Dogs\u2019 brutal reality… and why we can\u2019t rule out Broncos just yet<\/a><\/p>\nRecords reign as Sharks dominate Souths | 02:28<\/p>\n
Just as they did on Sunday with a win over the Rabbitohs, the Sharks of 2025 also won nine from 10 games and went into the finals looking similarly strong.<\/p>\n
According to the 49-year-old, nothing has changed at Cronulla other than external \u2018perception\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you get things going your way and sometimes you don\u2019t. We\u2019ll have a hiccup here and there and a bit of turbulence but you won\u2019t challenge me on how much I believe in them,\u201d Fitzgibbon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did this last year, we won nine out of 10. So it\u2019s the same thing that we did last year, what\u2019s different is maybe the perception of the way we\u2019re doing it. I\u2019m not sure about that but I haven\u2019t shifted in the way I think about the players or what I believe the Sharks are about.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year felt exactly the same. What other people think of us won\u2019t be the determining factor of whether we will capitalise on how we\u2019re going or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
One factor that Fitzgibbon is acutely aware of compared with 2025 is the nuances around managing player fatigue and workload.<\/p>\n
It helped explain why star Origin forward Addin Fonua-Blake spent a second consecutive week starting from the Sharks\u2019 bench. While it looked like a masterstroke after Fonua-Blake came on in the 18th minute and proceeded to run roughshod over the Bunnies\u2019 defence, Fitzgibbon said it would not become the norm at Cronulla.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s managing the energy more than anything else. Addin is going to be a starting front rower, there\u2019s no doubt about that. He\u2019s had an impact the last couple of weeks but he\u2019s a starting front rower: that\u2019s his job,\u201d Fitzgibbon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has had a disrupted preparation for the past couple of weeks and I felt like we managed the energy after Origin. I\u2019m not going to explain selections too much, but I could have started any of them; I could have started Addin and Tommy [Hazelton], and had Jesse [Colquhoun] or Teig [Wilton] off the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sharks will likely welcome back Toby Rudolf for their Round 23 fixture against the Dragons, after giving the big forward a week to rest. <\/p>\n
Fitzgibbon was also relatively confident about the injuries sustained by Sifa Talakai and KL Iro in the win over the Rabbitohs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not worried about whoever plays, they\u2019ve just got to do a job for the Sharks. I\u2019ll make that up as the week goes on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith respect to them we\u2019ve run out of gas, where we\u2019ve had some injuries at the end of semi-finals time. I just want to make sure everyone is ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sharks then face the Raiders, the Titans, the Eels and the Storm in their run home to the finals.<\/p>\n
Just like any other year, Fitzgibbon is confident the Sharks can take it all the way. It seems the playing group is too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be happy if I\u2019m in that grand final,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a sunny Sunday afternoon in the Shire, the ageing grandstands rocking to the sounds of \u2018Up, Up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-839595","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\/839595","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=839595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n