SHELLHARBOUR Sharks coach Abed Atallah has hailed his troops' performance in Sunday's "character building" 34-8 win against the Warilla-Lake South Gorillas.
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At a wet Cec Glenholmes Oval, the hosts opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Kayne Brennan charged onto an inside ball from Hamish McLauren.
Daniel Burke converted for 6-nil.
Continued ill-discipline by the Sharks led to Burke stretching the lead to eight in the 14th minute.
But the match turned on its head in the 17th minute when an altercation saw Sharks' Jack Kavanagh and Gorillas' Lloyd Thomas and Criag Nolan sent for 10 minutes.
After courageously defending their own line, the Sharks used the most on their man advantage, as Donte Efaraimo found space down the left edge.
Carroll converted from the sideline for 8-6 after 25.
Efaraimo made it two tries in as many minutes, when he connected down the left side with Jayme McElhone.
Carroll again converted for 12-8.
Just as the three sin-binned players reentered the field, Max Wolfson was given his marching orders by Will Drury, following another scuffle.
With six to play in the half, Carroll's boot stretched the visitors' advantage to a converted try - which is how it remained until the break.
Carroll made the lead eight 12 minutes after the break, following a penalty by the hosts.
Two minutes later, after the Gorillas were on the attack, Carroll scooped up a McLauren kick and offloaded to McElhone, who sprinted 90 metres to score.
The Sharks skipper converted for 22-8.
The skies opened up for the last 20 minutes, which saw the Sharks gallantly defend five straight sets, a man down, on their own line.
But after withstanding the pressure, McElhone scooped up the ball on his own line, stepped two defenders and ran the length of the field to score his second.
Carroll again converted, to make it 28-8 with five minutes to play.
One minute later, the Sharks iced to game with another try down the left edge through Wayde Aitken, following an offload from Juvilee Samiu.
Carroll continued his perfect day with the boot, to make it 34-8 at full-time.
In the courageous win, Samiu, Carroll, Matt Coltman and Kavanagh shone as Burke, Aaron Henry, Brennan and Lloyd Thomas never stopped trying for the hosts.