Why Craig Fitzgibbon is Sharks’ best signing of the past five years

When it comes to Cronulla’s best signing of the last five years, it’s difficult to go past coach Craig Fitzgibbon.

Prop Addin Fonua-Blake has added some mongrel and leadership to the pack, while star halfback Nicho Hynes is one of the most marketable players in the game. But has anyone done more for the club than Fitzgibbon, who has quietly steered the Sharks into the finals in each of the four years since becoming head coach?

Friday night’s clash against Melbourne will be his second straight preliminary final. He also made it to the semi-finals in 2022, and an elimination final in 2023.

Fitzgibbon has overseen 104 games for 66 wins at a win percentage of 63.5, including eight finals matches.

For perspective, that is a better record than supercoach Wayne Bennett achieved in his first four seasons at Canberra, and on par with Melbourne’s Craig Bellamy, who awaits him on Friday night, and his one-time mentor at the Sydney Roosters, Trent Robinson.

Only Broncos coach Michael Maguire and Canberra’s Ricky Stuart had more successful starts to their NRL careers, with both winning premierships in that time.

Stuart and Maguire had rosters packed with stars – especially Stuart, whose premiership Sydney Roosters in 2002 featured Brad Fittler, Adrian Morley, Luke Ricketson and Fitzgibbon himself.

Fitzgibbon, 48, hates the spotlight and will tell you there is no such thing as a success story until Cronulla win a premiership.

Even when asked this week to pinpoint one thing he did better now compared to when he started, Fitzgibbon groaned, paused, groaned again, then said: “Whether it’s a good time, a difficult time, or an indifferent time, I just feel like I know what parts of the job I value the most, and that’s all I need to focus on.”

Senior Sharks players were happy to praise Fitzgibbon for leading the Shire club to regular September appearances.

“He’s someone you love going to war for,” prop Toby Rudolf said. “And in order to tell us to go to war, he goes to war himself by getting on the wrestling mat for an hour on game day, just so he feels sore and down in the dumps so he can relate.

“How many coaches would do that? He’s a positive guy and someone who has done it all himself. He’s not someone who preaches something he hasn’t done. He’s actually done everything there is to do in this game. But he never speaks about himself, he makes it about us and the team. ”

Front-rower Addin Fonua-Blake said: “Fitzy has definitely helped with my confidence. I wasn’t playing as best I could in the middle of the year, but he gave me little pointers on how to help lead the team. To play finals every year, it’s pretty amazing what he’s doing here at the club.”

Back-rower Teig Wilton added: “He’s a legend of the game. He was a great player, and he’s a great coach who brings the best out of his group. He’s never too up or down. He also has a lot of care for his players. To see him give his best every day, you don’t want to let him down.”

Meanwhile, injured Sharks captain Cam McInnes has undergone neck surgery as he recovers from a season-ending ACL rupture. He compressed a nerve in round 11, which left him experiencing regular numbness in both arms, and required regular cortisone injections and painkillers just to take the field.

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