Sharks not pushing for Carney return
Coach Shane Flanagan has indicated Cronulla won’t push for a return to the NRL of exiled playmaker Todd Carney.
Carney won his unfair dismissal case against the Sharks last week after being sacked from the club in June.
Cronulla are 0-2 to start their 2015 premiership campaign and are sorely missing Carney’s creativity in attack.
• NRL’s Kennedy hit with infraction notice
• Cam Smith backs league at MCG
But Flanagan, who lured the former Dally M medallist to the Shire ahead of the 2012 NRL season, says the club is not agitating for a return to Australia for the former Kangaroos and NSW representative.
“That’s a decision for the NRL, I don’t look into that,” Flanagan said on Friday.
“I’m disappointed for the kid, he is over there in France but it’s not a concern for me.”
“Potentially he could (strengthen our attack), but he is not here and we just have to deal with what we have in front of us
“I wish I had Greg Inglis at the back, I wish I had Sam Burgess in the front row, all those types of players.
“But we haven’t got them and we just have to move on with what we have got and I am really confident in the group of players that I do have.”
Ben Barba has struggled at five-eighth in his first two games for the Sharks after moving back to Sydney from Brisbane.
The club narrowly missed out on the signature of Daly Cherry-Evans and have been linked to Canterbury halfback Trent Hodkinson
“I haven’t spoken to him (Hodkinson) or his manager, that’s just speculation,” Flanagan said.
“We are just taking a deep breath at the moment after the Cherry-Evans situation and getting ready to jump back in.”
– AAP