Craig Fitzgibbon has chosen loyalty and the long game to build the Sharks into a title contender, but with most of their key pieces in place time is running out for Cronulla to deliver in the finals.

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The burning question: will 2025 finally be the year the Sharks get over the hump?

Since their maiden grand final win in 2016, Cronulla have only won three of 13 finals. It’s a record that much has been made of.

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What might be lost in that damning statistic though is just how often Cronulla fans are watching their team in September.

It’s a credit to the Sharks that they are always thereabouts, having only missed the top eight once (2021) since their 2016 premiership.

Fitzgibbon, the 2002 Clive Churchill Medallist in a Roosters grand final win, deserves a stack of praise as well. Since becoming the club’s head coach in 2022, he has led Cronulla to the post-season in all four seasons, while compiling a 63 per cent win rate.

But the fact remains that the Sharks are struggling to win big games, although last Saturday’s victory over the Roosters was a step in the right direction.

That elimination final win marks the second season in a row they’ve prevailed in week one of the finals. Last year, they were bundled out by the Panthers in the semis.

With a test awaiting against a Raiders team coming off an emotional and physically-taxing loss, this is as good a chance Cronulla has had to progress to a preliminary final in a decade.

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Craig Fitzgibbon has been patient with his players.Source: News Corp Australia

According to Matty Johns, they’re peaking at the right time of the year.

“The Sharks are playing the best footy they ever have under Craig Fitzgibbon,” Johns said on Matty and Cronk.

“It’s all about timing. What’s that, eight from nine now?”

For rugby league great Greg Alexander, the final-round win against the Bulldogs was the turning point for Cronulla’s premiership credentials.

“I wasn’t thinking that way until they played the Bulldogs in Round 27 but my position on the Sharks changed after that, because they beat a side in the top four who were looking for a performance themselves,” Alexander told foxsports.com.au.

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“They beat them well. They beat them with a semi-final style of footy. The middles were great, the bench was strong and the kicking game was good.

“Nicho played his best big game, I thought, in a couple of years and they’re the ingredients you need if going to win finals footy.

“They played with a defensive intensity that said, they’re ready for finals footy and then they back it up with a win against the Roosters.

“So I changed my mind on the Sharks following that Bulldogs win. They could do something this season.”

The Sharks’ have just two big-name signings under Fitzgibbon.Source: News Corp Australia

While Alexander gives the Sharks a hope of lifting the Provan-Summons Trophy, he continued to say that it’s up to them if they want to change the narrative.

“You only have to look at their record. You look at their finals record over the last 10 years,” he said.

“How many years since they’ve won the comp? Well there’s a right for questions to be asked over their form in finals. There are facts there for people to go, ‘I don’t know if the Sharks can do it’.”

Alexander believes doubt is inevitable when a roster looks similar to ones that have not got the job done in the past and stability in their squad will only be proven right when they get over the hump.

“What makes you believe they can do it when they’ve got a finals record with a lot of the same players?

“Their records were one from six, one from seven, with the current players. But every year is not the same though. As I said, Dogs into the Roosters, that’s two pretty good wins.

“So maybe you’re in a position where you go, you know what, maybe they could win it.”

The Sharks 2023 and 2025 finals teams are very similar.Source: FOX SPORTS

Alexander touched on the fact that Cronulla have fielded much of the same players over the past three to four years.

Fitzgibbon has chosen to be very patient with his roster, with there being very little player turnover at the Sharks.

He’s had the luxury of being able to do so. There would be other clubs around the league who wouldn’t be willing to have the patience in a results driven business, that can decide jobs and futures on a yearly basis.

There has only been the two splash signings since 2022, and that was star prop Addin Fonua-Blake and halfback Nicho Hynes.

The Sharks team that lost to the Roosters 12-13 in the 2023 finals series is near on identical to the team that beat them 20-10 in 2025.

Fullback Connor Tracey (Bulldogs), prop Royce Hunt (Tigers) and Jack Williams (Eels) are the only three players to leave the club and that was more for the chance at a starting opportunity and more money than it was because the Sharks didn’t want them.

Addin Fonua-Blake has given the Sharks an edge.Source: Getty Images

From that 2023 team, Wade Graham retired, while Addin Fonua-Blake (Warriors) and Billy Burns (Dragons) are the only players added to the team since, that were not at the club then.

Since Fitzgibbon took over other than three big singings in McInnes, Hynes and Fonua-Blake, the Sharks have had little player turnover.

Too often new coaches come in and try to gut the team and potentially discard players that could have gotten better with a bit more time.

Fitzgibbon was patient in learning about the players he had on his books and identifying what positions he needed to bolster over time.

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Firstly he needed a player like McInnes to set the tone for the rest of the team with his workrate and commitment on both sides of the ball.

Then he needed a chief playmaker and brought in Hynes form the Storm to play a new brand of halfback based on speed and an ability to set their outside backs free with fast footwork in their sweeping plays off the back of good go-forward.

Then after a couple of disappointing finals series, Fitzgibbon worked out that he needed an alpha male to lead the pack and carry the team forward with their physicality in the pressure-cooker of finals footy. Enter Fonua-Blake.

William Kennedy remains unsigned beyond his current deal.Source: Getty Images

Alexander commended the Sharks and Fitzgibbon in working out what they needed and being patient enough to wait for the right players.

“I think they realised what they needed and what they were missing,” Alexander said.

“They’ve signed two players at pretty important positions in Hynes and Fonua-Blake.

“Nicho has had some good years at the Sharks. He won the Dally M Medal in 2022. You sign a halfback you think can win you a comp.

“And whenever you think you’re short, there’s nothing like an Addin Fonua-Blake to take a side forward, so they’re two very good signings.”

On the flip side Fitzgibbon has been loyal to players even when they haven’t had their best seasons.

The likes of William Kennedy, Braydon Trindall, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Sione Katoa and Ronaldo Mulitalo have all had form slumps, injuries and even off-field incidents for Trindall, but Fitzgibbon has stuck solid and allowed his players to bounce back.

The Sharks have also trusted their pathways and juniors to produce the next wave of NRL stars and KL Iro and Jesse Colquhoun, who will both start against the Raiders are proof that approach is paying off.

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Alexander praised Fitzgibbon and the Sharks for being prepared to play the long game and invest from within, but he warned the success of their approach will be determined by a deep play-off run, which has eluded them to date.

“You ask to what extent has it paid dividends?” Alexander said.

“Yes it has, but as far as we know at the moment, they’ve put themselves in a position this year with a win in week one, but it hasn’t happened that often in the past.

“I don’t know, I’m not sure what to what extent they can say, ‘well, we’ve done a great job’ yet.

“If they go on to win a comp and make a grand final, then you can say, well, I think it’s worked.”

The Sharks have been outspoken heading into the semi-finals, with Ronaldo Mulitalo and Nicho Hynes calling for the team to be shown more respect.

However, commentator Dan Ginnane warned the only thing that earns respect in the NRL finals is winning.

“It’s all well and good to beat the eighth placed Roosters at Sharks Park and that was a good win, they were damn good on Saturday night,” Ginnane said on NRL 360.

“But beat Canberra in Canberra and you will get your respect. You beat Canberra away and get into a prelim and they can beat the Storm and Brisbane. They beat Melbourne earlier in the year.

“But if they go out the back door then I’m afraid they are not going to get the respect they are longing for. But they are a big shot of winning this week.”

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The Daily Telegraph’s Michael Carayannis believes the criticism of the Sharks has been warranted due to their lack of finals success in recent seasons.

“I don’t mind them carrying a bit of a chip on their shoulder, good luck to them, but they have been criticised rightfully so in my opinion because they haven’t gone deep in a competition since they won the comp in 2016,” Carayannis said.

However, Carayannis doesn’t believe the Sharks can win the title, which prompted Anasta to ask, then what needs to change?

“They need X-factor in the backline at fullback,” Carayannis said.

“Kennedy is not the problem, but if you break down that spine, that is why he is not re-signed yet.

“If they had one of the other elite fullbacks in this competition, I think they could win the comp.”

Hynes calls out Sharks lack of respect | 04:39

Gorden Tallis is happy for the Sharks to employ a siege mentality to get themselves up for the biggest game for the club since the 2016 decider.

“I like that they have a chip on their shoulder, they have been at this spot for the last few years, they struggle against top eight sides, so they need different motivation,” Tallis said.

“I think they have put it on themselves. Their winger Mulitalo did it last week. He called out his opposition and they got over the top of them. Now the whole team has taken a leaf out of his book.”

But if it doesn’t work there will be no excuses for the Sharks, who have failed to make it past the semi-final stage in four season under Fitzgibbon.

And inevitably questions will again be asked about what the team is missing, whether it is players or the coaching staff.

Loyalty and stability can be powerful agents in building a successful club, but as the old saying goes, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Sharks 2023Finals: 1. Connor Tracey 2. Sione Katoa 3 Jesse Ramien 4. Siosifa Talakai 5. Ronaldo Mulitalo 6. Braydon Trindall 7. Nicho Hynes 8. Toby Rudolf 9. Blayke Brailey 10. Royce Hunt 11. Briton Nikora 12. Wade Graham 13. Cameron McInnes 14. Jack Williams 15. Siosifa Talakai 16. Thomas Hazelton 17. Oregon Kaufusi 18. Jesse Colquhoun

Sharks 2025 Finals: 1. William Kennedy 2. Sione Katoa 3 Jesse Ramien 4. KL Iro 5. Ronaldo Mulitalo 6. Braydon Trindall 7. Nicho Hynes 8. Addin Fonua-Blake 9. Blayke Brailey 10. Toby Rudolf 11. Billy Burns 12. Teig Wilton 13. Jesse Colquhoun 14. Briton Nikora 15. Siosifa Talakai 16. Oregon Kaufusi 17. Braden Hamlin-Uele 18. Daniel Atkinson 19. Mawene Hiroti 20. Jayden Berrell 21. Thomas Hazelton 22. Hohepha Puru