National Rugby League side Cronulla Sharks' "never-ending conga line of major sponsors was solved by a humble Google search from a man who didn't really know who they were" -- and he is "now about to get the type of exposure marketers only dream about," according to Adam Pengilly of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. What popped up in the Sharks' cyber history when Melbourne-based businessman John Conidi "fumbled around his keyboard is questionable." The "dark days" of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority affair "had rendered Cronulla's jersey a billboard that companies ran for the hills to escape." Those who stuck solid "could do so at cut-price rates." Who "really wanted to be associated with the Sharks?" Conidi did. And his Capitol Health business, which had spread into the Sydney market through its Southern Radiology arm, "will be splashed across the jumpers of a side -- that no one wanted a bar of two years ago -- in one of the most watched television events of the year." Conidi, who "filled the front-of-jersey void" midway through last year, said, "I just thought, 'What would be a good way to promote the brand and give something back to the community? And what NRL clubs were in the market?' I did some research online and the Sharks were the ones that popped up. Next thing they don't have a sponsor. Their set of colors were the same as ours." The irony in Conidi's "shrewd decision to align with the most resurgent sporting franchise in Australia" is that he, too, "has a foot in the camp of the Melbourne Storm, the Sharks' grand final opponents on Sunday." Capitol Health takes care of the minor premiers' radiology requirements. Conidi joked, "In theory we can't lose" (SMH, 9/29).
