Botched: Inside the ‘horrendous’ Sharks negotiations that triggered Reynolds backflip

Extraordinary details about how Cronulla dropped the ball with Adam Reynolds have revealed new coach Craig Fitzgibbon should be worried.

Adam Reynolds slipped through the Sharks’ fingers.

Ben Ikin believes incoming Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon will be “worried” after the club “botched” the Adam Reynolds deal.

And now that they’ve missed out on the 30-year-old champion half, the Sharks find themselves in a sticky situation.

Reynolds has signed a three-year deal with the Broncos starting in 2022. The club announced it’s major coup on Thursday morning.

Brisbane beat Cronulla to the punch, however as recent as last week it was the Sharks who seemed the most likely to land the premiership-winning halfback.

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Fox League’s James Hooper revealed to NRL 360 that Reynolds had actually indicated to Fitzgibbon that he was keen to link up with the Sharks.

It was only when the conversations progressed into the hands of the club’s administrators that things went off track.

“When Adam Reynolds initially had conversations with Craig Fitzgibbon, he told Fitzgibbon that he wanted to come to Cronulla and he was keen to be coached by him,” Hooper said.

Craig Fitzgibbon has reason to be very affraid.

“I think for whatever reason the people who were putting the deal together at Cronulla got a little bit of false hope and false confidence.

“The best deal-makers in the business, your Nick Politis, your Matt Tripps, your Wayne Bennetts, you roll out your big guns when you want to land a key signature.

“They sent the football manager — with all due respect Darren Mooney — they didn’t get the deal done.”

Paul Kent backed that up saying: “Fitzgibbon walked out of the meeting with Reynolds pretty confident that he was going to get him.”

“Then he handed it over to the club and it fell apart,” Ikin added.

Kent said the Sharks “got it wrong on a lot of levels” and should have gone to a much bigger effort to convince Reynolds to sign. Instead they tabled an offer well below Reynolds’ market value and left it up to Mooney to get the deal done.

“The Chief Executive and Chairman should have shown Adam Reynolds how much he meant to them by turning up and saying ‘what’s it going to take to get the deal done,” he said.

In contrast the Broncos flew head coach Kevin Walters and new CEO Dave Donaghy down to Sydney to meet with the 30-year-old.

“To be fair they’re not big guns either,” Ikin added.

“No, but they’re the biggest the club can offer,” Kent responded.

“And even if you want to bring in a Gallen or someone like that. But you’ve got bring in the big guns and just lay out the red carpet and show how important to your organisation he is.

“The second part was when they made the initial approach, they low-balled him on the deal.”

Ikin said it was a “bad miss by the Sharks” while Hooper called it “horrendous.”

Lara Pitt questioned whether the Reynolds situation has made Fitzgibbon realise that he needs be at the forefront of recruitment meetings.

“Do you think this will be a learning for Craig Fitzgibbon though? He’s got a full time job at the Roosters at the moment so it’s difficult for him to front up and have these one-on-one conversations,” she said.

“I think he realises now that he has to be the face of those negotiations.”

However Ikin believes it should be an even bigger lesson for Cronulla’s powerbrokers.

“Less for Craig Fitzgibbon, more for Dino Mezzatesta and the chairman Steve Mace.

“I think (Fitzgibbon) would be worried that this was botched the way it was and what is he walking into.”

Craig Fitzgibbon.

The Sharks have had a tumultuous start to 2021. It was kicked off with speculation around John Morris’ future at the club before he was unceremoniously axed and Fitzgibbon was unveiled as head coach for 2022 and beyond.

Part of the reasoning behind why the Sharks didn’t keep Morris on was the belief that he couldn’t attract big name players.

Nor can Fitzgibbon so it seems now. Or as Ikin put it, maybe recruitment is an issue that is way beyond who is or isn’t the coach.

“They employed Craig Fitzgibbon believing he was going to be the silver bullet, going to solve all the problems. But rugby league clubs are bigger than that, they require more than that,” he said.

“That’s what Melbourne get, that’s what the Roosters get, that’s what the Broncos used to get, that’s what Wayne Bennett understands and that’s the future now for the Sharks.

The chairman, CEO and head coach need to be aligned on what excellence looks like in every part of that organisation.”

So where does Reynolds’ Broncos signing leave the Sharks?

They lose Chad Townsend — one of the few remaining players from the 2016 premiership side — to the Cowboys next season and it’s understood re-signing Shaun Johnson isn’t a big priority at the moment.

In fact, all of the club’s options in the halves come off contract at the end of the season. Matt Moylan, Braydon Trindall and Connor Tracey are yet to lock in their futures for 2022.

While that may be daunting for some Sharks fans, what it does do is give the club some roster freedom — something Cronulla hasn’t had for a few years now.

Moylan is one of the club’s biggest earners. He’s on around $800,000 a year but has only managed 49 games since he joined the Sharks in 2018. Given what he is capable of when he is in form, the 29-year-old could be an option on a much lower deal.

Trindall re-signed with the club for this season just before it kicked off, however he’s had limited opportunity in first grade.

Tracey on the other hand has been the shining light in the dark start to the season. The 24-year-old’s versatility has been invaluable for the Sharks. He can cover anywhere in the back line and can fill in at hooker if need be.

He has been lauded for his enthusiasm and work ethic — and will surely be locked in on a new deal. But is he the right type of player to lead the team around the park?

The Sharks have been linked to the man who will now likely be squeezed out of Brisbane, Anthony Milford. But that would be an incredible odd path to go down given Milford has been out of form for the better part of two years.

Fitzgibbon as well as Mezzatesta and Mace have some big decisions ahead of them. They were banking on Reynolds and now can’t afford to bungle any other potential signing.

Originally published as Botched: Inside the ‘horrendous’ Sharks negotiations that triggered Reynolds backflip