Looking good: Jack Bird. Credit:NRL Imagery Despite offering to make him the top-earning Sharks player in the club's history Cronulla could not compete with the Broncos and maintained on Thursday that they had been determined not to be stretched beyond their spending limitations amid the intense demand for Bird's services. Flanagan was left "terribly disappointed" at his agreement to join Brisbane but others at the Sharks were more phlegmatic. "Why we didn't keep going (is) we would have got ourselves in a financial scenario that we believe would have been unhealthy for the future of the club. That's why we stopped where we stopped," Sharks chief executive Lyall Gorman said. "We knew our own limits in terms of our own strategy and management of the cap. "We're very, very fortunate we've secured a large percentage of our squad for next year. We're not going to go in the foetal position over any player where it's Jack or no matter who it is."

Cronulla captain Paul Gallen had indicated last month that with the Sharks having retained most of their premiership squad "it could be worse" if they were to lose Bird. Whether Bird was a neat fit in the long run for the "team first" mentality deployed by Cronulla is one lingering question from this particular contract saga. He had made it clear that he wanted to be closer to the ball rather than continue at centre and that is an appeal of joining Brisbane, who are light on in the halves next season due to Ben Hunt's pending departure to St George Illawarra. Gallen's view has been that Bird's best position for the team remained in the centres and Gorman added on Thursday: "Our view on our club is it's team first. I'm not directing this at Bird but the philosophy across the club is you play what's best for the team any given week." Cronulla will now turn, after Sunday's visit to Penrith, to contemplating the re-signing of halfback Chad Townsend and potentially negotiating an upgrade for James Maloney as well as entering the market. "That's all a part of the questions we've got to ask ourselves now and that's what we'll start doing as soon as we get Sunday out of the way," Gorman said. "We hadn't planned for Jack moving on."