pickup only to pass it back inside for Tapuha, who was surging up diagonally from the right. Their combo took the Canberra defence utterly by surprise, as Waitere piled on top and Mariota came in low but were powerless to prevent the big Cronulla 20 from getting it down. Nine minutes later, and four out from the end, Berrell showed he could nail the simple plays too, setting up Riley Pollard to pop it out for Chris Vea’ila to put the final try of the night down on the right.

With Daniel Atkinson having taken over kicking duties with one from two, the Sharkies ended the night with a stunning 40-10 win margin, every single one of their points unanswered by the Raiders side. They won’t play again before hitting Vegas, so tonight’s game will prove critical for the selection panel, who surely must consider Berrell, Vea’ila and Tapuha as part of the squad. On the other side of the Steeden, it’s hard to imagine this Canberra outfit being a top eight contender, so they’ve got a job to do against the Wahs at Allegiant.