Rugby league expert Phil Gould believes it isn’t likely the Cronulla Sharks will make the top eight with the club reeling from a 44-12 loss to the Warriors on Saturday.
While the Sharks sit sixth on the ladder presently, they’ve only beaten a current top eight side once this season, accounting for Parramatta in round two.
Their season has been inconsistent all year, having suffered a 54-10 defeat to the Storm in round 15 before going on a three-match winning streak with wins over struggling sides: the Bulldogs, Dragons and Tigers.
However, the Warriors result has brought them back down to earth.
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The Sharks will face three top eight sides in their last seven games, along with a clash against the Cowboys who are ninth.
When asked if the Sharks have got what it takes to stay in the eight, Gould wasn’t holding much hope.
“I don’t think so, not with the draw they’ve got there, not with the way they’re performing against those top sides,” he said on Nine’s 100% Footy.
“Again it just shows the graphic difference between the top teams and the bottom teams in this competition, that they can be so dominant with the bottom nine teams of the competition and still be non-competitive with the top eight teams in the competition.
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“I mean the Warriors absolutely gassed them on the weekend, they were just far too good for them.”
Gould went further to describe the Sharks as “cannon fodder” if they did make the finals, after capitulating last year with losses to the Cowboys and Rabbitohs.
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“They’re a long way from being semi final challengers, if they get there I think they’ll be cannon fodder, which is what happened to them last year … they got through to the top four but went out in straight sets with some pretty big scores,” he said.
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“I know Craig Fitzgibbon was devastated at their defence in the big games but nothing much has changed this year.
“They’ve got points in them against the weaker sides, but they struggle to score points against the better sides and their defence just doesn’t cope.”
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