A remarkable resilience and turn-around in
the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks Football Club's fortunes has them on-track to end
their half-a-century wait for a maiden Rugby League premiership.
The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks of 2016. |
The Sharks currently sit on top of the
Telstra NRL Premiership Ladder for the first time in 16 years and with two-points already secured from this
weekend’s bye round, they look set to stay there for the short-term future. But
with the side Coach Shane Flanagan keeps putting out each week and the squad at
his disposal, it’s hard to see them falling far from the position they currently
occupy.
While Sharks’ fans who have ridden-out the tumultuous
period over the last few years and been through the historical humps and bumps
of the club will no doubt be enjoying the view at the top, they could be set
for a season end like never before.
Critical to the Shark’s chances at claiming
the sport’s ultimate prize this year will be the way they come through the
State of Origin period. With three of their side’s best players – Paul Gallen,
James Maloney and Andrew Fifita – set to start the series for New South Wales,
the Sharks face a nervous wait over the next couple of months to see if the
trio comes through unscathed.
While no doubt the influence of
representative footy will spur the group on to come back ready to achieve something
special for their NRL side, the risk of a significant injury to any of the
three has the ability to de-rail the Shark’s journey.
The key to Cronulla’s success in season
2016 has been the side’s mix of youth and experience. Un-earthed during last
year’s season, youngsters Jack Bird, Valentine Holmes and Sosaia Feki have
provided the much-needed exuberance and flair to the one of the NRL’s toughest
sides.
While the Sharks have always had the grit
and the grind with their hard-nosed forward pack operating under Paul Gallen’s
leadership, they’ve been able to add the glamour to their side with their
emerging superstar-backline.
Complimenting the balance to the side has
been the re-discovery of form by 26-year-old ex-Bulldogs star, Ben Barba. The
flashy custodian has managed to return to the style of the play that saw him
win a Dally M Medal at the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in 2012.
While Barba’s freakish breakout year playing
under Des Hasler was one of the best rookie entries to the game in a long time,
he had been unable to emulate those performances for both the Brisbane Broncos –
who he played for in 2014 – and the Sharks in 2015.
With the enigmatic fullback now back to approaching
his best, Cronulla’s chances of taking out this year’s competition will
increase with every two points that gets added to their tally as the weeks’ go
by.
The biggest battle for the side to progress
through, and past September, won’t come from the few top-clubs that continue to
dominate the rest of the pack, but from the pressure they place on themselves.
Having already beaten the Melbourne Storm, Brisbane
Broncos, and gone down in a tight one to the Cowboys with an understrength side
in round one; Cronulla have already proven they have what it takes to beat the
best in the business.
In their 50th season of
first-grade Rugby League, the Sharks have an opportunity to re-write their own
script and change the club’s history forever. On the verge of breaking one of
Australian sport’s longest running-droughts, the club that looked destined to fall
to the commercialisation of the game and shipped off to a far-flung relocated region
just a few short years ago, now appears ready to take their destiny into their
own hands.
A passion and pride that has always burnt
brightly in the Shire could be set for ignition into a fully-lit march towards
ANZ Stadium and the first weekend in October. With a deep web of rusted-on, hard-core
fans across the game, opposition sides should be weary of the club that last
year charted a plane to their elimination final in Townsville with the
marketing tag of ‘Sharks on a Plane’.
Indeed, a title designed just to humour, no
one will be laughing if the Sharks manage to overcome the parochial-odds tag the
rest of the game’s fans continue to lamented them with. Jack Gibson’s famous
quote: ‘Waiting for the Sharks to win a premiership is like leaving the porch
lamp on for Harold Holt’ usually sums up the consensus that outsiders give the
Sharks of ever lifting the trophy.
But hang on, didn’t a sporting side just
win a competition at the astronomical odds of 5000-1?
Didn’t they just lift a trophy that
bookmakers said ‘Elvis was more likely to be found alive’ than them doing so?
Didn’t their run build from the belief of
the players, the spirit of the fans; and finish with a winner’s tag that
no-one, absolutely no-one, ever thought was possible?
That team showed a togetherness,
determination, and sense of teamwork that Cronulla could be beginning to
emulate.
The skies the limit, nothing’s impossible.
Clear your porches.