Thousands of die hard Sharks fans prepare to descend on Allianz Stadium
WITH 36 busloads of fans preparing an aqua-blue Shark feeding frenzy to the North Queensland Cowboys, feelings are running a little high in the Shire.
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WITH 36 busloads of fans bringing an aqua-blue Shark feeding frenzy to the North Queensland Cowboys on Friday night, feelings are running a little high in the Cronulla catchment.
The NRL side’s famous premiership porch light is well and truly on with the warriors of the Shire shaping up for their best chance at the Provan-Summons trophy ... and their long-suffering fans are finally daring to believe.
Just ask the blokes working the clippers at Men’s Republic Barbers, a traditional bloke’s salon just off the Cronulla mall where the club’s cutting-edge custodian Ben Barba goes to the barber.
Tough-as-teak skipper Paul Gallen, and teammates Valentine Holmes, Jack Bird and Chris Heighington are also among the various Sharks presenting for frequent follicular maintenance at the hip little venue.
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So proprietors Paul Perimakovski and Steve Kotevski are taking the club’s preliminary final battle against 2015 premiers North Queensland Cowboys at Allianz Stadium — 25km from Shark Park — pretty personally.
“This has been a long time coming,” Mr Perimakovski said.
He’s a local, born and bred, a lifelong Sharks supporter weaned on decades of disappointment and tears, but always optimistic.
“Just one grand final win would be enough for my life,” Mr Perimakovski said. “It’d be so good for the kids, because there are lot of boys around here who play.”
Steve Kotevski, who moved south from Western Sydney a few years ago, is right behind his adopted team too. “We’re pumped, I really hope they get up, we’re backing them all the way.”
Their friend Julien Mathieu, co-owner of restaurant and cocktail bar 1908 Cronulla, came to Australia form France seven years ago, but has spent the past six in the Shire, throwing his loyalties behind the Sharks.
“They’re here, they’re local, it’d be such a good thing,” he said.
But despite school bells being tuned to the club’s theme song “Up, Up, Cronulla”, the mood on the seaside suburb’s high street, Beach Park Avenue still seems a little subdued.
There are colours, streamers, balloons and the odd jersey. Just not as proud a display as you’d think. As though it might jinx something somehow.
It might be the rain. Or perhaps it’s the 49 years the team has been in the competition, with just three grand final appearances and no premierships. Cronulla businessman Robert Green, whose father founded the family’s shoe store Greens Footwear in 1963, has been there for all of the wild wave ride that supporting the Sharks has been over the years.
He’s hoping his grandkids, two-year-old Ollie Hodson and five month old Beau Hodson, his daughter Lucy Hodson’s children will have something to celebrate a lot sooner than he, Lucy and his other daughter Emily Andrews have. “I hope (the Sharks) don’t choke again,” he sighed.
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