Cronulla Sharks fullback William Kennedy is in line for a contract extension with the club, off the back of his first career hat-trick last night.

The 25-year-old doesn't receive the hype like fellow backline teammates Ronaldo Mulitalo and Siosifa Talakai, but he has become a crucial piece to the Sharks outfit.

With Lachie Miller departing the club earlier this season, he needed to show his worth, which he has done in the opening two games. Some critics believed that the Sharks made a mistake choosing Kennedy over Miller, but he has proven his doubters wrong.

He has also had to prove that he is the No.1 fullback at the club, going up against Kade Dykes, who unfortunately endured a season-ending knee injury the same day the club released Lachlan Miller to Newcastle.

However, this unfortunate incident was a shining light for Kennedy. It has gifted him the opportunity to play fullback without any pressure of being dropped down to the lower leagues.

Reported byย The Daily Telegraph's David Riccio, the Sharks are currently "deep in negotiations" with his management for his signature.

"The situation out at the Sharks is young Kade Dykes, who has a lot of hype and promise, we know he suffered an ACL tear in pre-season training... but it will be an almost wait-and-see with Kade to see how he comes back," Riccio said on Triple M's โ€˜Saturday Scrum'.

"But in the meantime, the Sharks are working to extend William Kennedy on a one or two-year contract."

Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon also spoke about the situation regarding Kennedy's contract.

"Plenty of discussion there so that'll happen. We've got to go back to Will and there's a bit of a toing and froing there. We're still in the process of keeping Will," Fitzgibbon said during his post-match press conference.

"We're in the process of that but we probably can't discuss where the actual discussion is at this point in time. He's important to us, and that's all I'll say there."

"I don't think Will gets the credit he deserves for what he provides our team. The players love him and they love playing alongside him."

Debuting in 2019, Kennedy wasn't able to cement his spot in the team until 2021, where he played 24 games, scoring 14 tries. Since then he has continuously gotten better, becoming more of an attacking threat playing behind last year's Dally M medallist Nicho Hynes.

His reliability at the back of the park is crucial, whilst he is not one to shy away from jumping up in the air to catch a difficult ball.