A frosty Craig Fitzgibbon took issue with a question on the respect his side is given after the Sharks were thrashed 37-10 by the Storm.
The Sharks are now 0-4 in finals under Fitzgibbon, who clarified his comments from last week that he did not believe his team would ever earn respect from outside the Sharks’ inner circle.
“No, I don’t think I said that at all, really,” Fitzgibbon said in his press conference.
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“The only thing I said was, respect is earnt. It’s not a gift. No one gives it to you.
“I said all we’ve earned, which was the end of the season, was an opportunity to be in the top four.
“That’s the only respect we’ve earned, and then I also said that we have to earn it on this stage, so that was all I said.”
Fitzgibbon was disappointed with his side’s performance and their attention to detail.
“Yeah, of course, mate, of course (we are disappointed).
“We wanted to come down on that. That was the most disappointing thing, was I thought we were getting back into it.
“I thought we were really starting to go for it, and then little details come apart. But it was always going to be a challenge coming here against them and the way they’re playing and the situation we’re in, it was going to be difficult. And we knew that, and we made it probably a little bit harder than it had to be.”
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However, Fitzgibbon conceded his side made it hard on themselves right from the start as they blew the kick-off and conceded a try to Cameron Munster.
“Not well, that’s for sure,” Fitzgibbon said of the start.
“We’d come here and did a few things to get you away and you’ve got to earn plenty yourself.
“So obviously the start, straight off the bat, was like a shock and then I thought we did pretty well there to get back into the contest. We had no field position.
“They were holding the ball. I don’t know what they ended up at, probably 95% or something like that. They were holding the ball, turned us round.
“We really had to dig in there and then to go in as close as it was half time, I thought right, we might make a contest of it.
“Then we come straight out off the bat, penalty on the fifth tackle first set after half time. I’m not sure we got back off our try line again.
“We had one or two shots there but we were just starved a field position and they had an energy about them where they looked like they were running down hill. Obviously turn around, freshness. They played really well.”
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Fitzgibbon was critical of the Sharks’ last tackle plays, which falls on halves Nicho Hynes and Braydon Trindall.
“The frustrating part is the boys really wanted to do it but details come apart,” Fitzgibbon said.
“Like our last plays, they just controlled everything off the way their kicking game was, the contests there, not getting the little details involved.
“That cost us a lot of energy that, turning the ball over at the end of their set and then they get another set and then you’re stuck there again. Even if you defend it, you’ve got to come off your own line. We just gave up too much energy off last plays.”
However, Fitzgibbon was sproud of his side for bringing it back to 14-10 at half-time.
“The way we got back into it, you could see that it was not going our way at all,” Fitzgibbon said.
“We were getting nothing. I thought we really hung in. There was lots of live ball, lots of end-to-end footy. Well I wouldn’t say end-to-end, it was their end-to-end but there was lots of periods there of hard footy.
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“We’ll get that out of it, but we’ve got to put the details back into our game and under pressure when teams control on that. That’s where we’ve got to get better at there.”
Sharks skipper Cameron McInnes was frustrated with the horror start, but was proud of the side getting back into the contest.
“Yeah, it’s not ideal obviously but there’s always an opportunity to start again and that happened, but I thought after that we dug in for a period there,” McInnes said.
“As coach said, it was more just control on those finishes. We just didn’t apply the pressure back on them. It’s not ideal to start that way but it happens, we have just got to react to it better.”
However, McInnes denied it would be hard to get up for next week after such a big loss.
“No, not at all. There’s a massive opportunity ahead of us,” McInnes said.
“And yeah, everything’s there. You obviously want to win and go the shorter route there, but teams would kill to be here. So, yeah, no complacency or no negative energy.”
Fitzgibbon denied his side were not up for the contest from the start of the match and couldn’t shut down Jahrome Hughes.
“It’s pretty hard when you’re on the back foot the whole time, and they’ve got most of the possession and field position,” Fitzgibbon said.
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“Of course you have a plan, but we couldn’t get it done because they were in control of that.”
Fitzgibbon conceded Storm hat-trick hero Harry Grant was too classy for his side.
“He’s a great player,” Fitzgibbon said.
“Just waited the game out until the moment suited him, and then started to come into play and made it harder.
“But again, that was the culmination of their control of the game. I thought that’s when they come to the party.”
In some good news Jesse Ramien is a chance to return for their sudden death semi-final next week.
“Yeah, he’d be a chance, I reckon,” Fitzgibbon said.
“I’m not sure. It depends how he heals. He’d be a good chance, I reckon.”
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