Cronulla Sharks second rower and club captain Wade Graham has confirmed his career will continue, signing a one-year extension with the club for the 2023 season.
Graham has struggled with injury in recent seasons, managing 18 games in 2022, 11 in 2021, 19 in 2020, 10 in 2019 and 18 in 2018. The last time he played more than 20 games in a single campaign was in 2017.
The experienced Cronulla leader has 277 games under his belt, but was linked with a move to the south of France at the Catalans Dragons in recent times, as well as the prospect of retirement, with coach Craig Fitzgibbon left to ponder whether Graham should remain part of the club's top 30 in 2022.
The Sharks also had the same decision to make around the future of Andrew Fifita and Aiden Tolman, however, the duo both retired, likely paving the way for the club stalwart Graham to re-sign, having originally joined Cronulla from Penrith in 2011.
“I'm really proud and grateful to have the opportunity to play on for another year here at the Sharks,” Graham said in a club statement.
"I'm looking forward to getting back, ripping in to another pre-season and helping the squad to improve on the progress we've made as a Club last year".
Graham will continue to fight for minutes on the edge at the Sharks, with Teig Wilton and Briton Nikora the other established players in the NRL squad who are options to start for Ftizgibbon after the Sharks finished in second spot on the NRL ladder in 2022, before bowing out in the semi-finals after losses to the North Queensland Cowboys and South Sydney Rabbitohs during September.
