Pride is all that's left: Stuart - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Pride is all that's left: Stuart

By Todd Balym 16/08/2009 06:20:02 PM Comments (0)

The end of the season couldn't come quickly enough for Cronulla and coach Ricky Stuart says only pride in the jumper will stop the club from ending their year of disaster with a record losing streak.

The Sharks plunged to a seventh straight loss at Toyota Stadium on Sunday, the 56-10 hammering from the Wests Tigers the club's second largest losing margin in history and the worst defeat against the merger club.

Stuart slammed his side's defensive commitment against the sharp Tigers and challenged his men to show some pride over the final three weeks against Gold Coast (away), Manly (away) and South Sydney (home).

If they fail to win any of those games, the Sharks will equal the club's longest losing streak of 10 games set at the end of 2006 and top the nine games they lost in succession earlier this year.

"We have got three games to go and we don't want to finish our season like that (getting belted)," said Stuart.

"We've done too well this season to finish off without commitment in our football.

"They've been terrifically courageous in regards to their football and what's happened ... we've handled the adversity well. We've turned up to 95 per cent of our games this season and had a lot commitment.

"That is all I ask for the remaining three games, that we have a lot of commitment.

"That wasn't one of those games today.

"We just have to make sure we try and save as much pride for the club as we possibly can ... we've got a number of players just playing on heart at the moment and trying to get through what's been a very difficult year.

"We just have to try and finish with a bit of pride for the jumper."

Making matters worse for the Sharks, Test forward Paul Gallen failed to finish the game with a groin strain and is unlikely to play next week.

Star recruit Trent Barrett (cheekbone) is also no chance at returning to help finish the season as he is still suffering facial soreness and headaches.

While Stuart spoke of pride, skipper Luke Covell simply challenged the Sharks to be man enough to meet the challenge and not give up.

"It's been hard but at the end of the day the results matter and you've got to be a man and stand up for it," said Covell.

"You have got to do what you've got to do to win games these days and you have to show up week in and week out and we're just not doing that at the moment.

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