WHICHEVER way you look at the club - and no matter what you call them - Cronulla have paid their dues. But that doesn't mean winning a grand final is going to get any easier.
Cronulla-Sutherland entered the NSW rugby league competition in 1967, along with Penrith, the first expansion teams of rugby league since Manly and Parramatta joined 20 seasons earlier.
Just seven years after their introduction, Cronulla's first grand final challenge was to be against Manly. The 1973 Cronulla team had vied with Manly at the top of the ladder for the entire season and were worthy opponents.
When Cronulla played Manly for the 1973 premiership, the federal Labor government had just devalued the Australian dollar for the second time in a desperate attempt to control inflation.
Til Death Do Us Part was the hit TV show and Muhammad Ali had just won a points decision in his heavyweight replay with Ken Norton, who had previously broken Ali's jaw.
And Manly coach Ron Willey got the opposition he was expecting. Willey prepared his team well. His "physical contact" training sessions during the season were risky but toughened his men for what was to prove a very tough grand final.
A 60,000 crowd was expected at the SCG and two million people were to watch the sell-out - albeit on black and white TV.
Cronulla were up against a star-studded Manly outfit. Almost the entire team were international players and most of them today are legends in the game. The Manly grand final team listed names such as Graham Eadie, Ken Irvine, Bob Fulton, Mal Reilly, Terry Randall and John O'Neill.
By contrast, Cronulla was banking on a front row of Cliff Watson, Ron Turner and Grahame Bowen as the basis of their challenge with Greg Pierce and Steve Rogers along with Tommy Bishop, captaincoach, adding flair and experience.
Manly were long odds-on to beat the Sharks. Bishop evoked the memories of Balmain's tenacious 1969 grand final win over South Sydney saying: "We can do it, too. Manly are not invincible.
"They do get bustled when things don't go their way. We are in with a fighting chance."
As bare-faced tactics went, Manly had to stand up to the Cronulla front row and stop Tommy Bishop. Cronulla had, primarily, to stop the game breakers, Fulton and Reilly.
Bishop was screaming at his players. Greg Pierce and Chris Wellman couldn't keep still and a young Steve Rogers kept taking off in short sharp bursts to remind us of his blistering speed off the mark.
When it was over Johnny Raper called it: "The most vicious game I've ever seen. It was disgusting." One writer suggested the match should have been played in the old Rushcutters Bay Stadium, home to Sydney boxing contests. Fighting, kneeing, finger stomping and king hits behind play were commonplace. Not everyone was as horrified as Raper. Perhaps it depended on your point of view. Granite hard prop Kevin Ryan later described the match as: "The best game of footy I've seen in years."
The score? 10-7 to Manly in a match in which Bob Fulton starred. Five seasons were to pass before Cronulla made another grand final - and again their opponents were the odds-on favourites, Manly.
This time four million would watch the match, some on the luxurious coloured TV.
In 1978, the Liberals were promising to drop the toll on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Electronic Sales and Rentals were offering "coin in the slot" TV for those who could not afford to buy and Hooker Homes were offering home and land packages at Campbelltown for $45 a week.
Cronulla "promised" to win the match for their suspended skipper Greg Pierce, who had copped four matches in the semis.
Norm Provan, the Cronulla coach, made the honest judgment that his side might be a bit behind the eight ball in the forwards. Try getting a modern coach to admit that.
The grand final was a lifeless affair, the only excitement evoked by last-minute attempts at field goals by Steve Rogers and Steve Martin as they tried to break an 11-all deadlock.
No extra time was played and the grand final was replayed the following Tuesday. Provan took his team into a secret camp and coached them to smother the Manly backline.
The previous year the grand final had also been drawn and one of the coaches, St George's Harry Bath, was to suggest this replayed grand final might also be drawn, too.
Football officials cautiously said another draw would mean historic joint-premiers but they need not have bothered. Manly won another drab game 16-0 after establishing a 15-0 lead at halftime.
Graham Eadie was the hero as Manly won their fourth premiership in seven seasons. Were they of a mind, the Manly players could have celebrated with the popular Spumante sparkling wine at just $1.29 a bottle.
Those games are now but memories but you could forgive the ardent Cronulla fan his curses this year. In the 1970s their team ran into Manly, the power house of the NSWRL competition.
Now this year, in Super League, they have come up against Brisbane, a club with a similarly imposing record. And once again the Sharks are the underdogs.
HOW THE TEAMS LINED UP
1973
CRONULLA: Warren Fisher, Ray Corcoran, Steve Rogers, Eric Archer, Bob Wear, Chris Wellman, Tommy Bishop, Greg Pierce, John Maguire, Ken Maddison, Cliff Watson, Ron Turner, Grahame Bowen.
MANLY: Graham Eadie, Ken Irvine, Bob Fulton, Ray Branighan, Max Brown, Ian Martin, Johnny Mayes, Mal Reilly, Terry Randall, Peter Peters, John O'Neill, Fred Jones, Bill Hamilton.
