Cronulla chief executive Dino Mezzatesta concedes it is “inevitable” that the most settled roster in the NRL undergoes significant turnover at the end of 2026, with more than half the Sharks top 30 squad unsigned beyond this season.
Cronulla’s 16 off-contract players are the most of any club on the eve of round one and aside from splashing $1 million for front-rower Addin Fonua-Blake last season, have maintained the same core of key players throughout Craig Fitzgibbon’s coaching tenure.
Back-to-back preliminary finals has been the Sharks deserved payoff. But internally, Cronulla are resigned to losing several key figures from their rise as one of the game’s most consistent sides.
Former NSW Origin utility Siosifa Talakai, props Toby Rudolf and Braden Hamlin-Uele, injured skipper Cameron McInnes, fullback Will Kennedy and outside backs Jesse Ramien and Sione Katoa headline the best Sharks still uncontracted for next season, with another nine NRL squad members also unsigned.
Between them the off-contract septet have played 1042 NRL games alone, and all bar Kennedy and Katoa would fetch a market value of $500,000 or more.
Talakai is expected to make a call on a three-year offer from the Perth Bears for 2027 in coming days, Ramien has been linked to the Gold Coast and North Queensland, while both Rudolf and McInnes have publicly declared interest in signing as franchise players for the PNG Chiefs from 2028.
Mezzatesta acknowledged “it’s going to be hard to compete on the money terms alone” with cashed up expansion outfits, and said the Sharks would not stand in the way of any player able to accept a longer or more lucrative deal than the club can offer.
“It’s going to be inevitable, we won’t be able to keep everyone,” Mezzatesta said at the Sharks season launch on Cronulla Esplanade this week.
It just won’t work. And I think as a message for the younger boys coming through, they need to know that they’re going to have their chance as well.
“So it is probably time that we start looking at who’s coming through the ranks. But our intent would be we’ll try and get as many [contract extensions] done as possible … for some of these guys that are at the end of their career when they’ve still got maybe a contract worth two or three years, it’s going to be hard to compete just on the money terms alone, let alone wanting us to keep everyone.
“But I think we’re realists as well. We’re not going to be able to fit everyone in the roster.”
Despite the looming upheaval, Cronulla have stars Blayke Brailey (signed until 2030), Nicho Hynes and KL Iro (2029) and Braydon Trindall, Ronaldo Mulitalo and Fonua-Blake (2028) all signed long-term. Fitzgibbon is also signed until the end of 2027.
Mezzatesta backed Sharks management to ensure the potentially “unsettling” contract talks do not derail the side’s premiership tilt.
Several Sharks players have spurned better money on the open market - most notably Bears target Brailey last year and Hamlin-Uele when the Warriors came calling in 2024 - to stay, while Kennedy accepted a six-figure pay cut in his deal.
“I think honesty and transparency is really important at this stage, and in particular for them at this point in their career,” Mezzatesta said.
“Toby Rudolf has been very vocal about getting out there to suggest he wants to look for a [rival offer] ... but clearly before he’s done that, he’s had a conversation with us as well.
“And I think you’ll find there’ll be a couple of other conversations along the similar sort of lines.
“If there is something out there for you which is going to give you tenure and a lot more money, then we’re certainly not going to stand in your way.
“Every player, their number one priority would be to stay with the club. But it’s going to be unfortunate if we can’t make it work mathematically.”
Seven Sharks stars with more than 1000 NRL games between them are off contract as the NRL’s most settled roster starts to evolve.
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