Despite flogging Manly 40-20 on their home turf, Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon says his team is still yet to earn the respect from the NRL community.
The Sharks put in a professional performance to stunned the 17,384 home fans who turned up willing Manly to win to lock in a home semi-final next weekend.
Instead, the Sharks ensured the Sea Eagles would head to Accor Stadium next Saturday for a clash against Canterbury.
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The Sharks will travel south to Melbourne to play minor premiers the Storm and Fitzgibbon wasn’t expecting anyone to give them a hope.
“We’ve just got to work on earning each other’s respect and if we do that we’ll earn external respect eventually, at some point, maybe, I doubt it,” he said.
“We’ve got to deliver and until that happens it will still be there.
“To be fair to the players, I never sit here without hearing that (lack of respect for his team).
“I never start the week in the press conference hearing that, but we’ve earned the right.
“We’ve been in the top four the whole year, but that’s not going to get us over the line in the semis.”
It’s a fantastic opportunity for the Sharks, who ran fourth in the regular season, to go deep in this year’s finals.
While Melbourne is sailing along, fellow top four sides Penrith and the Roosters aren’t looking like the premiership heavyweights they were a month ago.
Fitzgibbon said his men have been trying to aspire to the level of those three clubs for a few years now.
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“Penrith, Melbourne and Roosters know what it’s about and they’ve been right up there,” he said.
“Us other clubs are cracking away to try and get close and I feel like we’ve done a good job of getting closer this year.
“How close? We’ll find out in the next month. I’m pleased we’re in the top four.”
The Sharks have the extra disadvantage of taking on a Storm side next Saturday which has had an extra three days to prepare, having played on Thursday night.
Fitzgibbon looked a little annoyed when reminded of the shorter turnaround but said his men will just have to take on the challenge.
“We’re used to it,” he said.
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“It’s three years in a row we’ve got a six-day turnaround for a semi. We have no choice.
“As far as preparation goes leading into the semis, they’ve had an ideal one. They looked strong the other night and have got a few players back but so do we.”
“We’ll be massive underdogs with our short turnaround and their long turnaround.
“They’re Melbourne and we’re the Sharks, it is what it is. But we’ve earned the right to get this game.”
Fitzgibbon said yesterday’s game showed his team was tough enough to go down to Melbourne and win again, like they did in Round 10 with a 25-18 win.
“We had to earn everything we got out of that game today because we were on the back foot to start with so to deal with that and come out the other side, that was the most pleasing thing,” he said.
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