Cronulla Sharks claimed their first NRL title this season, the same season in which Ben Barba went a long way to re-establishing himself as one of the more potent fullback threats out there. Recent events have seen Barba be a bit dumb and generally slide back into his old ways - or ways that were merely swept under the rug - and this now puts Cronulla in a very interesting position as they take another geeze at their fullback spot.

We need to remember that when Barba joined Cronulla, no one really thought that he would start the season at fullback and then play good footy at fullback. Barba apparently trained the house down over summer with the Sharks and demanded selection in this position.

This kinda means that the Sharks now find themselves in a rather beneficial situation as they can rid themselves of Barba, distancing themselves from his never-ending collection of distractions and opening the door for Valentine Holmes to step into fullback. Cronulla will now look to play nicely with Barba, keeping good vibes intact and following the rule of the NRL, but they'll know better than anyone that they had a bit of a log-jam in key positions and now they've been graced with an opportunity to low-key adjust their team and roster.

Given his history, Barba wouldn't have been on huge money with Cronulla. Still, Barba's salary would've been enough though to be taking up a fair portion of their salary cap and this money can now be better used to ensure that the likes of Holmes and Jack Bird stay with Cronulla. I highly doubt that Cronulla would have kept Barba around when it came time to snap up Holmes long-term; why would you keep Barba when Holmes is starting at fullback while James Maloney and Chad Townsend hold down halves spots?

Now Cronulla are able to bid farewell to Barba early, allowing Holmes an earlier than expected move to fullback. Some would say that Holmes is already a better fullback than Barba and moving forward, it's hard to argue that there is more upside in giving Holmes the No.1 jersey asap. 

This should now ensure that Holmes can see a clear future for him in Cronulla and the Sharks must now work on doing the same for Bird. A gun centre, Bird would want a wee bit more responsibility in Cronulla's play-making ranks which would ideally come in the halves but could come as an edge forward or at lock. Maloney and Townsend won't be keen on giving Bird an opportunity in the halves and with Luke Lewis likely to move on after the 2017 season, Bird could slide into that right edge forward spot. 

Cronulla's success was making life tricky in keeping players, yet they've ensured that most of their championship squad is in-tact for another season. Barba was to be a part of that and the sheer number of talented backs was set to give coach Shane Flanagan a few headaches. Regardless of what happens from this point on, Barba has handed that fullback spot over to Holmes and given what we've seen from Holmes so far in his career, don't expect him to do anything but make that No.1 jersey his own.