Fresh from a worldwide study trip where he visited some of the biggest English Premier League and NFL clubs, Flanagan has given his strongest hint yet that Gallen will retain the Sharks captaincy outright in what looms as his final season.

Gallen, 35, said he will use the summer break to float the idea of Graham sharing the captaincy to aid the Sharks' leadership transition, but Flanagan suggested Graham's audition will also have a strong off-the-field component in 2017.

"It won't change ... the structure that we've had with Gal being our captain," Flanagan said. "Wade and Michael Ennis shared the leadership at different stages when Gal was out and while Michael won't be there, I'd still like to have a tiered leadership program.

"Whether that's Gal and then Wade on his own or Gal and Wade with two blokes underneath that ... I'm not sure yet. Having said that, I can't see why Gal doesn't need to be captain of the club.

"Wade may take up some of the slack in relation to events in the community to take a bit of pressure off Gal and get a taste of that, but I don't see too much difference on who runs out first."

Graham's burgeoning representative career could also sway Flanagan's thinking with Gallen, who hung up his State of Origin boots after the series loss this year, unhindered in his availability for the Sharks next season.

Gallen, who was overlooked for the Kangaroos' Four Nations tour and subsequent triumph, and Graham returned to training last week.

Gallen will headline one of two planned boxing bouts before Christmas when he takes on Raiders enforcer Junior Paulo in a charity fight card in Sydney on Friday night, which also features Chris Sandow taking on Todd Carney.

Gallen's availability for the Sharks will be even more crucial for the their title defence with Cronulla drawn to play twice without their State of Origin contingent, which featured their captain, Graham, James Maloney, Jack Bird and Andrew Fifita this year.

Valentine Holmes will also be pushing for Queensland selection.

"We've always supplied about four and they've missed one game during the Origin period, but this year they haven't seemed to have taken that into consideration [with the draw]," Flanagan said.

"I don't know if we're going to be the hunted, but we're going to be treated a little bit differently. I think that's probably happened over the space of a year and sides take that little bit more respect or a slightly different attitude towards you. Obviously now we need to back it up again and it's going to be hard as sides will be ready for us, particularly at the start of the season."