Cronulla hooker Michael Ennis has announced he will retire from the NRL at the end of the 2016 season.

Ennis has been in excellent form as the ladder-leading Sharks have gone on their 15-game winning streak with the club hoping to win its maiden first-grade premiership.

The 32-year-old said he did not feel he could commit to 26 more weeks of top-flight rugby league and he did not want to spend so much time away from his four children.

"It got to a certain point ... where it's time to be a dad," he told reporters on Tuesday.

The family-man image is a far cry from his on-field persona.

In his decade-plus career, Ennis has become known as much for his niggling tactics as he has for his ability as a dummy half, including a famous 2011 incident when he managed to sledge Eels nice guy Nathan Hindmarsh so furiously that Hindmarsh wheeled around and squared up to the then-Bulldog.

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The 32-year-old has played 265 NRL games for the Newcastle Knights, St George Illawarra Dragons, Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Sharks since making his NRL debut in 2003.

A regular battle with Wests Tigers rake Robbie Farah meant he only played eight State Of Origin games for New South Wales, the last of which came in game three of 2015.

Unfortunately, his brilliant form was not enough to see Ennis get the nod again in 2016 despite Farah's awkward situation at the Tigers, where he is embroiled in a bitter feud with coach Jason Taylor.