Cronulla veteran Luke Lewis has made the startling admission he'd rather the reigning premiers finish fifth and so avoid running into Melbourne twice during the NRL finals.
No side in the NRL era - since 1998 - has come from fifth or lower to claim the premiership, making a spot inside the top half of the eight a coveted achievement.
The Sharks go into the final round in fifth spot but can move into fourth if they beat Newcastle on Sunday and South Sydney upset high-flying Parramatta on Friday night.
However, in a statement that flies in the face of accepted convention, Lewis questioned whether it was best if his side finished in fifth spot.
The team which finishes fourth will come up against minor premiers and title favourites Melbourne in week one of the finals.
Lewis argued that to win the title from fourth, the Sharks would like have to beat the Storm twice and said it might be easier to win from fifth.
"We can only finish fourth, you don't really want to be playing Melbourne in Melbourne straight away because you're going to be playing for 80 minutes, it's going to be a real tough game," Lewis said.
"And if you do beat them, you know what their preparation is going to be like for the next three weeks.
"You don't want to meet them twice in the semis. That's my opinion.
"If we end up finishing fourth, we've got an opportunity to go down there and try and beat Melbourne. But if we don't everything is in our hands."
While the Storm are runaway premiership favourites, the Sharks are widely seen as the team most likely to knock them over during September.
Not only do Shane Flanagan's Sharks have the mental advantage of having defeated the Storm in the grand final last year, they're one of three teams to have beaten them at AAMI Park in 2017.
"They're the benchmark," Lewis said.
"Every time you watch Melbourne you know exactly what sort of performance they're going to put in.
"It's just professional all the way across the field. They don't miss a beat. They say we've got the team to beat them, and I guess that's because we won in the grand final and we had a tough game with them earlier in the year.
"For us, we're not playing our best footy but we're still playing semi-finals so hopefully we can build our game over the next three weeks.
"If we meet them, it'd be nice to meet them in the grand finals and not anywhere else."
Share
