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.
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.
Blayke Brailey came out of the 2023 season with plenty of fans, but also plenty of detractors, with many Sharks fans left with a head-scratching question or two over both decisions he made in attack and defence.
That's not to say Brailey is a poor player, but he certainly hasn't yet proved he is going to be the number nine for a premiership-winning outfit at any point in his career.
Fitzgibbon has regularly talked about Brailey's work ethic, particularly in defence, but that isn't really what those who question his ability ask.
Instead, it's questions around his dummy half service, whether he can improve his kicking and running game, and increase his rugby league IQ which at times, particularly in moments of their knockout elimination final against the Sydney Roosters in 2023, has been poor.
The Sharks aren't about to move on Brailey - he is still contracted for another three years, but Jayden Berrell, who has been snapping for a first-grade opportunity since signing with the club from the QLD Cup, is on the cusp of pushing his way into first-grade, and Brailey may need a strong start to the campaign to ward it off.
One big selection question will be exactly what role Siosifa Talakai will play throughout the 2024 campaign.
He has become a centre in recent years, but it's arguable that isn't his best position, with the damaging ball-runner instead suited to a position in the second-row, or, given some of Cronulla's lack of intimidation through the middle, even a bench role there where he could turn into the ultimate non-spine utility.
The other advantage of moving Talakai out of the centres is that it frees up a position there for young gun Kayal Iro.
Iro has been linked with an exit from the club over the last 12 months over a lack of playing time, and given he is might as well be the future of the Sharks in 2024, this is one that they must address this season to ensure he wants to hang around long-term.
It's a contract year too for Iro, so it's not even as if the Sharks could sit on their hands and block a release. It's now or never for Iro to crack first-grade at the Sharks, and playing Talakai out of the centres could be beneficial both long and short term for the club.
As mentioned in the introduction of this piece, Addin Fonua-Blake has signed with the Sharks for the 2025 season.
This applies to almost any club in the competition, and goes without saying, but he certainly hasn't signed to play limited minutes off the bench. He will walk into Cronulla's starting side and play big minutes, continuing his prominence as one of the NRL's most damaging forwards.
It means that any forwards off-contract at the end of 2024 - being Jesse Colquhoun, Braden Hamlin-Uele, Oregon Kaufusi and Jack Williams - are now automatically playing for their futures in black, white and blue. Frankly, even those who have guaranteed spots at the club will need to provide enormous upticks in form if they are to ward off even the question of their spot being the one which is taken by Fonua-Blake.
Aside from that, if the Sharks want to improve in 2024, then it must be led through the middle third where they have often struggled to match it with the competition's top teams over the last two years. In fact, you could argue that every bad loss they have had in that time period has seen them steamrolled up the middle.
It's time for the likes of Toby Rudolf, Royce Hunt and Braden Hamlin-Uele to simply be better in 2024 if the Sharks are to improve at all.
One of the problems the Sharks have had over the last 24 months is having two very similar players where there is realistically only room for one.
Cameron McInnes might have started his career as a dummy half, but he certainly isn't that anymore after becoming one of the game's most vicious defensive lock forwards.
Dale Finucane, who arrived at Cronulla the same time McInnes did, also to play lock, is also consistent but has faded from the level he once possessed in recent times.
The bottom line is that, in a modern game where the lock role continues to evolve into something of a third playmaker in a forward's body, there is barely room for either McInnes or Finucane the way the Sharks play the game - that is, with a forward pack on the smaller side - let alone both.
And yet, the money they are, on the experience they bring, and the impact they both undoubtedly have on the club off the field, they both demand being picked each week.
That is a headache for coach Craig Fitzgibbon, and not an overly enviable position where at best, he needs to pick one to come off the bench, and at worst, he could well wind up dropping one to open the route for more minutes to some of the younger players at the club such as Jesse Colquhoun or Thomas Hezelton.