Donation policy and Player Appearance requests /

Sharks Have Heart receive many requests for donations and player appearances throughout each season.

Our primary focus is on supporting our nominated Charity Partners each year as well as the organisations that are associated with the Sharks Group. The Sharks Group does not provide financial support and or make financial contributions to organisations, charity groups or individuals.

(a)   Signing of Merchandise

Our club does not accept any merchandise items sent in for signing including football cards. All items will be returned (at cost to the addressee) unsigned. We do not take responsibility for any merchandise received that may end up missing or addressed incorrectly.

Alternatively, you can become a Sharks Football Club Member and receive exclusive invites to members only fan days and open training sessions where you can seek to get merchandise signed.

(b)  Donation Policy

We are grateful recipients of exceptional support, strength and motivation from countless devoted members and fans. While the club endeavours to support where we can, unfortunately we are unable to fulfil every worthwhile request due to the overwhelming volume of requests received each day.

Please note: The Sharks Group does not donate any merchandise and/or donate any previous year’s merchandise. All merchandise must be purchased via the Sharks Store.

We will only seek to donate to an organisation/group/individual once per year.

If you reside outside of the Sutherland Shire, please contact your local NRL club first as well as the NRL's Community Department to put forward your request.

Preference will be given to the following groups/organisations:

• Sutherland Shire-based rugby league clubs and sporting partners who put forward an online request for assistance in addition to their own fundraising efforts.
• Sutherland Shire-based primary and high schools who are actively involved in Sharks Have Heart programs and/or rugby league programs organised with our local NRL Game Development Officers.
• Nominated charity partners for each season.

(c)   NRL & NRLW Player Appearances

Our NRL and NRLW players adhere to strict training programs and scheduled days off, as mandated by the RLPA, which both the club and our playing group must abide by. As a high-performance sporting organisation, player performance will always take priority over other business activities, including player appearances. We kindly ask each applicant to understand and accept this guiding principle before submitting an online application to avoid dissatisfaction with a possible unfavourable outcome.

Please note the following:

• All player appearance requests must be made four weeks prior to your event. You must clearly state in your online application what the event is, what you are after, who it is for, and how you will benefit the community. Failure to submit a clear and reasonable request in the online form will not be accepted.
• All NRL and NRLW players are not available for appearances one day before a game, on game day, and throughout their respective finals series.
• No specific player can be requested for your event. All NRL and NRLW players are considered as equals.
• The Sharks will not engage in any personal appearances such as birthdays, weddings and funerals.
• The Sharks will not engage in any video messages for birthdays, weddings and funerals.

We do not fulfil requests that are not focused on fundraising or supporting a community-based not-for-profit organisation. Priority will always be given to our selected charity and sporting partners, Cronulla JRL clubs, and schools based in the Sutherland Shire who actively engage in Sharks Have Heart programs.

(d)  Online Application – Donation & Player Appearance Requests

After reading all of the above information and believing that your request aligns with our donation and player appearance policy, please submit your online application here.

Please note: Sharks Have Heart endeavour to respond to all submissions in the online application but due to the high volume of requests received each day, a response from our club in relation to your request is not guaranteed.