NRL Finals Preview: Cowboys Shire-bound for top four showdown

The Cronulla Sharks will host the North Queensland Cowboys on Saturday night with a preliminary finals berth on the line in front of a reduced-capacity crowd at PointsBet Stadium.

The sides have faced off just once this season with the Sharks running away 26-12 victors in Townsville in Round 18 against a Cowboys outfit missing their Origin stars.

With Valentine Holmes, Jeremiah Nanai, Tom Dearden, Reuben Cotter and Murray Taulagi all missing from the clash for the Cowboys and Siosifa Talakai and Briton Nikora missing for the Sharks, the lessons learnt were minimal.

The Sharks will welcome back a quartet of players this week – Dale Finucane, Toby Rudolf, Connor Tracey and William Kennedy – after their last-start win in Newcastle whilst Talakai has been named despite concerns surrounding his ankle after the barnstorming centre limped off prior to fulltime on Sunday.

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Kennedy was unavailable for the Sharks due to an ankle issue for the final five weeks of the regular season whilst Rudolf missed the final three weeks and Finucane and Tracey the final two. Cameron McInnes and Braden Hamlin-Uele will come off the bench after starting the previous two games with Lachlan Miller and Matt Ikuvalu named among the reserves.

The Cowboys, meanwhile, have just the one change with Coen Hess returning from suspension to replace Jamayne Taunoa-Brown on the bench.

The Cowboys have lost their past eight games to Cronulla with the Sharks reaching at least 26 points in seven of them; the Cowboys have not won at PointsBet Stadium since mid-2014.

The Sharks and Cowboys have crafted quite the finals rivalry over the past decade meeting on four occasions – 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 – with each side winning two. Their most recent finals matchup resulted in a 15-14 Cowboys win at Allianz Stadium with Michael Morgan piloting through a match-winning one-pointer.

The past three times these sides have met in the finals, the winner of the contest has gone on to make the Grand Final.

The Sharks have won 11 of their past 12 and will enter the clash on a six-game unbeaten streak but have not faced a fellow top eight side since their Round 20 win over the Rabbitohs whilst the Cowboys have won five of their past seven with losses coming against the Roosters and Rabbitohs and were victorious in their Round 25 matchup against Penrith’s reserves in Townsville.

The Sharks finished the season with the premiership’s seventh-most potent attack and third-best defence whilst the Cowboys ranked fourth in attack and second defensively.

The Cowboys also finished second in the NRL in yardage with the Sharks coming in at sixth; the Cronulla middles will have their work cut out for them against the likes of Jason Taumalolo, Reuben Cotter, and Jordan McLean.

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The Sharks led the premiership this season in both line breaks and general play passes so expect their playmakers to let the ball sing and try to get their dangerous outside back some quality ball early in the piece.

The halves battle will be an interesting one with both sides’ halves-pairing exceeding expectations in their opening campaigns alongside one another.

Sharks halfback Nicho Hynes will be starting for the first time in an NRL finals game whilst Cowboys statesman Chad Townsend returns to where it all began for him back in 2011.

The Sharks enter the clash as $1.70 favourites having lost just one game at PointsBet Stadium all year. Download Our Free NRL App

Kick-off: 7:50pm Saturday at PointsBet Stadium, Cronulla

Sharks: 1. Kennedy; 2. Tracey; 3. Ramien; 4. Talakai; 5. Mulitalo; 6. Moylan; 7. Hynes; 8. Rudolf; 9. Brailey; 10. Hunt; 11. Nikora; 12. Graham (c); 13. Finucane; 14. Wilton; 15. McInnes; 16. Hamlin-Uele; 17. Fifita; 18. Miller; 19. Tolman; 20. Ikuvalu; 21. Colquhoun; 22. Metcalf

Cowboys: 1. Drinkwater; 2. Feldt; 3. Holmes; 4. Hiku; 5. Taulagi; 6. Dearden; 7. Townsend (c); 8. McLean; 9. Robson; 10. Cotter; 11. Leilua; 12. Nanai; 13. Taumalolo (c); 14. Tabuai-Fidow; 15. Hess; 16. Gilbert; 17. Neame; 18. Taunoa-Brown; 19. Chester; 20. Granville; 21. Elliot; 22. Hampton

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