2023 Porter-Gallen Medal Night Award Winners

[00:00:00] SharkCast! SharkCast! SharkCast! SharkCast! Fafina! Fafina got the ball back in the Shire! Tell you watch live time, because we're coming home with a trophy! Hey there, welcome to SharkCast Porter podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the

[00:00:35] history of the world. The mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks, this show is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking and Jason Hawes at Crips and Crips Real Estate.

[00:00:47] A short and sharp episode post season, proof that we're not going away. We never go away in the off season and as a reminder we're going to give you a second episode in the space of about 48 hours

[00:00:59] if not less because tonight, tonight the Sharks had their Monty Port Up Awards Night, the end of year season, acknowledgement to the players and staff on and off the field, yearly event, very important fixture in our calendar and here to talk about what happened there. The plan for

[00:01:21] summer is kind of loose but it is also a plan to give you regular episodes and they will be topical, they'll be looking back, they'll be looking forward and hopefully having a lot of fun and providing everyone with some listening entertainment in the off season but we're certainly

[00:01:43] not going anywhere. They will not be as constant as they are throughout the year, I noted that we released our 70th episode for the year which is a record for us really proud of that achievement

[00:01:54] and proud that everyone's been tuning in so much and the numbers of listeners, the growth is really fantastic and appreciated, I say that a lot but I mean it every single time so without

[00:02:08] due because I've rambled enough in the intro of this podcast we had the 2023 awards night for the Sharks and the nominees for the main Porta Gallant Award, Player of the Year, Will Kennedy, Blake Brailey, Cam McInnes, Britton Nicker and Cione Cato, all very worthy nominees, good to see

[00:02:35] Will Kennedy in there, he was in great form before he got injured five or six weeks out from the end of the season so he did enough to really cement his spot as one of the best players of the year for us.

[00:02:48] Cam McInnes was obviously outstanding, no one tried harder. Britton Nicker continued his improvement year on year and he had a strong season and Cione Catoa who I think is one of the

[00:03:01] most underrated players in the comp let alone at Cronulla, he was super consistent so great to see him in the main lights of this award but the winner which is going to cause a few ripples in the fan

[00:03:19] base at least but in the shark world Blake Brailey is your Porta Gallant medal winner and Blake had his best season so far in his shortish career and there is always that note about

[00:03:35] Blake how he can and needs to keep improving, he's not at anywhere where he can reach potential wise and of course the question is how long do you give someone like that to reach that but Blake

[00:03:48] is your winner, the Porta Gallant medal winner. I love the fact that he was running more this year, I love the fact that he was more involved comparatively to seasons gone by and I look forward

[00:04:00] to seeing what happens next year with his continued improvement and growth in a somewhat newer style of football that he's playing although as I've said for years and years it's a style which I

[00:04:12] know he can do really well so that surprised me I wouldn't have picked Blake as my player of the year but we like him on this podcast and we're happy for him and hopefully it provides him with

[00:04:28] more confidence to keep growing as a player. Now this reminded me a little bit of when Chad Townsend took out the award a few years ago now and that brought some negativity towards that achievement

[00:04:47] from certain elements of the Sharks fan base and you know it's all open for debate there's no right or wrong but in this case Blake Brailey has won the Porta Gallant medal but I can also tell you

[00:05:01] he's won the Players Player Award the Tommy Bishop Award. Blake Brailey is also your 2023 Tommy Bishop Players Player of the Year so his colleagues have voted him as their best player

[00:05:16] so if you're down on the general award going to him this is a double down on him having a better year this year an improved year now again I wouldn't have picked him as players player I'm not a player

[00:05:29] so I wouldn't have picked it but you know what I'm saying he's not my player of the year but this is what has happened so we will see how Blake uses this to propel himself into the

[00:05:40] 2024 season but a pretty big couple of accolades there for him and certainly something for him and his shark family to be proud of. Blake also features in the Iron Man award he played every

[00:05:56] game along with Jesse Ramian, Britton Nicar and Sionikatoa so they all win the Iron Man award and playing one game in the NRL is hard enough but to play every game and for Blake, Jesse, Britt and

[00:06:12] Sionikatoa at that level that quality that they provided this year it's a real achievement and happy that they're getting those accolades. The rookie of the year was pretty easy to work out

[00:06:25] the Steve Rogers rookie of the year and that is tall Tom Hazelton he made improvements and put every foot correctly forward he in my opinion is cemented his spot in the 17 we even raised the

[00:06:42] potential that he might start some games next year as a starting prop for us so we'll see how that goes but tall Tom Hazelton is your rookie of the year and that was certainly one you could

[00:06:54] have locked in and well done to him great attitude I interviewed him pretty early on in the season and it was noticeable as soon as you started talking to him that he's had his screwed on correctly

[00:07:07] he's got a great football brain but he's also just a smart fellow I feel will have a pretty long career in the NRL if he keeps this professionalism going the way he is because

[00:07:18] he's just a great young footballer and knows what it takes to finally get to the big leagues and stay there so congratulations to tall Tom the members player of the year is Will Kennedy and

[00:07:30] again like I said in the nominees before it's great to see Will receive these accolades even though he missed I guess close to five or six games throughout the year if not more so

[00:07:42] he did enough for the fans voting each week to get him this acknowledgement and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to will Kennedy next year he would have been pretty disappointed

[00:07:51] that he had to miss the pointy end of the season and who knows what difference he would have made in the Newcastle game in the roosters game so well done to Will and I think that will be a boost

[00:08:02] for his confidence because Will is sort of player that I think really gets off on the confidence it helps him drive him to places where he needs to go and terrific clubman a real quiet achiever

[00:08:16] well done to Will as far as jersey flag goes the Gavin Miller award for player of the year went to Blake Hosking a really tremendous talent coming through the ranks and the Greg Pierce players

[00:08:28] player was Noah Lester NRL W awards for the first time obviously player of the year was the skipper Tiana Pentatani and she is a great role model for all of our players

[00:08:44] I wouldn't have picked her as our best on-field for the whole year but she's a tremendous talent and that's the way the award went and we congratulate her absolutely and the player's player and also the rookie of the year was Inessa Biddle and she had a really strong

[00:09:03] season for the Sharks and again congratulations to Inessa the Andrew Eddinghausen club person of the year went to Jess Adams and Jess works in the football department behind the scenes she does a

[00:09:16] lot with data and analytics and she is the worthy winner this year of that award well under Jess Adams and the community awards went to Toby Rudolph and to Jada Taylor for their

[00:09:30] outstanding efforts in the said community and can't mention that enough the things they do off the field for people who truly need it so that is a quick wrap on your 2023 Porter Gallon Metal Knight

[00:09:46] I would love to hear your opinion on all of these awards that matter to you if you have an opinion on Blake winning the award I'd love to hear from you about it if you have someone

[00:09:56] else you had in mind let me know your thoughts about whichever award speaks to you whether it's NRLW, Josie Flagg, anything shark related we're here for you so thank you so much you'll be

[00:10:07] able to read and hear more about this event through the Sharks media channels on social media and on their website of course so shout out to our friends at Sharks Digi of course