‘We don’t really care’: Sharks dismiss finals naysayers

Darren Walton | August 5, 2026

Driven by the doubters, the Sharks are intent on proving they’re no finals flops and “locked in” to bring an elusive second NRL premiership back to Cronulla.

Flying after nine wins from 10 starts, the Sharks continue to contend with critics who sight the side’s supposed poor record in September for deriding Craig Fitzgibbon’s team as title pretenders.

Cronulla bowed out in straight sets after finishing second in the 2022 minor premiership in Fitzgibbon’s first season in charge before also being sent packing after a 13-12 heartbreaker against the Sydney Roosters in the first week of the 2023 finals.

But the Sharks have since reached consecutive preliminary finals and believe they buried the hoodoo with successive emphatic victories over the Roosters and minor premiers Canberra, both on opposition turf, last year.

“We’ve been to two prelims in the last two years before this, so the media just want to say whatever they want to say. We don’t really care at the moment,” in-form back-rower Billy Burns told AAP on Wednesday.

“We’re just focused on our footy. We’ve proved a few things wrong, like can’t win at ‘Brookie’ (Brookvale Oval), a few things like that.

“So we’re just playing our footy and when we’re playing the way we want to play, we’re getting results and that will hopefully translate at the back end of the year.”

Burns admitted the fourth-placed Sharks were using the sceptics as fuel as they chase a top-two finals berth and more in 2026.

“Any motivation you can get at this time of the year is pretty good, so we’ll definitely use whatever we can,” he said.

Star fullback Will Kennedy reckons the Sharks are “used to” hearing the naysayers pipe up about the team’s finals record. “

“It’s nothing new to us as a team,” he told AAP.

“But we’ve grown a lot of confidence out of the last couple of years and we’ve definitely brought that this year and we just want to keep charging.”

Kennedy said last year’s elimination of the Roosters and Raiders were especially big for the group.

“There was a lot of talk about all that. We didn’t look too much into it and we focused on our footy and we took care of it,” he said of the so-called finals jinx.

The Sharks also sense the end of an era coming with stalwarts like co-captain Cam McInnes, Jesse Ramien, Sione Katoa, Siosifa Talakai and Mawene Hiroti all leaving at season’s end.

“So we want to play for them and just keep playing for each other as well because we’ve been together for so long now,” Kennedy said.

“All the boys that have been here for so long that are leaving, we love them. We wanted to keep everyone here.

“But they’ve got to do what’s best for their family and it’s best that we play good footy for them and, and for ourselves as well.”

Burns said the Sharks were bent on sending out the departing stars with a bang. 

“We’ve been playing together, some of us, since under-20s all the way through and the group is obviously super close,” he said.

“It’s sad seeing blokes leave and obviously going out with a grand final will be pretty handy so we’re pretty locked in at the moment and chasing that, so hopefully we can do that.”