NRL 2022: Cronulla Sharks will host home final at PointsBet Stadium if they finish second
The NRL has guaranteed that the Sharks host the club’s first finals match in 14 years at their traditional home – provided Cronulla can meet one requirement.
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The Cronulla Sharks will be rewarded with a home semi-final at PointsBet Stadium should the club finish second on the ladder.
The NRL has decided against moving the semi-final to Allianz Stadium where they could make at least double the revenue in gate takings and corporate sales.
Shark Park has a capacity of only 11,500 because of building works at their Woolooware Bay development.
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has confirmed the match will be played at PointsBet to protect the integrity of the finals series.
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“They deserve to be playing at home,” he said, “that’s the fairest outcome.”
“The policy is that you get to play at home in week one.
“And this is why we need the NSW government to invest in suburban stadiums.”
The Sharks are vying with the Cowboys for hosting rights in week one of the finals with both clubs locked on 34 competition points.
The Cowboys have a superior for-and-against (plus 252) but have to play Souths and Penrith.
The Sharks (plus 171) have the Bulldogs and the Knights.
SHARKS CEO COME OUT SWINGING
If it’s good enough for Penrith, it’s good enough for us.
Sharks chief executive Dino Mezzatesta has come out swinging in the club’s pursuit to host its first finals match in 14 years at their home of PointsBet Stadium, claiming the NRL wouldn’t ask the reigning premiers Penrith to play outside its home ground.
The third-placed Sharks are in the final stages of discussions with the NRL over where they could play in week one of the finals, should they finish second and qualify for a home semi-final.
The Sharks can jump into second spot if the Rabbitohs beat the currently second-placed Cowboys and Cronulla beat the Bulldogs this weekend.
The NRL is eager to make a call on all finals venues by the end of this round, weighing up the possibility of making the Sharks play out of Sydney’s newest sporting arena, the 50,000-seat Allianz Stadium, should they secure second spot and a home final.
Beaten only once at home in 2022, Cronulla understandably want to use PointsBet Stadium as its home final venue despite its capacity of 11,500, believing home ground advantage is what Craig Fitzgibbon’s side has worked hard all year for.
The Sharks haven’t hosted a semi-final at their traditional home at Woolooware since 2008.
“We still have to earn the right, there’s still games to be played, so we have to earn the right to play that home semi-final,’’ Mezzatesta told SEN radio. “But if we have earned that right, we certainly don’t want to be disadvantaged.
“If the Penrith Panthers get to play at BlueBet Stadium, which they will because they’ve earned that right, that doesn’t have the capacity of 50,000, that’s not a shiny new toy either.”
Mezzatesta doubled-down with The Daily Telegraph, stating: “Penrith aren’t being asked to go and play out of Homebush (Accor Stadium).
“Why should we then be disadvantaged and say that we have to go to the shiny new toy (Allianz Stadium)?”
Modelling of the draw between the NRL and the Sharks indicates that if the Cowboys lose against the Rabbitohs and Cronulla can beat the Bulldogs and then the Knights in the final round, they would likely face either the Cowboys or the Storm in week one of the finals.
The most recent finals match that Cronulla played against the Cowboys at Allianz Stadium was in 2017, where a crowd of 16,115 attended, roughly just 4000 more fans than what Cronulla’s suburban venue can currently hold.
The Sharks haven’t played the Storm in a finals match at Allianz Stadium since 2008. That was in a grand final qualifier that 27,570 fans attended.
Mezzatesta said he was cognisant of disappointing some of his loyal fans, but argued the ultimate prize for the club was on aiding their prospects, by using their home ground, to advance to a potential preliminary final in week three.
“It is our home ground. It’s a fortress and that’s the advantage of working hard all year — just like every other team,’’ Mezzatesta said. “That’s why you play hard all year, to win that right and therefore we will continue to have discussions with the NRL to push the fact that we want a home semi-final at PointsBet Stadium.
“We are giving up an advantage (by playing at Allianz) which is so crucial in this game. It’s simply not in line with every other team that gets a home ground advantage.”
Mezzatesta added that in the wake of crucial stadium funding being pulled from the NSW government to revamp PointsBet Stadium, he had invited NSW sports Minister Alister Henskens to PointsBet Stadium on Saturday night.
“I‘d like to get the new sports Minister out to the ground this weekend to experience what it means and what it could be in the future,’’ Mezzatesta said.
“We have demonstrated what we do as a club for community, we’re a multi-sport venue and yet we’ve been overlooked for (funding).
“It’s very disappointing, but as I understand, it’s not over yet. I know Peter (V’landys) is very passionate about suburban grounds, so he certainly won’t let it go.’’
Fifita’s brutal Gal sledge in farewell speech
-David Riccio
Andrew Fifita knocked back an offer by Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon to wear a starting front-row jersey in his final home game on Saturday night.
Fifita’s decision to reject the meaningful gesture and chance to start in just his second game in two years underlines everything about the champion Sharks forward’s personal growth and motivation to give Cronulla the best shot at winning this year’s premiership.
“I know my role in this team and what works for us is that Royce (Hunt) and Braden (Hamlin-Uele) start the match before I come off the bench,” Fifita told The Daily Telegraph.
“Those boys need the minutes more than me, so I told Fitzy (Fitzgibbon) thanks, but no thanks.”
On an emotional day for the entire Cronulla club, the forever-honest Fifita broke the news on Tuesday that after 11-years in the black, white and blue, he will be making way for the club’s next-generation of forwards.
The Sharks premiership-winning hero stood up in front of his teammates prior to training, before fronting the media to explain that this Saturday’s clash with Canterbury would be his last appearance at PointsBet Stadium.
“The last thing I said to the boys was, I want a (premiership) ring,” Fifita said.
“I want to rock up to Gal’s (former captain Paul Gallen) house with a ring and tease him that I’ve got two and he’s got one.
“That’s the goal.
“Winning the grand final was also the worst thing I did because I know what victory tastes like.
“I feel like the time is right at the moment, we’re in the semis and we’ve got a chance.’’
Hugely popular among his peers, Fifita is keeping the door open on playing in the NRL next year or potentially overseas with his twin brother, David, in the UK Super League, before returning to work with the Sharks in a cultural advisor role.
Typically quick-witted, Fifita joked that his former club the Wests Tigers hadn’t made the finals since they cut him in 2011.
He added that he would “never say never” to returning to the struggling Tigers.
“I reckon I’ve got another year in me somewhere else,’’ Fifita said.
“There are opportunities out there (at other clubs), to go and help my brother out overseas and also in the NRL.
“But at this point in time, I think it’s time for me to move on from the Sharks with the young ones coming through.
“I can’t do it to them – they mean so much to me. I’ve helped them grow and they’re ready to play. I don’t want to be in their way.
“I sat with Gal on the weekend and he said no matter what, you’re still going to go down as a legend of this club.
“To hear that from our club legend, I was quite emotional.”
Included in the club’s best team in 50-years, Gallen’s legendary assessment of the at-time polarising Fifita is justified.
Four games away from a 250-game milestone, the Australian, NSW State of Origin and Tongan Test front-rower famously scored the matchwinning try to seal the Sharks maiden premiership in 2016 and in the eyes of many, was a deserved Clive Churchill medallist.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to win that,’’ Fifita quipped.
With 17-games for the Sharks so far this season – the most since 2019 – the 2018 Dally M prop of the year has enjoyed an extraordinary year in the wake of being placed in a coma almost exactly 12-months ago.
Fifita required life-saving surgery for a fractured larynx. He was placed in a five-day coma in an effort to ease pressure on his airwaves.
“It was the worst thing for my family, but it was also the best thing, because I had a knee injury and it gave me the recovery time that I needed, to get the knee going again,” Fifita said.
“I learned to walk again.”
Outside of experience pack leaders Dale Finucane and Cam McInnes, the Sharks have a host of emerging young forwards in their roster for 2022 and beyond including Toby Rudolf, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Royce Hunt, Briton Nikora, Teig Wilton, Jack Williams, Tom Hazleton and Jesse Colquhoun.
The Sharks have also signed 23-year-old Eels forward Oregon Kaufusi until 2024.
Captain Wade Graham is in discussions with the club for a 12-month contract.
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