Cronulla needs to have a brutally honest assessment of its attitude and mental toughness in its end-of-season review in the coming days.After bowing out of the finals in straight sets last season, the Sharks made it three losses on the trot with their soul-destroying 13-12 loss to the Roosters on Saturday night.It was a game the Sharks should have won and won easily, playing at home against a team on one leg without their three best backs for a period in the second half.When skipper James Tedesco got sin-binned, a Roosters side already without injured stars Joseph Suaalii and Joseph Manu looked down for the count.Cronulla scored seconds after Tedesco was sent to the sheds and the Roosters were ready to wilt.But the Sharks failed to land the killer blow, the Roosters got a sniff - and showed great courage to fight back to level the scores and then win through a Sam Walker field goal.The Roosters were gritty and brave - but their football was far from perfect.They won largely because the Sharks appeared to lack the confidence and self-belief - and were punished for it.Cronulla now has the entire summer to stew over what went wrong - and will hopefully return a smarter and mentally tougher team in 2024.
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