The Cronulla Sharks were again on the cusp of more in 2023, but a lack of depth and winning mentality in the finals again saw the men from the Shire come up short.
2024 promises more of the same for the Sharks - a side who are good enough to compete and challenge, but unlikely to be able to win a handful of straight games through the finals to take the premiership.
For some, attention on this Sharks outfit having a genuine premiership window being open will have already turned to 2025 following the recent announcement by the club that they have signed released Warriors prop Addin Fonua-Blake from the start of that campaign.
But there is a full season that the playing group won't want to be writing off before that, with Nicho Hynes again to be the man leading from the front, although with a significant personnel change in the halves alongside him.
Here are the big questions that will define season 2024 for the Sharks.
1. Can Braydon Trindall provide what Matt Moylan couldn't?
The Cronulla Sharks will enter the 2024 season with a clear-cut number six, following the off-season departure of Matt Moylan.
Despite the solid return to prominence Moylan enjoyed in the last two years, his form dropped off at the end end of last season, and it's clear the Sharks had to go in a new direction.
While Trindall finished the season in first-grade, the fact he will enter 2024 as the clear-cut number six is a major vote of faith in him from the club coaching and recruitment staff.
The thing with the Sharks is this - they are always going to be guided by Nicho Hynes. If he wants the ball, he gets it. That is just the truth of the situation when you have one of the game's best halves who has almost single-handedly dragged the black, white and blue into the finals over the last two years.
Without Hynes, you really do shudder to imagine exactly where Cronulla would have been riding on the table over the last two years.
That's not to say they don't have other talent littered throughout the side, but Hynes is really the player who has brought it together. It's little surprise that if the Sharks win, Hynes is generally in their top handful of performers on the park.
That said, he needs support, and there is a real feeling that Trindall, who finished 2023 strongly and comes into the new year as the first-choice, may be able to benefit from a strong pre-season and be just that for Hynes.
