2005 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season

2005 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season
NRL Rank 7th
2005 record Wins: 12; Draws: 0; Losses: 13
Points scored For: 572 (103 tries, 80 goals); Against: 592 (102 tries, 92 goals)
Team information
Coach Stuart Raper
Captain
Stadium Toyota Park
Avg. Attend. 16,281
Top scorers
Tries David Simmons (16)
Goals Luke Covell (75)
Points Luke Covell (186)
< 2004 2006 >

This article details the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks rugby league football club's 2005 season.

Season summary

The Sharks started season 2005 brightly; at one stage they were joint ladder leaders after round 11. Early season highlights included wins over the 2003 premiers Penrith in the opening round, Parramatta in round three at Parramatta Stadium, 2004 premiers the Bulldogs at home in round four, North Queensland in round five, the Melbourne Storm in Melbourne in round eight, the New Zealand Warriors in Perth in round nine, the Canberra Raiders at Canberra Stadium in round ten and again over the Penrith Panthers at Penrith in round eleven. However, the season would fall apart with losses to Parramatta at home (the Sharks trailed 22-0 at halftime before rallying in the second half to go down 34-26), North Queensland in Townsville, the eventual premiers Wests Tigers at Campbelltown in round 14 before winning against the Sydney Roosters at home in round fifteen. Three more wins followed; a thrilling 30-26 golden point win over the struggling but resurgent Newcastle Knights at home with Vince Mellars scoring the winning try, a 40-16 hammering of the Melbourne Storm at home in what was now-Dragons premiership player Beau Scott's debut match and a massive 68-6 annihilation of Manly in round 24. Late season losses to Souths, St. George Illawarra, the Wests Tigers, Sydney Roosters and the Newcastle Knights in Newcastle all proved costly. The Sharks finished seventh, equal with Manly but higher courtesy of the round 24 result, making the finals for the first time since 2002 but eliminated by the Dragons 28-22 in front of a massive Wollongong crowd in the first round.

The Sharks' round two loss to the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles was marred by the sickening injury suffered by Keith Galloway as a result of a high elbow shot from Manly winger John Hopoate. Galloway missed a huge part of the 2005 season partly as a result from the injury and due to limited opportunities at Cronulla he signed with the Wests Tigers for the 2006 season onwards. For his part, Hopoate was sacked by the Sea Eagles after receiving a mammoth 17-week ban by the NRL Judiciary.

Ladder

Team Pld W D L B PF PA PD Pts
1 Parramatta 24 16 0 8 2 704 456 +248 36
2 St George Illawarra 24 16 0 8 2 655 510 +145 36
3 Brisbane 24 15 0 9 2 597 484 +113 34
4 Wests Tigers 24 14 0 10 2 676 575 +101 32
5 North Queensland 24 14 0 10 2 639 563 +76 32
6 Melbourne 24 13 0 11 2 640 462 +178 30
7 Cronulla-Sutherland 24 12 0 12 2 550 564 -14 28
8 Manly-Warringah 24 12 0 12 2 554 632 -78 28
9 Sydney Roosters 24 11 0 13 2 488 487 +1 26
10 Penrith 24 11 0 13 2 554 554 =0 26
11 New Zealand 24 10 0 14 2 515 528 -13 24
12 Bulldogs 24 9 1 14 2 472 670 -198 23
13 South Sydney 24 9 1 14 2 482 700 -218 23
14 Canberra 24 9 0 15 2 465 606 -141 22
15 Newcastle 24 8 0 16 2 467 667 -200 20

Awards

References

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