{"id":366113,"date":"2025-12-23T06:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/366113\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T06:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:26:08","slug":"mcinnes-makes-surprise-call-about-sharks-premiership-window-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/366113\/","title":{"rendered":"McInnes makes surprise call about Sharks premiership window – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

It might be the general rhetoric for rugby league fans, but Cameron McInnes<\/a> has admitted it’s real.<\/p>\n

The Cronulla Sharks<\/a> premiership window could be on the verge of ending.<\/p>\n

For years, the Sharks have been a top eight force, but have failed to go past a preliminary final for almost a decade, when they beat the Melbourne Storm<\/a> in the 2016 grand final to break what was then the longest active NRL<\/a> premiership drought.<\/p>\n

The Sharks have been involved in the last two preliminary finals, but failed to get the better of their opposition with a spot on the line in the decider.<\/p>\n

The 2025 edition – a loss to the Melbourne Storm<\/a> – wasn’t helped by the fact they were without defensive stalward and captain McInnes, but with multiple players off-contract at the end of 2026, the lock forward told SEN Radio that he admits the club’s premiership window could be closing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve been together for a while now, so a sense of urgency might be a strong way to put it, but we definitely know that there’s only so many shots you get as a group,\u201d McInnes told SEN 1170 Breakfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys have to move on and things like that so we’re probably getting to that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn saying that, when I got there, a lot of these guys were young and talented but didn’t really know what it took to win consistently and Fitzy (Craig Fitzgibbon<\/a>) sort of taught the group that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reckon last year, it probably took us too long to find our groove. We sort of mucked around a bit throughout the year, and (were) inconsistent, and probably thought it would happen like the year before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully at the end, the boys were able to switch it on a bit, but I reckon we probably need to be a bit more consistent throughout the year to sort of make some noise at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks have often had been kocked for their inability to beat teams in the top four, and it was another headache throughout 2025 before they went out of the finals in Week 3.<\/p>\n

The Sharks, as it stands, have an enormous off-contract list at the end of 2026 featuring Jayden Berrell<\/a>, Billy Burns<\/a>, Jesse Colquhoun<\/a>, Braden Hamlin-Uele<\/a>, Tuku Hau Tapuha<\/a>, Mawene Hiroti<\/a>, Blake Hosking<\/a>, Sione Katoa<\/a>, William Kennedy<\/a>, Cameron McInnes<\/a>, Hohepa Puru<\/a>, Niwhai Puru<\/a>, Jesse Ramien<\/a>, Toby Rudolf<\/a>, Sam Stonestreet<\/a>, Siosifa Talakai<\/a> and Chris Vea’ila<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s tipped William Kennedy<\/a> and Jesse Ramien<\/a> will head for the exit at the bare minimum, while McInnes has been linked to the Perth Bears<\/a>, one of Sam Stonestreet<\/a> or Sione Katoa<\/a> are almost certain to depart on the wing, and Mawene Hiroti<\/a> has been linked to the Gold Coast Titans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jesse Colquhoun<\/a> is also believed to have a number of clubs interested.<\/p>\n

Craig Fitzgibbon’s side have put themselves in a difficult position on the salary cap front ever since having to shuffle things around to get a deal for Addin Fonua-Blake<\/a> over the line when he departed the New Zealand Warriors<\/a>, while other recent re-signings including those of Teig Wilton<\/a>, KL Iro<\/a> and Blayke Brailey<\/a> have stretched the bank even further.<\/p>\n

McInnes admitted the playing group are well aware that this could be their last go together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not naive to that fact,\u201d McInnes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys like me that are getting older and other guys are performing really well, and that’s what happens, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou perform well for a club, and then other clubs that need some help come and throw money, and that’s a decision everyone has to make, and you can’t keep everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reckon that’s probably where the club’s coming to right now and so for me, it’s just that sense of urgency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started coming up five years ago now, you always want to build something and achieve something and we’ve done really well, but if you come second, you’re the same as the person that comes 17th. So close enough’s not really good enough in our game, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

McInnes will miss at least half of 2026 as he recovers from an ACL injury, with the Sharks to open their campaign at home against the Gold Coast Titans<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It might be the general rhetoric for rugby league fans, but Cameron McInnes has admitted it’s real. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-366113","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\/366113","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=366113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}