On a sunny Sunday afternoon in the Shire, the ageing grandstands rocking to the sounds of ‘Up, Up Cronulla’, you could be forgiven for being a tad cheerful around the Sharks’ 2026 premiership prospects.

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Especially in light of a dominant 32-16 win over South Sydney.

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Michael Ennis certainly was.

“I’m telling you, Cronulla can win the competition if they want it,” declared the Fox League commentator and star of the Sharks’ 2016 premiership side.

“When the prelim final comes around, that’s when they’ll be judged… but from what they’re showing and how healthy they are, they can absolutely win this competition.”

As the Sharks cemented their place in the NRL top four with a fifth consecutive victory, the sentiment around a repeat of the club’s 2016 heroics is growing tangibly louder in the Shire.

However, Craig Fitzgibbon isn’t buying any of it.

“I’ve never felt any different about the group in the last five years to be honest,” said the Shark’s coach since 2022.

“Maybe I believe in them more than they believe in themselves. We’re working hard towards something and we’ve been building that for a little bit.”

Fitzgibbon drew several parallels between this year’s momentum at the Sharks with that of 2025, when the side advanced to the third week of the finals before bowing out to Melbourne at the penultimate step.

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Just as they did on Sunday with a win over the Rabbitohs, the Sharks of 2025 also won nine from 10 games and went into the finals looking similarly strong.

According to the 49-year-old, nothing has changed at Cronulla other than external ‘perception’.

“Sometimes you get things going your way and sometimes you don’t. We’ll have a hiccup here and there and a bit of turbulence but you won’t challenge me on how much I believe in them,” Fitzgibbon said.

“We did this last year, we won nine out of 10. So it’s the same thing that we did last year, what’s different is maybe the perception of the way we’re doing it. I’m not sure about that but I haven’t shifted in the way I think about the players or what I believe the Sharks are about.

“Last year felt exactly the same. What other people think of us won’t be the determining factor of whether we will capitalise on how we’re going or not.”

One factor that Fitzgibbon is acutely aware of compared with 2025 is the nuances around managing player fatigue and workload.

It helped explain why star Origin forward Addin Fonua-Blake spent a second consecutive week starting from the Sharks’ bench. While it looked like a masterstroke after Fonua-Blake came on in the 18th minute and proceeded to run roughshod over the Bunnies’ defence, Fitzgibbon said it would not become the norm at Cronulla.

“It’s managing the energy more than anything else. Addin is going to be a starting front rower, there’s no doubt about that. He’s had an impact the last couple of weeks but he’s a starting front rower: that’s his job,” Fitzgibbon said.

“He has had a disrupted preparation for the past couple of weeks and I felt like we managed the energy after Origin. I’m not going to explain selections too much, but I could have started any of them; I could have started Addin and Tommy [Hazelton], and had Jesse [Colquhoun] or Teig [Wilton] off the bench.”

The Sharks will likely welcome back Toby Rudolf for their Round 23 fixture against the Dragons, after giving the big forward a week to rest.

Fitzgibbon was also relatively confident about the injuries sustained by Sifa Talakai and KL Iro in the win over the Rabbitohs.

“I’m not worried about whoever plays, they’ve just got to do a job for the Sharks. I’ll make that up as the week goes on,” he said.

“With respect to them we’ve run out of gas, where we’ve had some injuries at the end of semi-finals time. I just want to make sure everyone is ready to go.”

The Sharks then face the Raiders, the Titans, the Eels and the Storm in their run home to the finals.

Just like any other year, Fitzgibbon is confident the Sharks can take it all the way. It seems the playing group is too.

“I’d be happy if I’m in that grand final,” he said.