One of the first things any Sharks player does when they enter their wrestling room is to start counting numbers.
If there’s an even number, a collective sigh of relief can be heard. But when there’s an odd number of players, that’s when the panic sets in, because coach Craig Fitzgibbon will often volunteer to go mano-a-mano with the odd one out.
“One time that was me,” laughs hooker Blayke Brailey. “And I was choked out 10 times in about 30 seconds. I was just laying there and couldn’t do anything. I was thinking, ‘this is pretty rough’.
“So, I just stay away from him now.”
Brailey’s teammate, Toby Rudolf, wasn’t joking when he said Fitzgibbon will put himself through a torturous Brazilian jiu-jitsu session on game day, so his body is entirely spent when he stands in front of his team. His reasoning is that, by the time he arrives at the match, he has the right to ask the same of his players on the field.
On Saturday night, Fitzgibbon will stand in front of his players moments before kick-off and ask them for their ultimate effort against Melbourne in a top-of-the-table clash few saw coming at the start of the season.
Cronulla Sharks halfback Nicho Hynes.
Serious contenders or finals pretenders? Maybe we’re about to find out.
The club’s only premiership-winning coach, Shane Flanagan, was right when he cheekily taunted the Sharks before his return to PointsBet Stadium last week by saying they hadn’t won a title since he left.
He could have gone a step further: the Sharks haven’t even won a finals game since he left, and have won just once in nine attempts since the 2016 title (the semi-final in 2018 when Flanagan was still coach).
But this year feels different.
“It’s a relatively consistent start, but we don’t feel like we are where we need to be yet either,” Fitzgibbon says. “If we earn the right to get there at the end of the year, we’ll be able to get a better measuring stick. Are we there yet? The jury is still out.”
Fitzgibbon’s faith in his players is well known.
The Sharks have deliberately been quiet in the recruitment market for several years, believing they had the nucleus of a team to be a regular top-four force and that the majority needed to get near the 100-game mark to realise their potential.
Even when this masthead first inquired about the Sharks’ interest in signing Warriors prop Addin Fonua-Blake for 2025, Fitzgibbon’s first concern was making sure his players knew none of them were being pushed out before it hit the press.
After chairman Steve Mace made a stealth-like trip to Auckland to help seal the Fonua-Blake deal, Cronulla fended off the Warriors’ interest to re-sign Braden Hamlin-Uele, despite the more lucrative deal on the table to cross the Tasman. In the last hour before he was to decide his future, he thought about what it would be like to tell his Sharks teammates he was leaving. He couldn’t do it.
Rudolf has coined a phrase that has underpinned the new solidarity in the Cronulla squad. He sends group messages to the entire squad titled: coffee dates win games. In the Shire, up to 20 players jump at the chance to meet up.
“That care and love we show for each other outside is being represented in our footy,” Brailey says.
“I think the last few years, our preparations haven’t been up to standard for professional athletes. The way we eat and what we do outside of footy hasn’t been up to our standards and what we want to achieve at the end of the year. I think we’re growing up as a squad, as players and individuals.”
Says back-rower Teig Wilton: “Everyone is one year older and wants to prioritise their footy that little bit more. I think we understand footy is our main priority at the moment. We don’t want to waste a year, and we want to prioritise getting the most out of what we’ve got.”
Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon.Credit: Getty
So, how has Fitzgibbon evolved the Sharks’ style?
Already with one of the most powerful back fives in the competition led by wingers Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa, no team in the NRL has busted more tackles (38 per game) this year than the Sharks.
They will stack their bench with power forwards Jack Williams, Siosifa Talakai, Royce Hunt and Hamlin-Uele for the showdown with the Storm, part of what Matthew Johns has described as a more concentrated effort through the middle, or finals-style football, in 2024.
Then there’s Dally M contender and NSW State of Origin hopeful Nicho Hynes, who is choosing his moments better this season about when to roll the dice, and when to play a little more conservatively.
“For the Sharks, I still believe it all comes down to Nicho and how he controls a game,” league legend Andrew Johns says.
But the most pleasing aspect for Fitzgibbon has been Cronulla’s defence, which through nine rounds was conceding the least number of points per game (13.8), even better than three-time defending premiers Penrith.
There was one play during Anzac Round which Fitzgibbon was at pains to point out could help define their season.
Leading 18-0 and in control against the Raiders, fullback Will Kennedy stopped and then wrestled Canberra five-eighth Ethan Strange as he charged to the line. How he managed to hold him up and force Strange to drop the ball with one last desperate attempt to score, even Kennedy might not know.
“I think that’s a big growth for us,” Brailey says. “In previous years, we would have let them score and get back into the game. But now we’re fighting for every inch and every point.”
Which sure beats trying to fight the coach in the wrestling room.
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