‘We got a lesson’: Trindall masterclass gives Hannay a headache in return to Shark Park

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No one in rugby league has had a better summer than Josh Hannay.

Within months of landing on the glitter strip, the new Gold Coast coach pitched such a compelling vision for the club that big guns Jayden Campbell, Tino Fa’asuamaleaui, Beau Fermor and Cooper Bai recommitted in order to be a part of it. And when some football actually broke out, it was more good news: two trial matches, two wins.

But off-field wins and pre-season positivity is no guarantee of success once the competition proper starts. Just ask Parramatta.

It’s not like Hannay didn’t know what he was walking into for his first assignment with the clipboard. The former Maroons centre spent the previous five seasons in the Shire, as the understudy to Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon.

Hannay was met at Shark Park by a southerly breeze, a vocal crowd and a Braydon Trindall masterclass. The result: a 50-10 hiding.

This was the best individual performance of the round to date. Trindall scored two tries and produced three try assists. And that was just his opening half.

Braydon Trindall was at the centre of everything for Cronulla.

There was nothing he couldn’t do. The Sharks’ first try was the result of a Trindall bomb. The second from a grubber kick. Yet the best was yet to come.

The Indigenous All Stars five-eighth did it all himself with a step and a dummy. And then another try, picking up the spoils from a bomb he hoisted himself. But the play that brought the house down was the exquisite short ball that allowed halves partner Nicho Hynes to cross untouched.

“It was disappointing, we got a lesson straight out of the gates about physicality,” Hannay said.

“I know too well the capabilities of our opponent when they’re on the front foot, they’re really hard to handle ...

“I’m not discouraged by one performance. Win or lose, tonight wasn’t going to define us this year ... The reality is we are going to have nights like that.”

So much of the pre-season focus has been on the Roosters’ new-look halves pairing of Sam Walker and Daly Cherry-Evans. Is it possible for a No.6 to be just as dominant as the No.7? Are we about to see a revolutionary hybrid style where either half has the license to take control at any moment?

People forget that the Sharks have been playing that way for years. On any given day, Trindall is just as likely to command as Hynes. And that’s what happened on Saturday night.

“It’s not different to what we’ve always done,” Fitzgibbon said of his halves setup. “What I will say is we’re getting better at it.”

By the time the Titans slinked into the sheds down 34-0, Hannay must have been wondering whether to deliver his first spray. Some of the errors his team made in the opening stanza beggared belief. Like when, in one of the few opportunities they had in the opposition red zone, Titans back-rower Arama Hau played the ball and there was no one there to pick it up.

If the high shot Fa’asuamaleaui was placed on report for on Blake Brailey costs the Titans skipper a week on the sidelines, it will be costly half of football as well.

Trindall picked up another try assist and a 40-20 in the second stanza to add to his tally. But with the game long dead as a contest, little else of significance happened.

Save for the golden-point thriller played between the Bulldogs and Dragons, it continues a run of round-one blowouts. ARLC chairman Peter V’landys attempted to change the kick-off rule in a bid to keep the scorelines closer. The coaches howled him down. It’s a reminder that you need to be careful what you wish for.