When you’re the NRL’s ugly ducklings, you should use it to your advantage

2 hours ago 1

This weekend’s NRL semi-finals - Canberra hosting Cronulla on the Saturday and Canterbury and Penrith a day later - is rugby league’s great case study of the haves and have-nots.

Between them, the Bulldogs and Panthers boast truckloads of juniors, star power, premierships, and poker machines to make all of the above happen.

Those genuine NRL powerhouses have worked for and earned everything they have.

Historically, the Raiders and Sharks have done the same with far less, and with a chip on their shoulder.

Ricky Stuart loves it. Craig Fitzgibbon is learning to.

With premiership heavyweights Brisbane and Melbourne making up the rest of this year’s finals series, Canberra and Cronulla are the NRL’s ugly ducklings making good with significantly less to work with. Albeit from opposite corners.

Even as Raiders coach Stuart and captain Joe Tapine spent their post-game press conference wondering not only how Reece Walsh wasn’t sent off for his headbutt last week, but why Hudson Young was sin-binned for being the recipient, there was a sense of the inevitable in Canberra’s dressing room.

Walsh would avoid suspension because that’s just how the NRL works, was the theory over a few tinnies. It’s hard to argue against the other prevailing thought - that Young would’ve been rubbed out if the roles were reversed.

That ‘more of the same’ sentiment is difficult to push back on when Canberra officials recall stories - often at the ready - of NRL hierarchy questioning the club’s financial viability in previous eras.

As recently as 2017, just two years before their last grand final charge, a PowerPoint presentation was delivered to Raiders staff by an NRL executive, along the theme of “if you were starting off the NRL, and if you had a map, you wouldn’t put a pin prick in Canberra.”

The Raiders have to pick themselves up after a devastating loss against Brisbane.

Sticky can spin these yarns in his sleep, though he has more to coach for than proving haters wrong.

But he certainly enjoys it. And he’s as adept as any in using slights and injustice to spur his team - navigating the comedown of the wildest, most draining finals match in a decade is as good a time as any.

Fronting local reporters on Friday, Stuart gave short shrift to several questions, given “I really don’t want to go back” to that 94-minute epic.

There was nothing that in any way could be used or twisted by Fitzgibbon as motivation - though that’s rarely been his style since taking over at Cronulla.

Fitzgibbon won the Clive Churchill Medal in 2002 when Stuart coached the Roosters to a title as a rookie coach, but where Sticky rarely holds back, Fitzy almost always does.

When asked for his thoughts on the scheduling of finals and the NRL’s revival of Sunday fixtures in September, he politely responded last week that on broader game issues, “I tend to steer away from them because you can only deal with what’s in front of the Sharks.”

Fitzgibbon acknowledges though that some of his players are steering right into siege mentality areas.

They have plenty to work with. And it’s when Cronulla are at their best.

As one of Sydney’s smallest fan bases, with their badly ageing stadium and a long history of genuine nice guys - before Nicho Hynes, there was Andrew Ettingshausen and David Peachey - the Sharks sole 2016 premiership was won as us against the world.

Michael Ennis performs his famous Viking Clap to Raiders fans in 2016.

Michael Ennis performed a mock Viking clap to Canberra’s seething fans, Paul Gallen took on anyone and everyone, and Andrew Fifita polarised like few players in the game.

The glare of an ever-present spotlight has worn Hynes down somewhat, though he’s still a genuine nice guy.

Cronulla’s million-dollar half has just been making a point to journalists - with half a smile - every time he sees them after a Sharks win of late, ‘keep writing us off’.

Ronaldo Mulitalo chooses to glare down the camera when he fulfils his mid-week media commitments and declares he “doesn’t give a rats” about criticism of Cronulla’s finals record, home ground, or performance against heavyweight sides.

“All the crap that’s been said in the media about us, they’ve kicked us while we’re down. Well, shove that up ya pipe, bra!” was his succinct message after downing the Roosters last Saturday night on Triple M.

As far as Canberra and Cronulla are concerned, they have long been outgunned by rival clubs in terms of money and the influence it brings, media coverage and perception.

They probably always will be. Might as well use it your advantage.

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