Once again, the Cronulla Sharks are at the business end of the season feeling confident, healthy and poised.
And that’s why they should be at least 500 to 1 in premiership betting.
While the Warriors and the Roosters have been the only two in the premiership discussion alongside Penrith up to recently, nine wins in their last ten games has seen the Shire boys officially enter the chat.
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And on face value, it’s deservedly so.
Cronulla have flaunted everything to indicate they could cause considerable dramas at the pointy end of the year, with a well-drilled squad deep with attacking threats thriving behind a rugged pack and their rugged mullets.
Addin Fonua-Blake and Briton Nikora are returning to form post-Origin, and with a supporting cast including Cam McInnes, Jesse Colquohoun and Tom Hazelton, there’s more rough-and-tumble thunder cats up front than singles night at Northies.
But it’s the handlers that are impressing most, with Blayke Brailey sporting that Origin glow and Nicho Hynes, the halfback who last missed a kick at goal sometime prior to the Mesozoic era, neatly playing facilitator to Braydon Trindall, the nifty five-eighth who currently leads the league in try assists with 29.
But most encouraging for the Sharks is the manner in which they are racking up competition points, ticking all the boxes on their streak by winning ugly, winning hot, winning tightly and winning to blot.
In any other universe Cronulla would be a bona fide title threat, if only they weren’t Cronulla.
Despite being a perennial top eight team over the last decade, there’s one tiny thing wrong with the Sharks finals record: it sucks.
With a paltry three wins from 14 appearances since the watershed 2016 premiership and only two from eight under Craig Fitzgibbon, the Shire club has earned a reputation for beating the traffic to the beach only to arrive without togs.
Yes, they admittedly banished a modicum of demons over the last two years with twin preliminary finals appearances and two eliminator wins last season over the Roosters and on the road in Canberra.
But with the team’s irresistible form over the last two months set to merge with a run home that’s a virtual massage – starting with the Dragons next round before meeting the Raiders, Titans, Eels and Storm – there’s only one outcome in 2026 that will sufficiently dunk on the haters.
However, the Sharks will need to overcome one core issue to bury their reputation as the NRL’s Rodney Dangerfield, they “can’t get no respect”, and that’s the fact they don’t respect themselves.
Years of late-stage failure has stubbornly seeded doubt in the club psyche, with coach Fitzgibbon admitting after easing past the Rabbitohs on Sunday that “Maybe I believe in them more than they believe in themselves.”
Add the 50 years of inter-generational hemorrhoids sustained prior to 2016, and it’s no secret why they bear a choke trigger that’s more ‘North Sydney Bears’ than Greg Florimo sitting in the Moreton Bay fig.
And further adding to the challenge this year? The NRL’s decision to potentially shift finals games away from suburban grounds.
While still only a discretionary rule, this could rob teams like Cronulla of hard-earned competitive advantages like playing in front of their own fans and disconnecting the hot water in the visitors sheds.
And while Shark Park would never resort to the latter – after all, it doesn’t have running water – six straight wins at the famous graveyard proves the venue remains one of the Sharks most fearsome trump cards.
Whether it’s the stiff cross-breeze blowing off the adjacent swamp or the whiff of the portaloos it carries, there’s no place like home for Fitzgibbon’s men- but they’ll have to overcome their demons the hard way like the rest of the competition, ie at a state-of-the-art venue with plumbing.
And until they win their battle for the premiership and respect, Sharks fans will remain wary of the tingles they feel at finals time- because who knows if it’s excitement or another hemorrhoid.
