NRL<\/a>.<\/p>\nMeninga has already poached two Sharks players — Tongan international Siosifa Talakai and Kiwi centre Chris Vea’ila.<\/p>\n
And it seems like the Bears have their eyes on a few more Sharks, with co-captain Cameron McInnes and fullback Will Kennedy reportedly on their hit list.<\/p>\n
McInnes, 32, is in the latter stages of his recovery from an ACL tear and would make an ideal inaugural captain at the Bears.<\/p>\n
“He’s a terrific man, terrific leader,” Fitzgibbon said ahead of his team’s clash with the Sydney Roosters in Perth on Saturday.<\/p>\n
![]()
Cronulla Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon has a simple but stern message to the Perth Bears: you won’t get our players without a fight.\u00a0Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
“He’s coming back soon from an ACL injury, and just such a fantastic guy and leader that it’d be an asset for any club that he’s at.<\/p>\n
“He’s definitely an asset for the Sharks, and it won’t be without a fight.”<\/p>\n
Kennedy is one of 13 Sharks off contract at year’s end, and the 28-year-old is open to a move away from Cronulla.<\/p>\n
“It won’t be without a fight,” Fitzgibbon re-iterated when asked about the Bears potentially trying to sign Kennedy.<\/p>\n
Fitzgibbon had mixed feelings about losing Talakai and Vea’ila.<\/p>\n
“Look it hurts, because we would have liked to have kept those players,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But we’re also happy for them and proud as a club that if we’ve had a player in our service that’s got a better opportunity for him and his family, then we’re doing our jobs as Sharks to offer that to the players.”<\/p>\n
The Sharks finished fifth on the home-and-away ladder last year, fourth in 2024, sixth in 2023 and second in 2022.<\/p>\n
They currently sit seventh with a 3-2 record, and Fitzgibbon would love to keep the bulk of the squad together for at least another year.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been really stable in our roster for a number of years now,” he said.<\/p>\n
“And what we’ve actively developed behind the players that are playing in the NRL team, we’ve got a crop of players that are ready to come into positions over, if not in the next 12 months, the year after.<\/p>\n
“So we’ve positioned ourselves with some ready-made replacements that we value and think are going to be good players in the future.”<\/p>\n
Sharks centre Jesse Ramien will be sidelined for a month due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n
The Roosters enter Saturday’s double header in Perth, which also feature the Rabbitohs up against Canberra, with a 2-2 record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cronulla Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon has a simple but stern message to the Perth Bears: you won’t get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-597562","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\/597562","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=597562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a><\/p>\n