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'Just a narrative': Sharks out to bury NRL finals myth
Darren Walton, AAP •  September 16th, 2026 4:46 pm
Nico Hynes | Photo: AAP
September fodder no more, the Sharks are plotting to hand the "finals flops" baton to the Sydney Roosters and edge to within one tantalising win of a first title decider in a decade.
Maligned for years as the NRL's play-off pretenders, Cronulla enter Saturday night's do-or-die clash against the Roosters with the chance to bury one of the competition's great myths once and for all.
The Sharks earned their dubious but deserved tag after eight straight finals defeats between 2017 and 2023.
Going out in "straight sets" after finishing second in 2022 - through an epic golden-point loss to North Queensland and a collapse against South Sydney - cemented Cronulla's reputation as September also-rans.
But Craig Fitzgibbon's charges have flipped the script in the past two seasons, reaching consecutive preliminary finals and last year eliminating the star-studded Roosters and then minor premiers Canberra in the national capital.
In a telling stat that will surprise many, the Sharks now boast the equal-most finals wins with Penrith and Brisbane since the start of the 2025 finals, with three apiece.
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They will go ahead with four if they can extend the Roosters' finals record since the start of the 2025 series to 0-3.
Cronulla co-captain Blayke Brailey is adamant the Sharks, internally at least, have already well and truly buried their finals hoodoo even if the mud sticks among their critics.
"That narrative always changes - if it's playing at home, if it's we can't beat top-four, top-eight sides, if it's can't we can't win finals games," Brailey told AAP.
"Those outside stories or noise, to me - I don't read much into it.
"So I know the type of side we have and the quality we have in our team, so hopefully we do keep winning finals games and keep winning this year."
Happy to claim the underdogs' tag against one of the competition's long-time heavyweights, Brailey believes the pressure is more on the Roosters, who have lost their past three finals matches and five of their last six.
For all their talent, the Tricolours have yet to make a grand final since going back-to-back in 2019 and face the prospect of bowing out again after suffering five consecutive losses for the first time in a decade.
"Once the ball's kicked off, all that narrative and the storyline behind it doesn't mean much," Brailey said of the Sharks' "can't win finals" tag.
"So hopefully we just go out and and play our best and prepare our best. We're looking forward to the challenge."
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Sharks enforcer Addin Fonua-Blake agrees his side's reputation is also "just a narrative".
"And you can't control the narrative," he told AAP.
"Can't control what other people and their opinions are, but all we're trying to do is just take it week by week and day by day and, look, we can't look outside.
"We have to just worry about what we're doing here and that's the goal this week: just worry about ourselves, get ourselves right, and get ready for a quality contest this weekend."
Victory at Allianz Stadium would vault the Sharks into a preliminary final with the Dolphins, who Cronulla crushed 66-0 two months ago.
But Fonua-Blake knows it'd be dangerous for his side to get ahead of themselves.
"Look man, I feel like their team's full of quality players," the NSW State of Origin prop said.
"They've got obviously (Daly) Cherry-Evans there and he's an old head. He knows how to steer a team around and he's won a grand final and he's played in a lot of finals.
"So they'll get up for it again this week and it's going to be a quality game."
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