KEY POINTS:
NRL
Dragons 16
Sharks 18
If the Dragons players had hoped to impress their new coach-in-waiting Wayne Bennett last night, they didn't do a very good job.
It was perhaps too much to expect because they have been trying to impress embattled coach Nathan Brown for the past couple of seasons.
The players have so far refused to talk about Bennett's impending arrival in Wollongong, but they could well do with the master coach's touch.
It wasn't that they were particularly bad last night, but they weren't all that good either and let slip a game they should have won.
Cronulla weren't any better but won't care, given the personnel missing through suspension and injury.
What the match lacked in quality, however, it made up for in excitement with Cronulla winger Bryson Goodwin scoring a dramatic try in the final seconds to send the match into golden-point extra-time.
Winger Luke Covell nailed a long-range penalty in the third minute of extra time after Dragons prop Jason Ryles had given away a needless penalty. Covell had hardly displayed the sort of form that had him rated as one of the league's best with his previous kick when he shanked his conversion attempt from the sideline.
If Bennett cracked a smile at all, it would have been a rueful one. Given he's also joined the Kiwis coaching ranks, it seems he enjoys a challenge.
For their part, the Sharks have also rarely been far from the headlines.
There were seemingly none of the questionable tactics that have blighted Cronulla's game this season. Without Paul Gallen to execute his brand of facial massages and testicle grabbing and Ben Ross to put late and high hits on opponents, they went about playing the game.
It didn't mean they didn't play it hard, given that they bank on their defence to make up for their inadequacies in attack. With former Dragon Lance Thompson promoted to the first team for the first time this season, they had a player willing to make more tackles than a fisherman. He made 36 in the match and had a bloodied nose to boot.
The Dragons had the better of the opening exchanges and perhaps should have led by more than a Josh Morris try.
But they were their own worst enemy at times with a cluster of errors allowing Cronulla to gain the initiative.
They went close a couple of times before Greg Bird, who had been moved to five-eighth for the match, latched on to a good Ben Pomeroy break to score.
Jamie Soward levelled the scores early in the second half with a penalty and the game just needed someone to grab it by the scruff of the neck.
Dragons second-rower Lagi Setu did his best when video referee Russell Smith gave him the benefit of the doubt in the 53rd minute but it only served to usher in a painful period of play in which both sides respected the ball in the perfect conditions about as much as an adulterer does marriage.
Cronulla got back in front when fullback Brett Kearney, easily the visitors' best player on the night, beat Dragons hooker Ben Ellis to a Covell grubber on the hour to set up an exciting finish.
The Dragons looked like they had claimed the points when fullback Ben Hornby scored from a flowing movement with 10 minutes remaining.
But the Sharks went from one end of the field to the other before Goodwin claimed a Bird grubber at full-speed only inches from the sideline to touch down.
Now Bennett would have been impressed with that.
Dragons 16 (J. Morris, L. Setu, B Hornby tries; J. Soward 2 gls) Sharks 18 (G. Bird, B. Kearney, B. Goodwin tries; L. Covell 3 gls). Halftime: 4-6.
