Inside Cronulla Sharks push for premiership under Craig Fitzgibbon, Nicho Hynes, features, NRL finals

They were the graduating class of 2019. Now, they’re ready to go to finishing school.

Six weeks out from the NRL finals, the fourth-placed Cronulla Sharks are up and about: nine wins from their past 10 games thanks to the most established attacking structure in the competition, combined with the league’s fourth-best defence.

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The storyline of this Sharks outfit stems much further back than the pre-season, with much of the starting 13 drawing on a connection built when they took out NSW Cup title back in 2019.

In this foxsports.com.au feature, we draw back the curtain on what differentiates this year’s campaign from the past, the individual brilliance of Will Kennedy and Braydon Trindall, and why Nicho Hynes believes he’s playing ‘even better’ than his breakout Dally M season.

THE NEWTOWN NUCLEUS THAT STARTED IT ALL

To get the most accurate read on this year’s Cronulla side, you need to take a few steps back to the NSW Cup side where it all began.

Cronulla feeder-club Newtown won the NSW Cup competition in 2019 with a roster its then-coach Greg Matterson believed would be largely destined for the NRL.

He wasn’t wrong.

“Will Kennedy, Braydon Trindall, Blayke Brailey, Teig Wilton, Toby Rudolf, Sifa Talakai, Ronaldo Mulitalo, Sione Katoa – they were all in that in that side,” said the Jets’ NSW Cup coach of 15 years, and current Head of Football.

“Pretty f**king red-hot side to be honest,” Matterson added with a big smile.

With Trindall and Kennedy largely executing the attack and Brailey steering the side in the middle, the Jets took home the NSW Cup silverware after a nail-biting finish in extra time. The same team went onto beat the Queensland Cup champions Burleigh in the 2019 NRL Grand Final curtain-raiser.

“Trindall and Will are like brothers. They’re both Indigenous and they’ve both had their ups and downs, but they’ve fought hard and always been tight,” Matterson said.

Once again, Trindall and Kennedy’s combination – in concert with the ever-consistent Brailey – is flourishing this year in the NRL. They are the glue in a Sharks spine which also boasts Hynes as its director. The quartet has been Cronulla’s first-choice spine since 2023, making them the most established in the NRL.

“It helps being together for so long, we all know how we play together now so I think that helps because you can take confidence out of those past seasons and bring it into this season,” said Kennedy.

“We’re just playing for each other – that’s the big one, we just have to keep doing that and don’t change what’s working.”

With Addin Fonua-Blake holding court in the middle, insiders said the Sharks group was more relaxed in the big moments.

That composure has been extended to Trindall, who in some respects is the final piece in the Sharks jigsaw, having taken a little longer to consistently find his place in the starting side.

Now he’s there, his devastating kicking game and league-leading try assists have been instrumental for the Sharks, and allowed Hynes to improve his off-the-ball effort areas and defence.

“He’s doing a really good job there on his try assist base. But he’s building his game off other things; all those stats and all those things that everyone talks about, we don’t really care about that,” Hynes explained.

“We care about building our game off our effort areas and hard work, and those things come when our big boys are doing what they’re doing and our players are getting out of their end. We’re just guys polishing it off, and Tricky is polishing it off even better at the moment.

“He’s playing some really good footy and I’m just extremely proud that he’s worked so hard to get in this position.”

Kennedy agreed, and said that Trindall was playing with the same confidence that made him so dominant back in their NSW Cup days.

“He was exactly the same player back then in NSW Cup as he is now. He just has no hair now,” Kennedy joked.

“He’s just taken a lot of confidence out of the past seasons and bringing it to the NRL. I’m really happy for him.”

For Kennedy, 2026 has represented a watershed year as well. Twelve months ago, he was the only fullback in the NRL top eight without a contract for 2026, and at one point was faced with the prospect of offering his services to the English Super League.

But such was Kennedy’s desire to stay at the Sharks, he took a reported pay cut and the uncertainty of a one-year deal.

The 29-year-old has had a breakout season as one of the Shark’s best this year, averaging 148 running metres along with nine tries and 11 try assists. He was rewarded with a one-year contract extension in June.

“We’re enjoying it, we’ve been playing together for a while now. We have a really strong connection and that helps us in a big way to playing as a team,” Kennedy said of his role in the Sharks’ spine.

“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves and do what we’ve done the past couple of years. I know that we can go that extra level and we’ve just got to keep taking it week by week. We’ve got to keep turning up for each other and taking game by game. That’s the most important thing for us as a team and as a club.”

Matterson was already brimming with satisfaction seeing his old Newtown alumni succeed in the NRL. He would love to see them go all the way this year – especially with Cameron McInnes, Jesse Ramien, Sione Katoa and Sifa Talakai among those taking their services elsewhere in 2027.

“I knew back in 2019 that some of these kids are going to go on to big things in the game. It’s taken a few years to finally nail it but they’re there now I think. This is the Sharks’ window I think. Right now,” he said.

HYNES ADDS DEPTH TO ‘BETTER’ HIS DALLY M SEASON

Sharks halfback Hynes neatly embodies why the Sharks can be different in 2026.

The ball-in-hand brilliance remains as before, but it’s the 30-year-old’s off-the-ball areas which he believes have elevated him to a new level – and one even better than his breakout Dally M Medal-winning season of 2022.

Hynes has kicked 32 consecutive goals over the past month, and is only three shy of equalling Hazem El Masri’s 23-year-old goal kicking record for Canterbury, set in 2003. It is emblematic of Hynes focusing his attention on the basics, ‘including my defence, effort areas and saving tries’.

“There’s more to this game than highlight reels. I reckon in 2022 I had a lot of highlight reels and I come to the club and had some big moments,” Hynes said.

“Everyone looked at me and I needed to set up three tries, or score a couple, or do these certain things to play the Dally M style of footy I was playing.

“I’ve grown and I know I’m probably playing better than the Dally M year. But people look at me back then for the try assists and the highlights; I’m more than the highlight reel and I want to do the hard things, make my tackles, run the ball, kick when I need to and build my game off that.

“I want to stay patient and be the all-round footy player. Maybe I didn’t have that sort of mindset back in 2022, but I do now and I can trust and believe in Tricky that he’s going to get us around the park as well as I can – maybe even better sometimes.

“I just play off that and play my natural game. Kick some goals too.”

The byproduct of the Sharks’ established spine – and particularly the rise of Trindall – is that is has allowed Hynes to take a step back in attack. As such, he is touching the ball almost 20 times less each game compared with the 2022 season, yet the Sharks attack is stronger than it has ever been.

Like his goal kicking, Hynes said his mindset around 2026 was also stronger than ever.

I’ve worked really hard on mindset in all aspects of rugby league and life. I could say that it does [carry over from goal kicking to playing], it gives you confidence when you’re knocking them over to be able to go out and score some more tries and knock over even more,” he said.

“I’m in a good place, I’m happy.”

BUNNIES PRESSURE COOKER A SIGN OF THE SHARKS RESOLVE

A frenetic 20 minute stretch during the Sharks’ dominant 36-16 win over South Sydney last Sunday perfectly summarised why the Sharks have the wherewithal to advance beyond the preliminary finals in 2026, having fallen at the penultimate step in previous campaigns.

Down to 12 men after Teig Wilton’s sin bin for dangerous contact, Fitzgibbon’s men withstood a mountain of Rabbitohs possession to hold them scoreless, before turning the screws and laying on three tries of their own.

At a point where other defensive lines may have wilted, the Sharks stayed resolved with excellent scramble and structure.

“The best defence usually wins the big games, so it’s all about defence for us this year,” Trindall said.

The influence of forward Addin Fonua-Blake was also evident when the Sharks were in the trenches; his presence helped Cronulla turn the game on its head against the Rabbitohs.

Coach Craig Fitzgibbon said later that he was eager to avoid the ‘burnout’ that has plagued the Sharks previous two seasons, where they’ve been bundled out in the preliminary final stage. As such, he has had no reservations about rotating and resting players as the side approaches the finals.

“It’s managing the energy more than anything else,” he said.

Individual efforts were another cornerstone in the Sharks win, with Kennedy and Hynes both making huge try saving tackles in a bid to hold out the Rabbitohs.

As Cronulla prepared to take on St George Illawarra this Saturday, it was those individual efforts and defence which remained the focus.

“The effort and turning up for each other is the difference. This year it really means a lot more for us, we just kept turning up and that’s what we worked on all pre-season,” Kennedy said.

“We just stay calm when something happens like that and we play off the back of it when things go your way.”