At some point this season, the Cronulla Sharks management are going to have to make a serious reassessment of the direction they want to take the club in.
Failing to secure ongoing and upcoming talent for future seasons will cripple a club that deserves as much recognition as the foundation clubs in the league.
Monday night football saw a dreadful performance from both the Gold Coast Titans and the Sharks.
Perhaps it couldn’t be helped, with several key Sharks injured: Todd Carney, Luke Lewis, Jeff Robson, and now the captain, Paul Gallen.
Compounding their injury woes was the appalling quality of the refereeing exhibited by Jared Maxwell.
How Gold Coast pivot Albert Kelly was allowed to score from a blatantly off-side intercept in one moment, and disallowed a try in another, while the video referee looked on in ignorance, beggars belief.
As is often said when mocking Manly coach Geoff Toovey: “There’s got to be an investigation into this!”
Speculating about short-term issues is not the biggest concern for Cronulla. What truly astounds the majority of most fans is the reticence shown by coaching and managerial staff in promoting and retaining junior and reserve-grade talent.
While he-who-shall-not-be-named is all but confirmed to leave for the Canterbury Bulldogs, media pundits are also speculating that the very same club may also snatch away promising rake Michael Lichaa.
It has been reported that a six-figure salary has been negotiated for a kid yet to make his NRL debut. This is infuriating for anyone who follows the Sharks, as one of their biggest flaws is the hooking department.
John Morris is ageing, while Isaac De Gois has failed to capture the form of previous seasons,offering little in attack – it was a lazy pass from De Gois which saw Kelly run away to be awarded that dubious try.
With star playmaker Carney injured, along with winger Beau Ryan, interim coach Peter Sharp had a chance to make a difference to the dour, predictable, grinding style of football that has become synonymous with the Sharks in recent years.
By being creative, Sharp could have moved Morris into the halves, allowing local hero Wade Graham to stay in the depleted forward pack.
Doing so would have allowed Lichaa to stake his claim on the No. 9 jersey, or in the very least, a bench utility role. Lichaa proved in the NSW Cup how dangerous he can be, netting himself three tries in his side’s victory on Saturday.
There were other options available too. Penani Manumalealii, along with Valentine Holmes and Nu Brown, are all exciting players who have shown their worth in the past 12 months.
They deserve an opportunity to prove themselves over incumbents who can only be bluntly described as past their use-by date.
The likes of Matt Prior and Daniel Holdsworth, hyped up by a recruitment team likely to be sweating bullets, failed spectacularly in the fiasco at Remondis Stadium on Monday night.
Prior showed why his services were no longer required at the Dragons, dropping the Steeden as if it were a hot potato on a number of occasions.
Holdsworth’s last play, in which he kicked the ball straight down the throat of the Titans squad, was frustratingly uncreative.
The fans deserve more, particularly the members helping keep the club afloat.
It didn’t escape a single Sharks fan last night that the 17 ran out with a kit that was all but bare. No front-of-jersey sponsor, no sleeve sponsor, and no back sponsor.
Members are rightly questioning what the Sharks Unity ticket are actually delivering, though Unity is an entirely different level of frustration in itself.
In the meantime, until our management and coaching staff make some changes – both in terms of player selection and retention – fans and on-field representatives of the Cronulla Sharks have very little to look forward to, in a season many have already dismissed after stumbling at the first hurdle.
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