{"id":817093,"date":"2026-07-22T18:37:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817093\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T18:37:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T18:37:46","slug":"sharks-keen-to-debunk-narrative-around-nrl-credentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/817093\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks keen to debunk narrative around NRL credentials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Captain Blayke Brailey hopes Cronulla’s recent run of form can dispel the long-running narrative that the Sharks are downhill runners who struggle to ice tight games.<\/p>\n

The fourth-placed Sharks travel to face a freefalling Manly side on Sunday, aiming to continue an impressive stretch – Craig Fitzgibbon’s men have won seven of their past eight – and keep their hopes of a top-two finish alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Sharks made the NRL sit up and take notice with their 66-0 thrashing of the Dolphins a fortnight ago, but it is recent two-point wins over fellow top-four hopefuls from which Brailey draws the most pride.<\/p>\n

\"NRL\"<\/p>\n

Blayke Brailey and the Sharks have taken confidence from their win over the Knights. (Mark Evans\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Cronulla held off sixth-placed Newcastle in a 20-18 win last week and defeated the Warriors last month in a 10-8 victory that underlined the Sharks’ ability to go toe to toe with would-be premiership contenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves because we know that once you do that in the NRL, you come down to earth pretty quickly,” Brailey said.<\/p>\n

“There’s been some good performances against some top-eight sides, and I know the narrative around us has probably been that we can’t beat top-eight sides for the last few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s good to see we can put some consistent games together against some really good sides, and with some tough ones coming up so hopefully we can keep backing that up.<\/p>\n

“Those (narrow) games we take a lot more from than winning 66-0 and I think we’ve grown a lot of confidence and belief from that (Warriors) game.<\/p>\n

\"NRL\"<\/p>\n

The Sharks are keen to take advantage of a mostly healthy list and go on a run to the finals. (Dave Hunt\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The Sharks are 4-6 against side’s currently in the top eight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Sunday’s clash with Manly, Cronulla face Souths before rounding out their regular season with five games against sides outside of the finals.<\/p>\n

Except for Toby Rudolf, Fitzgibbon’s side are at full strength and should results fall in their favour there’s a real chance they could surge into a top-two spot and net a home qualifying final.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NRL\"<\/p>\n

Cronulla have enjoyed wins away, but appreciate the benefits of home-ground advantage. (Dave Hunt\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a really steady roster and we’re playing consistent games,” Brailey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We know what our footy looks like, and the identity we want to be playing with.<\/p>\n

“The home ground advantage is always tough and I know when we play at home, we love playing here in front of our fans.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Captain Blayke Brailey hopes Cronulla’s recent run of form can dispel the long-running narrative that the Sharks are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,6404,4738,26958,761,762,158,1042,85,87397],"class_list":["post-817093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blayke-brailey","tag-craig-fitzgibbon","tag-cronulla","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sharks","tag-sports","tag-the-sharks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817093","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=817093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}