ANY questions about the Shellharbour City Sharks pedigree were quickly answered on Sunday, as they smashed the Port Kembla Blacks 60-16 at Noel Mulligan Oval.
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The visitors started the match in impressive fashion, scoring at better than a point a minute, after both Abraham Atallah and Brock Skelly’s tries were converted by Matt Carroll – making it 12-nil after 10.
Atallah had his second try for the afternoon in the 14th before Dane Sablowski scored a soft try out wide, giving the Sharks 22-nil lead after 21 minutes.
The points kept coming for the Sharks, this time Hans Schuster kicked for Michael McKinley to score with a diving catch in the corner.
Carroll landed his fourth kick of the afternoon and the lead was 28.
On the back of a 40/20 by inspirational captain James Storer, the hosts stopped the bleeding and finally scored for themselves.
Port’s Kaine Edwards threw a cut out ball to send Malcolm Crimmins over for the hosts opening points but Jowasa Drodrolagi failed to add the extras, as the Sharks led 28-4.
To end the first half, fine play by reigning-Michael Cronin medal winner Dylan McGregor saw the lead extended.
In the 38th minute he scored himself, before setting up Aaron McLachlan to score just seconds before the break – making it 38-4 at half-time.
The second half was much of the same story, with Brad Chapman scoring after just three minutes for the Sharks – making the score 44-4 after Carroll’s kick.
Carroll then got himself a try, dancing his way across the line to bring up the half century.
In the 65th minute, Port were their own worst enemy, dropping the ball in attack, before allowed the Sharks to run 100 metres and score through Brendan Kelly.
Carroll adds to the personal tally of 20 points with the conversion, stretching the lead to 56-4.
In the final 10 minutes Port’s Sifa Hala, Sharks’ McKinley and Mark Simon all score tries, to give a final score of 60-16, thanks to two conversions from Drodrolagi.
Best for Shellharbour were Dylan McGregor and Abraham Atallah and Brad Chapman, while Strorer and Simon did all they could for the hosts.