Northern Suburbs came agonisingly close to winning last year's Shute Shield premiership, falling just short against Randwick in the 2023 decider at Leichhardt Oval. The Shoremen have been the most consistent side in the competition over the best part of the last decade, but haven’t won a title since the club’s drought breaking premiership in 2016. “Our sustained success is something we're proud of. Over the last nine seasons we’re the only club that that hasn’t finished outside of the top four,” Norths coach Zak Beer told Rugby News. “We’ve played in three grand finals since 2016 so we’ve been consistent and in a position to capitalise. “It takes a lot of hard work to get to a grand final, then a lot of things on the day need to go right to convert all that hard work into a premiership and unfortunately that didn’t happen for us last year.” Beer said last year’s 17-15 grand final loss to Randwick left a bitter taste in his players’ mouths and they�