SOS: Bruno Cullen has asked the NRL for financial assistance. Photo: Peter Rae
New Sharks chief executive Bruno Cullen has asked the NRL for financial assistance to set about restructuring the fragile organisation as he sorts through mountains of paperwork regarding the ASADA investigation into the besieged club.
In just his second day in charge of Cronulla the NRL-employed Cullen met with the game's boss Dave Smith and salary cap auditor Ian Schubert at NRL headquarters on Friday morning.
Part of the meeting was designed to ease the burden placed on the diminishing staff levels at the club.
While the Sharks cleared a near $14 million debt when their $300 million development was approved last year, Cullen expressed concerns of the low staffing level.
“They'll certainly need some NRL support come the end of this year,” Cullen said. “I've had discussions with [Smith] and he has offered basically whatever help is required to make sure the club stabilises and has a healthy future. There are people handling two-plus jobs themselves.
“The most important thing is the restructure of the organisation and if I can get that done really quickly that allows people the time to get all the other issues sorted out.”
Immediate cash flow is not a problem, says Cullen, but he said the ongoing ASADA investigations would hurt the club financially.
The former Broncos boss introduced himself to the playing squad on Friday before being briefed on the club's drug probe.
He will spend this weekend pouring over the detailed paperwork before returning to the club on Monday ahead of ASADA's expected interviewing of players next week.
“It's a huge issue that's in front of the club but it's very detailed,” Cullen said. “There's seriously reams of paper that I have to read. It's different not to have a CEO for quite a long period of time. I do know a number of directors including the departing chairman [Damian Irvine] have put a lot of their personal time into the club to save money."
Cullen was yet to speak to stood-down coach Shane Flanagan and said it was too early to know if the coach would return to the club.
One man who has maintained contact with Flanagan is interim coach Peter Sharp who said he had maintained almost daily contact with the outcasted mentor.
“I speak to Shane most days and most days we speak about footy,” Sharp said. “He certainly has a contribution into the team but I am running the team. Everybody in the organisation is under pressure.”
Sharp ran Friday's ballwork training session alongside under-20s coach James Sheppard at Sharks Stadium ahead of their round two clash against competition heavyweights South Sydney on Monday night.
Although football has been a welcome distraction away from the innuendo surrounding the club, their appearances on the training paddock have been limited since their round one win against Gold Coast.
“Not as much as we should,” Sharp said of how much training the squad has done. "I've kept the sessions short and sharp. We've done a lot of work in the pre-season and hopefully that will stand us in good stead. There's certainly emotion and how long it lasts I'm not sure, maybe only a couple of sets and then your football instincts kick in.”
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