When Michael Ennis was handed his first Cronulla jersey at a function at Sharkies Leagues Club two years ago, he had a simple message for his new teammates.
"The thing I want to come with this jersey is what I experienced at Belmore," he told them.
Ennis had come from the Bulldogs where they count success in terms of premierships, not finals appearances. They need two hands to count their grand final wins. (That's eight, for the record). They also have the most passionate supporters in the game.
In 2012, after the Dogs humbled Souths in the preliminary final, the team bus slowly made its way up Burwood Road and the fans duly swamped it.
The police tried to hold back the throng but in the end they were jumping in front of the bus, too, because they were also Doggies fans.
Says Ennis: "I would love to pull out of here on grand final day and see Captain Cook Drive lined with Sharks fans. I'd love that."
Now, the cynical line is that there isn't enough Sharks fans to line the driveway of the Leagues Club let alone Captain Cook Drive.
The crowd of 36,717 at Allianz Stadium for last Friday night's preliminary final win over the Cowboys suggests the old jerseys with "Power's" splashed across the guts have been pulled from the mothballs and are getting another run.
A club is the sum of many parts but the sins of the past makes it difficult for those outside of the Cronulla family to embrace them.
I'd suspect Sharks fans don't particularly care if you are with them or against them for the grand final against Melbourne on Sunday night. Just give me a premiership, they will say.
And they deserve one because few supporters have gone through as much in recent times, with the possible exception of those from Parramatta. At least they have former premierships to dine out on.
Leave the light on: The Sharks fans paid tribute to the famous Jack Gibson comment. Photo: Getty Images
There's a fairytale just dying to burst out of the Sharks this week, and for all of those conflicted about what they should feel about the club as it seeks its first title, the relief of its supporter base is a good place to start.
For decades, Cronulla oscillated between glamour club - think ET, think Elle, don't think about Gavin Miller's nose - and one on the brink of collapse because of debt and cash flow problems.
They could never quite get it together. Sometimes, they have come so close. Most times, they've never looked so far away.
Their fans, seemingly, have been content to go with the flow.
While supporters from neighbouring arch rivals St George rapidly devour their own and call for everyone to be sacked, their Cronulla counterparts have often patted their coaches and players on the back and accepted mediocrity.
Then the ASADA scandal hit.
Few at Cronulla will want to talk this week about that episode and that is more than understandable. Yet it provides an interesting juxtaposition to those jubilant scenes on fulltime against the Cowboys last Friday night as teary players embraced teary fans.
Long overdue: The Sharks fans have stayed true despite the ASADA scandal in 2014. Photo: Getty Images
Reports around that time about the NRL wanting to relocate the Sharks to Perth or central Queensland were on the money. It came from the same officials who wanted Canberra to wither on the vine. They wanted the basket case of Cronulla to just go away.
The Sharks finished last in 2014 but they still managed to hold on.
There is so much of what happened from that period that still doesn't seem right.
Coach Shane Flanagan kept his job despite being in charge of a football department that allowed sports scientist Stephen Dank to wreak havoc over a three-week period that saw players administered with banned and unknown substances.
Others lost their position in the game and subsequently their homes because they could not pay the mortgage. Nobody lost out more than former strength and conditioning coach Trent Elkin.
The players received three-week suspensions after accepting backdated 12-month bans.
Those no longer there have launched legal proceedings against the club, no doubt aggrieved at being railroaded into the same ban as the handful of players who continued to see Dank "off reservation" when they were told not to do so.
Chairman Damian Keogh and his board has routinely copped it in the neck for standing by Flanagan, even if they had swept to power on the promise of doing so.
After being suspended for a year, Flanagan was given a contract extension.
Shane Flanagan was re-signed despite a year suspension. Photo: Chris Lane
Meanwhile, down at Essendon, coach James Hird was eventually pushed out the door because he gave Dank the keys of the Ferrari.
Say what you want about the coach but this quote from an interview with Fairfax Media earlier this year neatly captures what happened at Cronulla: "It was a good club with good people with good intentions. We were hoodwinked by a bloke who came in here for a couple of weeks and caused nearly irreparable damage. We just survived that period."
They have survived. And it is a good club with good people and good intentions.
And while your favourite player might not be Paul Gallen or Mick Ennis or Wade Graham or Ben Barba and certainly not Andrew Fifita, the fairytale is bursting to get out for the most patient fans in the history of the game.
