League: Cleary brushes off Cronulla criticism

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary. Photo / Richard Robinson

New Zealand Warriors coach Ivan Cleary today brushed off the opinion from the Cronulla camp that his side were unlikely to threaten if they made the National Rugby League (NRL) playoffs.

The Warriors scored a convincing 37-10 victory over the Sharks in Sydney last weekend, but neither Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan nor lock Paul Gallen rated the visitors' effort.

Cleary, however, thought the Warriors "played well enough".

"We went there to do a job," he said.

"We only had to beat one team and that was Cronulla and we did. I thought we were really accurate in what we did. I actually thought they played okay. They (Flanagan and Gallen) obviously didn't, but I thought they went all right."

The defeat was Cronulla's sixth in a row and the Sharks, who had a change of coach last month with Ricky Stuart's departure, would be bottom of the table but for Melbourne's loss of points as part of their salary caps penalties.

"Those comments might just be a reaction to how they're feeling," Cleary said.

"I didn't read too much into that."

The Warriors scored six tries to two and completed 30 of their 34 sets for an 88 per cent completion rate at Toyota Stadium as they secured a win that kept them in the top eight.

Their ball security was particularly notable in the opening spell, when they didn't make an error in their 19 possessions.

However, Flanagan wasn't impressed, saying the Warriors weren't that good and were helped by the Sharks' own poor performance.

"I thought they were there to get beaten but we were just average," he said.

"I didn't think they were good at all. They just did what they had to do."

Gallen said some people would take issue with Flanagan but he agreed with his coach.

"I don't think they can threaten," he wrote in a blog on the sportnewsfirst.com.au website.

"If they think they played good, then I really don't think they can. That's because I don't think the Warriors played well."

Gallen said the Warriors, with a huge, strong side, had potential if they got into the finals, but he didn't believe they were a realistic chance of progressing far.

"If they put it together and those offloads start coming off, they can beat anyone on their day," he said.

"But I just think the structure and the good smart playmakers like those at the Roosters and the Dragons, Brisbane, Penrith when they play well ... I can't see them beating teams like that, realistically."

- NZPA