{"id":314906,"date":"2023-07-09T21:19:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T21:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314906"},"modified":"2023-07-10T00:00:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T00:00:15","slug":"the-warriors-gun-making-sharks-officials-cringe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314906","title":{"rendered":"The Warriors gun making Sharks officials 'cringe'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharks<\/a> officials must cringe every time Luke Metcalf runs around for the Warriors this year.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old from Coffs Harbour has been one of the buys of the season despite barely getting a look-in during his two-year stint at Cronulla.<\/p>\n

Metcalf always looked a special talent but managed just seven games at the Sharks in those two seasons.<\/p>\n

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\"Luke<\/p>\n

Cronulla decided to retain their faith in veteran Matt Moylan instead of Metcalf – but I reckon if they had their time over again, they would have gone in the latter's direction.<\/p>\n

The speedy pivot was superb in arguably his best performance<\/a> to date against the Eels on Saturday night, bagging two tries and generally making a nuisance of himself to the defence.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Dogs find their man\ufeff<\/h2>\n

For the past couple of seasons, Bulldogs officials have quietly been saying that if they had a classy specialist halfback, they would be far more competitive.<\/p>\n

And those views were justified on Saturday night with Toby Sexton's fine debut for the club after his rushed mid-week transfer from the Titans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sexton was superb in his first game in blue and white<\/a>, running for over 120 metres and diving on a loose ball in the 79th minute to save the game with the Dogs clinging to a 36-32 lead over Souths.<\/p>\n

He combined extremely well with five-eighth Matt Burton against a weakened Rabbitohs team and the pair will only get better in weeks to come.<\/p>\n

Dolphins big man changed the game\ufeff<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jarrod Wallace came back to haunt his former club as the Dolphins scored a controversial 23-21 win over the Titans<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

A penalty goal for offside right in front of the posts decided the game in golden point, but it was Wallace's enthusiasm off the bench that really turned the tide.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The big man made two line breaks, ran for 134 metres and scored a vital try.<\/p>\n

The crucial victory means the Dolphins – who keep finding ways to win – remain in the finals battle in their inaugural season after the contentious win.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Fijian flyer's insane record\ufeff<\/h2>\n

Dragons favourite Mikaele Ravalawa completed a clean sweep of every NRL club with his hat trick against the Raiders on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

The Fijian flyer had scored against every club in the NRL – bar Canberra.<\/p>\n

And despite his team's 36-26 defeat, Ravalawa crossed three times in Wollongong.<\/p>\n

Firmly established now as a fan favourite, the powerhouse Fijian is on track to be the Dragons' top try scorer for the fourth straight season – a feat achieved by just one player – the great Brett Morris.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Green machine's hidden gem<\/h2>\n

When you talk about most improved players of 2023, Raiders centre Matt Timoko has to be right up there.<\/p>\n

Timoko gave one of the best centre displays all season in Wollongong on Friday night, scoring two tries and making three line breaks as the Raiders out-classed the Dragons.<\/p>\n

\"Timoko<\/p>\n

The powerful centre now has eight tries for the year – one less than his tally for the entire 2022 season.<\/p>\n

And he is averaging a staggering 50 extra running metres per game, troubling every team with his speed and strength out wide.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Sharks centre needs to step up<\/h2>\n

Siosifa Talakai is the Sharks' 'x-factor' – but his form this season hasn't been as consistent as in 2022.<\/p>\n

But Talakai warmed up for the finals with a man-of-the-match display against the Tigers last Thursday night – easily his best game of the season to date.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

The nuggety centre scored two tries, ran for 181 metres and broke six tackles as the Sharks scored a comfortable 36-12 win.<\/p>\n

It was just the type of performance coach Craig Fitzgibbon would have been looking for on the edge from his strike centre.<\/p>\n

But the challenge for Talakai is now to produce that sort of display against some of the NRL's gun sides – not just the last-placed Tigers.\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharks officials must cringe every time Luke Metcalf runs around for the Warriors this year. The 24-year-old from Coffs Harbour has been one of the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314923,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314906\/revisions\/314923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/314909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}