Cronulla Sharks News

The Cronulla Sharks are a professional Rugby League team based in the Sutherland Shire region of southern Sydney in Australia.

The club play in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition at their Endeavour Field home ground, which is known to many as Shark Park, and whilst they have had lots of struggles since been formed in the 1960’s but they have also enjoyed successful periods.

That means there is lots of news for fans to keep up with and that can be a struggle but now you can read all of the latest news headlines in one place, right here at 13v13 as we bring you all of the news headlines regarding the club from across the world.

Cronulla Sharks Breaking News

Due to the popularity of the NRL, news can be broken by many sources based not just in Sydney but across the country and even around the world and that an make it difficult to keep up to date with everything.

Our service here at 13v13 not only makes it easy to keep up with everything but it saves you time.

Cronulla Sharks Latest News Today

If you have been away from the web or just haven’t been able to check all of the latest Cronulla news from today, don’t worry, we will bring you all of today’s news headlines from across the globe.

Stadium

The club play at Endeavour Field, a ground that has had numerous names due to sponsorship reasons and that is also known to many fans as Shark Park.

The ground is the only one in Sydney to be owned by a NRL club and that is a great boost for the coffers at the Sharkies, helped by the Cronulla’s Leagues Club been located next door.

The ground is a mix of seating and standing and has one main stand to house around 22,000 fans when full.

Location

The club are based in the suburb of Woolooware, which is around 15 miles south of the centre of Sydney and borders the suburb of Cronulla, from where the club gets its name.

The district is part of the Sutherland Shire region which again is where the club gets its full name of Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks.

About

The Sharkies were founded in 1963 as Cronulla-Caringbah and whilst it took until the 2016 season for them to win their first ever Premiership title, they had gone close numerous time before that.

Down the years, the club have had a number of star names play for them with Paul Gallen arguably their biggest name to be solely associated with the club.

History

In 1967, Cronulla-Sutherland and Penrith wee chosen to be the first expansion clubs of the New South Wales Rugby Football League (NSWRFL) competition since 1947, with their first season coming in 1968.

The Sharkies were formed by Peter Burns and started life playing with a sky blue jersey with a white v and red numbers on the back and playing at the Sutherland Oval.

The club defeated Eastern Suburbs in their first ever match at the Sydney Sports Ground but they would win only two more matches in their first seaosn and would go onto to pick up the wooden spoon.

In mid-1968, the club moved to Endeavour Field (Shark Park) where there first match to be played there saw them defeat Parramatta 10-7.

It didn’t take long for their on the field performances to improve and for them to reach their first ever Grand Final, which they achieved in 1973, but they would lose the big match to Manly.

The 2 would meet again in the 1978 Grand Final when the match finished all square at 11-11 but in the replay, the Sharkies were missing a number of players due to injuries and lost the match 0-16.

Unfortunately, that would as good as it got for some time as the early 1980’s saw the club struggle with finances, which would see the club been administrated by the NSWRFL.

In 1985, ‘super coach’ Jack Gibson joined and put them into a much improved position before leaving in 1987 and the club would win the 1988 minor Premiership, before losing in the semi-finals of the play-offs.

The 1990’s also started with the club having financial difficulties and whilst they did develop lots of good young talent during this time, they would enter into receivership come 1993.

That actually proved to be the catalyst for some good times as they would go onto to enjoy success in the reserve and juniors grades, which in turn boosted their first grade performances and they would go onto to become a mainstay of the play-offs for around a decade.

That helped to increase crowds and funds although they were hit by the Super League wars when they quickly chose to join the breakaway Super League competition. They would go onto reach the only Grand Final of that competition but they would lose to the Broncos in Brisbane.

In 1999, the club were in the new National Rugby League (NRL) competition were they picked up the minor Premiership but failed in the Play-Offs.

In the same year, the club would drop the Cronulla-Sutherland part of their name to become known simply as the Sharks, but that would only last until the end of 2002.

The early 2000’s saw a number of big names leave the club and a number of poor performances including a record 74-4 loss against Parramatta, in a match that the Sharkies had 3 players sent off.

The rest of the 1990’s saw lot’s of infighting at the club, the death of their CEO and numerous other off of the field issues that impacted on the field and that all culminated in the 2009 season.

The clubs dire financial state, despite owning plenty of land, their own Leagues Club and their own ground would see them try to move to the Central Coast but that would be rebuffed by the NRL.

In the end the club would play 5 matches a season in Gosford and 1 in Adelaide between 2010-14.

Further scandals and issues would hit the club over the next few years including a sex scandal, management bullying and assaulting female staff and a number of fraudulent payments.

The club continued to struggle on the field whilst all of the off of the field issues grabbed headlines across the world and that most sponsors leave the club, which only added to their financial struggles.

Another major scandal to hit the club was related to performance enhancing drugs and the systematic use of them at the club would hit them hard in 2014 and 2015 with many players and staff suspended from the sport.

Incredibly, the club would turn things around quickly and by 2016, they were not only back in the Play-Offs but they would go onto reach the Grand Final and defeat the Storm to pick up their first ever NRL title.

Unfortunately, scandal would hit the club soon after when Ben Barba would test positive for cocaine soon after the final and would be sacked by the club. The clubs CEO would also be found in position of the same drug and was also sacked.

The 2017 season started with the Sharkies flying over to England to face Wigan in the World Club Challenge but Cronulla would head back to Australia after a 22-5 loss.

The scandals would continue after that as the club would post a $3m loss in 2018 and their head coach Shane Flanagan had to be de-registered after failing to adhere to the conditions of his 2014 suspension.

Cronulla Sharks News Headlines

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Cronulla Sharks News Update

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