SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 01: The crowd watches on during the round 24 NRL match between the Cronulla Sharks and the Canberra Raiders at Shark Park on September 01, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
With their victory over the Newcastle Knights last weekend, the Cronulla Sharks earned the right to play Week 1 of the finals at their home of PointsBet Stadium.
This news is a part of the ongoing controversy surrounding the top four teams playing their finals in small suburban stadiums. The issue being that these blockbuster games (being the Panthers and Eels, and Sharks up against the Cowboys) will be played in front of only around a combined 34000 people.
Shark Park is currently undergoing rennovations.
But while it may be unfortunate that so many fans will miss out, there is one big perk; we get to see more of what Gus Gould calls the 'Bermuda Triangle'.
Colloquially known to all footy fans as Shark Park, the Cronulla home ground has been home to many bizarre and just outright unlikely moments that don't happen elsewhere and here are five of the most memorable.
Let's start with something recent by looking at the Sharks v South Sydney Rabbitohs from round 20 in the 2022 campaign.
To set the scene quickly, think back to Round 2 when Souths came up against the Melbourne Storm. In that game, Latrell Mitchell kicked a massive two-point field goal to send the game to a golden point.
They ultimately did lose that game, but the effort remains excellent nonetheless.
Eighteen rounds later, Souths play the Sharks in golden point, and this time around, Latrell gets three great chances much more straightforward than his 40-metre plus effort from months before, and he misses them all before Nicho Hynes slots an easy one down the other end.
At the time, it defied logic. Everyone misses, but this was one of the best field-goal takers in the competition, missing three times in a row from right in front in a massive game.
The momentum in the game was all with Souths as well, but nothing is ever certain in the Sutherland shire.
By Round 4 of the 2018 campaign , Cameron Smith had played 362 games without once being sent to the sin bin until he came to Shark Park; then, once again, what seemed impossible became possible.
The game itself was already strange enough, featuring a mind-boggling 30 penalties and ending 14-4 amid the NRL's infamous penalty crackdown.
But the most memorable moment came in the 52nd minute when a frustrated Smith decided to back chat referee Matt Cecchin resulting in a trip to the sin bin.
Earlier this year, Smith revealed that he said to Cecchin, "you're killing the game," and it was as simple as that, he was gone.
He was known for his great rapport with the referees throughout his career, but on this night on this ground, he snapped.
He was only sent to the bin one other time later in his career, controversially for striking, but nothing like what happened at Shark Park ever happened again.
It drew the night's loudest cheer of the night in the Shire and buoyed the Sharks to victory, but perhaps it can only be explained as another mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
Round 7 of 2015 hosted the rugby league game played in perhaps the worst conditions ever experienced.
Andrew Voss began his call by labelling the conditions a cyclone, and I don't think there are many words more apt.
The match was played in torrential rain and howling winds for the entirety of the 80 minutes. So much so that one of the enduring images of the game is two Sharks fans running around the empty concourse in wet suits.
Cronulla somehow found a way to win here too, when the ball ricocheted miraculously off the post and into Jayson Bukuya's hands.
It felt like he would have dropped the ball on any other ground in those conditions, and no one could have blamed him, but he caught it, and Souths were seen off by 18 points to 10.
2014 was the worst season in Sharks' history. It was the capitulation of all the ASADA issues the year before and is remembered for all the wrong reasons, ultimately resulting in their third wooden spoon.
For the Penrith Panthers, things were quite different. They'd started the season well, sitting at four wins from seven, and were looking to find a new gear against a Sharks team that had only won a single game.
By season's end, Penrith sat fourth and agonisingly lost their grand final qualifier by four points. So they really shouldn't have lost to Cronulla in Round 8.
And yet they did.
Despite leading on three separate occasions, the Panthers continually invited the struggling Sharks back into the contest at Shark Park.
Even more astounding is that Sharks star playmaker at the time, Todd Carney, went off injured only 16 minutes in. The Shark's attack typically found it difficult to score without him, but not on that afternoon.
Every time the Panthers took the lead, the Sharks found an answer, and it made no sense on paper then and still doesn't to this day.
Historically the Sharks don't beat the Manly Sea Eagles; it rarely happens.
It has only happened 27 times in 96 matches, including two lost grand finals.
Things were going pretty well when Cronulla came up against them in 2016 in Round 11. They sat third on the ladder, and Manly was in the midst of a poor season.
But Sharks fans knew that meant nothing.
Just the season before, in 2015, Round 26, Manly had broken Cronulla's hearts as they pulled off what on paper was an upset to cost them the top four and a chance at breaking their premiership drought.
That was still fresh in the minds of the players and fans alike, as was the fact the Cronulla had only won one of the last 14 games against their bitter rivals.
It was a record so bad that I remember writing them off before a whistle was blown, and then they won, and they didn't just win; they went to top spot for the first time since Round 2 of 2000.
This was, in my eyes, the Bermuda Triangles' finest work, as it was when I believed Cronulla could win a premiership, and they did.