The Cronulla Sharks have officially signed Addin Fonua-Blake for the 2025 season and beyond, and in doing so, have all but certainly opened their premiership window.
12 months is a long time in rugby league, and plenty of water can and potentially will still pass under the bridge.
Player movements, contracts not being worth the paper they are written on, form, injuries. There are still plenty of hazards in the way of Craig Fitzgibbon's side who have made the finals during each of his first two years in charge.
But if all is equal and the Sharks don't have major upsets run through the club over the next 12 months, their off-contract list at the end of 2024 is somewhat inconsequential.
They will want to lock up Jesse Colquhoun and Bradin Hamlin-Uele, as well as Jack Williams and youngsters Kayal Iro and Niwhai Puru, but even if they lose all five of those players, the entire group are replaceable, whether from outside the club or indeed from within their own pathways.
That means the nucleus of Craig Fitzgibbon's side is locked in long-term and with a number of young players looking to break into the side - Iro and Colquhoun are among them, but you can add the likes of young back Sam Stonestreet, and Daniel Atkinson, the recently acquired Michael Gabrael, Siteni Taukamo and Max Bradbury - the competition for spots will be enough to keep the established stars on their toes.
It's clear the Sharks are in a good place as they move into the future, but now, they have added a key piece who has the ability to address the biggest criticism levelled at the club over the last 24 months.
That they are a one-man team.
And while it's criticism the Sharks themselves will hit back at, pointing at performances of the likes of William Kennedy, their outside backs, or the work in the forwards from players like Cameron McInnes, Teig Wilton or Ronaldo Mulitalo, to some extent, it has to be viewed as true.
Nicho Hynes has been simply phenomenal. He won the Dally M Medal in a record landslide last year. No NRL team finishes in the top four based on one player, but without Hynes, you have to question whether the Sharks would have made the top eight in 2022, let alone the top four.
The star halfback wasn't quite as good in 2023. That's by his own admission as much as anyone else, but he was still among the game's best halfbacks, the Sharks best player by a country mile, and, ultimately, the reason they played finals football again.
You could very easily mount the argument he was the only reason they were competitive in what was ultimately a losing effort against the Sydney Roosters in the club's Week 1 elimination final.
But from 2025, he won't need to be that anymore, and with the aforementioned development of other young players at the club, the Sharks could be a real premiership force.
Those who have been somewhat optimistic about Cronulla have still had a criticism to level their way - that they are short a big-name prop.
It's little surprise they were in the mix for David Klemmer's signature 12 months ago. They lost him to the Tigers, but the extra wait might have landed them the best name possible, unless they could have got their hands on Payne Haas which was simply never going to become a reality for anyone apart from the Brisbane Broncos.
Fonua-Blake is the only prop in the competition who can match the ferocity of Haas, but also the raw talent, skill and consistency, as well as big minutes.
Even then he is probably short of Haas, but there was a clear cut best two props in the game during 2023. Haas, then Fonua-Blake.
The departing Warriors prop was simply fantastic for the Auckland-based outfit, who surprised the NRL to sit in the top eight, then the top four, finish there, and then make a preliminary final which they ultimately lost to the Broncos and Haas.
Fonua-Blake may not have got the credit he deserved given the seasons of Shaun Johnson and Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, but his 2023 numbers speak for themselves in what was a career-best season for the star forward.
Twenty-six games, nine tries, 73 tackle breaks, 35 offloads, 714 tackles at almost 96 per cent efficiency and 171 metres per game. Those numbers are elite.
If he can match that form, Fonua-Blake will be a weapon for the Sharks, and the game-breaker who can take the club from a finals guarantee to a premiership hopeful come the start of the 2025 season.
The length of contract, at four years, means he will be 29 before he joins and 32 by the end. It could prove too long, but ultimately, if he helps deliver the Sharks their first premiership since 2016 in the time period, it will be the best piece of business Cronulla have done since they signed Hynes, and possibly will even exceed that.
The sky is the limit for the Sharks in 2025, and it's all down to filling the biggest gap they had left.
