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Sometimes defending champions find it difficult to get going the following year - the so-called "Premiership hangover."
But if there were any hangover-related questions about Cronulla after last week's loss to North Queensland Cowboys, they were well and truly answered as the Sharks rolled over the Raiders 42-16 in Canberra.
There were danger signs early, as the Sharks went behind to a 15th minute try to Jack Wighton.
But the Sharks had won their last four contests at Canberra Stadium, and by the end of the first 40 minutes they had turned things around and were well on the way to a fifth.
There had been some mistakes by Cronulla, but the home side failed to take advantage and as the error count mounted it made it harder and harder for Ricky Stuart's men.
A key point came early in the second half, where Cronulla had the ball 35m out from the Raiders line with the Sharks on the charge.
Young hooker Jayden Brailey fed half Chad Townsend, who sent Luke Lewis clear down the right, and as the Raiders backpedalled Brailey backed up on Lewis' shoulder to receive the ball and earn his first try in the NRL.
This gave the Sharks an eight-point margin and broke the game open.
From there, the Sharks looked more and more confident, reviving memories of 2016.
If there was a place where the game was won it was the forwards.
The Raiders starting pack — including hooker Josh Hodgson — made just 304 run metres.
The comparative figure for the Sharks was 690m.
The pack were too big, too strong and too fast - none more so than Wade Graham.
Cronulla stepped up the gears in the second half, hitting the line in numbers at speed.
Six minutes after Brailey's try, James Maloney found Graham 30m out, and the second-rower was unstoppable as he powered past, through and over Raiders defenders to crash the ball down for another score.
After that, the Sharks seemed to score almost at will. Graham completed his hat-trick, diving over from close in with the Raiders' defence in disarray.
It may have taken Cronulla time to get up to speed, but once the team had the momentum it was almost impossible for the home side to wrest it back.
The Raiders had to make 96 extra tackles as they were overrun, and only some late gains when the game was gone - including Wighton's consolation try in the 78th minute narrowed the gap in run metres to 481m.
If the Sharks can play like this every week, their title defence will start looking a lot stronger.
Topics: sport, rugby-league, nrl, canberra-2600, act, cronulla-2230, sydney-2000, nsw, australia
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