One by one, they were talked into – and then walked into – the "house that Gal built".

First it was Wade Graham, then Aaron Woods, finally Josh Morris. Each shivering inside the away sheds just a few days out from their skipper's last game at Shark Park – who knows how many names it's had since Gallen started playing there? – and wondering if they would have called Cronulla home without the call from the captain.

"The phone call was a big part of it," said Graham, who left Penrith and hurtled straight into the ASADA scandal before eventually winning Cronulla's first competition alongside Gallen in 2016. "It was a big vote of confidence. It was a clincher for me.

"It came down to North Queensland or Cronulla. I was learning towards North Queensland; the opportunity to learn outside JT [Johnathan Thurston]. I had to weigh a lot of things up. In the end my gut told me to go to Cronulla.