Wests Tigers crash out of finals contention for 10th straight year

Make that 10 years and counting the sorry Wests Tigers will not feature in the NRL finals.

The Tigers had absolutely everything to play for but again produced a forgettable performance as they crashed to Cronulla 50-20 in Rockhampton on Saturday.

It was the most points the Sharks have scored against the Tigers and the first time the Shire club had posted a half-century since 2016. The big win was the perfect way to finish the week, which started with the emotion of popular prop Andrew Fifita being placed into an induced coma and undergoing larynx surgery.

The only disappointment for the Sharks was a suspected broken jaw for winger Ronaldo Mulitalo.

But this game was all about the Tigers’ latest botched campaign. And their fans are used to disappointment â€" period. The last finals’ appearance in 2011 feels like forever ago.

“We didn’t get the job done â€" it was really disappointing, to be honest,” Tigers coach Michael Maguire said.

“Did they think it was going to be easy or hard, I’m not quite sure, but it was obviously not the performance we came here to put on.”

Maguire said talk of the overdue September appearance was not a distraction. He said the ruck was “too quick” at different stages and their line speed “non-existent at times”.

Their best player Adam Doueihi failed to finish the game with a left knee injury, but Maguire expected him to be fine. To make matters worse, the players all had to catch the same plane home back to Brisbane with victorious Sharks players.

The most rusted-on Tigers fans will blow up about Doueihi being denied a try early in the second half. The teams packed the scrum and the bunker ruled Tigers forward Kelma Tuilagi had grabbed the arm of Cronulla’s Teig Wilton too long and obstructed him from making a tackle on Doueihi.

Bogy team: Wests Tigers slumped to a seventh loss in their past eight matches against Cronulla on Saturday.Credit:Getty

Maguire said he needed to review the footage, but “I think every front-rower is hanging on to someone at some stage, but they decided to look at this one”.

The Tigers blew it. One of the many moments that would have annoyed Maguire was the sight of Mulitalo being allowed to score his second try and improve his position under the posts with not a single Tigers player bothering to stop him.

The only consolation for missing the finals would be getting one over Penrith and coach Ivan Cleary next week, with the western Sydney clubs fast developing the best and most genuine rivalry in the game.

Cronulla deserved the win and momentarily moved back into the top eight. It will be a great shame if scans confirm the worst for Mulitalo, who clutched at his jaw late in the game. This same bloke went through the humiliation of having his Queensland Origin dream crushed because he was ineligible.

Cronulla caretaker coach Josh Hannay said Mulitalo was undergoing scans at the local hospital, but it did not look positive. Mulitalo produced one of the coolest gestures when he burst down field after half-time and looked certain to bring up a hat-trick of tries with no Tigers in front of him, only to hand Luke Metcalf the ball for his first four-pointer in first grade.

Metcalf was good again in just his fourth game while fullback Will Kennedy was his usual reliable self.

Cronulla will need to beat Brisbane and then Melbourne in the final round to make the finals. They have plenty of points in them. Matt Moylan will also strip fitter for the late cameo after a seven-week lay-off from a calf injury.

Hannay knows the players were motivated to perform well for Fifita, who continues to recover in hospital and said “no doubt as a group they were all doing it a bit for ‘Drew’ out there today”.

The Sharks have overcome plenty of drama this year, including the sacking of coach John Morris, early departures of Chad Townsend and Shaun Johnson, and yet another COVID-19 breach featuring off-contract Josh Dugan.

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Christian Nicolussi covers rugby league for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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