{"id":400287,"date":"2026-01-08T18:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400287\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T18:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:49:24","slug":"the-mole-exclusive-cronulla-sharks-team-selections-squad-analysis-best-17-halves-and-signings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/400287\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mole exclusive; Cronulla Sharks team selections, squad analysis, best 17, halves and signings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alarm bells always ring in my head when a club enters a new season without a single signing – and that’s exactly the case with Cronulla<\/a> in 2026.<\/p>\n

I believe you always need to bring in new talent to plug weaknesses and move forward – especially as your squad gets a year older and you lose players.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the Sharks have retained the nucleus of their 2025 squad that came close to a grand final berth but have lost two very handy utility backs in Daniel Atkinson (Dragons) and Kade Dykes (Bulldogs).<\/p>\n

READ MORE: England’s insanity costs them again despite Bethell ton<\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE: Rugby league icon Clive Churchill’s wife dies aged 99<\/a><\/p>\n

There has been a sameness about Cronulla in recent seasons, with coach Craig Fitzgibbon sticking to more or less the same roster.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nicho Hynes.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Addin Fonua-Blake was a very handy signing last year and he will again lead a forward pack that is solid, without striking too much fear into opponents.<\/p>\n

Two key players – skipper Cameron McInnes and dangerous winger Ronaldo Mulitalo – will miss the early rounds as they recover from ACL surgery.<\/p>\n

Jesse Colquhoun should fill McInnes’ boots in the pack, while the Sharks won’t miss much with Sam Stonestreet on the flank for Mulitalo.<\/p>\n

Cronulla will again live or die on the performances of enigmatic halves Nicho Hynes and Braydon Trindall and with main back-up Atkinson no longer around, the decision not to enter the marketplace could bite the Sharks should either of the pair get injured.<\/p>\n

Cronulla Sharks best 17<\/p>\n

1. Will 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. Oregon Kaufusi 11. Briton Nikora 12. Teig Wilton 13. Cameron McInnes* 14. Billy Burns 15. Siosifa Talakai 16. Thomas Hazelton 17. Toby Rudolf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alarm bells always ring in my head when a club enters a new season without a single signing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-400287","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\/400287","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=400287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}