History of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks
Cronulla were without suspended stars Greg Pierce and Dane Sorensen in both games, while hooker John McMartin, fullback Mick Mullane and Barry Andrews were all injured for the replay.
Gibson left the club in good shape in 1987, with the promise fulfilled in 1988 when Cronulla won the minor premiership, led by veteran second-rower Gavin Miller, who was named Dally M Player of the Year, and Rothmans Medal winning halfback, Barry Russell.
Cronulla again dropped into a period of poor form and financial trouble in 1990, but the appointment as coach of rugby league Immortal, Arthur Beetson, in 1992 helped turn the on-field problems around.
The Sharks easily accounted for the Brisbane Broncos in the quarter-final, and led 8–0 in the grand final qualifier against the St George Illawarra Dragons before eventually losing 8–24.
The first year was almost an on-field success, as Anderson retained the core of John Lang's team, and the Sharks again reached the grand final qualifier.
Steve Rogers, the CEO of the Cronulla Sharks and a former club legend, died on 3 January 2006 at the age of 51 from a "mixture of prescription drugs and alcohol."
In a bizarre finish to a tumultuous season, the Sharks narrowly failed to win their final game after coming back from 26–0 down to lose 26–24 to Canberra.
A missed penalty goal in the dying seconds of the match would have sent the game into extra-time, allowing the chance for Cronulla to equal the biggest single-game comeback in the history of top-level rugby league in Australia.
Ricky Stuart, despite being somewhat hampered by the decisions of former coach Raper in the team he inherited, led the Sharks to fifth on the ladder at the halfway mark of the season surprising many critics.[who?]
Asset-rich, owning its stadium and the surrounding land, but with cash flow problems due to its low average home gate and poor on-field performances in recent seasons, the club announced plans for a partial relocation to the Central Coast, which was rebuffed by the NRL.
It was to split home games for the 2010–14 seasons among: On 26 May 2009 businessman Damian Irvine, together with a fresh board of directors, took over control of the club as the St George Bank were threatening to foreclose.
One of these losses caused great controversy as the Sharks, playing against Manly, were forced to field just 12 men for most of the game after Luke Douglas was sent off by referee Phil Haines for a careless high tackle.
After departing, Stuart and Fisk also cited fractured relationships with Chairman Damian Irvine as a reason for their departure despite the club making positive strides off-field under his guidance and commitment.
The addition of Wade Graham at five-eighth and New Zealand international Jeremy Smith to a pack already containing two origin players promised an end to the Sharks' status as cellar-dwellers.
Missing a number of first-team starters due to injury, the Sharks then lost five in a row to the Warriors (26–18), Sea Eagles (19–13), Knights (24–20), Cowboys (30–12), and Rabbitohs (31–12), dropping down the table, from 9th to 15th.
While the Sharks were taking a much needed break skipper Paul Gallen led the NSW Blues Origin team to a memorable 18–8 victory over Queensland.
The next four weeks saw a turnaround of the club's performance, with victory over the Gold Coast Titans 36–12 and the South Sydney Rabbitohs 24–4, before they took revenge against the Canberra Raiders 26–12.
Cronulla lost their two props for the 2012 season, Origin representative Kade Snowden to Newcastle and Luke Douglas signing for the Gold Coast Titans.
The club won 6 matches in a row for the first time in over a decade and after 8 rounds were sitting third on the table as the highest placed Sydney based franchise.
The match notable for seeing Paul Gallen outplayed by young rival Josh Papalli and Todd Carney injuring his Achilles.
At the beginning of Season 2013, Irvine stood down as chairman on learning of the questionable operational and duty of care practices of coach Shane Flanagan, and Darren Mooney during 2011 which exposed the club to the ASADA scandal.
Flanagan returned in 2013, a season in which the Sharks qualified for the competition semi finals, before he was forced to serve a 9-month suspension handed down by the NRL for breaches of basic governance and duty of care practices, thus validating the strong ethical stance made by Irvine and the board in March 2013.
Sharp again took over the reins, before resigning mid season the week after the club's greatest comeback victory, with the team coming from 22 nil down to beat the Brisbane Broncos 24–22.
Just one day after Carney was stood down by the Sharks CEO Steve Noyce, Sharp resigned as interim head coach and was replaced by James Shepherd.
In 2016, an unprecedented record of 15 straight wins for the club saw them climb to the top of the table, before slipping to 3rd with a loss to the Melbourne Storm on the final round of the normal season.
New additions to the team included Josh Dugan, Matt Moylan and Scott Sorensen, as well as Trent Hodkinson who would go on to leave midway during the season to join up with the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.
Due to the loss, the match marked the end of Luke Lewis' playing career, with the player having announced his retirement earlier in the season.
The match also threatened to end Storm legend Billy Slater's playing career, with the player - having also announced retirement during the season – performing an alleged illegal shoulder charge and therefore professional foul on Sharks winger Sosaia Feki who was in the act of scoring.
Despite being penalised for the action, Slater managed to avoid both the Sin Bin and a suspension, with the NRL judiciary controversially ruling his tackle not a shoulder charge.
Cronulla were commended for their bravery throughout the whole of the season by not letting off-field distractions (namely the ASADA investigation) deter their on-field performances, however 2014 proved to be a different story, with interim coaches and player injury and suspension seeing the club finish the year with the Wooden Spoon.
