Cronulla, the only side that can’t win a premiership despite doping themselves up. The premiership drought has gone from funny to sad and all the way back to funny again.

The Sharks were founded in 1967 and despite being around for essentially half a century the only trophies they have won are three wooden spoons, which isn’t even a lot for a side that has no premierships.

Cronulla overachieved in 2015. After losing their first four games they improved drastically as the season progressed and ended up making the eight.

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However, they were crushed by the eventual premiers the North Queensland Cowboys in the semi-finals.

Now they come into 2016 with the gains of James Maloney, Chad Townsend, Jesse Sene-Lefao, Joseph Paulo and Matt McIlwrick while losing Michael Gordon, Blake Ayshford and Jeff Robson. That is a huge improvement overall.

In fact, the Sharks look like serious premiership contenders, for the first time in a long time. However, will they make the eight and finally win their first premiership, or will they once again disappoint their fans?

1. Ben Barba

2. Sosaia Feki

3. Gerrard Beale

4. Jack Bird

5. Valentine Holmes

6. James Maloney

7. Chad Townsend

8. Andrew Fifita

9. Michael Ennis

10. Sam Tagataese

11. Luke Lewis

12. Wade Graham

13. Paul Gallen

14. Jesse Sene-Lefao

15. Jayson Bukuya

16. Chris Heighington

17. Matt Prior

Strenghts

It has been a while since 2012, the last time Ben Barba was good, but he looks like he is back. I may be jumping the gun on this, but he looked incredible in the Auckland Nines, and has played out of his skin in the trials.

Barba may have had three disappointing years, but I have a feeling he will play pretty well this season. He is a significantly better fullback option then Jack Bird in any case.



James Maloney has the potential to be the buy of the year. He was so much of that 2015 Roosters attack, and in my opinion is the second best five-eighth in the game and should probably be the NSW five-eighth this year (unless Blake Austin can keep improving).

In recent history the Sharks have never had amazing halves, with 2015 being no exception, but James Maloney brings both talent and consistency with him. His pinpoint kicking game will be vital for the Sharks but most importantly the Cronulla backline plays won’t take forever.

I swear Jeff Robson is one of the slowest players I have ever seen play. Maloney will ignite the backline and his signing really makes this Sharks side top four material.

Michael Ennis made Des Hasler look stupid last year by putting on his best seasons of all time, racking up the try assists and winning the Dally M hooker of the year.

Ennis said he is keen to keep playing and Cronulla should sign him up for another year or two. He really carried a lot of the attack on his shoulders due to his poor halves last year, and now that he doesn’t have to carry the team’s attack he will be free to do what he wants. The guy might be a complete grub, but he is a wonder grub with a lot of natural talent.

Bird and Valentine Holmes are going to form a fabulous centre-wing combination. Bird is a powerful ball runner that has been shown to have some decent skills with the ball in his hands.

Holmes has speed to burn, a good kicking game and looks like he is getting ready to be one of the game’s great long-term fullbacks. He is not ready to play there full-time yet, so for now he should stay on the wing.

While most of the spine is good, and Bird and Holmes are a nice combination, the forward pack is the best thing about this very well rounded squad.



Andrew Fifita is an excellent forward with a ridiculous, hulking frame. People are worried about him, thinking that the play the ball ‘crackdown’ will hurt his game since he is scrappy at best in this regard.

However, everyone knows how spineless these NRL ‘crackdowns’ are. They will be on this for three weeks before forgetting about it. People also say he is an idiot, but do you really expect your forwards to be geniuses? Fifita does his job, and his job is to ram into defensive lines.

Luke Lewis has injury problems, but when he is healthy he is a very good player, and he showed this once again last year. Ever since moving to the second row all those years ago, he has consistently been one of the better second rowers in the comp.

Wade Graham needs to be in the State of Origin team, no questions about that. He is an exceptional, all-round talented player that provides so much for his team week in, week out. I have no idea how he wasn’t picked last year and Laurie Daley needs to be slapped if he doesn’t pick him this year.

Jesse Sene-Lefao is going to have an absolute breakout year. He really looked impressive in the limited times I saw him play over the past two years and now that he looks like he has nailed a solid first-grade spot he is going to shine. He destroyed Cronulla in Round 26 last year, and now he looks set to destroy for them this year.

Chris Heighington is the heart and soul of any side he plays in. Whether he is pushed into prop, lock or second row he will always give his best no matter what. He is this side’s workhorse, and just puts in so much effort in both attack and defence.

Shane Flanagan is a weird coach, I can never tell if he is good or bad. I mean his recruitment has been quite good (with the exception of Blake Ayshford) and he has the results, but he just makes some strange line-up decisions.

Stuff like picking Mitch Brown over Holmes. Opinion is seemingly divided, even among Cronulla fans. But as long as he keeps the results up I am comfortable with calling him an above average coach.



Weaknesses

I am not a big fan of Chad Townsend, and most people aren’t either. He doesn’t have the skills a first grader needs. He had a decent period at the start of last year but halfway through just fell off the planet, and went back to his usual error-filled, rudderless play.

Townsend’s kicks have a habit of going out on the full and his passes are usually inaccurate. In the last 12 weeks of the competition, he only managed to produce one try assist, one linebreak and one linebreak assist. It wasn’t pretty.

Paul Gallen makes a whole lot of metres when he is fit, he also tackles his ass off and provides a lot of grunt and mongrel to this Cronulla forward pack. But he has problems, firstly he is a massive ball hog.

Gallen ends up with the ball on the fourth tackle far too much, making a simple hit-up when you should be spreading the ball wide to try and create a chance. The problem is that he is the captain so you can’t overrule him. Gallen is a huge stats baby, and he gets those stats even to the detriment of his team.

There is also the problem that Gallen plays five games a year these days. He has spent so many years carrying this Sharks forward pack, especially when it was struggling, that his body can’t keep up with it anymore.

There are rumours he doesn’t even do proper contact training anymore because his body is buggered. So he sits a lot of games out with injury, and even when he isn’t injured he is often away for Origin. He also doesn’t exactly have a clean suspension record.

Gallen may be a ball hog but he is a very important part of this forward pack. They need him in the side and playing well if they want to dominate other packs.

Matt Prior is crap, but the problem is that he is the best the Sharks have. The only player in their top 25 that could replace him is David, the not very good Fifita brother.



But the Fifita brothers cannot play together well at all, and they end up making stupid mistakes. They are sloppy enough already. You could also say Joseph Paulo could make the team, but you are wrong. The guy sucks, no dancing around the issue.

As I just touched on, the depth at Cronulla doesn’t look good at all. They don’t look like they can handle many injuries to any key players. Granted they have Ricky Leutele, a decent first grader that can cover for outside back injuries, but from an outsider’s perspective the forward and hooker depth is quite awful.

I can see a few injuries or suspensions to key players really wreck their season.

One last point, if Bird ever plays fullback the Cronulla coaching staff need to be taken out back and put down. The guy was useless in the trials, especially in the trial versus Manly. He got wrecked in defence by Brayden Wiliame, a guy who has never won a first-grade game in 11 attempts. Wiliame is a winger, but was playing fullback.

Bird’s positioning was awful and his catching game was shaky at best. He did have good support play, but he could have just as easily supported in the centres. When you have Barba and Holmes in your team, the fact that Bird at fullback was even entertained was madness.

Expectations

As you can see, there are very little weaknesses in this line-up. A lot of these players aren’t world beaters, but most of these players aren’t weak as well. It is a very well-rounded side.

However, what separates this side from other all-round decent sides like Penrith is that the forward pack dominates people and that they have world beaters in key positions.

Gallen, Maloney and Ennis are three players that could make a decent claim to being in the top three players for their positions, and that is the difference.



The backs in this side are decent, Maloney is a great five-eighth, Ennis is a great hooker and the forward pack can just roll over people. They may have depth issues and Townsend might be lousy but with Flanagan coaching they will do very well.

They will sneak into fourth, taking the first top-four spot.

Conclusion

This is a do or die period for Cronulla. A lot of their forwards are still good, but they are getting older. Heck, it is almost certainly Gallen’s last year in the NRL. So if they don’t win a premiership in the next two years I think their window will be closed.