CRONULLA supporters remain convinced that despite their club’s 2014 ‘‘season from hell,’’ it will endure and emerge in 2015 and beyond much stronger.
The Sharks are still reeling from the protracted Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) investigation which resulted in five current players being suspended.
They are last on the NRL ladder and staring at the wooden spoon, for what would be only the third time in their history since entering the league in 1967.
They have also had three coaches this season — Shane Flanagan, Peter Sharp and James Shepherd — and leading player Todd Carney was sacked for disciplinary issues.
A horror injury toll has also meant the forced retirements of Beau Ryan and John Morris.
Contracted players Sharks captain Paul Gallen, Anthony Tupou, John Morris, Nathan Gardner and Wade Graham accepted ASADA show-cause notices and bans last Friday for the 2011 supplements program that was then in place at Cronulla.
Gallen will now miss the Australian team’s Four Nations series which starts on October 25 and finishes on November 15.
In total, 17 past and present Cronulla players were issued with show-cause notices by ASADA.
Bans were backdated by ASADA to November, 21, 2013, and the players who accepted the punishment, after consultation with their lawyers and meetings with the NRL, will miss three premiership matches and can resume training from November 22 this year.
The ASADA saga also claimed head coach Shane Flanagan, who is suspended until September 17.
The NRL banned him for a year.
The NRL found that Flanagan had failed the players in regards to safeguarding their health and welfare during the 2011 season.
The Leader spoke with fans at the club’s final home game, held at
Remondis Stadium last Sunday where they lost 22-12 to the Canberra Raiders.
The overwhelming consensus was that the club will bounce back from its 2014 woes.
Mother and daughter and longtime Sharks fans Thelma and Nikki Durant of Caringbah (pictured in gallery above) said they would be back to support the club next year.
‘‘We love our Sharks and will stick by them,’’ Thelma Durant said.
‘‘We’ll be back at the games here next year.’’
Nikki said that the Sharks would always be her team.
‘‘We are Sharks supporters forever,’’ she said.
Father of two boys, Jason O’Brien of Bangor, was also at the match with his two sons Mitchell, 14, and Josh, 8.
O’Brien said it had been a tough year for the club but he believes the Sharks will learn from their off-field mistakes.
Longtime Sharks follower Kelly Cavanough, of Kareela, said the tough times would only make her even more stoic.
‘‘It has been a disappointing year as a Sharks supporter, but blue, black and white is in my blood and we stand strong together,’’ she said.
‘‘The 2015 season will be the rebuilding year with hopes of making the semis.’’
Loftus father Ross Dunstan said he was upset about the ASADA saga.
‘‘As a lifelong Sharks supporter, I’m incredibly upset with the way ASADA has handled the peptides affair as a whole,’’ Dunstan said.
‘‘Everyone knows some sort of alleged illegal supplement program happened at the Sharks for a period of time, but because of the lack of real evidence it’s too hard to correctly apportion blame.’’
Sharks chief executive Steve Noyce said the club would learn lessons from the events of 2011.
Noyce was chief executive of the Sydney Roosters in 2011; he was appointed Sharks boss on July 31, 2013.
‘‘It will certainly make us stronger,’’ Noyce said.
Noyce said Flanagan would have to need to assess how best to comply with NRL governance before being allowed to return as Sharks head coach.
The Sharks board appointed Flanagan again as coach on April 2, this year, for the 2015-16-17 seasons.
Noyce said the support from the fans in difficult times had been encouraging for the players.
What do you think the future will hold for the Sharks?
Are you staying a Sharks supporter?