"Ding, dong, the witch is dead."
That simple phrase was so pointedly delivered by master coach Jack Gibson after the 1981 grand final ended decades of pain for long-suffering Parramatta Eels fans.
During this week in 1984, on July 16, the black, white and blue faithful hoped Gibson could perform a similar magic trick when he signed to coach the Cronulla Sharks for the 1985 season.
The 1984 season offered few highlights for Sharks supporters. The team finished the season in 10th position, a few wins north of the cellar but not quite within touching distance of the top five. A mass exodus of established first graders, combined with a hefty off-season injury toll, was partly to blame for the poor season, however a number of critics identified a lack of experience as the reason Cronulla didn't feature in the finals.
The season did, however, see the emergence of a crop of future stars. Jonathan Docking and Michael Porter both made their first-grade debuts, while Greg Nixon and Mark Wakefield showed they were more than capable of forging lengthy careers at the top level.
Perhaps the shining light of the season came when Gibson signed to take over from Terry Fearnley as the Cronulla Sharks' first-grade coach.
In the club-circulated monthly magazine, 'In League with the Sharks', Craig Regan wrote during this week in '84: "A dream became a reality last Monday, when Coaching doyen Jack Gibson agreed to head to the Sharks for 1985. It's common knowledge Gibson had been keen to link with the Sharks at some stage. He lives in the area. His children attend school or work in the district and play their sport here. This is Gibson's home."
It's detailed in Gibson's book, 'Supercoach, The Life and Times of Jack Gibson', that despite Cronulla's well-known financial problems, he decided to coach the Sharks as he knew the quality of the side having been led by his former teammate Fearnley.
Jack was buoyed by the knowledge he was bringing with him his trusty commandants in Ron Massey, Mick Souter and Alf Richards. Gibson said: "We are not going into the Cronulla club with a three- or five-year plan for success, we are looking for an immediate reaction from the Cronulla players next season."
Gibson's first task was to build a roster capable of matching it with the heavyweights of the competition. He negotiated the return of Dane and Kurt Sorensen from the Eastern Suburbs Roosters and brought home the Sharks' favourite son, Steve Rogers, from the Dragons.
He came within a whisker of signing Kiwi international Olsen Filipaina, who had agreed to join the Sharks on a handshake deal, however the agreement fell over at the eleventh hour when Filipaina was poached by Roosters coach Arthur Beetson.
On paper, the 1985 roster certainly looked like a side capable of giving the title a shake, and after their pre-season demolition of 1984 runners-up the Parramatta Eels, many experts had the Sharks pencilled in as finalists come season's end.
Unfortunately, the season all but ended on the opening weekend when captain Steve Rogers was helped from the field having had his jaw shattered by the Bulldogs' Mark Bugden. Asked recently about the effect Rogers' injury had on the team, fullback Docking recalled: "It was devastating, our whole pre-season centred around Sludge, and all of a sudden he was gone."
Finishing the season with 11 wins and 13 losses, Cronulla failed to make a dent on the premiership, finishing five points outside the top five. The season wasn't without its reward, however, with David Hatch claiming the Dally M award for Captain of the Year, Dean Carney finishing atop the competition point-scoring list and four Sharks selected to tour Papua New Guinea with the President's XIII – Andrew Ettingshausen, Hatch, Carney and Docking.
Sadly, the injury curse of 1985 continued into the following season. Tony Adams wrote in the 1986 Big League Annual: "A big black cloud seemed to hang over Ronson Field for much of the season, sidelining many of the Sharks' key players and costing the club any hope of making the finals."
Cronulla finished the 1986 season in 10th position, only five points off the wooden spoon. Two seasons into Gibson's tenure and the task of bringing that elusive premiership to the Sharks was proving difficult.
In 1987, the Sharks climbed the ladder to eighth position, only four points below the fifth-placed South Sydney Rabbitohs, but Gibson's tenure was done. Not long after leaving, he dropped the famous quote: "Waiting for Cronulla to win a premiership is like leaving the porch light on for Harold Holt." This was a nod to Australia's 17th Prime Minister, who disappeared in 1967 whilst swimming at Cheviot Beach near Point Nepean in Victoria.
In summing up Gibson's tenure at Cronulla, secretary Peter Riley wrote in the 1987 Annual Report: "Season 1987 saw the completion of Jack Gibson's term as head coach. Although unsuccessful in the quest for the title, he left the Club in a far better position and more united than when he arrived. This surely is the measuring stick when we talk of success."
As for Harold Holt, well, he never made it back to the shores of Victoria, however the Shire as a collective did turn off the porch light on October 2, 2016.
