Cronulla Sharks half Nicho Hynes has slammed the need for the Cronulla Sharks elimination final victory over the North Queensland Cowboys to be moved from Shark Park.
The NRL made the call a week ago that Shark Park - which is still under rennovation and has the lowest capacity of any NRL ground - was not up to hosting a finals match.
The Sharks were keen to keep their match against the Cowboys in the Shire, but were ultimately overruled.
The ground, which can fit almost 15,000 fans not being used allowed a crowd of a tick over 17,000 to head to Allianz Stadium on Saturday evening, drawing mixed reviews.
Speaking on Channel 9 after the game, Hynes said it was embarrassing that there were so many empty seats, with the ground less than 50 per cent full.
"It's a little bit upsetting. It's a bit disappointing and embarrassing that there were so many free seats here. I think I saw up there it was 17,000," Hynes said.
"I'm not blaming the Sharks fans at all. They turned up and wwere really loud, but it's just we would have got 15,000 at Shark Stadium, and we only got 2000 more here.
"We did our best to get into a position to have a home final and it's very unfortunate that we didn't get to do that. Everyone keeps coming up with problems, problems, problems and no solutions. How about upgrade our stadium or give us something that we can play at."
The crowd of 17,000 made plenty of noise as the Sharks got over the line to set up a sudden death semi-final next weekend with the loser of Sunday's qualifying final between the Penrith Panthers and Sydney Roosters.
Coach Craig Fitzgibbon suggested the NRL should have told the club it was going to be moved earlier, but admitted he felt for the club's members and fans.
"It's not our decision," Fitzgibbon said.
"I think we felt last year that the amount of sooking that went on about playing at Shark Park, I thought we were no chance of getting it this year.
"They should have just told us earlier.
"For us, we are happy to play here. It's semi-finals, we want to play at a big stadium.
"But our members and fans pay their money all year to watch their team play semi-finals and play at home, and we earnt that, but they didn't get that. That's not for me [to decide], I'd imagine it's a financial deciion, or an optics call for the game I'm sure."
Captain Cameron McInnes was on the same wavelength as his coach, quipping that he couldn't care less whether fans attended the game next weekend, or stayed at home.
"It's a semi-final. It was plenty loud out there, there was plenty of Sharks fans out there screaming and cheering. As coach said, it doesn't matter where you play a semi-final, there is that atmosphere, that energy, there is that feeling," McInnes said.
"If you can afford it [next week] come, if you can't, I couldn't care less."
In what was a topsy-turvy encounter, the Sharks were always the more likely of the two teams to win, but had to do it the hard way.
Fitzgibbon said he was happy with his team's side, suggesting the win wasn't pretty was 'harsh', and revealing he wasn't concerned at halftime despite the narrow nature of his side's lead.
"Not pretty is probably harsh. It's a semi, so there is a bit of pressure out there with one of us going home. It tends to make it a little bit reckless at times, but I thought our first half was ruthless, but we didn't get anything out of it either, going in a try ahead," Fitzgibbon said of the game.
"We had to knuckle down, and we did that. I enjoyed the contest because they are hard to handle.
"I wasn't concerned because we had disallowed tries. If you get that ball early in a semi, it's hard to score because they are fresh and fighting for their season, but I like that we didn't flinch, didn't try to change anything, stuck at it and stayed patient."
