Is NRL penalty an SOS to Sharks?

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IT TAKES a big heart to be a Cronulla fan - it is why the world is full of Manchester United and New York Yankees fans.

So we should feel for them today, as their club builds towards another bid for a maiden premiership with a new coach following the NRL's ban of Shane Flanagan.

But it does not sit right that the provisional fine for the Sharks of $1 million, minus a $400,000 suspended sum, for their handling in 2011 of the club's supplements program has been tailored by the NRL to suit the financial resources of one of their poorest clubs.

Quite how this is a good idea as a precedent for the next club with staffers inclined to cut corners or become adventurous in their use of supplements, I don't know.

"The $400,000 is there to help the club implement better governance and better thing going forward,'' NRL chief operating officer Jim Doyle said.

"It's to help them as a football club, rather than hit them with a $1 million fine.''

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NRL CEO Dave Smith offered as a virtue the thoroughness and time taken by the NRL's investigation into the behaviour by Cronulla in 2011, which was held separately to inquiries by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

While we cannot work on the basis that the conduct at Cronulla in 2011 and Essendon in 2012 were similar, both the NRL and AFL had the starter's gun for supplements go off for them on pretty much the same day. That was 10 months ago, when the Australian Crime Commission made headline-grabbing claims about Australian sport.

The AFL ruled in late August that the governance and supplement use by Essendon in 2012 was such that the Bombers and their coach James Hird should not be contesting the 2013 finals.

The NRL's finals series was run and done, with Cronulla involved and mercifully eliminated, for more than two months before the NRL provisionally suspended coach Flanagan.

Can you imagine where we would be now had the Sharks won last year's premiership?

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But one thing Smith had on his side in that choice was that he was dealing with Cronulla. In 47 previous seasons, they had always found a way to not win the competition.

Flanagan's ban covers the same 12-month ban period to which Hird agreed, while Cronulla's fine is effectively $1.4 million less than the AFL gained from Essendon.

"It's a very complex set of conditions for both codes,'' Smith said.

"Any comparison with the AFL is inevitable. My absolute commitment has been to this code following a true process that is fair and doesn't overreact and takes everything into consideration.''

Governance at the Sharks has been left by the NRL with the club directors, some of whom went behind interim Cronulla CEO Bruno Cullen's back in July to reinstate suspended staffers.

One of those staffers, Flanagan, has now been provisionally suspended again.

"Their performance on the field through some trying circumstances showed courage and determination,'' Smith said yesterday.

"The new leadership … are doing all the right things.''

Sharks CEO Damien Keogh arrives at Cronulla Sharks Leagues Club. Source: News Limited

For the sake of the Cronulla fans he urged to get behind the board, I hope Smith's confidence in the Sharks directors and management is well placed.

When he remarked that he wanted to see the Sharks "move towards a stronger position'', Smith wasn't necessarily thinking about Queensland.

The Central Queensland bid team made it clear this week if they would need, oh, about 15 minutes, if the NRL chose to relocate the Sharks at Rockhampton in the fallout from the club's governance issues and general financial future.

Hopefully the scope of the NRL's broadcast deal allows the Sharks to putter along in their beloved "Shire'' for however long it takes rugby league to decide that 10 teams in NSW is too many.

We've been having that conversation for more than 20 years already, so, hey, no real rush.