Cronulla's last step in the NRL finals always seems their longest

Fri, 11 Sept, 7:50 pm, Final score, Rabbitohs 10, Knights 20

Sat, 12 Sept, 4:05 pm, Final score, Warriors 16, Dolphins 26

16 26 →Sat, 12 Sept, 7:50 pm, Final score, Sharks 26, Cowboys 16

26 16 →Sun, 13 Sept, 4:05 pm, Final score, Panthers 19, Roosters 12

19 12 →Sat, 19 Sept, 7:50 pm, Final score, Roosters 46, Sharks 10

46 10 →Sun, 20 Sept, 4:05 pm, Game not started, Warriors versus Knights

- - →

Sometimes the last step of the journey to a premiership is the longest, and for Cronulla it seemingly gets longer all the time.

After their 46-10 loss to the Roosters, another Sharks season is over. It was a year that marked their fifth finals series in a row and the fourth of those five years that have gone to the second week or beyond.

That's a hard thing to do and there's been a run of consistency under Craig Fitzgibbon that fans of many other clubs would wish for desperately.

They've played more finals games in these past five seasons than Gold Coast and Wests Tigers have in the past 20 years combined.

But with the Sharks the granting of that wish came with a curse, like it was made on a monkey's paw.

They are always in the mix but never seem to rise right to the top. They are good enough to be on the raggedy edge that separates triumph and tragedy but when it counts they can't quite end up on the right side.

They know exactly what a premiership calibre team looks like because they get up close and personal with at least one of them nearly every year. They would do anything to be like them but that glorious fate proves elusive.

This defeat to the Roosters gives them one win and five losses against top four teams in the finals since the start of 2022, with the sole victory coming over the battle-weary and depleted Raiders in Canberra last year.

This was the heaviest of those losses and their most lopsided defeat in any match of the past two and a half years.

They were already outsiders going in and the job got that much harder when Nicho Hynes was knocked out of the game after just three minutes.

Rookie Niwhai Puru did his best in relief and talismanic five-eighth Braydon Trindall did his best to carry the weight of the world, which is hard enough even when you don't have a busted shoulder.

Trindall set up both their first half tries to keep them in the match and kept trying every trick he knew, working a lovely run around with Billy Burns in the second half that very nearly lead to a score of his own.

Only a late tackle from Billy Smith forced the ball free and stopped it from being 24-16 with 25 minutes to go.

A dodgy ruck penalty on Angus Crichton and a Mark Nawaqanitawase try followed, and from there it was a procession as the Roosters ran up the score with a cavalier cruelty, showing attacking gears and a raw brilliance that Cronulla does not possess.

Few teams do, because few teams have players like Nawaqanitawase, who scored a fine double and helped set up another try with a behind-the-back pass that he threw as he was thrown over the sideline.

The dual international got so close to one of the TV cameras it's a wonder he didn't up in your living room as Connor Watson finished off one of the tries of the season.

By the end, as Daly Cherry-Evans and Robert Toia added to their highlight reels to warm up for a preliminary final blockbuster against the Dolphins next week, the Sharks looked outmatched and outgunned.

They were stuck in a fight where the weapons that serve them so well during the regular season — namely, a deliberate and consistent attack that converts pressure into points —were no longer enough.

On average, Cronulla run in their tries from a closer distance than any other team in the league. They had just five tries from inside their own half all season, the fewest of any team in the league.

They move up the field and execute well from close range to punch it in and they are good enough at it that only three teams scored more points through the regular season.

They play the percentages well and they minimise risks and that is good enough nearly every single week of the season until it isn't anymore.

There is a chance for Cronulla to revamp themselves over the summer. Sione Katoa, a fixture of the side for almost a decade, who brought up a century of tries for them last week, is off to the Cowboys.

He'll be joined up there by Jesse Ramien, while powerful utility Siosifa Talakai is off to Perth and lock forward and former skipper Cam McInnes is heading even further away, bound for Super League side York.

For a team that has been extremely stable in recent years, often only losing one or two players per season, it's a lot of changes all at once.

They don't want to rebuild, which is understandable, and most of the changes will come by promoting youngsters already at the club but it gives them the opportunity to retool a little and perhaps refresh a lot and maybe whatever changes they land on can give them the final push they need.

A little more speed wouldn't go astray, nor would some extra creativity outside the spine but wherever the change comes from it will be welcome.

There is talent at Cronulla and tenacity and a clear and shining will to succeed, otherwise they wouldn't make the finals every year.

But to win under the brightest of lights against the best of opponents they need to find something extra, something that is missing right now, something they have not yet found but are desperately seeking.

They must believe it's out there, whatever it is, because it is their deliverance.

It is the thing that will take them on that last step, the one they have been trying to take for half a decade now, the one that will give them that which seems so close for so much of the year but every September seems to elude their grasp.