NRL: Andrew Fifita sends message to his coaches with heated try celebration

Cronulla Sharks forward Andrew Fifita has raised eyebrows over his second-half try celebration after he aggressively gestured toward his own coaches’ box at Shark Park on Saturday night.

Having spent half the game on the bench the burly front-man barrelled through the visitors’ defensive line with 11 minutes remaining to gift the Sharks the breakthrough they desperately needed.

But when Fifita sprung to his feet and pointed at his coaches box with vitriol rather than celebrating with his team it was clear something was amiss.

NRL legend Peter Sterling explained Fifita was hitting back at Sharks assistant coach Jim Dymock who told the forward at half time he “wasn’t running hard enough”.

“I’m assuming that after than Shane Flannagan will tell Jim Dymock ‘say the same thing to him next week’,” Sterling joked.

“I don’t know why they didn’t tell him after 20 minutes.”

Maroons great Darren Lockyer praised Dymock’s forthright message, believing it galvanized the forward to action.

“At half-time you sought of felt like Cronulla were just going through the motions so they needed a bit of a spark,” Lockyer said.

“And I think that game turned their way when he scored that.

“After that try he(Fifita) got the kick-off and he run it back probably the hardest I’d seen him run the whole game.

“There will be more to hear about that, but at the same time they need to do it more often.

Fifita’s effort spurred the Sharks to victory as moments later Josh Dugan and Jayson Bukuya found themselves on the scoresheet to bury the Cowboys 28-16.

The Sharks still find themselves within top-four contention with two rounds to play before the finals.