Live: ‘He wants to fight me after the game’: Fiery Knights prop follows through on on-field threat, shoving Bulldog en route to sin-bin

Scott Drinkwater loses the aerial contest with Briton Nikora and Braydon Trindall cleans up the scraps for his second try of the day.

Jack Hetherington and Reed Mahoney appeared to reignite their on-field tussle in the tunnel on their way to the sin-bin in the Bulldogs’ 36-12 win over the Knights.

The pair got into a scuffle on the field with just a few minutes left in the game, with Knights prop Hetherington and Canterbury hooker Mahoney ending the game in the sin-bin for their troubles.

“He said he wants to fight me after the game,” Mahoney told the referee as he was sent.

It appeared referee Peter Gough sent them from the field for going on with the argument after the initial scuffle, and Fox Sports cameras captured a bit of carry-on as they headed to the sheds.

Hetherington appeared to jokingly square up in the tunnel, but shoved Mahoney aggressively as they went to their respective locker rooms for their early showers, with officials intervening to ensure it didn’t escalate.

Knights coach Adam O’Brien said he hadn’t heard anything, but Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was asked about the incident in his post-match press conference.

“I’ve heard some stuff but I don’t think it’s too serious,” he said.

“Jack’s a good fella. I’ve known Jack for a long time, he’s a good guy.

“Sometimes he gets emotional but he’s a genuinely good person, so I don’t think there’s too much to it.”

Ciraldo said Mahoney “didn’t go into it too much” after the game.

North Queensland can’t get anything going and the Sharks are running over the top of them.

We could be in for another flogging here.

The intercept starts it and Braydon Trindall finishes it off, latching on to Blayke Brailey’s grubber to make it four tries in the half for Cronulla.

The Cowboys fullback’s rough day continues, throwing an intercept to Ronaldo Mulitalo, whose slight fumble allows Drinkwater to catch up and just drag him down.

Braydon Trindall’s kick is batted down by Jesse Ramien and Jack Williams spins it out to Samuel Stonestreet on the right wing. He points to the Sharks faithful as dives over untouched in his first NRL game.

Huge moment for the 21-year-old Westmead native, and his family and friends are loving life in the stands.

The big bald prop with the black head tape gets a ball inside from Nicho Hynes, steps past a slipping Sam McIntyre, brushes off Jeremiah Nanai and jukes Chad Townsend before crashing over with Griffin Neame on his back.

What a try from the big bopper.

Former Shark Chad Townsend runs past some rushing defence and boots a torpedo 70 metres onto the Cronulla tryline, then gets through and wraps up Ronaldo Mulitalo on the kick return, but Kulikefu Finefeuiaki hits Mulitalo high as he comes in late.

He’s pinged for a penalty, wasting a great passage from his halfback.

The debutant takes a great mark from a well weighted bomb by Chad Townsend. And the Sharks get a penalty too, even though it looked like Nicho Hynes shoved Valentine Holmes under Stonestreet, which resulted in a spectacular fall for the young winger.

Scott Drinkwater gets wrapped up in his kick return, tries to throw the offload out the back, but fumbles it and Will Kennedy swoops on it to score.

Disastrous start for the Cowboys.

No major late changes, but the big team news is Samuel Stonestreet making his NRL debut on the wing for the Sharks.

All the penalties late in that Bulldogs win mean the full-time whistle was bumping right up against the kick-off time in Cronulla for the Sharks’ clash with the Cowboys.

Cronulla will go top with a win here.

It was a comprehensive performance by the Bulldogs, and a dire one from the Knight, but that’s not half of it.

Newcastle will hold its collective breath (as will Maroons fans) ahead of a scan on a foot injury to Kalyn Ponga, who missed the last half-hour of the match.

The Knights were completely listless without their captain, fullback, goal-kicker and attacking spark, but they may have to get used to it if this foot injury is serious.

There’s nothing on, but Kai Pearce-Paul throws a brilliant around-the-corner ball to Bradman Best to rampage 30 metres to the tryline. I’m not sure anyone laid a finger on him.

The Bulldogs will kick off again with 30 seconds left.

Jack Hetherington gets sent to the sin-bin for getting back into an argument while referee Peter Gough was talking to the captains.

Reed Mahoney waves goodbye to Hetherington, but Gough tells Mahoney not to get too smug because he’s going off next.

So both teams are reduced to 12 for the final minutes.

Jackson Hastings gets thumped while he’s on the ground by Jaeman Salmon, and Kai Pearce-Paul stands up for this halfback, with Josh Curran coming in to sort things out.

The Knights get the penalty and Jack Hetherington gets into it with Reed Mahoney.

Hetherington took exception to Mahoney trying to wrestle him to the ground, and Hetherington gave him a whack to the side of the head.

Peter Gough warns the captains that he’ll send players to the sin-bin if they don’t calm down.

The Bulldogs shift from halfway, Stephen Crichton breaks down the right and flicks a pass to Jacob Kiraz, Kiraz pops it back over the top to Blake Taaffe, who selflessly hands it off to Crichton to finish off the move.

Makeshift centre Dylan Lucas sets sail for the tryline and gets spun around by Sam Hughes, with Viliame Kikau flying in from nowhere to keep the ball off the ground over the line.