The81stMinute Rookie of the Year Jack Bird has heralded the underrated veteran Jeff Robson as the reason Cronulla are one win away from a preliminary final.

Cronulla play North Queensland on Saturday night in Townsville.

“We didn’t really change our structure as such but it was more a matter of us spreading the ball a lot more which meant us backs managed to get more ball but I was happy with how I went and the amount of ball I got,” Bird told nrl.com.

“Jeff’s [Robson] been around for a while now so he knows what he’s doing. I try to take a bit of leadership there to ease pressure on him in my attempts to learn as much as I can of Robbo.

“But he played excellent against Souths and his kicking game was outstanding so if he keeps that up we’ll be a chance.

“He’s a great player who I try to take his hard work as an example of what needs to be done.

“It was my first final in the NRL so it was good to get the win.

“We have been training really hard and working in sync as a team really well so there’s no surprises there we won I must say.”