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.
5. What to do with McInnes and Finucane?
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.
