Collegians looked a lot like their old selves in defeating Shellharbour 30-18 in the Illawarra Carlton League round nine match at WIN Stadium yesterday.Going into the game the Sharks were in equal second position on the league ladder and last year's grand final runners-up Collies had a share of sixth place."I thought in patches we were real good. We created a lot of attacking opportunities and we bombed some chances but so did they," Collies coach Gavin Clinch said."They've got real strong runners and are quite fast across the ground."Defensively I thought we were great. We just had that lapse in the last five minutes but we kept them to six points for most of the game which was good."We took our opportunities. We scored some real good tries."The Sharks squandered too much possession to pose a real threat although they were dangerous a number of times especially in the first half."We didn't give ourselves an opportunity to win the game because we didn't hold the football," Sharks co-coach Peter Yatras admitted."It was as simple as that. Our completion rate was less than 50 per cent for the game. "When you have a completion rate like that you're going to defend a lot and you're going to tire and you're not going to get the results you want."The Sharks had a few scoring opportunities early in the game but two were called back for forward passes and halfback Hans Schuster missed a relatively easy penalty goal attempt.Collies certainly made the most of their chances, starting with a long pass from dummy-half Grant Smith putting second-rower Rimini Reweti over in the 15th minute and Smith adding the extras for a 6-0 lead.Shellharbour equalised when five-eighth Matt Michalowski scored in the 28th minute for Schuster to convert from point blank.Three minutes later Collies regained the lead with a try to captain and prop Robbie Payne, converted by winger Ron Kissell and they stretched that to 16-6 two minutes from half-time when Kissell scored off a grubber kick into the in-goal.The Sharks applied enormous pressure early in the second term but Collies' defence remained strong and were rewarded for their resolve when centre James Dirou scored a try in the 56th minute.Midway through the second half, interchange hooker Jay Thomas made it 26-6 with a converted try but the Sharks replied with tries to Michalowski (73 min) and Jarek Goebel (75 min), before Adam Davidson put the icing on the cake for Collies with an intercept try near full-time.Two round nine games - Corrimal v Thirroul at Ziems Park and Wests v Helensburgh at Parrish Park - were deferred at the weekend because the grounds were too wet to play on.