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The current parlous state of the Cronulla Sharks seems somewhat reminiscent of the steady decline of the Newtown Jets in the early 1980’s, all be it without the sex scandals, drug abuse and shadow boxing. Somehow Newtown were always more ass than glass.
Those of you old enough to recall the demise of the once-proud Newtown club will also recall that by the 1983 season there was nary a whiff of regret about it. It was almost as if they were never there.
The current situation with the Sharks is eerily similar.
There is obviously no desperate push from within NRL offices to keep them afloat, save for the inconvenient TV deal requiring eight games being televised weekly.
David Gallop has hardly cast himself as the Shires’ knight in shining armour, making it patently clear these Sharks could well be cast adrift.
It is worth raising the question if they are worth saving at all. Of course, no one WANTS to see the club die. But losing the Sharks would not leave any scars which wouldn’t heal soon enough.
Commercially they are a basket case. Losing LG as their main sponsor was just one of many business failings by an administration clearly out of its depth.
The Sharks are apparently surviving on goodwill alone,ironically from the St George bank, namesake and sponsor of cross-town rivals the Dragons. The Sharks also provide no prestige to the competition nor do they attract money from the big end of town in the way the Roosters can.
Letting the Sharks go would only disappoint a small (and ever dwindling) clique of supporters. One wonders what other cultural attractions there are in The Shire, so few and disparate (or maybe desperate is the word) are there fans.
A Sharks exit would not change the cultural landscape of the game in the way it did when the Rabbitohs were sidelined. The Newtown Jets had a much stronger history when they were squeezed out and we barely heard a murmur post-1983.
One must accept there would be few tears shed if the Sharks were to meet a similar fate.
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