Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla

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[00:02:25] Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Hey there, good morning. Welcome to SharkCast's podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. Of course it's Monday morning and it is Monday morning catching up with Kieran over

[00:03:23] coffee about Cronulla and we can tell you the show is brought to you by Dyson Logistics the Royal Media Club in Port Hacking and Jason Hawes at Crips & Crips Real Estate. Man, I need this coffee so bad Kieran. But let me formally introduce you, Kieran Fraser.

[00:03:38] Have you travelled a lot for work, Kieran? This we know. Tell me about something that happened to you on a plane two weeks ago which I neglected to talk about last week. I seriously think I saw a UFO. So we were halfway between Australia and New Zealand.

[00:03:58] So pitch black, nothing around. But it was like a six o'clock flight from New Zealand so it was night time and basically no lights, nothing. And I didn't close my window. So I left my window open and I didn't close the shutter.

[00:04:13] And basically I'm looking at the window and I see this object and it's really close to our plane and it was kind of rotating over itself. I know if you're listening to this you can't see what I'm doing with my hands

[00:04:26] but it was kind of like an oval. It was like kind of spinning top down. It had three lights. It had two red and one white or maybe it was two white and one red I can't remember. And there was dead set, nothing around.

[00:04:40] And after we saw this the plane then diverted and we went, when you fly from Auckland or Wellington? I think it was Auckland. When you fly from Auckland it's like a straight line that you just go on.

[00:04:55] After I saw this our plane diverted and we kind of went up towards Brisbane and then came down so it added an extra hour to our trip. So I'm a believer. I saw you at first. I believe that you saw it.

[00:05:08] I'm not going to tell you that you didn't see it. I just wanted all of our listeners to enjoy the experiences that I have being your friend. I get to hear all this crazy stuff. There's things out there I want to believe. I want 100% believe in aliens.

[00:05:26] But the one that I want to be real is a big foot. I really want that one to be real. On that note, Kieran, let's talk about other mysteries of the world. And that is the Cronol Sutherland sharks.

[00:05:38] If we were treading water suddenly the water is rising above us. We are five losses from the past six matches. The latest one being against the Gold Coast Titans 20 points to 16 up in Koff's Harbour. It is on the back of another bad start to put it kindly.

[00:05:59] One of the worst starts you'll ever see. No ball at all. When you get the ball, you muck it up. I am convinced that is why we're losing these games. It's not because of the half back. It's not because of the forwards.

[00:06:11] It's not because it's because of these starts and they're all equally responsible. The more we talk about it, the more it becomes a thing. I think this week we just got to forget about it and go out and play some footy.

[00:06:23] Forget about the tightness of the nerves and don't drop that ball in the first set. Maybe do what they did against the Russes. Just go out and play touch footy. There's got to be some sort of antidote to it because they just can't keep doing this stuff.

[00:06:36] It was funny because when I saw that we were kicking off, I was excited. I was like, yes, we can't drop the ball. How good is this? You know, we can do a good defensive set, keep them down there and, you know, force a kick.

[00:06:48] And then we didn't touch the ball for like seven minutes. I think it was there was a stat I saw. I think during the game, it was like the goal cost had had 45 play the balls and the sharks had had six.

[00:06:58] And I don't think we really started to get any real possession to the 20 minute mark. I've been watching rugby league for 37 years. I've never seen like a team do these starts so consistently. Like it's mind boggling and I just can't wrap my head around it.

[00:07:13] I can't work out why it's happening. But the more it happens, the more it becomes a thing. And the more it's like, well, how do we fix it? I don't know. And, you know, I just hoping that we don't go through it again

[00:07:25] because I'm still annoyed about that Tigers loss earlier in this season. That was probably one of the worst performances I've seen from the shark. So I really want them to put in a good performance and get back on track.

[00:07:35] But there's a buy coming up, you know, it's just this origin period has just destroyed us. I look at has, but I don't relate this to origin. It's it's something else and we'll get to the Tigers game later.

[00:07:47] But, you know, the argument is there that well, there are only 12 nil down in the modern day. It's not that much. Sure. But on the back of weeks and weeks and weeks of doing this,

[00:07:57] your confidence is going to be shot to a man, not to one man, to a man. 12 points against the Titans in the old days might have been. Yeah, we can do that. But like you've had all this onslaught of media and public pressure

[00:08:11] and fan pressure and pressure within not to do this. And you've done it again. Sometimes that's hard to get out of. And the Titans, they're not a bad team. They probably shouldn't be sitting in 15th. They're not a top eight team necessarily either. So no excuses there.

[00:08:27] But to be 12 nil down against those guys, it was always going to be tough. And again, they almost pulled it out, which is the sort of semi hilarious thing about it all is that a bunch of these ones, they could have won probably every game

[00:08:40] except for the Penrith game. They could have won as in being in that game in that moment with five minutes more or whatever. So that's why I think it's not end of world staff. But at some point you slide from first to second to third to fourth,

[00:08:53] you're going to keep sliding if you don't start winning. So they are making serious damage by not winning these games. And I mean, you look at the way the finals are going to shape up

[00:09:04] and there is not going to be an easy game, particularly in the top four. But even stretching out, it's going to be hard in top eight. There's no excuses. We've got to get there. We've got to win, but you've got to win as high as you can.

[00:09:14] You've got to be as high as you can in that top four. And we have a good run home and it starts this week. I say it every week, but it starts this week. And as you mentioned the buy, tell me about do you have any positives

[00:09:26] from the game that went where it was individually as a team? Any positives? I'm searching for them. I mean, I think Nico defended well again. I think that was probably, yeah, they were setting for feeder at him.

[00:09:39] That's probably the only real positive that I have out of it. Their team looks frustrated. They look annoyed. You know, they've now lost to the bottom three teams in the competition, which is something that we haven't really done recently. But they look like a frustrated team.

[00:09:55] They look like a really annoyed team. And you could even see with Nico getting involved in some of the niggle and stuff like that you just don't really see from him. You could see him pushing and shoving.

[00:10:03] And you could see that they were setting like, you know, Clark at him and they were really trying to get on these skin. So, yeah, it all goes back to the start and they need to fix it.

[00:10:15] They need to fix that and get things going in the right direction because as soon as one thing kind of happens, they just start to see a domino effect. And I saw Josh Mansel, I think it was was talking about the sharks.

[00:10:25] And, you know, he's not someone that I really seek out to listen to. But he was saying that they're just playing like a really frustrated team. And if one thing goes against them, then they just kind of compound it again and again.

[00:10:36] And that kind of resonated with me because that's just something that we just keep seeing. So we've got to fix these starts, Sam. Yeah. And the problem is it's hard to start a game perfectly. We we've actually done it this year.

[00:10:47] We've started again perfectly, but that's a memory. And now this weekend's West Tigers, say, for example, you have three or four great sets and then someone does something, the whole crowd's going to groan. They're going to groan. You know, I mean, it's become this big thing.

[00:11:03] Yeah. And Coach Fitzgibbon in the press conference said, we're not at that stage of like, I can't remember the word he used, but he maybe Christ is I can't remember the word that was put to him. And he went, no, we're not quite there yet.

[00:11:16] Obviously, respectfully, I disagree. But I can see where he's coming from in that it's going to take one good win to get over that, I think, because I think once you get past that hurdle, you remember you can do it.

[00:11:27] It becomes mechanical, have the bi-week hopefully roll back out. But I do know that he's also protecting his plays a little bit like they're they're talking about it internally. There's there's zero doubt they're talking about it internally.

[00:11:39] So if you're thinking that the coach is not worried about it, he definitely is worried about it. But again, like I've said on a few podcasts, how do you coach against that? I don't I don't know how you as a coach, aside from getting in their heads

[00:11:53] mentally about doing things, I don't know how you get around it. It's crazy because it's something that we've talked about a lot. And I think it I've been stretching my head about this, you know, for a number of weeks now and then how do we fix it?

[00:12:05] And I honestly think we need to get our number one and number two props on our depth chart. We need to get them fit and we need to get them firing. And they need to start the game for us well.

[00:12:14] We need them to be, you know, how many well it needs to be out there intimidating people, you know, Toby needs to be in there not doing silly penalties. And we need to get those two guys fit.

[00:12:24] If we got our two enforcers and we haven't had them for two years, like they have had such an injury disrupted 18 months. We get those guys on the field and they both played for the Jets on the weekend and big minutes. They played some long minutes.

[00:12:36] Yeah. So I think they did the first 40 straight, right? And, you know, Col Hoon as well apparently, you know, had a blind up his foot to try so. Well, I think we get those two guys back. We start them. I think they have to start this week.

[00:12:50] And again, I said I want to Toby dropped last week. So, you know, I think he's done his punishment. You drop him, you bring him back. Sure. I am also of the view now that and I know that I've talked him up all season

[00:13:03] and it was an unfortunate one. But, you know, Jack Williams, two errors, there's got to be a consequence for that, right? There has to be something. And I would look to bring in someone like a Col Hoon and just try and, you know, set the standard of, OK,

[00:13:16] these things are unacceptable and, you know, you will be sent away and you will have to go and come back and you're going to be better for it. Yeah, because I just think that we've spent two, three years with his roster without a lot of change.

[00:13:28] And this is the first year where Fitz has kind of made some of these changes. He's brought in hero, you know, he brought in Stone Street when he could have brought in Heroddy, played the easier option. So I think we got those two guys fit.

[00:13:39] We get them firing and that then takes the pressure off, you know, the Cofuses, the Hazel turns, you know, those guys have logged, you know, big minutes this year against some, you know, all the other NRL teams.

[00:13:50] And those guys probably weren't expecting to play the role that they've had to play this year. And now we're 19 rounds or so in the competition. I think they're starting to feel it a little bit more.

[00:13:59] Yeah. So again, we turn our middle into a strength a few weeks back. And that's when we were playing really good football and then they were winning games and life was good. But now it just seems that we don't have our enforcers.

[00:14:11] We don't have our middle short up. We've got to get those two guys out there and they've got to start the game for us. They've got to set a platform for us. And I'd be sitting them down and saying, you too,

[00:14:19] at number one and number two on our depth chart, you guys are paid accordingly. We need you to start this game properly for us and get us off on the right foot. Is it too big a turnaround? Do you think to say to those two guys, particularly

[00:14:30] you're starting after playing Cup last week? We've got a buy coming up next week. So if you don't do it now, you can probably wait to laugh at the buy. But again, we're going to be playing those guys in New South Wales Cup in the buy round.

[00:14:43] I don't think we probably will. And the stint doesn't have to be, you know, a 30 minute stint. You know, they could just do the first 15 or 20, whatever the role that fits he comes up with for them. But I think that those two guys are our enforcers.

[00:14:57] And you know, you can say, well, I don't see Toby as a physical enforcer, but Toby plays a very rough and rugged style. And Hamlin New early is probably the only intimidating middle that I would say that we have.

[00:15:09] You know, Hamlin New early can put on some shots. You know, aside from we've seen in Brock. Big Tuku. Yeah, we're big Tuku. But I think in a Tuku rate, he's he's of that kind of body shape,

[00:15:18] right, where it's hard for him to be super aggressive in defense because he's just so big. And you know, the hit zone that when he's hitting people, right, you know, he's open to drop his body and all that type of stuff.

[00:15:27] Whereas, you know, like Hamlin New early's body shape is kind of, you know, he's built to rock people. And there was one game this year where he did a kickoff and I thought he killed some bloke. So we need those two guys, I think the Jack Williams comment

[00:15:41] kind of startled me for a minute, but thinking about it as you've been talking, it makes perfect sense because if it's good enough to Toby Rudolph, it's good enough for Jack Williams. Jack's a guy that we defend every week. We joke, we joke about the internet audience

[00:15:53] piling onto him whenever he sort of looks the wrong way. But past two weeks, there's been three or four crucial errors and he's been effective otherwise in his in his position, I think. But I think I'm with you. I think I'm with you.

[00:16:07] And I think that Colhoun has done his time back from injury. He's going really well in lower grades and he plays a similar role, not exact role, but a similar role. So I'm OK with that, too. And we love Jack and he's off contract

[00:16:20] and we hope he sticks around. But yeah, consequences. You're right. I just think that there has to be a line in the sand, right? And we did it with Toby and Toby deserves to be dropped for that game. And again, he can come back.

[00:16:34] Like it's not saying you're banished for good. But I just think there has to be something. And we don't want guys worried for job security and all that type of stuff where they're not actually able to be themselves and play their own games.

[00:16:44] They're so worried about making a mistake. But two drop balls at critical times. You know, we have to address that. Yeah, we do. We do. The shot cast inbox is bursting, as you can imagine. And we'll get to that during the week. It is a short week.

[00:16:58] I've got to work out what we're going to do. But I vow to our audience we're going to get to it one way or another. But a lot of stuff about Nicko is you can imagine and the halves and the spine. So we'll get to all that.

[00:17:08] I thought that the spine wasn't fantastic this week. Probably out of the four of them, I thought Will Kennedy was again the best. I think Trindle and Heinz, we kind of need to look out as a combo and see strengths and weaknesses.

[00:17:25] And I guess the spotlight is on Trindle because Heinz isn't going anywhere. And I feel like Blake has to have gone back into his shell. As much as I said, it was a group effort and it definitely was a group effort in the arrows and the discipline.

[00:17:37] The spine isn't really working currently. Yeah, I think it was. I mean, Blake's had a great season, but I think that was probably one of the worst games I've seen Blake put together. That try where the 13 just ran straight through him for that easy try.

[00:17:51] Both went through him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you don't see tries like that very often where a guy just runs from 15 meters out and just goes straight under the post like that. Like that's there's obviously something else that's happened

[00:18:03] in the lead up to that play that's created that. But yeah, it wasn't one of his better games. But look, it was on everybody. You know, Cam gave away that first penalty, right?

[00:18:12] And then that kind of put us on the back foot and the six again penalties are killing us. I can't stand this six again rule. And it's not just because we're saying to copper, but there's just no way to actually understand it because how long is too long?

[00:18:25] Because sometimes it feels like the players are just laying there. And then other times you go, well, that didn't seem that bad. And now it's another six again. And that momentum that it starts and causes, you know, I'm with Cam Smith, mate, get rid of it.

[00:18:37] And it eases up as the game gets closer to full time. And exactly. You saw that even with the field goal situations on the two games that we can. It's like, I'm sure that guy's offside from the from the field goal attempt, they put the whistle away.

[00:18:51] I'm with you and Cam Smith. I don't like it at all. Like at all. I'd rather have a stop start game and penalize or something. There's no we can't get around the exclusive as a fan.

[00:19:04] Oh, we don't know what it's for, et cetera, et cetera, because it's up to the team to get with the times. And they're really struggling with it. And again, I think that's also on the back of confidence, poor starts, et cetera.

[00:19:16] It's not, they don't just have a problem with that. I think it's like a steamrolling effect. So yeah, like I think that you can practice. You can practice your tackling and you're getting up off people and that kind of thing.

[00:19:29] There's a fine line because the coaches are probably telling you to hold the rock, dominate the rock. And I think maybe just got to back your defense a bit more. Get off the player. It feels like we were being refereeing differently to how we've been defending.

[00:19:43] Explain what you mean? Our defense has been pretty good wrestle, pretty good on the ground, right? But it seems like right now we're getting pinned on a lot of these scenes where, you know, a few months ago we weren't getting called on these things, right?

[00:19:56] And it's like if our interpretation of it is we, you know, we're spending too long on the ground and all that type of stuff, then they need to address that. But at the same time, they need to just work out, you know,

[00:20:07] what is the line and how far they can push it? Because we've seen that we will, we'll still keep doing it. And I think you've got to keep doing it because you've got to win the wrestle, right? But the referees will penalize us right now.

[00:20:19] And it's just we're in that kind of no man's land where it's like we don't seem to know how long is acceptable for us to get away with it. And that's the hard thing, I guess, to follow as a fan because you don't know.

[00:20:30] And next thing you know, you're watching your team defend four sets in a row. You're going, well, I don't understand this. Yeah, not a great rule. It's there. We can't change it. Yeah, we can't change it. I wish we could tell me some other things.

[00:20:39] What did you what? I know you weren't there. Would you make it the Cops Harbour experience? You happy with the club taking game there, making a home away from home? As we were getting flogged in that first 20 minutes,

[00:20:50] I was thinking why did they send the game to Cops Harbour? It would be so much better to have this at Shark Park and, you know, try and turn around. But I mean, the area has gotten really behind the team. I think it's quite good.

[00:21:00] I think it's a great, you know, place for us to be fishing for the local talent from the junior's perspective. I saw that the deal there is up now. So the club said that they're open to looking for next year,

[00:21:14] but they're also open for other areas as well. Again, I think you should be doing stuff like that because, again, it grows the club, grows the brand. And if you can set up a pathway system, the roosters do it really well.

[00:21:26] So the roosters get all the talented kids from the Central Coast now and they are just stealing talent from the Knights and all that type of stuff. We should be looking to do stuff like that in different areas.

[00:21:36] And the Panthers do it really well without West as well. So I think we should be looking to identify a spot. And I think if we can keep going back to the same spot

[00:21:43] and then really making it like a home, I think it's going to be good for the club. And you're cool as a punter to leave leave a game for someone else, not have it at Shark Park. You don't really care about that as a mature age man.

[00:21:54] Look, I mean, my preference would be always at Shark Park, but I think you have to look at it from a club perspective and how do we generate revenue? Yeah, if one game I don't think is the end of the world,

[00:22:04] you know, two, three, I'm starting to go hang on a second. But for one game, I can cop one game. But this is the other thing too. It's I don't understand the schedule because it's like sometimes you'll do like five weeks on the road

[00:22:15] and then you'll have a home game and then you'll have a home game next week. It's like, I swear as a kid, it used to be like one game at home, one game away. Did that one change? I think as a kid, it was much more like that.

[00:22:28] It really was. I don't know if TV had something to do with it. I don't I don't really know when it changed, but it's been like it changed for a while like that. And when you look at NFL schedules

[00:22:37] and the first thing I look at in the hope that I'll get over to Minneapolis to watch some games is which one has two weeks in a row? So you got your ride on the Saturday, watch a Sunday, stay for a week, watch another game.

[00:22:49] This year, the Hail Mary, it's three in a row, three home games. But before that, there's three games on the road. And so a bunch of their podcast guides were like, I don't think this has ever happened three games on the road and three games at home.

[00:23:03] So it's but bizarre system, whatever sport you're in these days. I think it must have something to do with TV and scheduling and making all work, making the draw work. When was the last time we were at home at Chuck Park? Do you remember?

[00:23:14] I remember it was a deflating experience. Stolphins on Thursday. Yeah, the doctor. But like that was what, two, three weeks ago? Yeah, I think I think by the time we get around to Friday, it might be close to a month. So that's my only thing with it, right?

[00:23:26] If you take it away game. So if you take a home game and play it away, I just think you shouldn't really be going like four weeks without playing at Chuck Park. So and again, I can see we had two games there

[00:23:38] and we seem to always take it against the Titans up to cops or things like that. I think it's better when we did it against the Warriors, because again, like that's a hard place for them to get to.

[00:23:47] You want them to fly into Sydney or Gold Coast and get them on a bus. Why are we making it easier for the Titans? Like that's a short trip for the time. It's got to be a smallest drawing away crowd. Take them somewhere. Surely that's the reason.

[00:24:01] Hey, when we play when Perth comes in the competition, let's go play them in like Wellington or something like that. Let's make it really difficult for who are they? They're Perth Bears, right? The Perth Bears, which is going to lead into an interesting topic one day

[00:24:13] when we break it down and when it's confirmed, because they're saying for season 2027 and we've got a lot of players off contract at the end of 2026. And we also have a lot of players off contract next year.

[00:24:27] And I think what you'll see is a lot of clubs and managers will sign one year deals because there's going to be a flood of extra money coming onto the market for 27. Is that what happened?

[00:24:38] Was it Adelaide or one of those teams they took like half our team? I think Adelaide took a couple. I remember the storm also got a couple as well. But yeah, it's one of those things where it's going to be a lot of money

[00:24:51] that's going to be coming into the game. And as they're talking to get to three teams by 2030, an extra three teams, that's like an extra thirty three million dollars in the player market that guys are going to be able to go and get.

[00:25:02] So it's going to be interesting off topic a little bit. Are we talking Saturday night, nine, thirty times slot? Is that what we're talking? That's I think that's the preference. But again, you could have them play like a or any night really because they're going to be open.

[00:25:16] I just the one time slot that I hate is the Sunday night time slot because that's just the worst. Like any teams playing six or that to be like three o'clock for them. Yeah, yeah. It's like three or four hour time difference, right?

[00:25:27] We got the Tigers coming to town on Friday night. You and I are going to head out and have some good times, which will include singing the team song. Even if we don't win, we're going to sing a team song. Now we're going to win.

[00:25:39] But I watched the Tigers closely on the weekend. They put some points on Melbourne and still lost. They were indifferent. They were good. They were bad. We saw what they did to us early in the year. So there's definitely no taking this team easy from a fan

[00:25:54] point of view, from a playing point of view, from a coaching point of view, for sure. What are your initial thoughts on? On them, forget about us, forget about the starts, lots of stuff. What's your thoughts on them?

[00:26:04] If we lose to them, I might jump out of the ETC. That's my first initial thought. People have done it before. Again, the Tigers are kind of those a weird team because there's no real expectations on them.

[00:26:17] And they're trying to develop younger players and trying to fix their roster. But they do have some veterans in there that can get under the skin. So like a Bateman, for example, is going to be going after Nico. Clemmer is going to be going after them.

[00:26:30] So they've got a lot of these niggly guys that can really disrupt the team. So look, I am expecting a win. I keep waiting for the sharks to bounce back and get us back to where we should be. But this season is so strange.

[00:26:43] Like, look at the ladder. Like the dragons are coming, what, fifth or sixth? Like Broncos are coming like 11th. Like this season is just, I don't know. There's a couple of teams who are going to factor a little bit

[00:26:54] and they've sort of buys in hand and then help that the Cowboys lost on the weekend in a lot of ways. It's a weird season. And I said to, I think Gary during the week last week about the form ladder

[00:27:06] and it's just a bit of fun, the form ladder. Well, it's not fun. It's like it's relevant, but it doesn't really mean anything at the same time. But at the time, I think we might still be there.

[00:27:15] We were second last on a form ladder out of all teams were second last. And that's like based on five, six week period. So obviously need to get out of that. Thankfully we're in the top four. We can still hang around there.

[00:27:26] We just got to start winning some games. We've got to buy up our sleeves. So it's a weird year, but it starts this week. Like it has to just has to the finals are in sight. They're a little bit away, but they're in sight and Tigers.

[00:27:38] I mean, their fullback is really good. Their hooker is close to amazing. They have Clemmer. They have Bateman. They have some good young forwards as well. Who I was watching on the weekend. Feynü on the left is very, very good.

[00:27:52] Other Feynü not so much, but I mean outside backs, maybe we can get them. Five eighths pretty good as well, actually. So they're not as bad as kind of the world wants you to think. If they get if they put it together,

[00:28:05] I'm seizes, you know, smart enough to get you the win. So definitely not an easy game. I just think that we're going to be more desperate to win. And hopefully that takes us a long way. Hopefully, you know, patterns form routines form. They remember how to play together.

[00:28:21] But I am looking to the I'm looking to the forwards to dominate, but I'm looking to the halves. I really need the halves to lift. It's it comes down to the kicking game. And what killed us on the weekend was Kieran Foran's kicking game.

[00:28:34] Like they had so it was like eight or nine dropouts. Like it was ridiculous how many forced dropouts that they got from us, right? And they just pinned us in corners and we couldn't get out of there. Right. And Caesar has a really good kicking.

[00:28:49] Yeah. You know, he's there's not much else that he's got left at his age, but he's keeping game is still phenomenal. And we need our halves to step up and we need our house to start kicking better because we don't force

[00:29:03] dropouts and we don't pin teams in in corners at the moment. And we need to start doing that. So on that and I think we've got some mail, which we'll get to during the week. But I'm led to believe that the not forcing dropouts, that kind of thing.

[00:29:16] I don't have it still is, but earlier in the season was, you know, ball in hand, ball in play, keep the ball alive because they were backing their fitness, backing their ability to sort of play a bit at lib what they see.

[00:29:29] That was the reasoning behind a lot of not kicking on the fifth dropout or for the corner, they take the tackle on the 10 meters out. Whatever. Earlier in the year, that was a thought. And that's why they didn't do all that stuff, as well as

[00:29:44] as we've seen the dropouts of 50-50 thing now. You know, it used to be like an amazing gift. I was one of my favorite players, put the ball in, get six again. That's out the window. And I don't have a problem with that really.

[00:29:54] Like that's just how the games evolved. Question for you, when we were doing short dropout after short dropout, do you think we should have mixed it up a little based on the circumstance of the game? Because it felt like every time I'm trying to put the ball

[00:30:07] and it's not on him necessarily. It could be a coaching thing, could be a captain thing. I'm not sure. Every time he got it, they just went short. And some of them they got back. The one with Nico was borderline genius.

[00:30:18] Rami and Ronaldo always in their Brits in there. Like, I get it. But there were there were like two or three times at least where I was just like kick long back you do. Yeah. Especially in teams like dogs, Titans, kick long, make them start on their 50, whatever.

[00:30:33] But no, they went short and they're starting from 10 meters out. I know there's different thoughts on what's best for you. Defense, that kind of thing. But I think they should mix it up a little bit where circumstance allows. If you need to ball back, do it.

[00:30:45] Go for it. If you don't necessarily, if it's six nil and it's your second dropout, go along. Well, I think they got three back. And I think there was two penalties. And I think there was I think it was eight.

[00:31:00] So basically, that means that we always got half the back. But then we also cost ourselves with two penalties. So look, it's a frustrating thing because sometimes you see the kicks and they are so perfectly executed. You just go, that's amazing.

[00:31:16] And then other times you see it and it's just completely butchered. And look, you know, I'm not an NRL player. It's hard to do. They had to do. Yeah. It's super hard for them to do. Right. So to your point, look, sometimes it might be better

[00:31:29] just to go along and try to force an area with the defense because we at the moment, we are spending so much time defending on our goal line. And so it would be nice and refreshing to get off our goal line at some times.

[00:31:41] But I think the underrated play with the dropouts is and Nathan Cleary does it really well is targeting a sideline. Yeah. They're not necessarily going for the 10 meter one, but like just like doing a really aggressive low kick at a sideline

[00:31:55] because those ones along the ground is super hard to pick up, especially in the wet. So maybe that's something that they could look at and just trying to force some areas that way. I'd be practicing them and I would be doing more like the

[00:32:06] ones I need for Niko looking for the alternative side. And you know, someone gets the call whoever it is. Like maybe maybe you bring Katawa in a little bit and trick them. I don't know. And you just go chase it's the only like maybe he's

[00:32:18] defending at five eighths for like drop off and then like, I don't know. But it just I just think we need to mix it up a little bit where on deadline here, Kieran. So we're going to wrap shortly, but we're going to head out

[00:32:29] to the Tigers. We're confirming that. Yeah, you and I? Yes, I will be there. Excellent. Before we go, we need to play our favorite game of the week, which is random shark of the week. My gut feeling in on this, I don't know why I need to tell

[00:32:42] you my feelings on it. My gut feeling is 50 50. I feel like you feel like you get it. I just hope for our listeners and viewers, you don't get it too soon. But you do you if you want to nail it and first guess, please do.

[00:32:55] OK, no pressure. Born. Twenty third of February, 1994. Oh, wow. I think that currently makes him 30 years and 136 days old just off the top of my head. He is 187 centimetres tall, 187 centimetres. He weighs 103 kilograms. Last time they weighed him.

[00:33:22] He may not weigh it today, but last time he weighed him. He's from parts unknown. No, he's from a junior club. I don't like giving you these ones because you have this encyclopedic thing about mascot jets. Not too far mascot jets. He made his NRL debut in 2014.

[00:33:45] The glory years. It was a great one. One to remember, one that inspired podcast all around the world. The start up. His last NRL game was another great year, 2016. Debut 2014, finished up in 2016. I can tell you, however, this gentleman as of this week today,

[00:34:07] this week is still playing at a competitive level, not in the NRL. Well, yeah, he played a total of three NRL games. He played under the coaches in this order. I shouldn't have said that. James, the chef, Shepard. And Michael McGuire.

[00:34:30] Current New South Wales coach, I should point out. He played three NRL games, as I said, at these three stadiums. Homebush, Penrith and the old Dairy Farmers Stadium, Townsville. So he played at Homebush, Penrith and Townsville. He's currently playing Queensland Cup

[00:34:56] for the Falcons, and it's his fourth season there. He's played this week. He plays his 50th Queensland Cup game. Let's hear it for this person in four years. Yep. So he's part of the team. Prior to that, he played 78 New South Wales Cup games.

[00:35:17] He played for the Sharks. He played for the Shark Jets. He played for the North Sydney Bears. He played for the Western Suburbs Magpies. And he played for the South Sydney Rabbitos, finishing up in a cup at the Rabbitos in 2020. Then went on to Queensland Cup.

[00:35:36] He is a forward. This may help you a little bit as well. May. He played three years of Holden Cup Rugby League for our beloved Cronulla Southland Sharks from 2012, 2014. A total of 33 games. No tries. No points. He won just six of those 33 games. Wow. He debuted for Cronulla

[00:36:06] in NREL, played one game in the glorious year that's 2014. So 2014 doesn't always remind me of Trent Garvin. I thought my guess here, but what about him? I think we've referenced him before. Like he had that debut game where he made like 60 tackles and was never seen again.

[00:36:21] Do you want to say that's an answer or not? No, that's not my answer. He also played two games for the Rabbitos in 2016. The guy that's coming to my mind is a front rower who ended up getting sacked by the Rabbitos in their trip to the States.

[00:36:41] I think he got in a fight with one of the Burgers brothers or something like that. But I don't think he's still playing. Was he a shark? I think he's a lobby of the hundreds. Yes, Seon Massima or something like that. No, it's not Seon Massima.

[00:36:55] But Seon Massima follows us on the Instagram. He's a there was no incident there. He's a wonderful man in case he's watching. But no, it's not Seon Massima. You're kind of closer than you probably think. Yeah, what's that error of players?

[00:37:10] And so sorry, I should point out all three in our games off the bench. I'm led to believe he would be a front rower. This gentleman and he played for us in the 20s and he played one game for the Sharks one game in 2014.

[00:37:23] And that was against North Queensland in Townsville in round 25. How happy were you in round 25 2014? I wasn't happy. That was I think I was just glad the year was over. That was a year where almost they the players served their suspensions, right?

[00:37:38] Yeah. I do remember watching that game. Do you? I don't know why, but I always have memories of watching the Cowboys games for some reason and where I was. I am drawing an absolute blank here. I feel like when you tell it to me,

[00:37:53] I'm going to get really angry with myself and not remembering this person. No, I wouldn't go that far. But we are a deadline. Give you give you a few minutes more if you need it, but probably not much more than that. You know, they're all clues.

[00:38:05] Really, I don't think. So listed historically as a back rower came off the bench, but I think he fits the front row mold as well. I wouldn't think of him as a classic back rower. To be honest, I don't think of him at all.

[00:38:19] It's a name that you would know given that you're a buff of the Sharks. And you would have you would have seen him lumbering around in Holden Cup a lot regularly. Not necessarily lighting it up, but certainly not a bad player in Holden Cup.

[00:38:31] More of a Holden Cup guy than an NRL guy. Let's face it. But he's still going for the Falcons. Still still killing it for the Falcons up north. I was going to say, think of just one game is 2014, not Trent Grubb, not Sierra Nimesema.

[00:38:43] I thought you provided your life on knowing one gamers. I do. And this was I mean, Jack Bosden, but I don't think he ever went to South. You haven't you haven't talked about the other Jack. Jack Affamus, I got it's not him. We got him from Para.

[00:38:57] Didn't we? And then one game. I'm drawing a blank on this one, mate. Yeah, that you've stumped me. Is this the first time I've stumped you? No, you've got me. I think you got me two weeks in a row. Oh, beauty. OK. It's the third time.

[00:39:08] I'm sorry, I don't have more on him, but this is all I have. The random shark of the week this week. I'm hoping the pronunciation is correct. Patrice Ciola. Is that how you pronounce it? I do remember. Yeah, I do remember Patrice. Yeah.

[00:39:25] That 2014 season, I'm sure you can get so many random sharks because there's a few things. It was like Tim Weyman, that was Michael Weyman's brother. You say that every week. You're looking for him. You're fishing for him.

[00:39:38] But again, like I will be able to identify him based on those clues. But that season had so many players that we just never heard of again. The Asada suspensions, but that was only towards the end of the year.

[00:39:50] That was a couple of games in the years, we know infamously. There was a lot of injuries that year. I think post-Origin gal was injured. There was a lot of injuries and they pretty much the season was done.

[00:40:02] And yeah, we didn't want to win the spoon, but we did. But there was a lot of injuries on top of the controversies. That's what I remember. Yeah, I remember a little spoke about it once on a podcast. I think it was and he was just talking about

[00:40:17] what a depressing time it was at the club because, you know, like he wasn't involved in the Asada stuff, but he was watching his friends go through it and then they were going to suspend it and then like the coach wasn't there.

[00:40:26] And then like Peter Sharp was here coach that year too. And he just he just he just had enough. He just said, look, I don't want to do this. I don't think he I think the word is he didn't want to do it in the first place,

[00:40:35] but they kind of went your next in line. He said, OK, and then things were pretty bad. But yeah, went down back to James Shepherd, who. I think he was behind the two infamous wins behind Brisbane and. The roosters, would that be correct?

[00:40:51] Because Sharpie didn't last very long. 2014 was just a miserable year where it was. It was the worst. I always talk about 9, 10, 11, but 14 was obviously the worst for lots of reasons. But you know what? It's it spawned this great podcast. It's given me this great life post 2014.

[00:41:08] I want to comp. I'm a content creator. You and I met because you took a photo of me, but we'll talk about that in the off season when we do our had you guys become friends? That's a whole other mystery. That's a whole other. That's something with you.

[00:41:21] I should have I should have this thing on cue. I don't. I was going to cue the music. Anyway, we're going to get out of here, Kieran. I hope you have a great Monday. I hope you have a great week. I'll see you down south for the game.

[00:41:35] And I hope everyone has a great week. We are going to get another episode to you, particularly covering your mail. I don't know when it will be so sit tight. It's a short week. It's a different week. So we will get to it.

[00:41:49] But I will say if you see this, hear this and want to get your mail in, get it in sooner rather than later, because I'm not sure when we're going to record. Sharkasport signing off, Kieran, thank you for your time as Jerome Lowe would do.

[00:42:03] It's a gun or something. The Dragon Balls East up. Is that what it is? Dragon Balls. Well, they really into that stuff. Those guys. Yeah. So is my kid from time to time. All right, we will talk to you all another time. Sharkasport up up. Stick tight.

[00:42:15] Let's get them. Come on. One. Let's get a win up up. We got this. It's all good. Bye, everyone.