The NRL have handed the Sharks their penalty for breaching the salary cap, although Cronulla have saved some cash after club CEO Barry Russell self-reported the problem to the league.

The initial fine was set to come in at $750,000, but will now be reduced to $250k because of Russell's honesty, according to the Daily Telegraph.

However, it's not all good news for the Sharks, with the club to now play $350,000 under the cap for the next two seasons.

That means the Sharks will now need to release a player before the season begins in order to be cap compliant for 2019.

While making the announcement, the NRL also confirmed former Sharks coach Shane Flanagan will remain deregistered indefinitely.

14 COMMENTS

  2. A bad result for the shark haters. As expected, a reduced penalty for the openness shown and no great damage done compared to what some were predicting.. You wouldn’t think this will be sufficient for the removal of Shaun Johnson and no mention of a last-on-first-off penalty. It will just be a matter of fire-saleing a middle tier player on $350K. Lucky there’s plenty of depth at the club so it’s onwards to a bright 2019 season. Relief for the playing group and the fans.

  4. Yes you have to applaud the new found honesty and they deserve a reduction because of that however, it is now transgression after transgression after transgression after transgression. Surely there should be a multiplier for that ?

    There is a very good reason why no sponsor wants to be associated with the sharks, maybe in this new world of zero tolerance and banning people out of the game the policy should extend to clubs as well.

  5. If that’s the case and clubs are to be Banned then we will have to se what happens if Melbourne are over the Cap come round 1 as has been reported

  8. As I hear it, they currently are over due to resigning a couple of players on big dollars but they have known about it and been trying to off load Kasiano since Christmas. There is no cheating, everyone knows about it, just work in progress ahead of the new season kick off.

    That said, there is a ticking time bomb there.

  9. Maybe the “Transit Lounge” souffths rabbit ๐Ÿ‡๐Ÿฅ„ who have had 18 players come and go this off season purchase another import in Kassiano and free up some rabbit pellets by letting the overrated George Burgess walk and sign with the Eels or the Bears.๐Ÿ˜†๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜†

  10. There was a back to school sale on recently so I assume Melbourne purchased at least two new exercise book to keep their records safe. ๐Ÿ˜ฉ๐Ÿ˜†๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜

  11. Exactly. This club goes from one rort to another and gets almost nothing as punishment. Tigers cop it, Melbourne cop it.
    Sharks cheat, win a comp illegally and get a fine?
    Disgusting.

  13. He might put pressure on Poasa Faamausili and Sitili Tupouniua which will force these to superstars in the making onto our bench.๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿ”๐Ÿ‘

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