Sharks veteran Luke Lewis has revealed Andrew Fifita has apologised to the Cronulla players and coaching staff for his dramatic post-try verbal spray in Saturday night's win over North Queensland.
Lewis told Triple M on Sunday afternoon that the controversial prop was sorry for his actions after pointing to the coaches box after scoring a crucial try in the victory at Southern Cross Group Stadium.
Fifita declined to discuss the incident with reporters after the match but he said on the field soon after full-time that his antics were aimed at assistant coach Jim Dymock – not head coach Shane Flanagan.
"I know Jimmy was up there. At half-time he said I wasn't running hard enough and I had a point to prove," Fifita told Fox League. "It wasn't really directed at Shane Flanagan, it was at Jimmy. He told me I wasn't running hard enough."
Lewis said Flanagan and Dymock needed to sit down with Fifita and explain why he was benched for a long period of the match.
"We have to get on the front foot pretty early, sort it out and make sure it doesn't happen again.
Fifita's eye-catching try celebration
"We will probably have a chat as a group with Fifita. He did say sorry to the group already, he said sorry to everyone at the game.
"We are all grown men, we all do stupid things but we will accept it and move on."
Lewis added that "if he had his time over again", Fifita would not repeat his histrionics.
"It's definitely not the way to react and it's not, I suppose, the thing we want to be sending out there to the kids," he said.
"He has done it now and hopefully they will have a conversation about it on Monday and Tuesday and make sure they clear the air and it doesn't happen again.
"It wasn't a good look for the game and it wasn't a good look for our side either which is disappointing because we had a good win and we really enjoyed it.
"That's just the way Fifita is. He is one of those blokes who goes with the flow, reacts how he has to react and thinks about it later. He doesn't think about it at the time."
Lewis said he failed to finish the match because of cramps and will be right to face the Knights next Sunday at Shark Park.
Match Highlights: Sharks v Cowboys – Round 23, 2018
The Sharks suffered a heavy injury toll against the Cowboys, with centres Jesse Ramien (ankle) and Ricky Luetele (knee) helped from the field.
Flanagan said neither injury was serious and he expects to have hooker Jayden Brailey (ear) and back-rower Wade Graham (groin) available for next Sunday.
