The Sharks are planning to hijack one of the biggest stages on the Australian sporting calendar and follow the lead of the Cowboys to make a plea for government help to upgrade their suburban home ground.

Only a year after North Queensland's captain Johnathan Thurston used his presentation speech while sharing a stage with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to demand a new stadium for the newly-minted premiers, the NRL's fairytale side are mulling a similar headline-grabbing statement.

Cronulla are desperate to lift the capacity of their Southern Cross Group Stadium home ground to 25,000 – largely borne out of making the venue close to an all-seater – and might have the platform to launch a bid should they beat Melbourne and secure a maiden NRL title on Sunday.

"There are certainly some aspirational developments and I have no doubt if we were fortunate enough on Sunday to be successful – and we don't want to take that as an assumption or for granted – I have no doubt one of the first comments our captain [Paul Gallen] or coach [Shane Flanagan] will make will be what Thurston did last year in, 'we need a new stadium'," Sharks chief executive Lyall Gorman said. "We'll make that statement loud and clear."