XXX during the 2016 NRL Grand Final match between the Cronulla Sharks and the Melbourne Storm at ANZ Stadium on October 2, 2016 in Sydney, Australia.

NRL360 host Paul Kent has revealed his doubts over the legitimacy of Cronulla's 2016 premiership triumph, after the club were recently penalised for salary cap issues.

Sharks CEO Barry Russell self-reported the club to the NRL after years of cap breaches, with the first instance coming back in 2013.

Cronulla were subsequently fined and coach Shane Flanagan was deregistered indefinitely following the investigation, and while the NRL have repeatedly stated the breaches did not occur during the 2016 season, Kent simply doesn't believe them.

“They did cheat the year they won the premiership,” Kent said of Fox League's NRL360 on Tuesday night.

“The NRL were very deliberate in their phrasing when asked several times last week in off-the-record conversations, when they had an off-the-record media briefing, and then publicly later when they stipulated that when Cronulla won the competition they were under the salary cap on the day.

“But they were under the cap because of this. They were cheating, and those undisclosed monetary amounts were not enough, given they were already paying unders for everyone at the club, to get them over the cap.

“But they were systematically cheating that year.

“It stepped up a gear in 2017, the year after the premiership. That’s when they formed a separate company with the sole intention of manufacturing third-party sponsorships for the club.”

Cronulla have been hit with a $353,000 salary cap penalty for both seasons 2019 and 2020, and will need to release a player before round one in order to be cap compliant for the upcoming season.

The Sharks open their 2019 campaign with a trip to Newcastle on Friday, March 15.

17 COMMENTS

  1. Now lets have the massive uproar from fans, severe penalties and stripped premierships that Melbourne suffered.

    Oh but wait, its Cronulla so that is OK then.

    I can’t blame Todd for wanting to bury more bad news but something has to be done about this.

  2. So after months off investigation they were cleared but Kent says differently…… oh wow let’s go off what Kent says he’s never been wrong before has he ……. Kent is a stain always has been ….. says he loves league but brings it down every opportunity he has …. channel 9 dumped him ages ago …,, can tolerate ikin but Kent seriously does my head surely there’s a better option for 360

  3. Kent works for News Ltd who want the Sharks moved to Perth so they can sell more pay TV subscriptions. You can take whatever he and his mate Hooper says with a grain of salt. Unfortunately for all the haters, the Sharks 2016 Premiership is actually the safest Premiership in the history of Rugby League. They just had their books forensically audited and the NRL have cleared them and declared that their Premiership is safe. No other Premiers in history have had that level of audit into their books when they won they title.

  4. So the Sharks systematically rorted the cap from 2013 to 2015, didn’t do it in 2016 and won the premiership then went back to doing it in 2017.
    Anyone who believes that is a fool or a sharks supporter.
    The sharks cheated worse than Parra and on par with the storm but got off with a slap on the wrist.
    When Parra got done they had to shed two top tier players by round 14 of that year or play the rest of the season for no points.
    Cronulla have been given two years to become cap compliant and only have to release 1 fringe 1st grader each of those two years to become compliant.
    In that time they have also been allowed to sign one of the best halfbacks in the game.
    Todd Greenberg and the NRL have protected the Sharks. If they copped the penalties Parra or the storm did they would fold.
    Their 2016 premiership is as dirty as the club itself and the people who protect it

  5. Not even close to being on par with the Storm or Eels. Why? Because those two clubs spent way more than the cap on their rosters. The Sharks had undisclosed third party payments for tiny amounts, the amounts being so small that when added on top the Sharks were still under the cap. They also don’t have 2 years to be compliant – they have 10 days before Round 1 starts. Greenberg came down hard on Flanngan by deregistering him and even harder on the Sharks with fines of $1.25M, not sure how you think they’re a protected species……Greenberg has been going hard on everything at the moment and would have loved nothing more to make an example of the Sharks to other clubs like he’s doing with player misbehaviour.

  6. while the Rorters are allowed to get away with what they are, I couldn’t care less… NRL is a circus

  7. Suspended, not reduced. The Sharks were honest, knew they did the wrong thing and dobbed themselves in, they didn’t try and hide it like the Storm did. The Storm would still be rorting the cap today if they didn’t get caught, in fact they still are, they’re currently $600K above the cap, how does that happen?

  8. I think the point he makes is that they cheated during the previous years to get the winning roster. Had they been punished earlier, they wouldn’t have had the winning roster… especially if these penalties had been applied to their premiership season.

    TBH I’m just glad the Storm didn’t win. I hate the Sharks but my team won in 2013 and 2018 (will probably win this year too) so I can’t complain much.

  9. Brick heads top team is the most hated💪🐔👉———-😁😁🤣😆🤣😂😁😂😂🤣🤣😆

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