CRONULLA coach Shane Flanagan has predicted veteran skipper Paul Gallen will call time on his decorated NRL career if his side can reach their second grand final in three years.

Gallen will turn 37 next month but is weighing up whether to play on into a record 19th season in 2019.

He holds the joint record - with teammate Luke Lewis and fellow Sharks great Andrew Ettingshausen - for most seasons in the league.

Round 20

Should he play on he will stand alone at the top of that and would give him a chance to become just the fourth player to pass the 350-game milestone.

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It’s understood that Gallen has already changed his mind several times this year and six weeks ago was on the cusp of announcing he will hang up his boots at season’s end.

Flanagan said Gallen would not make a decision before the end of the season but said he would likely bow out if they make the season decider.

“He’s probably leaning on the side of playing again but he won’t make a decision until the end of the season,” Flanagan said.

“If we’re lucky enough and good enough to play in a grand final I’d say he’d pull up stumps then.

“He won’t make a decision either way, he’ll just let it hang and make a decision at the end of the season.”

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While Gallen’s minutes have fallen to an average of 56.1 this year, his output is as good as ever after his decision to retire from representative football last year.

According to Fox Sports Stats, he is making 128 metres per game - the eighth most in the league by a forward - and 25.1 tackles.

“If he’s playing like he is at the moment, he can play on,” Flanagan said.

“But he needs to want to train and do the stuff during the week.

“The game part of it he’s doing fine, his numbers are great.

“But it is an ask to do another pre-season, four months of slog.”

Flanagan said Gallen had expressed a desire to give back to the club in the twilight of his career.

“The love of the game and the love of the club - Gal’s sort of said to me that a lot of his career has been personal achievements and winning the grand final was a massive tick off that bucketlist,” Flanagan said.

“But now he just wants to give back and bring the next generation of players on. “He said that if he did play, if there’s someone better than him, he’d be happy to stand down and move on.”

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