Cronulla are embracing the challenges of football, and only football, in the post-ASADA probe era according to skipper Paul Gallen.
Gallen will make his return from a back-dated 12-month drugs ban in the Sharks' season opener against Canberra on Sunday.
And he will do so leading a club, free from the stresses and anxiety that hovered over the club for the past two NRL seasons.
"We are turning up to training worrying about football and worrying about what training we have to do other than just turning up here and our bodies basically being here and not our minds," Gallen said at training on Monday.
"That's a plus, we have dealt with all we have had to deal with and now all we have to worry about is playing football.
"We have had a relatively injury-free pre-season where everyone has been able to train together and that is important
"Especially the way the boys went in the Nines it spread a lot of excitement throughout the camp."
Gallen said the 2015 NRL season represented a new era in the Shire.
However he was reluctant to discuss how the ASADA investigation had affected the club, including his reported battle with depression last year.
"I said to myself last week I'm going to do my best not to speak about it in interviews," Gallen said.
"There is a process, it has been dealt with, its over. Now we just have to get on with our lives and our careers.
"You can't change what has happened, it's disappointing but the more I talk about it the more it brings it back."
Coach Shane Flanagan also returns from a one-year ban for governance issues involving the Sharks' 2011 supplements program, for the clash with the Raiders.
"He has been good," Gallen said.
"He hasn't let any of the outside influences affect him or what happened last year affect him
"He hasn't spoken about it, he has just got on with business."
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