How Lewis turned Sharks into NRL winners
Jul 20, 2017 - 5:31 PM Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan has credited the recruitment of Luke Lewis for helping turn the NRL club from perennial strugglers to defending premiers.Lewis will play his 300th NRL game on Friday night against South Sydney, 16 years after making his debut with Penrith as an outside back off the bench.
The 17-time NSW Origin player arrived at the Sharks in 2013 in the midst of their ASADA supplements scandal, while the club had gone five years without getting past the first week of the finals.
Things couldn't be more different four years on, with Cronulla now on track for their fourth straight finals series as they look to defend their first-ever NRL title.
"I had a bit of a philosophy that we needed rep players in the club," Flanagan said.
"We only had Gal (Paul Gallen) at that stage and we had recruited Wade (Graham) a year earlier but he was only a young kid on the way up.
"To get blokes like Luke Lewis were crucial to taking this club to a club that competed to a top-eight side year after year.
"Luke was really crucial in my time in taking us to another level of professionalism on and off the field."
Flanagan first coached Lewis back in the early 2000s, as he played on the wing alongside the likes of Johnathan Thurston in a Junior Kangaroos team.
But Flanagan is confident he is still getting the most out of the 33-year-old, who earlier this month signed to extend his stay at the club at least one more year into 2018.
"Everyone has probably thought he was going to sail off into the sunset and probably retire, and probably his form would resemble that," the coach said.
"But he has been fantastic this year and this year has probably been as good as any other year he has played as a 21-year-old or 22-year-old.
"He should run out with his head high about not only what he does on the field, but off the field as well."
Source: AAP
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