Luke Lewis column: Tough times but I'm sticking by the club

In fact, I couldn't ask for a better bunch of blokes to play with in the NRL.

Yes, we might be going through some tough times, for sure, but unlike one suggestion last weekend, I'm not pulling out of my contract with the Sharks. Never even thought of it. I love the place, and the whole club.

All the dramas of the past few days were forgotten once we ran out on the field on Sunday, I can tell you.

I was shocked by the huge support when we ran out to warm up, then when we came back. It was absolutely enormous.

We'd had a long week, and losing our staff and Flanno so close to the game was really tough.

But you know what?

The boys were absolutely outstanding.

We just had to knuckle down for [Peter] Sharp, so we didn't think too much about the dramas on game day.

The song sung by the crowd, the banners, they were all great — even the one they did on me [Fabulewis]. But it was the noise and the support that really spurred us on against the Titans. They could easily have beaten us, but the crowd gave us that edge we needed.

I've always found it tough to play the Sharkies here, when I played at Penrith.

It was a long time since my thyroid operation last year, and I'm happy to say I'm going great guns now.

Even so, I was proud to play 75 minutes of the game. Blokes like Gal were really hurting out there, busting their guts.

I enjoyed playing on "Birdy" [Greg Bird] on the right edge, and I think we cancelled each other out.

I could have played the whole game, but cramps got my legs in the end. The main thing is, we hung on to win. Our crowd deserved that victory. That one was for them, for Flanno, Sharpie and all of them.

* As told to Brad Forrest.