2006 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season

The 2006 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season was the 40th in the club's history. They competed in the 2006 National Rugby League season.

2006 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks season
NRL Rank13th
2006 recordWins: 9; Draws: 0; Losses: 15
Points scoredFor: 515 (88 tries, 81 goals, 1 field goal); Against: 544 (96 tries, 80 goals)
Team information
CoachStuart Raper
Captain
StadiumToyota Park
Avg. Attend.12,488
Top scorers
TriesDarren Albert (12)
GoalsLuke Covell (80)
PointsLuke Covell (192)
< 2005 2007 >

Season summary

The off-season was highlighted by the huge but controversial signing of former St. George Illawarra Dragons favourite Lance Thompson who was let go by the Dragons due to salary cap issues and in-fighting occurring at that club.

Following a first round bye, the Sharks had a slow start to the season before a win against the South Sydney Rabbitohs in round four appeared to get things going. There were mixed results throughout the season, including two wins against the previous year's grand finalists North Queensland and a home win against the St. George Illawarra Dragons (its first against them since 2002), however after its round 16 away win against the Newcastle Knights in Newcastle everything started to fall apart with the Sharks, seemingly on their way to the finals, losing their last nine matches of the season. By the season's end, the Sharks had fallen to 13th place (third-last) and coach Stuart Raper, knowing his time was up, was sacked. There were calls from passionate Sharks fans and the media for Ricky Stuart, at the time the Test coach who had also just been dismissed by the Sydney Roosters, to be installed as Cronulla coach. Ending months of speculation, Stuart was signed on as Sharks coach in the belief that the Sharks would once again return to the summit of the competition.

Ladder

Team Pld W D L B F A PD Pts
1 Melbourne 2420042605404+20144
2 Bulldogs 2416082608468+14036
3 Brisbane 24140102497392+10532
4 Newcastle 24140102608538+7032
5 Manly-Warringah 24140102534493+4132
6 St. George Illawarra 24140102519481+3832
7 Canberra 24130112525573-4830
8 Parramatta 24120122506483+2328
9 North Queensland 24110132450463-1326
10 New Zealand 24120122552463+89241
11 Wests Tigers 24100142490565-7524
12 Penrith 24100142510587-7724
13 Cronulla-Sutherland 2490152515544-2922
14 Sydney Roosters 2480162528650-12220
15 South Sydney 2430212429772-34310

1: The New Zealand Warriors were deducted 4 competition points due to gross salary cap breaches.

Club Awards

References

    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.