Lacklustre and tired: Should we be concerned about Cronulla?

Ben Gardiner has questioned the performance of the Cronulla Sharks following their 36-12 loss to South Sydney.

After back-to-back preliminary finals, the Sharks have struggled to find their form in 2026, particularly on the defensive end of the ball, conceding 27 points per game (11th in the competition).

Having now won one of their last four games, Cronulla now sits outside of the eight entering into Magic Round.

Reflecting on their poor run of form, the Perth Bears’ assistant coach noted the side was struggling to find consistency in performance.

“It's almost like they prepare to grind when they talk about grinding for the week, and then the games where they don't talk about it, they can't actually go back to it when they need (it),” Gardiner explained on SEN’s Front Office with Vossy.

“I thought on the weekend, they looked lacklustre, they actually looked tired, which was unusual.

“I went back and had a look at their last few weeks to see (if they) have been travelling and all of that sort of stuff.

“They went to North Queensland a few weeks ago, and that was a hot game, and you sort of go, ‘Does that impact how they're performing?’

“But then I looked last week, and they had that big high scoring game (against Wests Tigers). It's completely up and down.

“Talking about engaging the line, I just didn't think their halves engaged the line one little bit.

“When they are doing that and when they've got speed going to the line, I think they're at their best, but they just didn't have any of that on the weekend.

“It's sort of like, half of this and half of that, and they need to really invest in it.”

The Sharks will kickstart the NRL’s Magic Round against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

SEN League will have live coverage of the match from 5pm AEST with kick-off taking place at 6pm.

That call can be heard across SEN’s radio network and on the SEN app.