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.

4. Which forwards will stand up in a fight for 2025 spots?

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.