Cronulla Sharks head coach Craig Fitzgibbon was impressed with his side's performance against the Wests Tigers on Thursday evening in a 36 points to 12 win, but admitted there is still plenty of work to do.
The Sharks, who skipped away to an early 12-0 lead against the Tigers, were dragged back to level pegging at halftime, before running on 24 unanswered points during the second half to take the victory over the joint venture.
Sione Katoa would score a hat-trick in the at-times controversial contest, with Tigers' coach Tim Sheens taking exception to the officiating on display.
Despite that, Fitzgibbon said the Sharks expected a response out of the Tigers, who were beaten 74-0 at the hands of the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville last week.
The coach said he was happy with the way his team had earnt the right to play attacking football before being able to run on their five second-half tries.
โI was expecting that [to work hard for the win]. Every club has a sense of pride irrespective of how things are going or what's happening, and there are always responses at different times. After last week, we were expecting that, and that's what we got,โ Fitzgibbon said during his post-match press conference.
โI thought we earnt the right to play the way we did in the end and it was a good contest for the most part.โ
The Sharks, who have won 10 of their 16 games, have now scored 136 points in the last three weeks in demolition jobs of the Canterbury Bulldogs (48-10), St George Illawarra Dragons (52-16) and Tigers (36-12).
That followed losses to premiership contenders the Melbourne Storm and Brisbane Broncos, which will only feed the narrative that the Sharks simply can't hang with the premiership contenders, despite beating up on teams below them.
The coach said his side needed to work on not shooting themselves in the foot against the top teams.
โIt's part of being consistent. If we don't beat the teams we should, we aren't in the eight,โ Fitzgibbon said when asked about his frustration levels with the narrative that the club struggle against top sides.
โWe have to still earn the right, but again, we are where we are at, and we need to improve not shooting ourselves in the foot when we are playing those big top eight games.
โWe aren't going to work every day thinking we are where we need to be.โ
He said not shooting themselves in the foot is something the black, white and blue have improved on but still have a way to go.
โWhere we are at is where we are at. I know everyone is trying to shape and add up the draw, but there is heaps to go. We need to be better. We are working on some parts of our game, and we haven't shot ourselves in the foot the last couple of weeks,โ Fitzgibbon said.
โTrying to see into the future and add everything up and work it all out which I get everyone wants to do. We just have to keep playing better, and we need to be better. We aren't where we need to be, but we feel like we are improving in the parts that have let us down previously, and we need to keep improving. We still have work to do, and I feel like we can get better.โ
The Sharks, who have used all their byes, face a season-defining month ahead, with a trip to Auckland against the Warriors next week followed by a match against bogey side the Manly Sea Eagles, before they take on the Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs in consecutive weeks.
