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Hudson Young paid the price for the NRL’s latest referee over-reaction but the Raiders rose from the dead with an astounding last-gasp try to sink the Sharks 24-20 at GIO Stadium on Thursday night.
Young was sin-binned for a fairly innocuous tackle on Cronulla captain Cameron McInnes in the second half to become the first player to fall victim to the NRL’s latest crackdown on high contact after head of football Graham Annesley’s edict to clubs earlier in the week.
The knee-jerk reaction came after several players escaped the sin bin last week when refs went soft rather than punish high shots by using the bin.
“That’s a huge reaction to what went on last weekend,” said former Blues coach on Nine commentary after Young was told to leave the arena for 10 for “direct contact, no mitigation”, according to referee Todd Smith.
Fittingly, Young created the match-winning break in the 79th minute and after a series of passes and a desperation kick, centre Seb Kris touched down to send coach Ricky Stuart into a state of euphoria on the sideline as he hugged everyone in sight.
The Green Machine looked like they would be potential finals challengers after upsetting the Warriors and Brisbane in the first two rounds.
But after they were flogged by Manly and became North Queensland’s only victims for 2025, they looked like they were headed for their third straight loss.
But it was Young who stood up when needed to slice through the defence on the left and stand in a tackle to get the ball away.
Canberra flung it to the right before Xavier Savage slipped in a grubber for Kaeo Weekes to collect the bouncing Steeden and then find Simi Sasagi and Kris in support to send the local fans into raptures.
“You’ve seen what this club is about in that last minute-and-a-half. You’ve seen what this club is built on,” Stuart said.
They might not make the finals this year, they may do, but no matter what, the Raiders will be a tough out for anyone in 2025.
The Nicho Hynes form slump is starting to become a concern even if the Sharks would like to sweep it under the rug.
He was not terrible at GIO Stadium on Thursday night but he continued his recent trend of tossing out the odd dud pass and hoisting a couple of ineffective kicks.
Close to the line he was indecisive with the ball in hand and was for the most part easily wrapped up by the Canberra defence.
It wasn’t just Hynes who lacked bite among the Sharks.
They were a touch slow when they spread the ball wide and have yet to recapture the slickness that propelled them all the way to the prelim final last year.
“I think we were both out of gas at the end there,” he said. “We just couldn’t find a way, and they found it in that last play.
“I thought it was a pretty even match in the end but our execution’s just a little off at the moment.”
Cronulla are now 2-3 with losses to depleted Penrith and Canterbury sides as well as this one to Canberra with only wins over Souths and the Cowboys to show for an unimpressive start to what should be a season where they have the potential to be title contenders.
Cronulla’s goal-line defence was embarrassed early when Matty Nicholson shrugged off a few poor tackle attempts to open the scoring.
Fill-in centre Mawene Hiroti danced through the Green Machine to square the ledger before Hudson Young latched onto a skilful Seb Kris offload for a 12-6 lead.
Opposing second-rower Briton Nikora cancelled that out with a soft try before Young pounced on a Tom Starling grubber.
Not to be outdone, Nikora nurdled through a couple of kicks after a ricochet to lock it up at 18-18 at half-time.
After the points spree in the first 40 minutes, both teams were stuck in the mud in the second half.
A penalty goal for another barely noticeable high shot soon after the Young sin-binning put Cronulla in front and then they continued to waste the remaining nine-plus minutes with a numerical advantage.
Both teams blew several try-scoring opportunities down the stretch before Young conjured up the decisive chain of events to break the Sharks’ hearts.
Addin Fonua-Blake is tackled. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Putting aside the sin bin drama and his late effort to win the game, Hudson Young’s rep career has been an odd one.
He was punted by the Blues after they went down in the first two games of the 2023 series loss and then again after he played in last year’s opening-game defeat.
But when he was given a chance by Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga last year in the Pacific Championships, he made an impact from the bench to get elevated to the starting side by the final when Cameron Murray was ruled out with injury.
He deserves another chance at Origin level and with Murray unfortunately missing the season due to a pre-season Achilles tear, Young should be one of the first forwards picked by Laurie Daley when he gets a second crack as Blues coach.
Kaeo Weekes blitzed his way over for a superb solo try in the first half but was denied by the Bunker due to an obstruction by Matty Nicholson.
>> Watch the incident here <<
Raiders fans thought Braydon Trindall embellished the contact by going to ground but the Canberra forward definitely initiated the collision.
Sharks legend Paul Gallen, as black, white and blue-eyed as they come, thought his old team got lucky with the review going their way.
Fox League analyst Cooper Cronk, much more in tune with refereeing interpretations than his old Sharks adversary, thought it was a clear-cut call to deny the try because Nicholson had taken out the defender with his decoy run.
“He made contact, his obligation is to either get through the line or not obstruct the Cronulla player and he goes through and connects. Ricky Stuart is not impressed but I tend to agree with the Bunker,” Cronk said.
Kris clocked Sam Stonestreet with what was a pretty blatant high shot as he made a kick return in the 34th minute.
Ruh-roh.
The NRL had warned earlier in the week that forceful contact to the head would not be tolerated.
And then … nothing.
Smith put the whistle away. Stonestreet was furious but didn’t take a dive and got no reward.
A few plays later during a stoppage, Kris was placed on report and will likely attract a charge on Friday.
And then in the second half, Young was binned for a high shot on McInnes which was minimal contact at worse.
Gallen was again bemoaning Canberra’s luck.
“I don’t think it was that forceful. I understand why fans are so frustrated. We haven’t seen that (sin bin punishment) for the first four weeks of the competition.”
Consistently inconsistent.