It was comfortable in the end, but it wasn’t before a fright forced Port to go up a gear late in the match which enabled them to keep their finals hopes alive.

As has been the case for most of the Sharks wins all season, they jumped out of the blocks and raced to an early 16-0 lead inside 20 minutes.

They again fell asleep during the middle part of the match which allowed the Pirates to race in three unanswered tries to trail 16-14 just after the break.

Old Bar finished the match with 11 men following the send-offs of fullback Jayden Smith and winger Robert Bungie for fighting which allowed the Sharks to kick clear in the final 10 minutes.

Sharks captain-coach Jake Hawkins and Old Bar counterpart Shannon Ellem spent the final 10 minutes in the sinbin for the initial altercation.

It was Ellem’s second stint in the bin for the half.

Port Macquarie halfback Joey Cudmore and interchange hooker James Kelly also spent time cooling their heels for 10 minutes in the first half.

It was a match the Sharks had to win – a loss could have seen them slip to seven points out of finals contention.

“It was a really important win because we’re out of the five and we need to make the top five to get into the semis,” Hawkins said.

Old Bar had closed to 16-14 early in the second half before a Ben Sprague pass put winger Oliver Nosworthy on a 50-metre dash to the tryline.

From there the Sharks sparked back into action after their traditional 20-minute snooze.

“It’s that middle patch of the game where we make a few interchanges and we lose our way and get ahead of ourselves,” Hawkins said.

“We start the games well and we just need to take that for the 40 (minutes of each half) and not just play for 20 minutes.”

The Port Macquarie captain again admitted it was a mental hurdle they had so far failed to overcome this season.

“It’s an attitude thing, if you want to do something you’ll do it,” he said.

“If you’re not thinking straight or not putting in for your teammates you’re not going to do it; we need to work on that.

“We’re good enough, we’ve proven that. We just need to work on our attitude amongst ourselves.”

Youngsters Koby Smith, Oliver Nosworthy and Ollie Pascoe were again strong in the absence of regular first graders Corey Murphy, Liam Potter, Mitch Wilbow and Mitch Smith.

They should welcome most of that quartet back in coming weeks.

“Every time I have picked our young blokes they’ve probably been one of our best and that’s a credit to them,” Hawkins said.

“They play good footy in the 18s and then they back that up at a senior level.

“We know we needed to win and that’s what we got.”

Earlier, the Sharks moved back to the top of the reserve grade ladder with a hard-fought 18-4 victory over Old Bar.

The Pirates joined Port Macquarie at the top of the under-18 ladder with a 26-6 win while Old Bar held on to register a 4-0 win over a gallant Sharks ladies league tag side.