Sunday afternoons in the sunshine at Shark Park are set to become a regular occurrence during the 2016 NRL season with the draw on Friday revealing five games will be played on the ‘Sabbath’ next year.
Games against the Dragons, Panthers and Broncos at 4.00pm on Sunday’s are sure to be highly anticipated, as are match-ups with the Titans and Knights at the earlier 2.00pm timeslot.
In all, the Sharks have been allocated eight Sunday games over the first 20 rounds, five at home, with three of those free-to-air Channel 9 games.
The Sharks will in fact be a regular fixture on Sundays, especially the early part of the season, with five games in a row – from round 6 to round 10 – all scheduled on that day.
Both Coach Shane Flanagan and CEO Lyall Gorman were pleased the way the draw rolled out for the Sharks, with the Sunday afternoon games suiting both the football department and the ‘front office’.
“We’ve got a lot of Sunday games, which we wanted, then two Monday nights at home, but both are on public holidays, which for us and for fans in the Shire will be just like Sunday afternoons,” Flanagan said.
“And the boys love playing on a Sunday afternoon, especially in the middle part of the year.”
Gorman spoke of the Sunday afternoon timeslot from a different perspective.
“Having the five Sunday afternoon games provides us with wonderful opportunities to entertain families and for us to continue to engage deeply with our members and fans,” Gorman said.
“We were rated as having the best game day atmosphere in an official 2015 NRL survey and having those Sunday games allows us to be able to take this to new heights.”
Added to Sunday schedule, the Sharks two Monday night games at home have also fallen on public holiday weekends, meaning the perfect opportunity exists for members and supporters to be able to get to Shark Park on what is usually a difficult night for many fans to attend games.
The Sharks play the Storm and North Queensland in Monday night home games, the Melbourne match falling during the Easter period, the Cowboys clash on the Queen’s Birthday Long weekend.
Away from home the Sharks Sunday schedule includes games against the Panthers, Knights and Raiders.
For the Sharks Sunday schedule of mates, see below.
Round 2 – March 13 - Sharks v Dragons – Shark Park – 4.00pm
Round 6 – April 10 – Sharks v Titans – Shark Park – 2.00pm
Round 7 – April 17 – Sharks v Raiders – GIO Stadium – 2.00pm
Round 8 – April 24 - Sharks v Panthers – Shark Park – 4.00pm
Round 9 – May 1 – Sharks v Broncos – Shark Park – 4.00pm
Round 10 – May 15 – Sharks v Knights – Hunter Stadium – 2.00pm
Round 18 – July 10 – Sharks v Panthers – Pepper Stadium – 4.00pm
Round 20 – July 24 – Sharks v Knights – Shark Park – 2.00pm
