2025 Hall of Fame Chat (plus a stack more) with Michael 'RCB' Langridge

[00:00:01] The Royal Motor Yacht Club Port Hacking is a hidden gem of the Shire, situated on the banks of the beautiful Port Hacking. It's a great place to catch up with friends, celebrate your birthday or any special occasion, and they always show the NRL live on the big screens. The RMYC Port Hacking, proud sponsors of this podcast and big supporters of the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. Check out their website rmycph.com.au

[00:00:26] They've got a Facebook page or you could go old school and call them on 029523 9300

[00:01:05] Hey there, welcome to SharkCast Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world. The mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. This show as always is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking and a good friend Jason Hawes at Crips & Crips Real Estate. I am Sam Shinazzi, OG 2015 of this podcast, supporting the team for a lot longer than that.

[00:01:26] On the other end of the line slash video is an original gangster himself goes way back to 2015 with us and supporting the club a lot longer as well. Mr. Michael Langwich, we call him RCB quite commonly and we'll probably go with that tonight. We won't tell you what RCB stands for, but you can probably Google that and it might pop up. Michael, welcome to the show. Welcome back. You've been on before, but welcome back. Thanks man. Good to be here. It's not Royal Challengers Bangalore, the RCB.

[00:01:54] If you do that in the Twitter or Google, it'll anything. Yeah, RCB is Royal Challengers Bangalore for the IPL. No, it's the French or Rom song, Russell Crowe's band. Yes, there you go. Russell Crowe's band. Go look up the song. Great song. Great band. Great band. How are you? You going well down in Canberra, if I may say, where you live? Going all right? Yeah. Yeah, going good. Family's good. It was hot today. We had a big storm with a lot of hail, so no damage there, so that was good.

[00:02:22] Now you are a Sharks nut, dare I say nutter, don't be offended. And you're here mainly, we're going to discuss the Hall of Fame, because you do have an amazing knowledge of this club and history and passion for the club. Hall of Fame is coming up in a couple of weeks, which is awesome. And we're going to discuss that. We're going to talk about some of your thoughts on who should be there, who could be there, who won't be there. The whole thing, we're going to cover it. And we'll also get into a few other things about the Sharks after that.

[00:02:51] But just starting on the Hall of Fame, Michael, or as I was going to call you RCB, Tuesday, February 18th at Shark Stadium, fans are able to purchase a ticket if they want to go see some history being made. Now, let's just go through what's going to happen on the night. So we already have five Sharks Immortals. We know this. We're just going to tell everyone else, maybe a younger listeners and viewers who don't know this.

[00:03:17] And that is Gavin Miller, Andrew Edinghausen, Tommy Bishop, as well as the late and great Steve Rogers and Greg Pearce. Now they're going to go straight into the Hall of Fame. And there's going to be some other people going through as well, which you'll find out on the night. And there's certainly no indication tonight what we talk about is going to happen. We're just speculating. We're just talking. And mainly Michael's going to have his say, and I'll have my opinion on his say.

[00:03:42] Anyway, a bunch of people got together to make this happen. And Ash Taylor, who's the club historian was on the show a couple of weeks ago, go back and check out that episode. He goes through who and what process was, but essentially the criteria is the most important thing right now, RCB. I'm going to tell you about that. The criteria to be considered for the Hall of Fame. You need four of the following five. So four of the following five.

[00:04:10] Demonstrated exceptional performance on and off the field. International test rep, including rugby league world cup matches. Played state of origin. Played a hundred first grade games for the Sharks. Or, or my friend won a premiership with the club. Received a Dallium medal. Or an NRL recognized award. E.g. a Dallium positional award. Proven summons. Rothman's medal. Ken Stevens.

[00:04:39] Or a Porter gallon medal Sharks player of the year. So if you have four of those five things, you can definitely be considered to be in here. What are your thoughts? First of all, RCB on the night and what the club's doing. Tell us how you feel emotionally about it. I think it's great. I think it's great that they're doing this because you want to have a celebration of your club and what the players mean and what they mean to the club and what they mean to the community.

[00:05:10] In the past, we've done things like team of the half century, team of this, team of that. And it's been done in sort of a bit of a haphazard way, I think. So by having a consolidated hall of fame with a night, with a, well, I believe Ash said it was a jacket, you know, given to the players on the night and to do it consistently.

[00:05:31] And I don't mean every year, but I mean like, you know, every four or five years you induct a couple of new guys that really, what it does is it is it's celebrated and it starts something. It does. It also makes it special because if it's just done in sort of a, the slipshod rugby league way, then it won't really, it won't really mean as much, but if they really commit to it, it'll be really great. Yeah. Well said.

[00:05:55] And I think that under the current regime and with the people involved, including Ash, I think there will be a bigger focus on regularity with this. Now, you and I were spitballing a bit before we started and you brought up the idea that maybe the next one could be centered around the 10 year anniversary of the premiership. It might be five years from now, they might do it every five years. It may not be as, as rounded as that. It could be just randomly.

[00:06:25] Oh, well in three years we'll do it. And then, oh, another four has passed. But I do get the feeling, RCB, that it's going to be something that will at least be on the calendar, maybe a couple of times a decade kind of thing, just to keep it moving. I think we'll get a lot out of the night and see how it's received by the fans and by the general rugby league community.

[00:06:47] Cause these sort of things, they, they are of interest to the general rugby league fan, because for example, if there was a Melbourne storm one next year, you and I'd have an opinion on who could go in there. We'd be kind of excited to see like, you know, random players may being mentioned as rugby league fanatics. Like we all are. It's an interest.

[00:07:09] Now, obviously it's an extreme interest for us, but I do think that there'll be a bit of interest generated from the media and also from the general public. Yeah, definitely make it feel special for the players. Then yeah, it'll be great. I was speaking to Ash off air and he told me just a couple of small things, nothing revealing, nothing crazy, which I'm not going to say on air, but he gave me the impression that it was going to be a pretty classy event.

[00:07:37] And they're not taking this lightly. They're not, they're not just doing it for the sake of doing it. They have their heart and soul invested into this night. Uh, they've got Yvonne Sampson, Andrew Voss hosting. And from what I can tell, there's going to be a bunch of X sharks players there, whether they're being inducted or not, just hanging around celebrating the club. Hopefully some fans get down there as well.

[00:08:01] So, uh, I do think it's, it's going to be a night on the calendar somewhat, you know, every, as we said, two, three, four years, who knows what's going to happen, but it'll be fun. And the, I think the, also the, at least through the sharks channels, the, the attention will generate from the sharks media, you know, from the podcast people. And also from the general rugby league people as well. I think that that will snowball a little bit too. So I think we've got some good times coming up, uh, Tuesday, the 18th.

[00:08:31] Uh, it's a busy off season for the sharks. And this is kind of the more glamorous, uh, fun part of it, as opposed to your trials and Vegas and that kind of stuff. All that stuff is exciting too. Tell me about what you're thinking about potential players that might get the, the tap on the shoulder, given the criteria that I said before. And you can start with whoever, however you want to do it. Just let's spitball and talk some hall of fame possibilities.

[00:08:59] So I went and looked at all the criteria and looked at the players in the mix to be considered. And I found it quite interesting to, to look at some of the guys and say, well, okay, so if they didn't, if they didn't win an award and if they didn't win the, you know, player of the year or whatever, then they've really got to have represented elsewhere. And that kind of thing.

[00:09:24] I think the first main question I was sort of looking at was this club obviously joined Super League and there was representative stuff in Super League. There was Super League tests and there was Super League tri series. Now, in the NRL, there's a sort of thought and viewpoint that anything to do with Super League is over in the elephant graveyard and we don't speak about that. And it's over there and that's it. Yeah.

[00:09:53] But given that this is the Cronulla Sharks who lobbied to go and needed it for survival. Thank God we did. Well, yeah. Greatest thing we've ever did. And when I looked at that, it meant that if you consider Super League as the same as, you know, state of origin and or test representation, then two other, two extra players get put into the pool of people who could be considered for the Hall of Fame.

[00:10:22] And they were Danny Lee and the late Paul Green. Interesting. Interesting. There were other guys that if you looked at Super League, David Peachy, for example, he's one Australian representative jumper was in Super League, but he covers off all of the other things. Yeah. So he didn't need it. But those two guys, if they are considering it and if they're saying, well, it's the same, then they're in the pool.

[00:10:51] They're in the pool of people that can be considered, which I thought was really interesting. I don't know specifically if they are counting that. I'm going to just go flip a coin and go, they, they might be because I think that the whole Super League thing is right as you are about what you're saying about how it's a little bit of a kept secret in the NRL.

[00:11:12] I think as the years and decades go on and people get really obsessed by it, like you and I, and a lot of other people, the jerseys are going through the roof right now. I think that the clubs, they don't really care to be honest. I say clubs, not our club, but the clubs in general. And I get the feeling if I was the flipper point, I would say they probably would include Super League, but I'm not sure about that. I'm just speculating, but you're saying that would throw Danny Lee and Paul Green into the mix.

[00:11:42] That would put them into the pool of guys that could be put in the hall of fame, which, you know, I think is really cool. Like Danny Lee as an example. So I was looking up his career. He won the Sharks player of the year in 95 and he won the Dallian prop of the year in the same year.

[00:12:01] So he's got these two kind of big awards for his play, played a hundred games in terms of the first criteria, like demonstrated excellence on and off the field. I mean, he played, Danny Lee played 200 games for us. Right. So, I mean, that is excellence on the field. I would say that is open to interpretation, but you know, if you talk about excellence and Andrew Ettinghausen or automatically you see him running for a hundred meters against Parramatta,

[00:12:28] Parramatta Stadium, when you think of Danny Lee, you're thinking of a thousand hit ups of like eight meters of time, but they're all really important. And so when you apply the criteria, so what I was really interested in, in the guys who sort of, you know, were on the bubble. Right. So guys that, you know, were maybe for my time, like the Speechleys and your mate, Doc O.

[00:12:52] They sort of didn't quite meet all the four to five things because of representation, which is a shame. But you know, if they're going to do it, then I never saw those guys play. Do you think that, you know, the likes of a Spatially or a Jonathan Docking should be considered anyway for the Sharks Hall of Fame?

[00:13:14] I think as a cold, hard question, absolutely. If I'm not looking at any criteria, uh, Doc O, local junior, one club man, played rep footy, was our fullback and one of our main guys for numerous seasons. I would definitely throw him in the mix. He was on the board for a while as well. So off the field kind of stuff helps as well with speech.

[00:13:40] I mean, he did play another club. He didn't play rep footy to my knowledge. I think speech is probably less so because of maybe less games and less time in first grade for Cronulla. But if I think about him and I, you know, it's one of those trick questions, because I think there's probably 50 guys who I'd put with those two and go, well, you can throw them in. Uh, but with Docking or bias aside, uh, I would say that he would be a contender if I didn't know what the criteria was. Absolutely.

[00:14:10] So I think it's really interesting. Filter. Sorry to interrupt what Ash said on the show the other week was Ash Taylor, the historian was that they took it to eating and they said, we need to be hard about this. Otherwise every man and his dog is going to be in there, which is lovely, but also that's not greatness. It's not the hall of very good. It's the hall of fame. That's right. So I can live with that. So yeah, that was Gavin Miller. We've got Paul Gallen ticks all the boxes and he ticks more of the boxes.

[00:14:40] And some of the guys who are already immortal. So should they just make him an immortal on the night? In my opinion, they absolutely should. And it's the first thing I thought of. There's lots of debates about people like that who are amazing and then finish their career. And it's like, well, when do you do it? I don't have a strong opinion, except my opinion is the time is now. Like you don't know what the future brings. To show you how long the time has passed.

[00:15:06] He last played his last game in for us in 2019. He had his last home game at Shark Park. We've been back at Shark Park for a couple of seasons. I think the time enough times passed to put him in the hall of fame. Like he, he's a lock for that, but I think they should just make him an immortal of the club anyway, because he's the only premiership captain. He's played the most games. He's played all of these state of origin games. He was the state of origin captain. He's done.

[00:15:35] He like ticks all of the boxes. He's going to get it. We know that. So like why, why wait? I guess. Yeah. I don't know what's going to happen with that. Let's wait and see on that one. But if you're asking me, would I do it? I would a hundred percent do it. Absolutely. Yeah. See, I would, I would do it as well, but I guess maybe they'll go, well, we'll do these hall of fame guys. But then to me, it's like, but that, I mean, no, no, no disrespect to like legends of the club, like Tommy Bishop and, you know, Gavin Miller and whatever.

[00:16:05] Paul Gallen in my mind, he's the greatest player that we've ever had. He is. And the most hard knows professional really that we've ever had. He is. And he's got, he stands above those guys. Maybe not Steve Rogers in terms of like the, the, the mystique of Steve Rogers. Cause like, you've got to remember, large and ETA are NRL hall of famers as well. So that's like this, that's like another thing. Yeah. I think they should just put him in straight up.

[00:16:33] I think when it comes to Gal and ETA, the only thing that one of them did more was one of them played one more game in a season. And, and I'm not diminishing anything Paul Gallen did because for me, he's the goat. My point probably is that ETA is just behind him. Like he's, he, he's a premiership trophy behind him is what I'm trying to say. Oh yeah.

[00:16:54] I would encourage our listeners younger than me, so 30, 36 to go back and watch the Super League grand final, because we did play in one, you know, in the nineties. I count it. Yeah. And in that game against the world's greatest football team, like I'd put them, I would put that Brisbane side up against it up against Penrith. Right. The current, you know, the life Penrith team.

[00:17:18] So I was looking at the criteria and obviously, well, I, there are guys who are from the premiership side, which tick, tick all the boxes. Like Andrew, the feeder, Wade Graham, Luke Lewis, Mickey Ennis, Jack bird, your mate Val. They all tick all of the little things that, that would go to getting to the hall of fame. Do you think they will skew a little bit older for this first slot?

[00:17:44] I think that that is more likely given, uh, I think Dave Riccio was on the show and he said something like that. So that's his words, not my words. Yeah. And I think that you're on the money a little bit about maybe in a couple of years, they'll do something special with the premiership team. I just had a flash maybe, and it's just me pure speculating. I would love to see the list you just ran, ran off from 2016.

[00:18:12] Well, sorry, the guys that won were in that team who were eligible in two, three years time, whenever the 10 years is up, I'd have a hall of fame then and go Val Ennis or the guys you went through. I'd say, you know what? You did everything. Here you go. As long as they're in that criteria, you're not changing the criteria for, for, for a Ricky or whatever. It's like, well, or whoever, whoever doesn't fit in, you can still come to the night. We'll get a team photo. You're awesome. He's a premiership jacket or whatever.

[00:18:42] So for the, the guys who are in the team that make it, it's Wado, Luke Lewis, Val Holmes, Matt Pryor, Jack Bird, Mickey Ennis, and Sam Tagetisi. Yeah. Run me through Tagetisi. Well, Tagetisi won the Ken Steven medal, which is an important rugby league thing. So under that, he counts. He played a hundred games. He won a comp. He also, he, he represented his country as well. So under, under that, he's in.

[00:19:11] I would, I would definitely, and hopefully, you know, Dino or someone sees this, I would definitely mark the calendar for 10 years from 2016 and, and have a night. And be unabashed about no surprises. This is what we're doing. Like, let's celebrate it. And it's about that night. And you know, your, your chads or whoever else they come along, they have a great time. Everyone gets a premiership jacket.

[00:19:36] There's a team photo standing ovation, whatever, but these guys are going to hall of fame. I think that would be an awesome thing to do. I think that'd be incredibly special, but that's probably not going to happen. I'm just having a bit of fun, but I think that out of the guys you mentioned, I think over time, I would imagine at least half of those guys will get in. Yeah, definitely. In terms of the guys that I think are really like probably bolt on to go in this round. Yes. David Pichy, obviously legend of the club.

[00:20:06] Matty Rogers ticks all the boxes. Jason Stevens is a guy who ticks all, all of the things as well. You know, he, he also won the Ken Steven medal play. He represented Australia. The Stevens tick everything but the premiership. Is that right? Yeah. He played heaps of games for Cronulla, played for New South Wales and Australia. And he won the, like I said, he won Ken Steven medal. Matty Rogers played a hundred games, played for Queensland, was brilliant for Queensland when he was at the Sharks.

[00:20:35] He won Dalliam rep player of the year and he was the Dalliam rookie of the year as well when he first started. So the, so he gets, gets those kind of things as well. Brett Kamali was an interesting one. He played heaps. He played enough games for the Sharks. He represented Australia and New South Wales with us. And he, he definitely had a positional award whilst he was with the club.

[00:21:02] So he would get in and also he kind of also fits the demonstrated excellence on and off the field. Absolutely. Still does. Yeah, it still does. The on and off the field is a interesting thing. The off the field. I don't know how you quantify that. I think you could use it to maybe use it as a cover or to not induct somebody. Maybe. Yes. Because there's obviously a guy like Greg Bird.

[00:21:30] He ticks, he ticks the games. The one, the clubs player of the year played for Australia played New South Wales was a fantastic player for the Cronulla Sharks, but. He's Greg Bird. Well, for people who don't know, there was an incident and, and they went through the courts and we don't need to talk about that, but it was a not good look for the club. That's for sure. Really bad. It was a bad look. All right. I don't, I don't mean to undersell that.

[00:21:56] It was one of the worst things that could happen and it happened to us and the club and obviously a victim. And we're getting way too serious about this. Yes, there is, there is maybe a reason, but you know, with those things in general, you can make up for that by going, oh yeah, but this person has done this since then too. So, so there's lots of ways around that. I recognize if you wanted someone in, or as you say, don't want someone in.

[00:22:26] Well, it's really interesting. A player like that, if that thing had not happened. Yeah. He would have played his whole career in Sharks. He was on his way to a Sharks great without doubt. And he was at that stage when that happened, he, it was like neck and neck who was better gallon or him. Other interesting guys that definitely made it. Well, made it. I'm not saying made it in the, in the group, your guests from the other week, Alan Wilson, the great Martin Lang sparkles Magor. So Alan Wilson played a hundred games, played for New South Wales.

[00:22:56] Yeah. Won awards. So if then, you know, he's got those three. So then if he has the fourth thing, which is in my view, if you're part of the, that, that's my team. Oh yeah. You're in, you're in the whole. He's still coaching kids. He's done a lot of good stuff. Yeah. Chris McKenna, Dane Sorenson, I think will be a guy. I think he will be, he's a guy that will be inducted. He's got the games. He's got the, you know, representative of the club in a really great way.

[00:23:24] I played heaps of games in New Zealand. You list listeners would have to double check on the awards thing, but I believe he sort of ticked it there, but. Yeah. I think he's certainly a guy that you would put in as a Sharks all the time. He's a guy that comes up, you know, in, in history, in talks about this club, about bringing a toughness and. One of the, he and his brother were just these tough Kiwi guys.

[00:23:51] Didn't take a backward step and had a lot of success in their careers. Dane also, I believe RCB was on the board at a certain time. So he's, he's, he sort of hung around the club bit and done things, cares for the club greatly. So yeah, that's interesting. I'd love to see Al Wilson get it. I don't know what the odds are, but I mean, I'm biased because he was my favorite player as a kid, but it's almost one of those kind of Hollywood scripted movies. You could write about a player like him and his life. And he's either gone from the ad from the two, he's out.

[00:24:21] You think you're that Glenn Coleman. Okay. So that's Glenn Coleman. Right. Yeah. But he was, he's probably in the video. He's probably in the, in the, in the ad. Glenn Coleman, very fast winger. I think short lived. What was he? Short lived shark CEO. Is that right? Yeah. I think you had to step in admirably, you know, another, another one of those guys. Man, those guys, I was reminded of this when I was interviewing Al Wilson, whatever you think about some, like, you know, I'll throw in Barry Russell.

[00:24:48] Whatever you think about what you think you may know about these people and what they did at the club after their career, they are the lifeblood man of this club. They care so much. Yeah, of course. And sometimes they probably just get in positions. They don't want to be in like, Hey, you've got to be our CEO or whatever. Okay. You said Mark McGor was a chance. Yep. We go. Yep. Played enough games, New South Wales, state of origin, state of origin and Australia.

[00:25:13] So then, you know, under the fourth, under the, the more sort of ambiguous first category, you could say, well, there, there, he's got four out of the five. Danny Nutley. He was sharks player of the gear. He was a Queensland representative. He was a played, played enough games for us. Again, you could use the, the first, first category as a, as a way of putting him in the pool to be discussed.

[00:25:37] But yeah, I mean, I think, I think on the night I'd say definitely they'll put in peach and Dane Sorensen others to be considered. Like you could do Matt Rogers, like easily. You could consider a guy like, uh, Paul green. And given that there's now like a, a medal for him and there's like a sort of real good feeling about him in, in the club. And we sort of honor his memory and his family. I think that would be, he'd be a great person to consider.

[00:26:06] I think it's a really cool thing that they're doing. That's going to be very interesting to see on the night who gets, who gets the nod. Cause there's like six of them that they can put in. When you go through those names. So for example, like I'll pick one out, Danny Nutley. I hadn't maybe considered him for whatever reason. I haven't gone through my list and that kind of thing, to be honest, but when I hear Danny Nutley, I think, oh, you know, hard worker played rep footy.

[00:26:35] Uh, again, a very different sort of player than what we were kind of used to and the style of football, at least for a few years, really suited his get down low, play the ball quick, that kind of thing. But that also RCB says to me, and don't get me wrong. Like if he gets it awesome, I'm not saying he won't get it, but that says to me, oh, okay. Well, it's a pretty wide open field.

[00:27:02] So you, to use another example of a guy from the par, obviously Cliff Watson is a legend of the sharks, but under this criteria of things, he doesn't fit four of the five. Right.

[00:27:15] Part of the spirit of the whole, the 73 team is him bashing guys and him being this like absolute hard-nosed dude from England between him and Tommy Bishop came down and sort of made the club, like jerk them into sort of some form of professionalism. But under the criteria, it's sort of, what do you do with a guy like that?

[00:27:37] Same as a guy like, um, I never saw him play, but David Hatch was a player who fits a couple of the things, doesn't do the four or five. But would you say he was a hall of famer? Yeah. And that's a, that's a real interesting one because as you say, it doesn't tick all the boxes, but he was club captain for a number of years and a really good one.

[00:28:03] Very defense orientated lock forward back in the day, the lock wasn't, or at least from my memory of that sharks team and that era, the lock wasn't really the attacking weapon. Obviously you had the best guy in the world playing second row and doing that. So, you know, David Hatch was very much a defensive kind of lock, but just one of the guys that never took a backward step, you know, he'd play injured. He, he was a great captain. Yeah.

[00:28:28] I mean, I'm kind of sentimental about that era because that's when I started watching the team properly, but for some reason, Hatch to me, I'm like, oh, he could probably be considered. Even though sure. It doesn't fit the criteria. I get that. That's where it's interesting where guys like Miller and ET went, well, we need to really narrow this a lot. And I think Ash's words were something like, oh, that means a hatch may not make it.

[00:28:56] And they went, oh, that's not very good, but yeah, what it's going to be. So I'm sure that I'm sure that Hatch will be there and he would understand the situation. And, but yeah, I would think again, if I didn't know the criteria, I'd be like, Hatch could be someone, you know, you've probably never seen a more unglamorous player, but man, he really put in for us. So yeah, yeah, the thing that's really interested me with this is the criteria, right? Yes. The drug drug loves the criteria.

[00:29:23] With the way they've done it, there is a sort of, there is a bit of a skew towards modern. Yes. Because of state of origin, but then also there's that sort of cover all of if you want to comp with us, right? So James Maloney, he ticks four because he played two seasons. He played for Australia with us. He played for New South Wales. He won the competition with us and he was the Dallium 5A of the year in the year we won the comp. Therefore, he's in.

[00:29:53] But other guys who might've played for way longer and were sort of more in the sort of DNA of the club, like, you know, like a Kurt Sorensen. Yeah. Or a, or a, or Jonathan Docking or like an Adam Dykes is an example from the same, same position. Yeah. They don't make it. So I think that's really, I think it's really interesting how they've sort of looked at the filtering of this. Yeah, it is.

[00:30:19] And, and, and you wonder why it is like that. Now, maybe that's just something they came up with and I'm not suggesting there's not a reason behind it, but maybe it's nothing as kind of pointed as like, oh, well, we've got to get Maloney in for example. So this is how we do it, you know, or we've got to get NSC in. So this is how we do it. The fact they threw it in there means something.

[00:30:42] And yeah, and you know what, as I said, uh, in pretty much every episode we've done talking about this, there's actually no wrong answer. Like if, if they went Maloney, you're up, you'd be like, oh, hell yeah. All right. And if they go Michael speechly, it's you or whoever, sorry, he's not eligible, but whoever's eligible, you'd be like, okay, cool. Let's celebrate this person and their career at the sharks. Can we talk about it?

[00:31:07] Can we do pros and in a sense cons about who could have competed with that person? Absolutely. We can. I'm sure we will for months on end, but there's no wrong here, which is the positive of the whole thing. So here's another one. One of our favorites. Yes. Preston Campbell in my mind, Hall of Famer under this. No, he doesn't, he doesn't tick like, he ticked like two, two out of five. But for me, 2001 Preston Campbell, it doesn't get any better than that.

[00:31:37] So. So he, he won the big award. He wouldn't have played a hundred games, right? If you're counting the excellent on and off the field thing, he has to, but, but he won the big award. He didn't play a hundred games cause he wasn't allowed because of our friend. Didn't win a premiership with us. Didn't win a premiership with us. Didn't represent state of origin. You know, maybe there are people who are going, well, that's right. He shouldn't be in the hall of fame. You know what I mean? He had a really good year.

[00:32:07] He won an award. Awesome. But it's interesting. Yeah. The whole thing is interesting. It brings up all these great conversations. And then you go back to your naughty Camorley, uh, idea that he, that he's up for it. I think that overall everyone will get up off their seats and clap him and, and cheer him because the shark's great. There's never been a more controversial sharks figure, especially online, like league unlimited.

[00:32:29] The all of league unlimited traffic on the sharks from about, you know, 2002 up until the Greg bird thing was mostly. Anger or like you had to be on one side of the naughty things. Like either you'd love him or you hate him. He was like, man, he's like, oh, you know, I have no one. He's the worst. He's the.

[00:32:59] He's the one. He's a great skater. Um, he's Christopher Hennig and Sam. Um, and he, uh, his group, uh, the, the, uh, the, uh, he's, uh, the, uh, the football and the, uh, the, uh, I've, I have a report on my career. Yeah, it's about that when it was really interesting. It was really hard. There's, um, not a lot of stuff on there. There is no in between there's no like, oh, well, you know, he's actually doing pretty good, but you around 2018, 2019. And then, and then he just won me over. Not in the sense that like it was him and it wasn't Preston. It was just like, oh, you was doing your job. Good on you, man. Like we all grew

[00:33:26] up a little bit. And the thing for me was if it hadn't rained so much in 1999, the bears, it wouldn't have rained too much. And they would have survived because they would have been able to go to Gosford, but because they didn't have any money, they had to merge with Manly and then Manly ate them and kicked them out. And then they go, Hey, Naughty, you don't have a contract anymore. See you later. So suddenly Bruce Anderson's favorite thing in the world was back on the, on the, on the plate at like a dollar different price. And it's like, all because it didn't rain

[00:33:55] or because it rained too much, like five years before. Ridiculous. Now for listeners who are not aware, RCB and myself were very obsessed with that era of the Sharks. We've done an episode on it. I'll say that we have a fascination with the coach at that time and the things that went down and didn't go down. I think honestly, RCB, I've never really thought about until right now, when you said that, that moment where the phone rings and his legitimately

[00:34:21] favorite person on earth, not just player favorite person on earth goes, Hey boss, I'm free. I'm free. Can you imagine Chris Anderson's? Oh my God. The four year deal. I just signed with the Northern Eagles. It now doesn't exist. And I'm a free agent and no one can sign me. Oh God, just come. I mean, I've come so far in my, I'm not going to say maturity, but life. I can laugh about it now. It doesn't mean it wasn't important. It doesn't mean some of it wasn't hurtful and shameful to other

[00:34:50] players, but I can laugh about the fact that Kamali, he was a hell of a player and he literally gave everything he had when he was on the field for the Sharks. He did awesome stuff for the Sharks. He was a great captain of the club. He tried his guts out. Yeah. What a smashed testicle for the team. I mean, in hindsight, what else did I want? I wanted him to win the comp so bad. I didn't, didn't, didn't matter how I got there. So yeah.

[00:35:20] Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that'll be interesting. See what happens there with, with, uh, with Kamali. I was wondering if former coaches would be invited, including Chris, like I, I would assume maybe or not. What do you think? I feel as though if you do things like, uh, what did we try to fight Dean Trista in the bar or something? No, he basically said, he said the quiet part out loud about the

[00:35:46] Sharks, right? He came from Canterbury where they won and were ruthless. And he was like, you guys aren't ruthless enough. My way of fixing this is to burn the place down. Okay. He could have done it a different way. The club can't be mad at him because they allowed it to happen. Well, yeah. I mean, you know, Steve Rogers signed him and then I don't know, maybe bygones to be bygones. I would invite John Lang. That's what I mean. Does Lang get it? I'm not just making this about Chris Anderson. Does Lang get an invite? Uh, does the Shane Flanagan get an invite? You know what I mean?

[00:36:15] Like, I don't know. I don't know about that. Yeah. For the 2016 guys, if you're going to invite, I think he can come then. Val's fine. Jack Bird's fine. Great. Obviously they'll invite Ben Barber. You know, I hope Ben Barber's doing all right, but then who knows? Flano, forget the, you know, he, yeah, he won the comp, but there's a lot of other stuff with Flano. You know, there's a lot of other controversy. It'd be weird. And it'd also be weird if he's

[00:36:43] there and he's the current Dragon's coach and he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Red V. It's like, no. Well, let me ask you this. If there's a 2016 celebration, he can come. Is that what you said? Of course he can come and see. It'd just be a bit odd. But no, everyone should come. The ball boys that NS hugged at the end, bring back the mascots, bring back everyone. Hall of Fame. All right. So that's your take on the Hall of Fame. Now we are both pretty passionate about the fact that we want this to be a regular occurrence.

[00:37:13] Oh yeah. Every four to five years. Yeah. Be great. Okay. It's got to mean something. It's got to mean, it's going to be important to the players that get it and it's got to mean something. And also there's got to be a show of it, Chuck Park two or Carrillo or in the stadium somewhere. You know, when you go to American stadiums and whatever, they have like the players, the ring of honor players around the stadium or, you know, jerseys in the rafters and that

[00:37:42] kind of thing. I mean, at Shark Park, we've got a huge black wall with nothing on it. You could put some stuff up there, but in the new club, it'd be cool to have like, these are our Hall of Fame players. This is what they mean. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a good feeling that something like that will happen on the back end of Hall of Fame night in a couple of weeks. So I don't know when it'll be, but I'd watch you space on that one. And we'll, we can only encourage them to do that. We've been pushing for statues and for banners for a long time. So, uh, let's see what happens there. Uh,

[00:38:12] so I see me, we're going to be not you and I, unfortunately, but myself and some of the other guys will be down at the, uh, at the event. We'll do a bit of streaming. We'll do a bit of podcasting, hopefully get a few interviews with some legends that we haven't caught up with and some we have. So that'll be fun. The sharks do an amazing job. I'm sure covering it as well. So stay tuned on that kind of stuff. Now, while we've got you, we want to talk some more, some other sharks news and we've got trial match in, in two nights, less

[00:38:40] than 48 hours actually. So we do the math from when you and I are talking right now in 46, 47 hours, we're going to have a result, which would be awesome. And what did you make of the team? What are your thoughts on, on, on what was named? With trials, I just look at it and go, well, I guess they're going to get guys out there, blow the cold rivers out. The warriors have picked a very strong lineup, which is interesting. Ours is, you know, they're going to see how guys go. They pick Kofusi at lock, which was

[00:39:08] interesting. They pick Will Kennedy, obviously he needs a run. I know that, I believe Isen's injured at the moment. So, and then I guess they don't want to be like putting makeshift guys in there first up. But yeah, it'd be, it'd be interesting to see what happens over the two weeks. Obviously they're going to come into Canberra and play the bigger, you know, more of a first grade team, which will be interesting. All you want from trials

[00:39:37] is no injuries and people look all right. Right? Yeah. You don't want to lose by 50. You don't want any injuries. That's kind of it. Yeah. The warriors named a good team. They'll play, you'd think at least maybe 20 minutes. Well, 30, I think 30 minutes to a half. If you're going to name that sort of team, it's no, he's just playing for 10 minutes. So I think they've gone with that, with that mindset of, well, we're going to either have two great hit outs or the first one will be the hit out and

[00:40:04] the other one won't be. And then we'll take them to Vegas. I'm not sure how they're doing it, but I've got a feeling. Yeah. 20, 30, maybe a half from warriors guys. And then they might bring out the second team. I think by that point, our second team will be out there as well. So yeah. Interesting. Interesting. It's all, it's all relevant. It's all, it's all cool. Uh, I saw some articles tonight about Tom Hazelton doing Australian wide tour.

[00:40:30] What do you, what do you thoughts on there? You want to keep till Tom? What do you want to keep him? He's kind of from around, around the way near me. He's from Goulburn. He played soccer with my brother-in-law, like in like the cruel, cool Goulburn competition. Sorry. He played soccer. Yeah. He's a gun, a soccer guy. He can smash the ball in with both feet from a long way away. It's just like, he's like eight feet tall. Maybe rugby league would be better, but yeah,

[00:40:55] no, he's skillful, skillful dude. And I've known about him coming through the system for quite a while. So, and you know, I've, I've grown quite attached to his, his big bald head scoring tries. So obviously you want to keep all the guys, but look, if he, if he goes, oh, good luck. There'll be another guy coming through. I'd prefer, if I'm honest, I'd prefer to, you know, prioritize guys like Stone Street and Ronaldo in terms of re-signing and whatever, given that

[00:41:25] Akko's gone. And I know that they've, I know that they're sort of looking at dudes in the forwards. You know, we got Max Bravery from Newcastle who's coming back from injury. We've got Colquhoun who will probably play a little bit of first grade this year. Oh, for sure. You know, and they're, and they're looking at younger guys as well, like Felix Fartilli and whatever. So, but if he, if he goes well in the trials and plays well, obviously I believe Newcastle, like he's asking prices too high. So maybe, maybe he'll come back to the sharks and go,

[00:41:55] oh, well, you know, I'll sign for this or whatever. I think dragons are maybe looking for him as well. Cause they're, I mean, they had a guy to leave the other day. So, so, you know, I mean, look, if he goes, he's, he's had a cool little sharks run. It's been cool to have him on the team. I'd prefer to keep him. I wouldn't spend heaps of money on him. It'd be a bit sort of like, oh, well I wish it had worked out. But at the same time, I want stone street to stay for

[00:42:23] ages. Cause he's really fast and looks like a guy that can do a lot of great stuff. And I want Ronaldo to stay because I believe that he could be a hall of fame type player. And also he is on pace with the tries that he could be someone to push AT's numbers. If, if he stays for a long time. So if you're coaching the team, are they your wingers this round one, starting round one,

[00:42:51] or do you need the stone street need a bit more time or what's your, what's your vibe there? It's hard to, it's hard to say. I like Katoa. I thought Katoa at the end of the season was probably doing better than Ronaldo anyway. He scored in the corner against Penrith. I think eventually there'll be an ushering in of stone street, you know, because the form will be, what will happen is he'll play in top and he'll look too good. This is what happened with Val, right? Val looked too good at that,

[00:43:17] that lower level. And then Flannery was like, no, we're not playing these guys. We're not playing these new, exciting guys. We've got to have Mitch Brown on the field in the first round, you know? And then like, that was after we didn't go so well, he ushered in the change. I think if we hit the ground running all right, he'll probably stay in cup. But if there's any sort of like, slow starter, whatever, he'll be the first guy that they'll be like, we're putting Sam Stone straight in because A,

[00:43:44] he's a real attacking weapon, you know, a bit of a shakeup. But I think, I think round one, it'll be, it'll be the guys who played last year. So, you know, yeah, Kennedy, Katoa, Ronnie, Iroh and Jesse Ramian. They'll be your backs. It's interesting, man. Cause Katoa was the best player against Penrith. I'm a pretty big fan. Like I like what he does. I think that the only real negative he has in his game is the fact that he's not, you know, a foot taller or whatever. You're going to Vegas. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:44:14] That's going to be great. You're going to have a good time. I'm glad to hear that. I hope we win over there. I believe that we'll pick a good enough team to play Penrith and hopefully get something out of the game. I don't know what's happening with their team. Like Cleary might be, he'll probably be fit for an hour and one surely. Right. I think that'll all be fine. Yeah. It's the Penrith way. Like just, I think, I think on that big stage, they're not going to necessarily arrest guys. I'm not saying they'll do it for Vegas, but like, you know,

[00:44:43] if you don't play Cleary and he's like 95%, I'd be very surprised. No, they'll play him. I'd say though, it's a good time to get them. Yeah. Straight up because you know, they're going to have a few weeks where they figure out what they're going to do without Jerome Luai there and without Fisher Harris. Yeah. So it's a great time to get them, get a win. Fantastic. Go over to Vegas, do the thing. I think, I think given the travel at the start of the year, we'll need to bank some wins, you know, make sure we're ticking,

[00:45:11] ticking the wins over. But yeah, that's very exciting. It's only a couple of weeks away. Are you doing anything else in Vegas while you're over there? You know, like you're going to go to fat Mike's punk rock museum. Maybe actually the legendary, legendary Craig has invited me, which is awesome. So yeah, at some point I think so. Yeah. Far as other things go we're going to keep it pretty sharks specific. Like we're going to do a bit of a meetup with other shark cast listeners and that kind of stuff. And then we're going to,

[00:45:39] we'll hit some of the NRL events. Hopefully we're going to cover a little bit of the team for the club and, and, and for the pod. Otherwise I am there for a holiday. So there'll be a couple of drinks drunk and a bit of food consumed, but it's going to be good, man. It'd be fun. I mean, obviously it's a crazy time to go to that crazy place and look, I'm really looking forward to it. I think it'd be great for the club. I think that they'll be able to just raise the, yeah, raise the profile, sponsorship, whatever you want to do.

[00:46:08] I think you can actually do it if you plan for it, if you get the right meetings, if you get the blokes in New York, the hotel owners, the casino owners get their help. I think that you can really expand the brand for sure. I'm not as organized as a lot of the other fans at the moment. Like I'm still just getting some stuff together, but I'm a hundred percent going and it's going to be awesome. And I'm excited. I don't sound excited. I'm really excited. It's going to be pretty strange seeing them run out at Allegiant stadium. Well, so my dad went last year cause he supports Souths and, and he,

[00:46:36] he had a great time at the NRL thing on Fremont street in the old Vegas. And yeah, he said it was like fantastic. He, he said it felt like the grand final. He was like, this is like the grand final, but then you've got a whole season after that. And obviously Souths were bad the rest of the, rest of the year. He likened it to being at the grand final as a, as a sort of event. You know, I think for the guy people going over there, it's going to be great old time. And you know, they've got English games as well and women's it's going to be a treat.

[00:47:06] Look, if you're doing the whole day, it's going to be a treat for sure. There's no, there's no leaving the stadium either. So if you go early, you're there for the long haul, do it. Like you're there for a good time. Do it. Are we on last? Are we the last thing? We're last. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But no, you're right. Like not everyone can do it. Like it's, it's not a cheap thing to do. Like I'm doing it. I would say fairly on the cheap, just through sales and different circumstances, but it's still like real money. And it's even, even when you do it, you're like, Oh, am I really going to do this? This is a big commitment,

[00:47:36] but if you can do it, do it. Like it's, it'll be fun. If you can't completely understand. And I'm sure that's the coverage will be covered by lots of people, including us best we can. So it's a, it's a no brainer for the sharks. I think go over there and great for the club to be in it, to be going over there. Second, second year of it. Really cool. Playing the premiers. Okay. So, uh, Thursday week we're in Canberra trial match. Not long after we're back for a regular season game.

[00:48:06] When I say not long, like around, what is it? Three, four, five. We're down at Canberra as well. So start of April. Yeah. Yeah. It's exciting time, man. It's going to be a big year. It's a bizarre way to start it with. Paul's time and Las Vegas and then all over the shop. The Vegas thing is this party at the start. And it's like, Oh, now you have 26 weeks. Plus, you know, magic round in the middle and state of origin and all the thing of that. And then you want to get to the semis and be good in them.

[00:48:35] It's a long slog. I think the trick is for the club and for fits. I know it's easier said than done, but the trick is to embrace it. You know, it's a long year. We're on the road a bit. Uh, let's be great. Let's go and be great on the road. There's no real excuses. Like, okay, there might be some injuries along the road. There might be whatever, but their team is, so stack. Now we're all pretty happy. We have their lineup. It's gotta be go time. Yeah. And, and I don't necessarily think it's premiership or bust,

[00:49:03] but I think that you want to be competing for that at the very least. And you need to be there at the end of the year. For me, we, we want to be in that top four. You want to be in that, that circle of four teams that are planning to be in the grand final. You've said over the last few weeks on the show, you felt that we should have won the game against Penrith. I am sort of of that view as well. I believe that we didn't put our best foot forward in the game.

[00:49:33] We dropped the ball too much. We weren't. And because of the drop ball, we didn't allow ourselves to build pressure or do anything because, you know, apart from sort of Penrith's try early on, you know, we were in the game, but we're always sort of a little bit behind. But if we'd just been a bit more clinical, you know, we really could have been like, they weren't as good that night as they were the next week. They were ruthless against the storm. Yeah. That's what I mean. When I say that night, I'm talking about that night.

[00:50:03] You know, you only get so many chances at this top, top end of the table, you know, look at South. They lost prelims here. They lost prelims there. They got to the grand final. Their guy didn't kick the ball through the, through the post at the end. And now they're sort of, they've met, they, they went a new direction and now they've got the old direction with Wayne. Yeah. Yeah. Our own team.

[00:50:30] idea of any sort of concept of how to beat Manly made a grand final. It's one of the greatest teams ever, but never quite got there. You only get so many shots at it. So you got to take the chance. I think that was a bit disappointing for me in the second half of the Penrith game because it was literally do or die. There were minimal shots fired in attack specifically, you know, we didn't really give ourselves a chance. Like we just dropped the ball at the worst time. They need to feel that sort of the pain of losing in that way to get them

[00:51:00] to the next level. And I think, you know, obviously having Fenua Blake's going to be really cool. Yeah. You know, he's been, this is a new thing in the team. I think they did learn from the Melbourne game. Like I saw enough in the Cowboys game, in the Penrith game. I think they'd learned from the Melbourne game, but you still got to win those games. You got to make the most of those opportunities. There were little things like the, the Trindle, no 40, 20 into the Cleary 40, 20, the Nico, no try. There were, there were things that if they go our way, you know, that's, you're, you're leading the game by eight points or whatever.

[00:51:29] And maybe you go on with it. Maybe you win by a point. I don't know, but at least you're in it. But with that, because we didn't hold the footy, we didn't give ourselves enough opportunity to have more chances. So then, then when you, if you have two chances in the game, let's be real. And you don't ice the two. Okay. Well, you don't ice the two, but if Penrith have 14 chances and ice three of 14, that's still bad, but they still had so many more shots,

[00:51:59] shots at the target, you know? So I really hope that they, they saw that as a missed opportunity. Yeah, I think they did. And, and, and the coach channel at the other week, when I spoke to him in the interview, like they, he sounded pretty annoyed still. And you can only think the players felt that. And the number one thing I would hope is that they knew what they were playing for. And I interviewed some of the guys leading to that game and they expressed, they knew what they were playing for.

[00:52:28] And in the heat of the moment, look, I've never experienced that. So I don't know what it's like, but maybe you're not thinking about what it's for. Maybe you're just thinking, I've got to do this, got to do that, whatever. There's a lot going on in your mind. And, you know, it goes back to me asking the coach about Friday night lights. Somehow I would drum into them that there's only 17 guys that have done this in the history of this club. And you want to join that group. You're a half a football away from you. From at least making the grand final. So, you know what? I don't want to like freak everyone out,

[00:52:56] but I was thinking that the other day that if we won that game, we'd probably beat Melbourne on that night, the way Melbourne played on that night. Unfortunately for Melbourne, they played a team that went out there and just strangled them to death. The way that, you know, Penrith play is unique and how much energy they have all the time. And whenever there's a little bit of doubt, Nathan Cleary just goes, okay, so now I'm just going to press the button where I'm the best. And that's it. And you, you know, your chances are gone. If it had been us,

[00:53:26] I would have liked to have think that we put in a good account, got into Melbourne and, you know, show, show them what we can do. Because here's a question for you. Do you think that that loss against Penrith at Shark Park kind of killed the season a little bit? Because I don't think we ever looked, I thought our best games were those two games, you know, Melbourne and, and then Roosters at Magic Round. And in leading that, we did stuff like, we played,

[00:53:53] we played here in Canberra and it was the easiest game I've ever watched them play. They won 40 nil in a canter, right? They were fantastic. Yeah. But one, but we played that Penrith game and it was like they, I was just hanging on going, don't get 50 because then, you know, the 50 points you can't win, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But I was kidding myself that, that beat down that day was like the, no, this isn't, all of the air is out of the balloon. Right. And then from there,

[00:54:23] the balloon was being filled again, but there was this hole in it, which we knew was there. And so, I don't know. I think, I think we put in better account of ourselves in, in the semifinal, in the prelim, but I always sort of felt from that day that no, there is a level here where they are, which we still need to get to. I agree with that. I wouldn't say that the season was over then or however you put it. I wouldn't agree with that. The only way I go along with that is that you would say,

[00:54:52] say Nico had a terrible game. He was injured. Shouldn't have played, played origin. It was all disastrous. Right. There's a lot of bad omens around that game, but I've, I'm more of the opinion that, okay, lost 42, Neil got pants. We really should have beaten them. We'll be competitive the way we were going, but it was halfway through the year. We had another half of the year to get it together and get back to their level. And you know what? We kind of almost did. Yeah. There's a lot of negativity around that game, but,

[00:55:21] I was, I was very disappointed with that game. And I walked out of there pretty shattered. I felt like, like a crime had had been committed. So pumped up for it. And the way that they just batted us to death. I was just like, Oh my, what has happened? Like, because it was in the same thing from last week. We played so good against the Roosters scored on the first set, like did all this mad buff. There was a lot of hype about the game. We were coming off a lot of hype, you know, like the Melbourne and Roosters games. And it was almost like it was all a bit too much. Cause the,

[00:55:50] the hype about that game was through the roof. You're at home. You got to do better, man. So in 2016, I felt that we could win the comp. The day that we beat the Bulldogs and we sort of came back and the way we won that game, I was like, there's something's on here. There was never a game in that season where like the foundations were shaken terribly. No, I think it's interesting. Go going on to like the next season. How do we learn from that? How do we get better? We've, we've brought in this really great player.

[00:56:19] We haven't really lost any. I mean, we lost Royce Hunt and Jackie Williams and I hope they do really well at their new clubs, but we brought in someone who's like, yeah, like an absolute beast. Yeah. I really think that we need to be pushing, pushing for the grand final. We got, we got to do better and we got to be better in that game. I agree. What they learned from that game is you need to start well. And, but then you look at the Warriors game and it's all a bunch of Warriors games. It's like, you got to finish well.

[00:56:47] So there's no real rum or reason to what I'm saying about that. But the start against Penrith was disgusting. When it was 12 nil, you were like, okay, soon as it was 18 nil, we were done like against that team, like other teams. No, we can come back from that. And we have against Penrith. You were never coming back from that. Unfortunately, it blew out. So I think if you also look at the other side of it, Penrith were coming up against the Sharks and the Sharks were as hot as they'd been probably since 2016.

[00:57:16] Like wiping out everyone left, right and center. We doing stuff that said we couldn't be done. Oh, they went win one of these six games or they won five in a row, whatever it was. And I think Penrith had a bit of a point to prove, you know? Oh yeah. I think they really, they made a point of that. You know, they, they made a point of it, which is really interesting to see the mentality, you know, that ruthlessness in mentality in like a rugby league team. That's what I want. Because if,

[00:57:43] if we lose that game to that Penrith team by six to eight points, I don't care, but you can't lose 42 nil. No. And there was just something about the manner of it, which was like, so horrifying. The other issue was Nico was on such a pedestal and rightly so. He was going unbelievable that, you know, he did play injured. He was kicking out in the full a few times. It was just like, as you said, a bit of a horror show. I was like, what the hell is going on here? It's not so much weak. Like, okay, we're conceding points,

[00:58:10] but now our best players kicking the ball out in the full and he's come off at halftime. Like it all just kind of went pear shape. So significant loss. I wouldn't say it had a massive impact on the season, except for the fact that it was the start of the whole Nico thing. Yeah. So with that, I felt like in the, in this current squad, this is more of a criticism of the 2023 team than last year. Last year was really good, but it's the same core guys that they couldn't just have a normal loss.

[00:58:40] It had to be a calamitous loss, but it has to be the, oh, we're going to be battered to death by Penrith or, oh, we're going to be up 24 nil against the Warriors and lose somehow. The thing that's made it worse is they've all been at home. Right? So if you look at that one, the, the Penrith, we got set on fire. There was that calamitous loss to the Warriors. There was the other calamitous loss to the Warriors. There was the stupid game against the Dolphins where they're up 24 nil. And we came back, but then we still lost. I went to a game.

[00:59:09] I saw you last year and we were down like 24 nil to Manly. And then when came back in this flurry and we could have won, but of course we didn't. And they've all happened there. Right? What I'm saying is I don't want any of that rubbish to happen this year. I want clinical wins. I'm pretty confident, because like we all know what they've been together for so long now as a core group through the juniors, through to first grade and they keep at him. They got Fanua Blake in, sorry for the pun, they got Fanua Blake in,

[00:59:38] they've got Nico Hines will be healthy. Hopefully he and Triddle have time together. Blake Braley's, you know, career best form. I just think that there is enough experience now where that stuff, hopefully, hopefully doesn't happen. I think they learned from that. I think that the coach probably sends out really specific instructions now after that going, okay, I didn't know I had to tell you this stuff, but hey, tuck it under, do not pass the ball. I think they learned from all that, man. I really do.

[01:00:07] The whole, the whole Nico bad finals, blah, blah, blah narrative, all changes. If, is if in 2022, when we were sitting next to each other, if we had just cheated at the end and laid on the ball or kicked it away, or got guys in being, and just like, just mucked it up, like prison, but like real final prison ball that we would have won. Right. Yeah. And then Nico doesn't have this loss on his record, even though he had like six tries, like played fantastic. We probably, we probably play in a grand final. Yeah,

[01:00:37] probably. But our sort of our situational awareness there. And I, I think of that because I was listening to a podcast. I can't remember who it was, but, and it was about the, the Falcons losing to the Patriots, right. In the, in the premier, in the super bowl in about 20, to three. We literally had to just cheat, you know,

[01:01:07] just lie on the ball, start a fight. It doesn't matter what happens. Just waste the time. Because we didn't sort of have that sort of awareness to just go, Oh, there's only 30 seconds. Just, just wrap it up. You know, we, we sort of let them in. And so, yeah, yeah. I think those little final details are the things that's going to take us from this, you know, cool, exciting core group of guys who we all love to the second premiership team. No. Yeah.

[01:01:36] And I think that is what you're talking about is maturity experience for Noah Blake's all about that. I'm sure. And the guy that you're talking about is the greatest shark of all time. Not only stealing last 30 seconds, but he's the greatest shark of all time. Paul Gallant under Paul Gallant's watch. We don't really lose those games. I'm sure there's examples where you can bring them up, but there's also a million examples of him doing dummy half runs. The ledger was more in the sharks favor. You know, the only one I think of was in 2012,

[01:02:05] we somehow let an eight point lead with a minute to go against Melbourne. Like they scored twice in the same corner, like somehow, and you know, whatever, you know, you know what I'm saying? We're up by four and there's a minute on the clock. We've got the ball on 20 meter line. He knows what to do. And he tells everyone what to do. I feel like for Noah Blake is going to, bring that as well. And it's not up to him, but he's going to know not to do the offload. If he doesn't offload in that moment, I'd be horrified and shocked. I think that along with Fidual Blake, there's a lot more maturity.

[01:02:35] I think that a guy like Blake Braley these days would probably go one out football, one past football. I'm sure that for a bunch of them, the Warriors lost last year is in their brain. And I don't see Cam McInnes ever throwing the ball ever again, let alone the last 20 seconds of the game. You know what I mean? So, so I'm, I'm kind of okay with that stuff. If it means something in the future, then that's okay. And I do think that as you said, that's what's going to take him to the next level is just cutting out the silly stuff. And yeah,

[01:03:05] it's going to be fascinating, man. It's a big year ahead. There's a lot of pressure on them. There's expectation, you know? Yeah. And, but that's good. You want expectation. You want expectation. You want to be there when it matters. You want the expectation. We got to want it. We've got to eat it up. We've got a really good team. We've got a really good coach. The club's going okay. And I think the thing that bites you most is maybe injuries. They're convinced the travel won't affect them. We'll see what happens. Yeah. We're in for a pretty good year. How good it is. Don't know. Wait and see.

[01:03:35] But yeah, like you, I've got high hopes, man. I really do. I've got high hopes. Before we go, RCB, anything on the stereo you're listening to? Old, new, in between? Well, I've been listening to The Killers a lot because I went and saw them in concerts. Oh, how was that? It was great. That, that Brandon Flowers, he's a, he's a professional, right? So I would, I would describe a rock star as the sort of loose as a goose, Vince Neil type, right? Or Axl Rowe. Whoa.

[01:04:05] Yeah. Brandon Flowers is, has all the talent, but he's also like this sort of clean cut in a suit, like almost like a, well, I mean, they're, they're a Vegas band and he's got that real Vegas. They're real Vegas thing. And yeah, nah, it was great show to go to. Went to a lot of bands in the last year. A lot of artists came through Canberra, all the same place. So, you know, Smith street band regurgitator. Yeah. I mentioned friends of ROM. All right. Well, I have a feeling I'll be seeing you once or twice in the next month or so. We'll see how that goes.

[01:04:35] Or next couple of months at least. Thanks for your time. Thanks for your expertise on the sharks. Thanks for your input every week with the, the emails are always killer. No filler. So keep that up. Really appreciate it. Love to the family. And we will talk to you real soon. RCB and listeners. We'll be back with more episodes. As you know, we're not going anywhere. We're going to be in your grill. In fact. So if you don't like it, I feel sorry for you. Cause we're not going anywhere. We're going to be shark casting on all those shuttle boards. It's a bit of a Seinfeld thing.

[01:05:05] All over that shuffleboard court. All over that shuffleboard court. That's what I was trying to say. We will see you down at the game. If when, if you're not there, you can watch it on the, the Foxtel, the KO, wherever else you get your footy. Until then, RCB, thanks for your thoughts on the hall of fame. We might even talk about things after hall of fame as well. See how that goes. But we are winding up. Shark cast pod. Up, up, Cronulla. Shark cast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire.

[01:05:33] Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips real estate. He's an expert in the Caring Bar region and has his eye all across the Shire. Lifelong sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips real estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips and Crips real estate. Sharkies,

[01:06:04] Sharkies, back in the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming over the top.