I have been a Sharks fan for 38 years. Over that time I have seen a few incredible highs, many horrible lows.

Win or lose, up or down, first or last, you always knew what the Sharks were. Tough, gritty, punching above their weight.

Right now though, here in 2026, there are only two words I can use to describe the Cronulla Sharks though: bog average!

I haven't missed a Sharks game this year. I haven't missed a game since 2016 when I took my son to a show (I caught the replay).

I have watched every single minute of Newtown (our feeder team) this season. Haven't missed a second of Jersey Flegg. I even caught some SG Ball early on before the kids pulled rank.

I don't know what the Sharks are right now. Are we good? Are we bad? Couldn't tell you.

What I can tell you though, is that I have a sudden sinking feeling I haven't felt since 2012. That feeling being that we are very much not heading in the right direction.

I fully understand that 13 teams would swap places with the Sharks given we have played in back to back Preliminary Finals. I am not saying it hasn't been magnificent recently.

The truth is that rugby league as of the 25th of April is far, far different to the game being played in 2025.

I have been on record, many times, stating that the Cronulla Sharks are too slow for the faster game.

Every single player, to a man, is ripped, muscley and in a level of shape I can only ever dream of. Yet they look unfit, they look slow and they look old.

I suppose compared to Brad Pitt even other nine out of tens look less than "all that". My kids are reading this and I'm trying to sound cool.

Consider it self therapy; good or bad. Below is just a frustrated Sharks fan trying to find out where we actually sit.

New rules, same Sharks
Rugby league evolves, almost year on year. The Sharks, under Craig Fitzgibbon, do not!

The Sharks fan base stood as one on Tuesday this week as the team list featured an out of form being dropped. A player of consequence rather than just a forward reshuffle of a bench shake up.

Sione Katoa, with 134 NRL games under his belt, was made an example of following a shocker in Perth. He was far from the only one and you have to believe fellow winger Sam Stonestreet can consider himself lucky there are no eligible wingers fit.

Whether or not the matchups in Townsville made this decision a smart one, I maintain they did not, the fact our set in stone coach made a change was to be celebrated and not questioned.

Siosifa Talakai came in at centre and looked incredible in attack, scoring two tries. He conceded three due to being too slow and immobile in defence at centre, so overall it was a negative move.

For the record I don't blame Talakai, at all. He tried his absolute backside off despite being far too big to play centre. That was a coaching error.

Meanwhile Mawene Hiroti's entire tenure at the Sharks can be summed up as sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe not so good. Good at centre, not good on the wing.

It was the first shift within the Sharks for as long as I can remember.

There has been minimal turnaround within the squad during Fitzgibbon's tenure. An obviously aging and stale squad needed a shake up, but the only player added this year was Harrison Hasset.

He is playing well for Newtown in NSW Cup but is almost no chance of adding to his sole NRL game given the current set up.

The Sharks are old and they are slow. Only Sam Stonestreet has any sort of pace. That doesn't work in 2026.

Backline exhaustion/forward faulter
Fans in social media groups are quick to pan the outside backs for defensive misreads.

I'm not here to argue, they've all been terrible, but at what point do the backs start shooting serious stares at their middle men.

Week on week the back five are being asked to run for over 150 metres each. Stonestreet's 127 this week was easily the least amount run for any Shark back.

The lack of output by the Sharks engine room is frightening. Through six games;

Million dollar man Addin Fonua-Blake is averaging 141 run metres a game but he's running a one man show up front. Jesse Colquhoun and his 92 metres has been the only other forward earning his wage.

Toby Rudolf is averaging 78 metres per game, Oregon Kaufusi 44, Tom Hazelton 65, Braden Uele 46.

Meanwhile $600,000 international second rower Briton Nikora has run returns this season of 45, 49, 61, 56 and 48. Yes he's been coming off the bench lately but how is that good enough?

Billy Burns has 67, Teig Wilton has 75. Sifa Talakai has 64 per game, which won't take into account his monster effort at centre last week.

The backs are literally doing it all right now. Of course they're tired and misreading in defence.

Craig Fitzgibbon re-signs
The club were quick to re-sign Craig Fitzgibbon despite the fact he was still well and truly under contract.

I understand why, to a point, but it's certainly not a choice I would have made at the time.

Fitzgibbon is over 100 games into his NRL career yet still makes the same errors with his bench rotations, whilst struggling to pick and select younger talents.

Every single week he leaves Toby Rudolf on the park for five minutes too many, while this past week he seemed intent on running Addin Fonua-Blake into the ground before allowing him a breather.

Talakai, a huge wrecking ball, is playing embarrassing minutes right now. No wonder he left for Perth.

Meanwhile younger players, who are built for the fast game, such as Hohepa Puru and Michael Gabrael, run round in NSW Cup.

One of the two players he has promoted recently was KL Iro, who almost walked out of the club on numerous occasions despite being the best centre in NSW Cup for two seasons straight.

The other is Jesse Colquhoun, who is my favourite player and is perfect in every way!

I'm not sure Fitzgibbon is able to change and adapt to the new rules. The optics are that he doesn't believe it is needed.

This is also a coach who re-signed the horribly ineffective Oregon Kaufusi to an extension despite no clubs clamouring for his services.

This after handing Braden Uele a massive contract extension. I was panned for suggesting it was a bad deal at the time yet cannot find anyone in the fan base who is willing to try and prove I was wrong.

Plus, wasn't he a defensive coach?

Future star frustration
The Sharks have a procession of future stars coming through. Whether or not they'll ever be allowed to debut in the top grade is a completely different question.

Young half Riley Pollard just won Man of the Match honours in a huge win for Newtown over the Bulldogs. He has been the Jets best all season.

Strike centre, Michael Gabrael is as quick as anyone else in the club and screaming out for a debut. He is injured at the moment but should have five NRL games to his name.

Felix Faatili is an Andrew Fifita clone. Liam Ison, just returning from an ACL injury, could outrun 90% of the Sharks squad whilst running backward and Sam McCulloch has all the talent in the world.

Flegg debutant Tom Dellow has played reps at every age available to him. Fellow SG Ball graduate Jamie Curran could become the biggest human to ever live.

The talent is there, but why would any of them stick around seeing than Fitzgibbon seems loathe to pick them?

The call is "too young" from fans who just read stats and don't watch these kids play.

They're all either the same age, or older than Jaxon Paulo. They're all either the same age or older than Isaiya Katoa when he debuted.

I'd argue both of those players are going on.

Conclusion:
Unless there is significant change in the upcoming weeks and months, you can expect more of the same in the Shire.

Given the quick improvements by the likes of the Tigers and Bunnies, well us poor old Sharks fans might have our answer on where the cluv is headed.

It just doesn't look positive!