Addin Fonua-Blake, Teig Wilton Interviews Plus Catching Up With Keiran Over Coffee About Cronulla (25/6/25)

[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

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[00:01:06] Adam Fonua-Blake, welcome to SharkCastPod for your first ever time. We want to backtrack a little bit before we get to current storylines. What made you choose this great club when you were off contract? Oh look mate, it's no secret the roster they have here is world class. Been an admirer of a few of the players here for a while, obviously playing against them. And yeah, just outside looking in there they look like a real tight knit group. And yeah, I thought it would be a good team to be a part of.

[00:01:34] So yeah, that's why I come here and I've loved every minute of it. Tell us about your experience so far. No, I mean really enjoying it. Obviously a few results haven't gone our way, but that's footy man. And yeah, I feel like these tough times is where you can see just the team's character. And I'm in it, so is the rest of the boys. And I've just enjoyed being here and getting in the trenches with the boys. And I know we've got a tough road ahead and I'm looking forward to the tough challenge with the boys.

[00:02:04] Let's go to current times. Should have won the game on the weekend, didn't. There's been a few times this year when that's happened. How do we get better at closing out games? Oh look, I feel like we all got to put our hand up in, and you know. Yeah, there is fatigue in the back end of the game, but that's not an excuse. We've just all got to be able to do our job for however long it requires. And yeah, I think a few games this year we've got it to a good lead and we've sort of put it back into second gear.

[00:02:32] So yeah, I think moving forward definitely we have to, you know, whoever's out there for however long has to do their job for however long necessary. And you know, full confidence in all the boys that, you know, we get our lessons from these games and we move on. Because, you know, I'm moving forward to this week. I'm moving in there with full confidence in all the boys and yeah. We beat Melbourne about a month ago down to 15 men at Shark Park. Very memorable game.

[00:03:02] It's another week this week. Tough one. How do you think we get the job done? Are we going to play similar style? Like how do we win the battle? We just got to stay in the fight long enough and stick to our plan long enough. Like I said, we haven't been doing that for 80 minutes for the past couple of weeks. And, you know, like when you go away from the plan, I think it obviously shows what happened on the weekend. We started with the plan. We executed the plan. We got out to a good lead and then started to make it up towards the back end.

[00:03:27] I feel like when we did play against Melbourne last time, we stuck to our plan for a full 80 and we come away with a close win. So I'm feeling confident that if we can go back to doing that, we can start getting some more results in our favour. A couple of fun questions before we let you go. We ask all the people for the first time on the show. October 2, 2016, Sharks Melbourne Grand Final. Do you remember watching it? Where were you? What were your feelings? Who were you going for? Etc. I remember watching the highlights. I think I was in Bali at the time.

[00:03:57] Obviously, a young fella, you know, didn't make the finals. So he had a holiday book. So my favourite player was obviously Andrew. Had been, like, and more of his, obviously him playing for Tonga and stuff like that. So, yeah. And, yeah, from watching, I've watched a bit more now that I'm here at the Canola Sharks. I've watched a bit more of the footage. And, yeah, man, that team was, you know, a bit of a no-frills team.

[00:04:25] You know, it wasn't littered with superstars, but it was littered with, looked like best mates. Blokes that just enjoyed each other's company. And the blokes that just would die for each other. And, yeah, that's sort of the culture that you want to play in. Last one, a bit more fun. Tell us about music, what you like, whether it's an artist, genre. What are you listening to? Give us a bit of insight into Fanua Blake's music. Reggae. All-school R&B.

[00:04:54] First person to say reggae on the show in 11 years. Yeah, true. Yeah. That's my cup of tea. Bit of an old-school. Like, when I was growing up, the oldies in the garage were there playing the reggae. But, yeah, no, like, I love all of them. I love the Ubi 40 and all that sort of stuff. Before the games and that, I listen to reggae, sort of bring the heart rate down, get ready to be under the pump. I was going to say, it's not exactly warm-up music. Traditional warm-up music. Yeah, I see it as a way, man.

[00:05:23] You've got to slow your heart down because, yeah, for the next 80 minutes your heart's going to be going through the roof. So, try to get that sort of calm before the storm and relax the morning. All right. Thanks a lot. Good luck on Sunday. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Teague Wilton, welcome back to the show. You went off in the first half with an injury. I'm looking at the injury. Can you talk us through it? Yeah, just caught a bit of an accident. Unfortunate. Poked to the eye. And yeah, just, yeah, got a scratch across my eye where I couldn't see clearly enough

[00:05:53] to do my job. So yeah, warranted a bit of concern from the doctors. But yeah, I'm fine. I'm all good now. And yeah, I look to play this week. You were playing really good before you went off. From a footballing point of view, can you tell us how we can get better at icing those games? Considerable lead. How do we ice those games as a team? Yeah, I think discipline. I think we've got to have discipline to stick to our game plan, obviously. And then discipline to honour the laws of the game.

[00:06:20] Like you can't win rugby league if you give away too many penalties, make too many errors. Yeah, I think our discipline is definitely the answer. That's good. We've got Melbourne this week. We beat them about a month ago. Down to 15 men. Two men on the bench. At home. Amazing game. The circumstances are a bit different this week. But down to our luck. Are you guys looking forward to it? Yeah, I think it's a good opportunity and a good challenge for us to really show each other how much we care and show obviously the fans and the members how much the jersey

[00:06:50] means to us. But yeah, talking about it isn't going to help us. We need action at this point. We need to put in a good performance. We haven't been performing lately and obviously there's a bit of frustration around that, which is fair enough. So yeah, it's a good opportunity to go down and really action in a good performance. I mean, the team's playing well in moments and in periods of the game. So it's a matter of if you can't do the 80 minutes, it's got to be 70 minutes, whatever.

[00:07:18] But I think you're playing okay in patches. It's not like you're going out there and just not trying, not scoring. Like you're doing good stuff. We just need to magnify that. Is that a bit more what you're talking about with the discipline and that kind of thing? Yeah, definitely. I think everyone's saying that we have it in us. We can play good footy. We can defend well. Yeah, it's just our discipline to stick to the plan, stick to the tools that we've been given from the coaching staff. And yeah, just stay at it. It's pretty simple to be honest.

[00:07:48] Lighter question to finish, Teague. I know I've asked you before, but what are you listening to at the moment on the Spotify, on the Apple, whatever you listen to? What are you listening to? Whatever I listen to? I don't know. I've been listening to a bit of everything lately. Maybe some... Yeah. Somewhat. Something. I've listened to... I said Red Hot Chili Peppers last time, didn't I? I was always going to run. You're a rock guy, yeah? Yeah, a bit of everything. Yeah, a bit of rock. I always say Red Hot Chili Peppers. I got it. That's cool. All right, mate. Good luck on Sunday. You're definitely playing?

[00:08:18] Yeah, should be. Should be definitely playing. Should be definitely playing. I'll take that as a yes. Yeah, I am. Cheers. Good luck. Thank you. Cheers.

[00:08:45] Hey there, welcome to SharkCastPoday, podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. And this episode of Catching Up with Kieran over coffee about Cronulla is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the legendary Royal Motoryacht Club in Port Hacking and Jason Hawes at Cripps and Cripps Real Estate. And we're going a bit later this week and we have a man who needs a lot of coffee this week.

[00:09:12] He's a busy guy and he's a bit stressed by his football team. Kieran, welcome back to your show. How are you going? I am good. It's talking to you off air about the weather and how windy it is in Sydney today. It's like, I think this is probably the second or third day this year where I was like, I think this is the windiest I've ever seen in the Shire. And today's definitely up there. So if you've got your bins out today, my thoughts and prayers are with you because mine are empty now and they're sideways. So I'm going to go clean that up after this. Yep.

[00:09:41] Bin night and bin day after in winter is always fun time in the Shire. Now I can tell you that our team is training today in this wind. So not sure what the weather will be like in Melbourne. Haven't looked that far ahead, but today they've got a lot of wind, hopefully catching the balls and doing the tackling. There's a lot to work on as we'll get into. Uh, Kieran's Sharky's lose 34 28 to the Broncos, a game they really should have won.

[00:10:06] They were leading by a lot twice in the game and let up leads, which is just inexcusable. And we're here to talk about what we saw and what we're going to see this week in Melbourne. And overall, I was very disappointed with that result and we can't sugarcoat that at all. We're not here to sugarcoat anything. I saw positives, believe it or not, but overwhelming feeling I got was we blew it. Like we really blew it.

[00:10:35] And we've said that a few times this year, obviously, but this was one where Suncorp, Sunday, Brisbane on the rebound. Like it would have been a good one to Jag. It didn't happen. And there's lots of reasons why lots of different ways we can blame it. I think in hindsight, Kieran, the change was the sin binning by Katoa. Obviously it's been talked about how silly it was. He knows how silly it was. It's regretful. Tend to think you'll never do it again.

[00:11:02] But one of the worst you've ever seen sort of brain snaps by one of our favorite players. They held them out after the break for 10 minutes, held them out. We scored a try. And I think the whole Shire and all the Shark Nation around the world went, this is it. We got them. Blake Braley, dummy half try. We got them. And then I feel like the work they did in that 10 minutes with 12 men, it may have led to the extra burden in the last 20 minutes where the Broncos came back.

[00:11:31] And obviously we'll talk about the bench rotation as well, which didn't help things. But I think it was a massive turning point in the game. Long-winded. Yeah. Look, I mean, I did see some commentary this week around the fact that the Sharks put a lot of energy into that time where Katoa was in the sin bin. But it did feel like, you know, we had a fair chunk of the ball in that 10 minutes. And I, full disclosure, I've not gone back and watched the replay. I can't stomach watching that again. But it felt like we had a lot of ball, right? And, you know, we scored a try in that period.

[00:12:01] And then it just kind of looked like they sort of said, all right, well, we've got this in the bag and went back into these mental lapses. And it's not the first time we've seen it this season. We saw it against Canada. We've seen it against the West Tigers. We've seen it against the West Tigers. You know, these are six points that we really should have put in the bank. And, you know, for all the positivity and for all the, you know, the talk about all the Sharks coming fifth and all this type of stuff, I just want to put it in perspective.

[00:12:27] This South Sydney has won two less games than us and have the same amount of buys and they sit 16th. So there is a real reality to where we're actually sitting right now and the styles that we're playing and what we're actually dishing out because it's not good enough. And the season is almost getting away from us at this point, I think. Yeah, that's a fair observation. And I mean, we've said it on the show throughout the year that you're going to regret this loss. And this loss was Canberra. It was West Tigers.

[00:12:56] To an extent, it was the Bulldogs game. To an extent, it was the Warriors game. Definitely the Broncos game. You're going to regret it. And it's because this season is so tight. And as you said, second last team is not very far away from the fifth and sixth team. So you need every win you can get. You can't bank on the fact you're going to come running down that hill at the end of the comp and win six in a row. It does not like this year. I think we've probably, I think three in a row is our best.

[00:13:24] And maybe that good run in the middle of the season so far where we had maybe like five or six, six or seven, but we can't rely on that. And this game was just there for the taking. It would have been so good. So good going into the Melbourne game for confidence. The only thing, and we'll get to Melbourne, but the only thing we've got going this week is that no one's going to give us a chance. And everyone is ready to see us lose by a big margin.

[00:13:49] That's the, that's the only motivation that we kind of have going into the game that, oh, maybe they'll, there'll be a surprise. Maybe they'll put some starch in the D. So it's all on the back of these performances. And it's a really strange year, man, because you can, you can cop letting a lead go every now and then in a game. But now it's getting to be a pattern.

[00:14:10] Just super interesting watching that game back this morning in hindsight, being in position to win that game multiple times and not getting the job done. And that then leads to questions, which we've seen throughout the week already about the spine and who's controlling a team and who isn't controlling a team and what they should and shouldn't be doing and contracts and moving forward. Like it's all steamrolling into a real big ball of negativity. Now out of that negativity, hopefully comes some positivity, whether it's wins, whether it's change, whatever it's going to be.

[00:14:39] But I do want to ask you about the control of the team and why can't we with, I don't know, 25 minutes to go or 30, whatever it was, why can't we hold out a team when we're leading by 16? What's going on there? Yeah, it was really perplexing. And the one thing that when I will think back about this game was, and I don't mean this as a shot at this player because he was actually our best player, but it was Blake Braley after he scored.

[00:15:07] And he just did that shrug and looked at the bench was like, how easy was this? Right. And, you know, I'm sure that was probably some sort of inside joke or something like that, that they've had going or someone was maybe giving him steak about not scoring enough or whatever the case was. I'm sure it was a direct message or something. It wasn't just done out of spite to the Broncos, but I just felt like it was that sort of mentality where they just thought that it was in the bag.

[00:15:32] And, you know, going into that game, we've got a decent day record. I saw the stats about that and I saw the Broncos day record wasn't very good. And it just felt like, you know, when they, when they wanted to play well and put points on, you know, Nico and Trindle were putting the back rollers through at ease and, you know, they were making, you know, length of the field efforts and scoring points really easy.

[00:15:54] But they weren't when, when the Broncos turned it up, they weren't there in the fight. And, and yes, I have a lot of criticism of Nico and how we finished that game of Trindle and how we kicked that ball out in the full. But, you know, Payne Haas was busted going into origin. He, he wasn't going to play origin, even in the captain's warmup. Right. And then he comes out and puts 65 minutes.

[00:16:18] They have to take him off at a point because he's so busted and then put him back on for that final stint. And, you know, he gets over the top of our guys. Rhys Walsh was playing on one leg. So it just, our guys, I think kind of thought these Broncos players look a bit busted. They are backing up and I don't think they took them that seriously. I think they thought they had the job done. But there's a lot there to take away. Let's start with the Blake Braley thing.

[00:16:43] I think it was designed and dedicated to his front row partner in Fanoa Blake. I think he was doing the Fanoa Blake shrug. And I know that you're not doubling down on that. You're saying that's an example of kind of the mentality mindset. And I, when I saw it, I kind of went, oh, I'm not going to put him in that category. Cause his only error was like with 20 seconds to go from an offload that was hot. You know?

[00:17:08] So, and as I said, I felt like we had it in the bag when he scored that try, this will be enough. They'll defend here. They'll kick. Well, they didn't do either of those things. Now on the last 10 minutes, even when they go ahead by six, there's still what eight, seven, eight minutes to go. We had a lot of ball. I think we had most of the ball and most of it was in their opposition. 20 definitely their half couldn't get it done.

[00:17:35] I was saying to you off air, I saw a couple of chances there on either side. I saw Talakai, if he catches and passes to Ronnie, he's probably in. I saw the other side. If Nico goes short and Ramien passes it, Katoa is in. And then we saw the Nico kick into the goal on the full, which gives them a seven tackle set. And then a couple of errors after that. It's going to sound strange.

[00:18:02] The effort was there. Like they were chasing. They didn't give up. They didn't just do hit ups, but it just wasn't good enough. And the starch in defense is just gone. Like I think after sort of 10 rounds, we were top two, top three defensively. Now we're just now we're just sinking down. And I'm not even worried about the way we're sitting. It's more, I'm seeing the one-on-one misses and they're really costly. And they're from some players that you don't expect them to be missing those tackles. So you can put that down to a one week thing, but it's not a one week thing.

[00:18:31] Now it's becoming a bit of a pattern. I really think this team needs to draw a line in the sand this week and whatever it takes, you got to do what you did last year and beat Melbourne because, well, for a lot of reasons, because you're slipping out of the eight, but also just to get some respect back for the club. Because at the moment, the club's just sort of no one. And I don't really care about this stuff, but just as an example in the media, no one's talking about us to be any kind of threat anymore. Our fan base is up in arms about all sorts of things, which we'll get to some of it.

[00:19:01] And there's just a lot of instability when it comes to us now, which is kind of unthinkable where we were even a month ago. But now we've lost three out of four. Yeah, it's going a bit pear-shaped. Let's talk about the issue about the bench rotation in the second half. We saw Atkinson, Hohepper and McInnes as three of the four middles. Is that correct? Right? Saying that? Three of the four middles. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:28] Against the likes of Payne Haas, Carrigan, the rest of their big boppers. Now, I don't know what happened there. And in weeks gone by, we've gotten away with that kind of stuff. I think all year, and I'm happy to be proven wrong, but all year, having Dan Atkinson as the middle hasn't cost us a game. I don't even think if we've lost the game, you could point to him and go, that's the reason.

[00:19:53] And I don't think in this game you can say he's the reason, but I think having two smaller forwards on the bench was very costly in that last 20 minutes because they were just going up the field so easily. And as you said, they were busted and they were still going up the middle and it's not any shade on McInnes, Hohepper or Atkinson. They just weren't in the same category as far as size goes. So we'll see what happens moving forward. We know that Atkinson's been named on the bench.

[00:20:22] Hohepper has been relegated to the extended bench, but yeah, that was pretty evident to a lot of people. That little period, it was amplified by the commentary team who don't miss anything either on the Fox Sports coverage. So what did you make of that little period? When I first heard Hohepper was coming into the team, I thought, well, Atkinson's not playing.

[00:20:43] But to have Hohepper who specializes in that middle role, but can play a utility value for us in the second row, which he was forced to do and potentially in the halves. Atkinson becomes completely redundant. Now, Atkinson's stats, I think I saw was like eight minutes and all that type of stuff. Right. So effectively, we're continuously going into these performances with 16 versus 17 players.

[00:21:10] And you can have a guy there for a worst case scenario. But when you're bringing in Hohepper who can cover a worst case scenario, and look, if we lose a half, if we lose a fullback, we can juggle it around. It doesn't have to be Daniel Atkinson. And we can't keep cleaning for the worst because it was really costly not having a guy like Burns on the bench because Burns would have slotted into Teague's spot or having a Tooks on the bench too, because you still could have put Hohepper out there and, you know, fought a bit of size with size.

[00:21:40] Having the two small guys on the bench made zero sense to me. And, you know, I've had a real problem with the Daniel Atkinson on the bench thing because we've been carrying Siffa on the bench. And Siffa is also covering that utility value. So having two utilities to me makes zero sense. I understand we put Siffa into 13, but when Siffa's coming on and he plays that front row role like he does sometimes with McKinnis and Atkinson, you're getting that size still because Siffa is a huge human.

[00:22:09] Going to this super small wall, it just made no sense to me. And the inability to look at that as an issue for me every time we get an injury, it just we revert back to. All right, we'll just put Akko there at 14 just in case. It's one of the biggest things that is my annoyances at the Sharks at the moment. So Kieran, I thought Hohepper was actually pretty good and I was hoping he would play more minutes. He's actually a bigger minute player than what was represented on the weekend. And I think you're right.

[00:22:38] Like, I think if we move forward and he was the 14, he's there to cover all the bases, but he can also just substitute Cam. I just don't think we need the two smaller bodies on the bench. I don't think Dan is the answer. We've spoken about that many times. It's nothing against him. We see him as a half. We see him as a back. He's not really a middle forward. So I have no idea why that keeps happening.

[00:23:04] And it's obviously the preference of the coach and the coaching staff, but I really like Hohepper. I thought a couple of real key moments. So he's a guy that doesn't give up on the ball and he's handy with his hands. He looks pretty good in defense. We've spoken about it before. It reminds me a lot of Joseph Polo in that kind of just middle tacking, smaller forward. Although I think Polo was a bit bigger than him, but I liked what he did. Hopefully he gets another shot at some point. Yeah.

[00:23:30] I mean, if we are going to play those two smaller guys, you know, in that lock role with McInnes there, I would like to see Hohepper, you know, on the bench, because again, he can play that role more effectively. I mean, if I said to you at the start of the season, Daniel Atkinson is going to be our fullback, what do we do with Will Kennedy? We, there's no chance we put Will Kennedy in this role we're doing with Daniel Atkinson and it's, it just hasn't worked. And, you know, even when we see him play on the wing or center, that doesn't work either.

[00:23:58] So, you know, I feel bad about, you know, wanting someone out of the 17 as badly as I do, but it's, it's one of my most infuriating things because I think it speaks to the frustrations of Sharks fans. And we seem to be having the same issues since 2022 with a lot of the things that we see, right? A lot of these brain fades and small little things, and it doesn't seem to be a lot of changes or, or rocking the boat. And I think Atkinson is becoming the poster boy for that frustration for Sharks fans.

[00:24:27] And we have seen him be moved to 18th man a couple of times when we've had all our forwards fit and ready. But as soon as there is a little disturbance, it's like we don't have faith in anybody else. So we just go with the people that we know have trusted and done a job for us in the past. And I just, I can't agree with it. The only thing I would say about this week going into Melbourne is that there are a couple examples where coach does movies bench around. So it's not a given that, for example, Atkinson's going to play this week from the bench.

[00:24:56] I mean, he's named there, so there's a good chance he might, but it's also not a given. So I'm not saying people can't be upset with even just that being listed. You can feel however you want to feel, but you might want to hold that emotion until an hour before kickoff and then go nuts because you just never really know. But I feel for Dan Atkinson. He's a, he's a handy footballer. He's a terrific fellow off the field.

[00:25:20] He's been a good club man for us, but he's just being thrown into these positions where he's not really, at least as far as I can see, best suited. Yeah. I mean, that's a debate we've had most weeks and we all sort of, most of us come to the same conclusion, but it'd be interesting to see moving forward. Once the pressure, as soon as this week, pressure starts building on the club and on other parts of the club. Do they keep sticking week in week out with what they're doing? I think at some point you need to change it up.

[00:25:48] I think for me, Kieran, to be honest, like I know I said that last 20 minutes with the small three guys in the field was costly for us. And I stand by that. For me, it's the individual stuff, man. I don't think it's a collective. It's an individual thing. It's a collective because a bunch of them do it, but like Katoa, brain snap. We, and I, we've spoken about it already on the show. We've spoken about it all week. It's obvious. So I'm not piling on the guy, but also what the hell?

[00:26:17] And then the trindle out in the full, the Nico stuff, the Ronaldo one. When you watch that back, it is just a classic example of not being focused on your job. Like he just sort of puts the hand out and it looks like a pretty simple take to bring in. And he doesn't. And you know, some really bad misses from Breit. He wasn't alone there. Yeah. It's individual stuff for me more than the collective.

[00:26:41] And I think when the individuals make the errors as a collective, the mindset and mentality goes down, but I don't, I don't think it's a blanket wide team thing. I think it's just guys messing up and then it snowballs. Yeah. And look, I'm not disagreeing with you on that. I will say Jesse Ramian had a five minute period there.

[00:27:02] I'm sure he would love back, but I think the frustration has become it's, it's similar errors from similar players in similar situations, which is getting people frustrated. And the, the, the refusal to tweak anything stylistically or roster wise is I think feeding this negativity that is growing and rightfully so because we're not seeing the players respond to it. Now fits is very big on connection and all this type of stuff.

[00:27:32] Now I'm not saying I would do it, but let's say he goes out and he drops a Jesse Ramian this week and brings in somebody else, right. And you know, to punish these errors or to Ronaldo for not paying attention or to Sione for, you know, that silly, or whatever the case is. I actually think that how connected this group is would actually respond to that in a really positive manner and would actually go, you know what, you know, there's a line in the sand moment here.

[00:27:59] And you know, if you're a guy like Jesse Ramian, for example, and I don't want to pick on Jesse here, but I will. He's consistently going to be picked every single week. Right. And you know, he's up for a contract extension at the end of next year, what we do there, who knows, but he's, he's very stable. Right. But again, he's had some costly errors and some costly games and some costly performances. Now, if you shake it up a little bit and he goes back to cut, you want a reaction from him where he's going to come back 10 times better.

[00:28:25] And I think you would get it from him because he's that type of guy. The other thing is you are rewarding another young player coming through and I get we've had a lot of injuries in our back. So we probably don't have the luxury to do something like that. But I just think there has to be some sort of spark in it, because whilst we can say it's more of an individual thing and the whole team, sorry, more of a team thing and everyone's doing silly things. I think that's the catalyst for change. I think the change doesn't have to be major. It could be small tweaks here and there.

[00:28:54] Even with the same players, like, you know, we are going up against the storm this week. The storm or physical forward pack, do we tweak it and start at Jesse Colquhoun at 13, bring Cam off the bench? I don't know. This is just just look at the team list here. Right. I'm just saying like if if we saw some sort of change in how we're playing, I think that yeah, the frustrations wouldn't be as high. I think that's the big thing because we're still playing a similar style to the last couple of years and same roster, same results. And I think that's what's getting to be.

[00:29:24] So on the bringing in people, would you bring in a Chris Vaila, Michael Gabriel, would you bring them in no matter what? Or would you look at the draw and go, we're coming up against Tony Staggs or we're coming up. We're going to Melbourne. Would that factor into you not bringing guys in or would you just be like, well, they're old enough, they're good enough, chuck them in?

[00:29:50] Well, personally, it wouldn't factor in for me, but just because we're paying them a wage and we obviously have scouted them. And to be fair, the players that we've got in our lower ranks have been highly decorated younger players. And I'm not saying they're going to come in and win a game for us, but I just think sometimes there needs to be some level of movement and consequences for this for repeated offenses.

[00:30:18] I guess what I'm saying. Ramians was one of my favorite players last year. I thought he was one of the best. You know, he's been down on form this year. Absolutely. I don't know if I would pull the trigger on dropping him just yet, but I'm just using that as an example to sort of say he's systematic of a wider thing that we're seeing. And, you know, you go to many different positions like, you know, with Kifusi and he's up and he's down and he's up and he's down. And guys like Toby coming off the bench and giving good impact. Do we start Toby with a Fennel Blake? And things like that too. Just something would be nice.

[00:30:47] Yeah. I have to be clear. I was referring to the fact that Talakai came in for the injured era. I wasn't referring to dropping Ramian, but it's still relevant because you're talking about that on things like promoting Toby just as a specific example. I'm saying no, because off the bench, he's incredible. I don't want to see him lose that. So there's, there's positives there and reasons to stick with a lot of the positions, but I'm with you.

[00:31:14] There's obviously some tinkering to be done. There was a lot to like, but even in the first half and the coach said it in the press conference, he said, even in the first half, there was some bad signs as well. And we weren't really seeing that because we were winning by 16 and having a fun with long range tries. But in the first half, there was something like 12 line breaks in total or 20 in total in the game. So obviously defense was missing throughout the game for both teams, for both teams.

[00:31:41] Whilst we were winning by 16, we weren't necessarily winning that arm wrestle, although obviously we were on top of them. So I don't have an issue with that, but I wouldn't have said that we were still after an after maybe like 20, 25 minutes. It wasn't like we were a wall of steel. We defended really well for a while and they scored that try from dummy half. And I was kind of okay with that just because they'd stopped three or four repeat sets. That's like, oh, well one from dummy half, pretty sneaky, ha ha, whatever.

[00:32:10] But then we just saw defense sort of get the window for a lot of the game after that. So there's a lot to work on. I guess the other issue that the coaching staff has and the players have is that these weeks are getting pretty short. Now I know it's a week between games. I get that. I'm not suggesting seven days isn't. It's one of the longest stretches you can have, obviously.

[00:32:29] But when you take in how they incorporate their week, travel, there's not a lot of time to like, A, to blow up the team and B, even to do two or three changes. Like, there's not a lot of time to kind of make that work. Maybe that's something that comes into the coach's mind. I'm not sure, but that's a problem. It was 10 days before the Broncos game though. Like they had a 10 day turnaround.

[00:32:53] Yes. And we've got a buy coming up after Melbourne. And so I have suggested to a few people without any knowledge at all, I think that if the unfortunate happens on the weekend, I think you'll be seeing some changes or a change because there'll be a two week gap. You know what I mean? That have to be. Yeah. But by then it could be too late, right? Yes. I'm not saying even a five day turnaround is not enough time to throw in someone. I'm not suggesting that.

[00:33:16] I'm just saying that as a collective, as a team to try and work on these things we need to work on, you know, there's not a lot of time. Now we're in the thick of the NRL week. There are some guys who can't train, you know what I mean? Like it's just a lot of circumstances. So to not have it right now. Yeah. So what I'm just trying to say is if you bring a young guy in versus Storm and he gets torn to pieces, you one, ruin his confidence. And two, then all the fan base said, why did you throw in a young guy that wasn't ready? You should have kept Jesse Raymond and give him one more chance.

[00:33:45] So I think to what you're saying is, is like, you know, you don't have a lot of time to get the structures right. Even though these guys are training and practicing in these roles, it's still very different at training park versus Amy park. So yeah, I take that point on board. But it doesn't mean you couldn't or shouldn't try it. I know that the coaching staff are more cautious than not cautious. That's pretty obvious, but I think we're approaching a time now where it's going to be make or break pretty soon.

[00:34:11] And that's for the top eight, let alone any other aspirations. Absolutely. Which is horrible. I don't, I can't believe we're at this point. It's kind of not a great feeling. It hasn't been a good feeling the last few weeks, just sort of seeing what's ahead. And even if you look at the draw, dude, it's like Melbourne week off dolphins, roosters, like, come on, man.

[00:34:34] Then Souths and the Cowboys. So recent records would suggest the Souths and Cowboys are kind of at our level, just I think in the last few games, the Roosters did a number on us. So that's going to be interesting to see how we respond.

[00:34:49] And we've never beat the dolphins. The dolphins have a star that's, that's troubled us. So it's going to be really interesting to see how they bounce back after this storm game, regardless of what happens, because, you know, those next five games will take you to what, what round will that be? That'll be round 23 or so. Right. I know that I always make this joke that I'm living in 1993 or whatever, but it's like unbelievable where we're at. Like the season's going to be done pretty soon in the sense of not us as in like, we'll be talking about American football soon. You know what I mean? Like it's just gone so fast.

[00:35:19] It could be us too, though. Yeah, of course. Of course. What was I going to say? Draw Melbourne. Without getting Homer podcaster on you, I'm also not ruling out the fact that they can get it together. Because as we say, it's the same team they've had for three or four years. Last year, they went to within 20 minutes of a grand final. If they can click, if they can make it work, if they can obviously improve on what they're doing, there's no reason why they can't win a bunch of games.

[00:35:48] I don't think we'll win every game. I'm not suggesting that. I'm hoping we can win half the games at this point, but I'm not giving up on the idea that they can get it together. But there is a lot of work to do both in attitude primarily and then the rest of it. Yeah. And I was listening to Paul Kent and he has his own podcast now and he was doing a breakdown and it got me because I was on YouTube and he sort of said, what do we do with Nico and the Sharks problems and all that stuff. So I thought, I'll give it a listen.

[00:36:16] And basically what he was saying was like this comp outside of probably two teams, which is, I think he said, Canberra and the Bulldogs. He sort of said, everybody else is in a quagmire. Everyone, no one knows what they're doing. It's really hard to get a real read on it.

[00:36:29] And if you can link up six games in a row of good performances and wins, the majority of your six games there, you'll be right up at the top of the table. And his question was, he doesn't know if the Sharks have left it too far late to try and gain that sort of momentum now because of the sort of noise that's around them at the moment.

[00:36:49] You know, just little things. I drove past the Sharks stadium this morning and I drove past the gym and I saw the guys in there and I saw guys like Nico and Kate Dykes even was in there, which was surprising to me because I picture him in a wheelchair. But, you know, they looked in really good spirits. They were in a good mood and all that type of stuff. So they certainly haven't given up on the season, rightly or wrongly. But again, it has to start in this Melbourne game. And, you know, we've won, what, two out of four against Melbourne in the last couple of games?

[00:37:19] So we won our last game down there last season. You know, this is the line we're seeing. We've traded wins with them over the past six games, but I think in total we've won three times in Victoria since they were brought into the comp. So, I mean, it's, or maybe it's three at Amy, whatever the stat is, but it's going to be tough. Like, even the Storm home record of the last three years, let alone 20, but last three is like they've lost, I think, three or four games and one of them's to us.

[00:37:46] So it's going to be tough, man. There's no doubting that. And the Storm, even when they're not great against South, they still get the job done. So Sharks need to do it, man. There's no excuses. Let's just go out and win. Like, it doesn't matter how you do it. I don't really care how you do it, but just win. You need to win. And, but you're right. Like the players and the coaching staff, like I know everyone's down on everyone at the moment. I get it. Then they would not even, there would not be a consideration in their minds that their season is done, that they're giving up.

[00:38:16] And to be honest, they're going to start feeling a lot of pressure anyway, externally and internally, I think a little bit, if they don't pull their socks up. So there's a lot to play for. But the problem is when you let games go to the West Tigers and you let games go that are very winnable against the Broncos and other teams, then you've got to prove it against the big boys. And I get that if you want to win the comp, you've got to prove it against everyone.

[00:38:41] But this week there is so much pressure to win against Melbourne Storm in Melbourne. And what do we say? We say, good luck, do your best. But the expectations are, even if they're in form, the expectations are it's going to be tough. The fact they're not in form, even tougher. So it's going to be a challenge, that's for sure. What else is going on with you and the Cronel Sharks? What did you, tell me, give me some positivity. What did you like out there? Give me some good things, moments, whatever.

[00:39:09] Well, look, I mean, Frank Braley's performance where he got out and was really running the team and we looked quite nice. I liked having both our back rowers out there on the field at one time and having them hit holes and kind of picking apart teams. I genuinely thought Nico's game up to the last 10, 15 minutes was actually pretty good. You know, he was looking really good. He was connecting well with Trindle. He got a nice try. And that space that Trindle set up actually had Sifer go through unmarked as well.

[00:39:37] So to do that in a small space, I thought it was actually quite, quite nice for them to do. So that's something we haven't touched on, which is obviously an obvious thing. Obviously an obvious thing. Great English, Shanaz. And they're not playing for 80 minutes, right? So how do we get to that point where they are? Like how do, as a coach, as a player, why can't you do it? Why aren't you doing it? Because if they do that, if they even play for 10 minutes more, let alone 20, but say 10 minutes more, they win the freaking game.

[00:40:07] For me, it all comes down to mindset. And I don't mean this as, you know, it comes down to the greatest squad's mindset is what I'm saying. I'm not talking about individual players here. I'm talking about the greater team that we've got. Because when the Sharks score points and long range points like we do, we make it look really easy. And sometimes I feel like that can breed in complacency where they think they can just turn it on.

[00:40:32] But we have these momentum shifts against us where it's like the other team is running down a mountain with boulders behind them. And they're just going straight through us, right? And I think a lot of that does come down to our middles. And, you know, we've talked about this for a very long time and we thought Fenil Blake was going to be the answer to that. Now, I saw Buzz had some criticism of Fenil Blake. I don't agree with that. I think Fenil Blake's been great for us. Yeah. I don't know Buzz. I've worked with him a little bit. I don't know him.

[00:41:02] I think he was just looking for a name and for some reason it came into his head. I'm not being disrespectful because I thought that was a ridiculous statement. I think he'd have that back if he could. Yeah. And I think even leaving Fenil Blake out for longer minutes we've seen in the last few weeks, I think that's more of a positive. But we've just had this revolving door next to him of Kofusi, Hamlin Newerle, Toby, Hazleton, Tooks. Like we haven't had that consistent partner for him. And if you look at, you know, Penrith when they were going really well,

[00:41:29] they had Fisher-Harris and Leota and then they would just barnstorm teams. Now, Fenil Blake had Barnett over in the Warriors, right? And, you know, he's probably looked at the Sharks roster and thought I could do a job with Kofusi, Toby, Hamlin Newerle, Hazleton. Like we've got a lot of middles there, right? So I think if we can kind of fix that situation and Oregon was out last minute and all that type of stuff, it might help us. But, yeah, I think it's just that consistency and that mindset where we don't want to get in those dogfights

[00:41:58] that the Sharks were famous for five, six years ago. And this has not been a Fitzy thing. This is going back to the John Morris days where the Sharks would kind of put on 40 points, but then you might score 34 against them. And we thought we were getting that hard edge, but we haven't got it yet. Essentially, we need Paul Garland to come out of retirement is what you're telling me. Well, look, you know, Cam has been a great leader for us and so has Finucane. But those guys were not that aggressive, you know, knock down, drag them out guys.

[00:42:28] Those are like just insanely tough, hardworking, respectable guys that you want and love to have in the club. And I just don't know if we've got that forward that's a little bit – and Finuble Blake is doing a great job, but he needs support, right? Even when we had Gal doing his best, we had Fafita, we had Lewis and Wade Graham who could all put on shots and they love that grinding style of football.

[00:42:52] And I just think if we could find a middle that loves the dirty stuff and just likes to get in those hard situations, I think – but also be a vocal leader, I think that would change things for us. And when I look at changes and what I would try and do – and again, I look at, you know, when we had our great run in 2022, we had a guy like Cam coming off the bench and he wasn't absorbing that first 20 and all that impact and all that type of stuff.

[00:43:21] And I just think a guy like Jesse Colquhoun starting at 13 with two other big front rowers with him, I think that could be a little bit of a change to the way that we play that adds a little bit more size. And Colquhoun's a good ball player too. You still get Cam's leadership and all that type of stuff coming with the team, the 17. It doesn't change how anyone feels about him at the club. He's still a super respected figure. He will still play huge minutes within the game. But we're just splitting that up because when you play Cam with, say, Kofusi,

[00:43:48] you're not getting a lot of run meters because Nakora and Wilton aren't big back rowers that get a lot of run meters either, right? So you're putting a lot onto Fenil Blake and Braley to get those meters and our backs. So I just think having a guy like Jesse out there for, you know, the start of the game and have a bit more size in our attack might create a little bit more offloads and space for us to do a little bit more. The other thing I would do, and I'd do it as soon as they could, as soon as they're happy to find another center,

[00:44:15] I'd be starting with Talakai at prop short term. And him and his cousin are your front rowers. Yeah. And just let him go. And Talakai, I wouldn't play him extended minutes in that position. You know, we've seen smaller props in this game. One infamously at Cronulla, do a lot of really good work, played for Queensland in the early 2000s. I think Talakai is so dominant, so effective.

[00:44:43] I don't care how tall or short you think he is. He's a great middle. And I would put him in there to get the meters and get everyone going. And then you can rotate however you want. I do like your idea about Colhoun being in there as a starter. I'm happy to tinker with Cam off the bench. I don't really see that McInnes role as a problem personally, but if you want to spice it up a bit, sure.

[00:45:08] And I am convinced that we only need two of those positions in the 17. We don't need a third lock, so to speak, which is what we're doing. Yeah, 100%. And so let's say you drop Cam into 14, and it's going to cause a lot of noise in the media, all that type of stuff because he's your captain, he's your leader and all that. But Cam gives you the ability where he can play in the middle. He can play in the halves if you had to put him there. So he gives you a bit of versatility there. Plus then you've got the size of, in your example,

[00:45:36] Sifer starting and Colhoun starting, right? So your bench would be guys like Toby, Hamlin, Nueli, maybe a Burns or a Hojepa and Cam. So you're going to have a really big bench too, and you're going to kind of play to the strengths of when we look at best. It's when we're steamrolling teams through the middle, and that could potentially unlock the Fanua Blakes and Braley's even more, which again, when Braley's getting out of dummy half and running like he has, Nico looks his absolute best.

[00:46:04] And in that first half, when we were scoring those points, our halves looked amazing. Where we didn't look amazing was when we had three smaller guys and, you know, Braley can't get out. So then our halves are getting no space. Nico is now forced to play more side to side instead of going square. And then all the blame gets put on Nico. Kieran, have a good week, buddy. We'll talk to you soon. Stick with us. We're going to be okay. I'm not getting all Homer on you. I'm just saying like things are going to be okay. Thanks, everyone.

[00:46:33] We will talk to you soon. We are Shark House Pod. We love what we do for you guys and girls. Plenty more coming. Stick with us. We'll talk to you soon. Up, up. SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips & 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

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