BY STAFF WRITERS

Cronulla captain Paul Gallen has labelled his club the “most resilient brand in Australian sport” after the Sharks were hit with a $800,000 fine and had their coach Shane Flanagan de-registered from the NRL.

Flanagan was found to be in breach of his 2014 suspension for his involvement in the peptide scandal.

The NRL found undisputed evidence that Flanagan and club officials were talking to each other when the coach was banned.

“I’ve seen this before, it’s not good, it’s a distraction but times like these you find out a lot about people. Who’s with you and who’s not,” Gallen said at a press conference on Wednesday alongside Sharks CEO Barry Russell.

“I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again about this club, this is the most resilient brand in Australian sport.

“We’ve faced going broke half a dozen times, we’ve been through scandals. A lot haven’t been our own fault.

“But we are still here fighting and we will continue to be.

“Even when we were struggling in years gone by we are still a side you do not want to play. We’ve got one of the superstars in the game in Shaun Johnson at our club and that is the first thing he said: ‘I want to play at this club because you’re a tough club, you’re a chance of getting me to the grand final.’

‘’The resilience this place shows, how many times we’ve been kicked down and how many times we get back up again out there on the field and doing our job, I think it’s pretty amazing to me and I think it’s pretty special.’’

Jim Dymock and John Morris will share the coaching duties.