Shellharbour Sharks perfect start to the Group Seven rugby league competition continued on Sunday with a hard-fought 24-4 win over Albion Park Oak Flats Eagles at Des King Oval.
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The Sharks had to work extra hard to secure their third win on the trot, having to play with a man down for 10 minutes late in the second half after their hooker Brody Rigg was put on report and sent to the sin-bin for an apparent high shot.
Shellharbour were leading 12-4 at the time of the incident and then did extremely well to withstand countless Albion Park attacking raids.
The 12-man visitors then broke the Eagles' spirit when Ryan James crossed for a great solo try, which was converted by Isaac Morris.
Sharks fullback Braxton Wallace then scored a try on the final play of the game to hand the Sharks a 20-point win.
The final scoreline was not a true reflection of the performance put in by the Jason Hooper-coached Albion Park.
The Sharks looked odds on to record a big win after heading to the halftime sheds with a 12-0 lead courtesy of converted tries to James Ralphs and Rigg.
Albion Park needed to be first to trouble the scorers in the second stanza to have any chance of fighting back, and they did thanks to a smart try to Jye Ellis.
But the Sharks much renowned defence told in the end, denying a number of Park attacking raids time and time again.
This pleased Sharks captain James Ralphs immensely, especially holding out the Eagles with a man down.
"It's something we spoke about all year, how we'd react if we had to play with a man down.
"We always try and speak about it and sometimes at training we even drop a bloke off if we're doing a pose and we wanna challenge ourselves. That really showed today," he said.
"Albion Park have got weapons across the field and for them not to be able to put any points on us, and we actually went up by a try with 12 men on the field is a real credit to the boys and I'm really proud of their effort."
The Sharks have now won all three games they've played, joining defending premiers Gerringong and Warilla Lake South Gorillas as the only teams yet to have lost in season 2024.
"It's crazy. There are no easy wins anymore in Group Seven. The comp's come along in leaps and bounds," Ralphs said.
"You look at Albion Park last year and they didn't win many games but today they were with us and they're strong and there's no easy wins.
"We just need to keep working hard for our wins, which we do, we keep on turning up for each other.
"When the pressure was on everyone just kept turning up and you can see their defending with 12 blokes, it's not easy, but everyone just kept turning up, gave away a few penalties and it didn't matter, we just kept turning them around.
"The chat out there was great, the boys just said, let's just keep going here and let's just rip in and I think we did that."
Meantime there were two other games on Sunday, with Gerringong Lions downing Milton-Ulladulla Bulldogs 22-10 and the Stingrays of Shellharbour beating Kiama Knights 26-12 at Flinders Field.
Round four kicked-off with two games on Saturday.
At Berry Showground the visiting Nowra-Bomaderry Jets picked up their first win of the season after thrashing Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies 58-4, while Warilla Lake South Gorillas made it three wins from as many games, downing Jamberoo Superoos 24-4 at Kevin Walsh Oval.
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
