The 2021 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season was the 55th in the club's history. The club was coached by

Josh Hannay Josh Hannay (born 11 January 1980) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is an assistant coach of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL and assistant coach of the Queensland rugby league team. He is also a former professional ...

in an interim role and captained by

Wade Graham Wade Graham (born 25 October 1990) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a forward and captained the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League (NRL). He has played for at international level ...

. The team was initially coached by John Morris, who was relinquished of his duties following the signing of

Craig Fitzgibbon Craig Fitzgibbon (born 16 June 1977) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League, NRL and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990 ...

as coach for the

2022 NRL season The 2022 NRL season was the 115th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 25th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive year. This became the second longest ...

. The team competed in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

's 2021 Telstra Premiership.

Milestones

*Round 1:

Aaron Woods Aaron Woods (born 13 March 1991) is an Australian former rugby league forward who captained Wests Tigers and played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, St. George Illawarra Dragons and Manly Warringah Sea Eagle ...

played his 50th game for the club. *Round 1:

Aiden Tolman Aiden Tolman (born 10 November 1988) is a former Australian professional rugby league footballer who last played as a for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL. He previously played for the Melbourne Storm and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bull ...

made his debut for the club, after previously playing for the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilitated by ...

. *Round 2:

played his 250th career game. *Round 4:

Teig Wilton Teig Wilton (born 25 September 1999) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a forward for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League (NRL). Background Wilton played his junior rugby league for the Narooma Devi ...

scored his 1st career try. *Round 6: Braden Hamlin-Uele played his 50th career game. *Round 8:

Will Chambers William Chambers (born 26 May 1988 in Brisbane) is an Australian retired rugby league and rugby union, union footballer who last played for the LA Giltinis in Major League Rugby (MLR) in the United States. After winning two titles with the Mel ...

made his debut for the club, after previously playing for the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

. *Round 9:

Matt Moylan Matthew Moylan (born 16 June 1991) is a retired Australia international rugby league footballer. He played for the Penrith Panthers from 2013–17 and captained the club from 2016-17 in the NRL. He played for the Cronulla Sharks from 2018-23. ...

played his 50th game for the club. *Round 12:

Shaun Johnson Shaun Ly Johnson (born 9 September 1990) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who last played as a for the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League and New Zealand national rugby league team, New Zealand at in ...

played his 200th career game. *Round 12: Briton Nikora played his 50th career and club game. *Round 12: Franklin Pele made his

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

debut for the club. *Round 15:

scored his 1st try for the club. *Round 16:

scored his 1st try for the club. *Round 17: Braydon Trindall scored his 1st career try. *Round 19: Toby Rudolf scored his 1st career try. *Round 20:

Luke Metcalf Luke Metcalf (born 1 March 1999) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the New Zealand Warriors in the National Rugby League (NRL). He previously played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL. Early ...

made his

debut for the club. *Round 23:

scored his 1st career try.

Fixtures

Pre-season

Source:

Regular season

Source:

Ladder

Coaching staff

Source: *

— NRL Head Coach (Interim) *Darren Mooney — General Manager – Football *Mark Noakes — NRL Performance Operations *Nathan Pickworth — Head of Performance * Dave Howlett — NRL Assistant Coach *

Paul Gallen Paul Gallen (born 14 August 1981) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and occassional professional boxer. He played as a and forward and captained the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL to their maiden NRL Premiers ...

– NRL Specialist coach *

Luke Lewis Luke Lewis (born 11 August 1983) is an Australian rugby league commentator and former professional rugby league footballer who played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Penrith Panthers in the National Rugby League (NRL) and Australia ...

– NRL Specialist coach * Daniel Holdsworth – Elite Development Coach/NRL Assistant * Tony Grimaldi — Strength and Conditioning Coach *Alex Clarke — Strength Coach *Dave Garrick – NRL Physiotherapist *Pat Williams – NRL Physiotherapist *John Davey – Sports Scientist *Marc Leabres – Performance Analyst *Luke Mace - NRL Operations *Amanda King – Education and Wellbeing *

Jeff Robson Jeff Robson (born 5 August 1982) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who last played for the Parramatta Eels. He played primarily as a . Playing career Robson made his NRL debut for the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in 2 ...

– Education and Wellbeing * Glenn Brailey – Academy and Talent Identification *Dr. George Pitsis – Club Doctor

Squad

Player movements

Losses * Bryson Goodwin ''to'' released *

''to'' released (mid-season) *

Cameron King Cameron King (born 17 September 1991) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 2010s. He made his debut for the St. George Illawarra Dragons in the National Rugby League, NRL in 2010 with whom he wo ...

''to''

Townsville Blackhawks The Townsville & Districts Blackhawks are an Australian semi-professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. The club was admitted to the Que ...

(

Intrust Super Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL) and is contested by fif ...

) *

Nene Macdonald Nene Macdonald (born 11 May 1994) is a Papua New Guinean professional rugby league footballer, who last played as a er or for Salford Red Devils in the Betfred Super League, Super League, and Papua New Guinea national rugby league team, Papua ...

''to''

Norths Devils The Northern Suburbs Devils, or North Brisbane Devils, or often simply referred to as Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They pl ...

(

) (mid-season) *

Scott Sorensen Scott Sorensen (born 16 March 1993) is a New Zealand national rugby league team, New Zealand international rugby league footballer who plays as a forward and for the Penrith Panthers in the National Rugby League, NRL. He won the 2021 NRL Gra ...

''to''

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...

Chad Townsend Chad Townsend (born 10 January 1991) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League (NRL). He previously played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks from 2011-2013 as a ...

''to''

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

(mid-season) * Bronson Xerri ''to'' suspended (mid-season) Gains *

''from''

Suntory Sungoliath Tokyo Sungoliath (formerly known as Suntory Sungoliath) is owned by the Suntory beverage company and is one of the Japanese rugby union teams in the Top League. The team is based in Fuchū, Tokyo, as is their local rival Toshiba Brave Lupus. The t ...

(

Top League Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by ...

) (mid-season) * Jack Martin ''from''

Ipswich Jets The Ipswich Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Ipswich, Queensland. Their name comes from nearby RAAF Base Amberley, one of the largest airbases in Australia. The Jets compete in the Queensland Cup competition. Original ...

(

Hastings Deering Colts The Hastings Deering Colts was a junior rugby league competition based in Queensland, contested among teams made up of players aged 21 or under. The competition was administered by the Queensland Rugby League (QRL), and was contested by fourteen ...

) *

''from''

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League sea ...

* Kai O'Donnell ''from''

Mackay Cutters The Mackay Cutters are a semi-professional rugby league football club based in Mackay, Queensland. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. The club was admitted to the Queensland Cup in 2007, alongside th ...

(

) (mid-season) *

''from''

Player Appearances

Representative honours

* Bold denotes players who captained their respective teams. * (ToS) - Train on Squad ¹ –

Ronaldo Mulitalo Ronaldo Mulitalo (born 17 November 1999) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a er for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League (NRL). He has played for the , and at an international level. Background Mu ...

was originally set to make his debut for the

Queensland Maroons The Queensland rugby league team represents the Australian state of Queensland in rugby league football. Nicknamed the "Maroons" after the colour of their jersey, they play three times a year against arch-rivals New South Wales rugby league tea ...

but was found to be ineligible despite having played representative rugby league for Queensland's under 18s and under 20s sides.

Squad statistics

Statistics Source:

NSWRL Major Comps

Knock-On Effect NSW Cup (Newtown Jets)

Pre-season

Source:

Regular season

Source:

Jersey Flegg Cup (U21s)

Regular season

Source:

Harvey Norman Women's Premiership

Regular season

Source: *The Sharks were originally set to compete in the Harvey Norman Women's Premiership finals series. Due to the COVID lockdown situation in Sydney as well as surrounding areas, the NSWRL made the decision to cancel qualifying matches and head straight to a grand final, eliminating the Sharks from the competition.

NSWRL Junior Reps

SG Ball Cup (U19s)

Regular season

Source:

Harold Matthews Cup (U17s)

Regular season

Source:

Tarsha Gale Cup (U19s)

Regular season

Source:

Finals series

References

{{2021 in rugby league

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Sutherland Shire of Southern Sydney, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. Cronulla compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugb ...

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks seasons