Under-fire Cronulla coach John Morris has moved to diffuse the criticism being leveled towards star halves pairing Shaun Johnson and Chad Townsend, who have been largely blamed for the Sharks' slow start to the year.
The heat was turned up on Cronulla this week after their shambolic performance in the loss to rivals St. George Illawarra last Sunday, the Sharks uninspiring in handing the Dragons their first win of the season in a 30-16 defeat.
While the majority of criticism has been firmly aimed at Johnson even though the Kiwi has the second-most try assists in the NRL, Townsend has comparably flown under the radar despite failing to notch one try assist this so far year.
Nonetheless, Kiwi international Johnson has struggled for week-in week-out consistency since arriving in the Shire at the start of last season.
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Try assists from Sharks starting halves this weekend, for 2020
— Happier times (2016) (@suthodan) June 17, 2020
Shaun Johnson: 6 (equal first in the NRL)
Chad Townsend: 0 (equal last)
Who is the problem?
Senior Daily Telegraph journalist Buzz Rothfield was particularly stinging in his criticism of the Sharks' halves earlier in the week.
Speaking on Big Sports Breakfast, he declared Cronulla were bound for poor results while players like Johnson and Townsend remain contracted to the club, urging the Sharks to rebuild their roster.
Addressing media ahead of his side's crucial clash against the Bulldogs on Sunday, Morris admitted his star halves pairing needed work.
But the second-year rookie coach defined the Sharks' dire slump in form as a team-wide issue and called out the side's discipline with the ball.
"Chaddy and Shauny obviously have to keep working on their game," Morris admitted.
"I think as a whole, we need to take some accountability. I think individually a lot of our boys haven't been anywhere near their best.
"Last week we finished the game with 73 per cent completions and 15 errors. A lot of those were coming out of our end. It's pretty hard to be a half when you're turning over that much footy amongst the team.
"I'm looking forward to those boys being able to manage our game much more effectively off the back of higher possession and higher completion rates.
"I'll judge them on the back of that and I'm looking forward to them taking their game up a great tomorrow."
Representative forward Andrew Fifita has struggled to have an impact this season, with the former NSW Blues enforcer hampered by knee and calf complaints this season.
Once the NRL's most damaging front-rower, Fifita has averaged just 115 metres in three games this season while his minutes on the field are also down on previous years.
Continuing his criticism of Cronulla's more experienced players, Rothfield suggested Fifita should consider medical retirement after struggling again to have an impact in Sunday's loss.
“You can see by his [Fifita's] size he’s not really fit at the moment. He’s been unable to train and he’s got a knee injury,” Rothfield said on the Big Sports Breakfast earlier in the week.
“I actually thought it’s got to the stage where he needs to consider a medical retirement."
Questioned on whether Fifita's fitness was up to scratch, Morris conceded a pre-season interrupted by injury was significantly hampering his veteran forward.
"It's no secret that he's carrying a knee complaint that he needs to manage and we do that with his training," Morris said regarding Fifita's fitness.
"He had a quite significant calf injury when we came back from the COVID break which slowed him up. He's confident that he can get through with his knee the way it is.
"He's another one, he's a middle forward who hasn't been able to have much of a pre-season and he just needs some time under his belt.
"Like any forward will tell you there's nothing like game minutes. I thought he was strong in some of the things he did last week.
"I think if we can get Andrew playing back towards his best that's when the Sharks are playing their best. I think he understands the importance he has in the team."
Cronulla will look to respond to last Sunday's poor loss when they face 15th-placed Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon, who themselves are seeking redemption after a 42-6 thrashing at the hands of the Roosters on Monday.
Morris confirmed new recruit Bryson Goodwin would be called straight into the starting side, the experienced centre linking back up with the Sharks this week from South Sydney.
