According to the Daily Telegraph, they’ve started the process of applying to the NRL<\/a> for salary cap relief following the devastating torn ACL Mulitalo suffered while representing New Zealand<\/a> against Samoa<\/a> during the Pacific Championships last month.<\/p>\n He has since undergone surgery, and the injury is expected to sideline the prolific try-scorer for at least nine to eleven months, ruling him out for most of the 2026 NRL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n Under the NRL’s salary cap rules, clubs are permitted to apply for dispensation when a player sustains a major injury while playing representative football.<\/p>\n If approved, it’s estimated that the Sharks could receive between $250,000 and $300,000 in additional cap space to help bolster their top-30 roster ahead of next season.<\/p>\n In the short term, Sione Katoa<\/a> and promising local junior Sam Stonestreet<\/a> are expected to take over on the flanks when the Sharks open their 2026 campaign against the Gold Coast Titans<\/a> on March 7.<\/p>\n Mawene Hiroti<\/a>, who can play both centre and wing, is another option for coach Craig Fitzgibbon<\/a>, while highly-rated rookie Michael Gabrael<\/a>, primarily a centre, could also be called upon to make his NRL<\/a> debut on the wing.<\/p>\n
![\"NRL](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2215547273-scaled.jpg.webp.webp\"\/)
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MAY 17: Ronaldo Mulitalo of the Sharks reacts at full-time during the round eleven NRL match between Sharks and Storm at Sharks Stadium, on May 17, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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The Cronulla Sharks have begun preparations as they look towards their immediate future without star winger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-285460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}