The Cronulla Sharks will again attempt to get over the hump in 2026.
It's really that simple. The men in black, white and blue are a finals quality team, and one in contention for the premiership, but they haven't been to the decider since 2016.
The last two seasons in particular were particularly heartbreaking, with back-to-back preliminary final departures.
The common rhetoric heading into 2025 is that they might well have only been one big-name forward away from glory, but Addin Fonua-Blake's arrival wasn't able to drag the club over the line, and instead, simply served to stretch the salary cap.
That might seem harsh, and it's certainly not a knock on Fonua-Blake's performance, but the Sharks are now in a squeeze to retain talent without a premiership to show for it.
That said, they come into 2026 relatively settled, although Fitzgibbon has plenty of youth at his disposal, and may well elect to fire some changes throughout the course of the campaign.
Here are the selection questions for Cronulla heading into 2026.
3. Who starts at prop?
One of the prop spots is one of the easiest selections in the competition - Addin Fonua-Blake will run out each week with his teammate to start each and every game he is fit for in coach Craig Fitzgibbon's side.
The question will be who starts up front alongside him.
Oregon Kaufusi seemed to have the inside running on the role throughout the course of 2025, but that may not be the play going forward.
The Sharks have, by way of contract extension, made it fairly clear cult hero Thomas Hazelton is an enormous part of their future.
His impact off the bench is enormous, but there is also little doubt he would slot into the starting side strongly, while arguments could yet be made for Toby Rudolf and Braden Hamlin-Uele to be in the side.
Of the four props, one is likely going to miss the 17 altogether given the likely spots for Siosifa Talakai and Billy Burns on the bench, so the way Cronulla rotate their middles in 2026 will be intriguing to follow, particularly with Hohepa Puru pushing his case for a bigger role and the eventual return of McInnes adding to their depth.
Sharks’ biggest challenge – in my opinion – is to start using the decent youngsters that they have, and not to keep them frozen out of the first team unless there are long-term injuries.
That means that they do not develop and the coach feels he has to re-sign existing first-team players (usually on higher pay).
Cronulla is short of cap space for this very reason.
Their problem is essentially a coaching problem, not a training/player/effort problem.