Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla (18/5/26)

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[00:01:06] Welcome to SharkCast Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. This is Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla. I've got a feeling he's going to need some coffee today. Brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking. Jason Hawes at Crips and Crips Real Estate, and we get our coffee from Mr. Paisley's, as you can see on the screen, perhaps. Now, Kieran Fraser is here because it's his show, and he went to Magic Ground, and he had a great time.

[00:01:33] So on this episode, we're going to talk about Magic Ground. We're going to talk about the upcoming month of the Sharkies, a whole bunch of stuff, the performance against the Bulldogs. But let's start with what's topical right now, Monday morning. Sun just came up, and the teams for Origin have been announced. And already reminded by our dear listener and friend, Michael Langridge, RCB, I'm not an Origin guy. But I am an Origin guy when my guys are picked, and it doesn't get more personal for me than Blake Braley.

[00:02:02] So we've got Blake Braley on the immediate bench. We've got AFB starting, and we've got Britton Nikera on the immediate bench for Queensland. I think he's the first guy to play who's not a real Queenslander, so to speak, or real Origin player. Insert whatever awkward comment you want there. However, Kieran, other friend of the show, Dave Riccio, has been screaming out for Origin players for the Sharks for us to elevate ourselves. Fitzy thinks it's a great thing for our players, and he'd know. And I'm very happy for these individuals.

[00:02:32] What's your initial reactions on those three guys getting a shot at Origin? Well, everyone has been saying the knock on the Sharks is they don't have Origin players. Well, the rules changed overnight, and Blake has elevated himself, and we've now got three, right? So it's going to be amazing to see if Ronaldo could have got in there if he moved to Australia a little bit earlier, because we saw how important he was. So I would probably argue that we have four Origin potential players, because Ronaldo did get picked. But the guys that got picked, I think it's really exciting for them.

[00:03:01] And to see Blake Braley and how far he's come, it's super exciting. I am a little bit concerned he might not get in the field. You just never know with Origin and now these extended benches. So that's my only concern. But to see Fanu or Blake get the nod, and to see Britt too get the caller, I thought that was pretty surprising, because Britt's had a bit of an up and down year. And we even spoke last week that, you know, at the start of the season, we thought that Britt would be a walk-up given the back rollers that Queensland have.

[00:03:30] So to see Billy Slater put that faith in him, I think it's exciting, because he looked like a different player when he had Ronaldo outside him, and Jesse did as well, right? So hopefully this is going to inspire the guys and see how they go during Origin and come back to Clubland and win a comp for us. Yeah, let's talk about all three guys. So Blake Braley is probably the no-brainer there. Completely deserved. He's been on fire for probably, what, at least three years. I think his whole career he's been sort of trending upwards.

[00:03:58] And under Fitzgibbon, he's really elevated his running game, perfected his tackling. There's a few more kicks and try assists popping up each year. So that's thoroughly deserved. Great club man. He's our captain or co-captain. There's not much more he could have done. And I found it very interesting because he didn't play on the weekend, as we know he broke the streak because of the concussion. I found it interesting, Fitzy, and really smart from Fitzy saying,

[00:04:24] it's not going to affect his chances in Origin because he's just played 139 games straight at an elite level, that's my words. If you want to know what he's like, there's 139 games there to draw on. This weekend's not really going to matter. And I thought it was beautiful, like very obvious, but like no one else was saying it. It was like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. So super happy for Blake. I do worry though, that situation may be the centers or something like that.

[00:04:51] And then they put on Ethan Strange and he loses that opportunity because we saw it when he went away on the test tour and he didn't get a game in that tour. Right? So I just think it'd be so unfair for him to make the 17 and then maybe not get on the field. So fingers crossed he gets out there because he definitely deserves it. And if I had to pick between Reece Robson and Blake Braley every week, I'm going Blake Braley. I can understand why they went with a bigger body to start the game than use Blake's speed off the bench. But it's going to be a really great learning opportunity for him.

[00:05:21] And you do see this with players when they go into Origin and they come back to their clubs and they have a bit more of a presence about them. And we have seen that go the other way with certain players in the past as well too, right? So who knows how it's going to turn out for the Sharks. But I'm super excited for Blake because he's been our player of the year almost every year, I think, besides maybe once with Will or something like that. Or has he been at like the last four or five years, he's been a player of the year. So he definitely deserves it. Let's not beat around the bush. You're referring to Nico Hines and he refers to it in his own first episode. Breaks him only too.

[00:05:51] Yeah, there's a bunch of guys. You're right. I shouldn't just say Nico specifically, but I don't think Blake's in that category. Blake is not a confidence player. He's just a, I know what to do. I'm running out. But I play the same way every week. That's my opinion on him. Is he a bit more up sometimes? Sure. But even if he did something disastrous, I couldn't see that affecting him week to week. It's just not who he is. I think the flip side of him potentially, and we're only saying potentially not getting picked to play, he's not going to lose his spot.

[00:06:20] Like I don't think due to circumstance, he's going to lose his spot for the second game. So he's going to get a shot at some point. And I think all being well, he'll be on after what, half an hour maybe? He'd be great. Like when the speed of the game starts to, you know, slow down a little bit, having those tied forwards and having Blake fresh and going at them with the speed of the game. And who knows what they're going to do with the six against. But having Blake off the bench could be really like dynamite.

[00:06:49] But we haven't seen Blake off the bench since 2019, 2020. Yeah. Since Jaden was here, right? Because he's just always been the starter for us. So I don't know how we will go in that role. I've never seen it really since he was ever good at Edmonton. But a lot of positives though, Kieran, because he's not going to be in that, you know, hot spot for the opening 20 minutes. The most, you know, lethal sport in the world for 20 minutes of opening state of origin. Like it's, I'm not saying it's not true. I'm just saying like we know the cliches and cliches are true.

[00:07:19] He's not going to be in that. He'll be on the bench. So that's a positive for us. So he'll, he'll miss the kind of, the word I don't want to use, but he'll miss the, the heated action for the opening 20. And when he comes on, it'll be a little bit more give and take. It'll still be a tough game. Obviously it's the toughest game. We know that AFB been really strong for the sharks over a year and a half. Now there are numbers around and they're out in the media today. If you look at it, that he's down on his past as far as numbers go, but I'm looking at it

[00:07:48] just from a performance point of view at the moment. He's a guy that doesn't let you down. He doesn't take a backward step. Is he beast mode? Not at the moment, but he does a job every week. I feel like in the origin arena, he might become a little bit more beast mode and that's neither here nor there for us. But I definitely think it's deserved given the way he's played throughout his career. It's going to be interesting to see how it goes with Mitch Barnett as well, right? Cause they were a partnership at the Warriors. So that's going to be really interesting to see how they pick up that combination where they left

[00:08:18] off. I think Fitzy picked Fennel Blake to be our captain during the week. And I thought that was such a real show of faith into Adam Fennel Blake and what the club actually thinks of him. And he has copped a lot of attention in the media and from the fans expecting him to be like superhero. But I thought that was one of his better performances on the weekend.

[00:08:39] I think if you put him in situations like this, where his back is against the wall, I think I would back him every single time to kind of kick down that door and to lead the way. And I think this is really going to help him as he comes back to club land because yes, he's been a dominant front rower and he has that saying where he thinks he's the best front row on the field every single time he steps on the field.

[00:08:58] However, I think this origin stuff could really give him more self-belief because if he goes out there and dominates at that origin level like we saw Fafita do around 2018 or 17, like whatever it was. I think it was 2017. You could really set him up for a huge back end of the season. And that's really what we need from him. So I can't wait to see him in this arena and hopefully he gets a lot of confidence out and then comes back to the shark park and does it for us.

[00:09:26] So the surprise to probably more sharks fans and non sharks fans is Britain Nicker. And we say that with huge respect. We say that because he's been injured. He's been off the bench. He's been doing different things. We know that his meters are very much drawn to our attention from different parts of the fan base. He's not a huge meter reader like there's no denying that. We know about the line running. We know he's a pretty good tackler. Like he's a high worker in defense.

[00:09:56] Do you think that his game will change much in origin? I know it's hard off the bench. Do you think it'd be a bit more of a battering ram or what do you reckon happens at origin? There's two school of thoughts. One, you play him like he was playing in the finals last year for us. And I go back to that Roosters game where he was like shot off a cannon straight through the middle. And there was so much momentum. And he just looked a million bucks. And I was like, if you could have this guy coming off your bench, this is a pretty good bench player.

[00:10:22] But then there's other times we've seen him come off the bench and it's not the impact that you come to expect. And I think if you ask a lot of non-Sharks fans, they would all put Britt into their 17 because they will have seen the body of work that he's done. And they haven't maybe gone and rode the ups and downs of the last few months. Now, he's another player that when backs against the wall, you kind of back him to do the best of his ability.

[00:10:47] But I think there's a chance that he starts and they might drop or maybe shuffle that back row around a little bit. Because I think their back row is Kurt Capel and Ruben Cotter. Is that right? Yeah, I think that sounds right. So you could move Cotter to the bench and play Cotter through the middle and get a little bit more leg speed because they do have the arrow on the bench as well. So I don't know how that kind of works in terms of that dynamic.

[00:11:11] But if I'm Queensland, I could see a world where they actually start Britt because I look at Britt and I go, well, it's going to be fireworks at the start. And I want someone who's going to run hard, put his body on the line and be an absolute kamikaze. And I think Britt suits that role really well. And you can spell him with a Capewell or a Cotter or you can play Cotter in the middle. So I wouldn't be surprised to see Britt actually start this game. But it's going to be weird cheering against him because he's a guy that we've watched since under 20s. And now he's going to be playing for the opposition.

[00:11:41] So I'm not too sure how I feel about that. Speak for yourself, sir. I won't be cheering against any of my Sharks players. I love my Sharks players more than I love my state, more than I love my country, more than I love my life. I'm cheering on my boys for an injury-free first and successful second stint for all three of them. I'm super stoked for all of them. I know that Britt has come under a bit of fire, as we said, this year. But when I look at the body of work, I have no issue with him getting the shot.

[00:12:09] But I think that, you know, sometimes the work rate isn't seen from an overall point of view. So we look at the weekend and Fox Sports have him for 28 meters, I think I'm correct in saying. Yeah, but I looked at the weekend. I thought he actually was really good. Well, he would have had line engagements. He would have ran lines, run lines, in my language. Defensively, really good and intensity. I don't have his tackles in front of me, but I think it was sort of 35 to 40 with barely a miss.

[00:12:37] So he's not out there not doing anything to his credit. Like he's, you can't just look at 28 meters and go, what the hell are you doing? Because we've done that in the past. We've done that with an Oregon Kifusi. And then you look at the body of work. I'm sorry, I keep saying that. But you look at the body of work in the game from a general point of view, from an overall point of view, and it's not a great representation. So things are a bit circumstantial is what I would say when you're looking at numbers and stats as someone who works in that field.

[00:13:06] It's just not all necessarily black and white. Now, if it was 10 missed tackles and three errors, all this sort of stuff, then you'd be like, what the hell are you doing? But generally speaking, if his run meters don't add up to where you want it to be, you can look at other parts of his game and go, pretty solid. And it's also the threat that he brings because everybody knows he's one of the best line runners in the NRL. So that creates a lot of space on the outside for Ramien or for Ronaldo.

[00:13:35] And one of those tries you could see, they were really holding close on Britt. And then Ronnie goes over almost untouched for his first try. He gets smacked in the face as he puts the ball down. But for the most part, he was untouched. So Britt brings a lot to a football team and he has been one of my favorite players. I have been a little bit up and down and not knowing where I would put him. But my theory was this year in the last few weeks, I would have started him like we kind of have done the last couple of weeks just to try and get the best out of him.

[00:14:02] Because when he is at his best, I feel like we're a better football team. And I also feel the balance for us works better that way. If he is down on confidence, and I'm not saying that he is, but this is a tremendous show of faith from one of Queensland's best players ever. By the first opportunity Britt was available to be brought into that system, Billy Slater went out and got him. And now Britt should be in this team for the next four to five years with how Queensland are. And they pick and stick and they never make changes and all that type of stuff.

[00:14:29] But like Britt might come off the bench in this game, but you know, the next few weeks and the next few years, he should really have that aspiration to take say a Kirk Capel starting spot because that is there for the taking. And when you look at the ages of the players and all that type of stuff, he's really going to be in the mix for that. So really looking forward to seeing how Britt goes because this could supercharge his season if he has a good performance at Origin. Very good point.

[00:14:52] I feel like the more emotionally connected he is to a game, and that's a weird thing to say, but we are living in 2026 and not every player is wound up off the back fence and thrown in and playing heart, soul, desire for 80 minutes of the game. It's just not how it is. I feel like when he's more emotionally invested, connected, probably connected is the more correct word. He plays better.

[00:15:14] And it's hard not to be connected when you're playing the state of Origin football, sold out crowds, you know, all star game to want of a better word. It's hard. Like he's going to be up for it. And I thought you saw that on the weekend when Ronaldo came into the team, right? So being at the game live, and we'll talk about the game later, but Ronaldo was non-stop talking. Like he was into every single person.

[00:15:38] And you could see the body language of Britt was completely different to the body language I've seen of Britt in the last six, seven, eight, nine weeks, however many weeks we are into this season. It was a different Britt, and he was switched on. He was focused, and everything he did had purpose and aggression, and that's the Britt that we need to come out for us. Well, let's go there, and we do send our congratulations to those three players. Let's go there right now, Magic Round Friday evening. Let's get a bit of a backdrop for you and your experience before we get to the game.

[00:16:08] Tell us about your day. Let's talk about your Friday. So Friday, I did the nice things. I dropped the kids off to school and where they needed to be, and got on a plane around midday or so, and then landed in Brisbane. Straight into seeing one of the great Shark Cast listeners, Joshy, up there. So he took me to one of the American bars. We won't say last names, but we're not talking Josh Bowling. We're talking greater than Josh Bowling. Oh, even way better than Josh Bowling. It's not even close.

[00:16:35] But yeah, so we went to an American-themed bar, which was a really cool place that I'd actually been wanting to check out. So it was a great suggestion from him, and had a couple of beers, and I had a burger, which was 10 out of 10 burger. The amount of pickles on the burger, though, was a bit silly. I'm not a big pickle guy, but this burger was like pickles everywhere. I need two to three. Well, mate, this had at least 12 pickles on this burger. That's a lot. It's excessive pickles. Yeah.

[00:16:58] So yeah, it was great to catch up with him and just shoot the breeze around the Sharks and how we are seeing things and what we were kind of expecting from this game. I genuinely did not know what I was expecting from this game. But the amount of Sharks jerseys I saw up there, especially on the Friday night, it made me really proud. And there were so many Sharks fans from different backgrounds. Like there was young Sharks fans, there was older Sharks fans, there was females, males.

[00:17:25] Like there was a real wide spread and our bay looked pretty good. And if you look at a lot of the photos, you'll see me wearing this Sharks 13 plus jumper in the background in a few of the shots that the boys got into. So that was an unbelievable sort of experience in the bay. Where was your bay? Tell us where your bay was. So we were right behind the goal post, right where the Sharks were scoring all the points in the first half. That's right where we were sitting, right? So right where Nico Hines scored the try was literally right in front of where I was sitting.

[00:17:53] So the vibe there was great. And just the background of every different Sharks fan that I saw there, I saw people from all walks of life and different ages. And I thought that was kind of one of the cooler, more impressive things. But the amount of Sharks fans that were at Magic Round was, it blew me away. And comparing it to Vegas, which is the only other thing I could liken it to, the atmosphere I think is way better. One, because you're in Australia, a specialized rugby league field.

[00:18:20] But having all the facilities around and having all the different fan bases made it such a unique experience that was, it was such a great vibe. And I will 100% go back to Magic Round. I thought it was absolutely outstanding. But just the cost of hotels and that were not cheap. Geez Louise. No, no, no. You might want to get all that now for next year. I think I might be too. But I was thinking just get the hotels you can cancel, book out every weekend in May and then cancel. That's the way I'd do it.

[00:18:48] Although next year it is Thursday through to Sunday. That's been confirmed as in like not state of origin for women, but it'd be the NRL on the Thursday night. It was great having the Sharks on a Friday and being the first game was great too. I think I would have struggled if it was the Sunday 630 game. There's a lot of... Everyone was struggling at that point. Well, the one thing I guess when you watch it at home, you assume that people are out and about on the streets and things like that. But when you're actually there, like Caxton Street is going ballistic the whole time.

[00:19:19] But I think the other key thing that I took away from it was the Warriors fans. They were insane. They were going off on Friday night. Like they were like their four o'clock game on Sunday, but they had that same intensity Friday and Saturday. They... I've never seen... I think they're the biggest club in the league at the moment because they had the most fans by far. Do you reckon the majority of them are from Queensland or thereabouts or have they flown over? Like what's the deal?

[00:19:44] So I saw one of the Jetstar flights over from, I think it was Auckland and it had Savage the rapper. And he was actually singing up the wires on the plane with a boom box and the whole plane, like the lights were flicking. If you saw they had... They've got a specialised shop now at the Auckland airport. They have... Didn't they have a pop-up store at Caxton Street or something or somewhere in the city and they were doing like merch?

[00:20:10] Every Kiwi that used to support another team, I feel like, has absolutely ditched their other team in Australia. Ditched and they've gone to the Warriors because the vibe that they bring is unmatched. Like if PNG can get that same type of crowd support and then you'd be bringing that sort of environment as well, it could be great. I just don't know how many people from PNG are going to get on planes and come to Brisbane. Let me ask you this, the comparison, the percentage between Dogs and Sharks fans at the game?

[00:20:39] There was a fair few Dogs fans, I will admit, but the Dogs fans were angry quickly. Like the Dogs fans kind of threw their toys out of the cart. Some of the friends that I went with were sitting not in the Sharks section, but they were next to some Bulldogs fans. And they said they left at halftime. I went to go meet some friends at halftime. I saw Dogs fans leaving, you know, in the droves. Brutal. Yeah, I mean, they're in a really rough spot at the moment, the doggies. They've got it, it's not us.

[00:21:06] It's something that I called and, you know, I think that there's something that is to be said for that. Yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe. I would suggest that you watch some sports shows this evening. Although I think the Dogs will be thankful that it's Origin Week and 90% of talk is about Origin. 10% will be Dogs. Forget about any other clubs. It was all summed up by that amazing effort from Puru to catch Galvin and Stone Street. Thank you. Yeah.

[00:21:34] But I do look at that and I think Stone Street's got the speed. So to see that effort from Puru was just, for me, that guarantees him a spot into the 17 next week. The start of the game, I was looking for Beryl. I was like, where's Beryl? And I couldn't work out who was playing. Then I realised that Puru was out there with the shaved head. It was hard to find him at that, but his effort in the first half, especially, it was a different style than what I was expecting.

[00:21:59] Like he played with a toughness, but also with a finesse that I picture him more as a 13, because that's more of what I've seen from him. But how he played at nine was super impressive. And I think one of the things that we got out of this was, we were talking last week about, we need a circuit breaker. Like we need some sort of spark or a change. Now, Braley being out was super unfortunate and we are a much better team with Blake in it than without it. But I feel like it just forced everybody to step up and to do their role.

[00:22:28] And then you throw in a Ronaldo too, and the vibes were high, right? So to see the reaction from some of the players, like go look at how high AFB jumps on Puru for that try that Puru scored, right? It was unbelievable. And that was his first start since 2020. So to have that sort of resiliency as a player, I thought was amazing to see because he was 10 out of 10. But that decking of Galvin was also 10 out of 10. We'll get to that.

[00:22:54] So a few things, an hour and a half before the game, Kieran, if you go on nr.com, it has a team list and the team list will tell you who's playing. You won't get a surprise. Well, to be fair, Sam, I was drinking with a number of people on Caxton Street, so I wasn't refreshing nr.com. Someone's got to check the team list. That's what you do to bet how many beers you've had. Well, and to be fair, they do put up on a big screen and I wasn't paying attention. Let's hear it for Hoheba Piru.

[00:23:16] Second of all, I think the team benefited greatly from him starting and then Beryl coming off and just making a very solid second stint. He did really well. We're not going to talk down Beryl at all. He was really good, but a very different role. The game was kind of done by the time he came on, I would think. I thought it was great coaching because we were under no thought that he would start. There was no indication that Hoheba would start and he did. He scored a try. He was defensively great.

[00:23:46] He was great all round. And, you know, he's been in the system for a while now. Now, the thing that astounds me, Kieran, is he's 23 years of age. Like, not only does he look 40, he's 23. I did not know that. I was probably expecting probably mid-20s because he has been around at Panroath, at Canberra. And he's been at the Sharks. This is his third year at the Sharks. No, second year at the Sharks, maybe. I'm not sure. But yeah, he's been around the club for a few years now. And I was genuinely blown away.

[00:24:13] And I think that's one of the things when we look at expansion and we go, is there enough players? And I do think we have enough players. It's just a lot of players don't get the right opportunities and the right timing. And now I feel so much safer if, you know, I hope nothing does happen to Blake because he's been tremendous for us for a number of years. But that was always my concern was there was a big drop off in our depth chart after Blake because we had never seen it before. So to see those guys step in and do that job was very reassuring. Now, to be fair with Hojepa's try, it was all grit and determination. He never gave up.

[00:24:43] But he also went through some ice cream there to score. So let's not hide from the fact that the Bulldogs were utterly terrible. Yeah, I agree with that. But also, I do think that that try that he scored was a unique one that not a lot of players would have been able to do that or to have that vision. And the style of player that he is, look, Cam is our spiritual leader.

[00:25:03] And I think we've now seen potentially the reason why we might be going, OK, well, we can move on from Cam because Hojepa can fill that role and do it in a very different manner. So like when you look at Cam, Cam can play those two positions too. But Cam's got older legs. He's, you know, 200 plus first grade games. So now getting someone that's younger, fresh, a little bit, not hungrier than Cam because Cam's probably one of the most hungry players that are out there and one of the most determined to win.

[00:25:29] But just that difference and the change of style that other teams haven't seen before, I really thought he was quite a good addition. And I think now we have to really consider having him on our bench more often because we've done the kick down the front door thing and not always it works. And I have been saying for many years that should be our style. We should kick down the front door and all that type of stuff. But having somebody that has the ability to do that ball playing, I thought was really unique. Yeah.

[00:25:54] And a guy who the few chances he's had with us, he's never even come close to letting us down. He's actually been pretty good in every game in first grade. He's very solid for the Jets. There's not too much ups and downs with Hojepa. It's usually just pretty up. So a great performance from him. Ronaldo was exceptional. He exceeded my expectations given the ACL. I thought he'd be, you know, seven and a half out of ten, bag a try, bag out the opposition. But he was close to a ten.

[00:26:23] He wasn't out of step at all. The try where he jumped in the second half, I think it was our only try for the kick, was great athleticism. Pinpoint kick from Nico. Yeah, Ronaldo was a difference maker out there. Yeah. And he even surprised me in that sort of stuff because I was like, yeah, of course he motivates the boys. He gets up everyone. But he really got up everyone for 80 minutes. You could see right at the end he was gassed because of not so much the playing, just the whole emotion of it all.

[00:26:49] So we go to a lot of games and Shark Park is a different sort of beast than like Suncorp Stadium, whatever it's called these days. Where we were sitting was probably about, I think I was in row six. So I was right behind the try line where we were attacking. And you could just see the talk from Ronaldo. But you also saw it with the difference in aggression in the other players. Like that is the most aggressive I've seen Jesse Ramian in a long time.

[00:27:15] And even you saw it when the Bulldogs did a bit of a bad pass and the winger got the ball. Jesse threw that guy into like the second row. And Jesse didn't even flinch, right? And Jesse was just like so amped. And you can even see like when Ronaldo scored, I think it was the first try. Like look at Jesse. Like Jesse's going ballistic. And I had heard some stuff before about like what a big loss Ronaldo would be to us in terms of that leadership out in the field.

[00:27:42] I am a complete believer in that now having seen it up close and personal because that whole edge was completely different than anything we've seen this year. And it looked like the Sharks that were a decent team last year. And I know I've said like we can't talk about last year because we're not that team as last year. And we're coming 10th or 9th or whatever we are now. We need to get into this season. I think that's the key to this season.

[00:28:07] Having someone like Ronnie going out there and being that leader because you add in Cam and his chat as well. You start to see it a little bit more and a little bit more vocal. And there's no knock on Haradi or Sifar. But those guys are two different sort of players. And I think Sifar is more suited to the forwards and Haradi is more suited to the centres. So just even that change of those two guys, even if Ronaldo wasn't the leader that he is, makes us a much better team and much more balanced.

[00:28:33] But geez, Sam, like I have not seen such a noticeable change in energy levels compared to what I had seen in the past from the Sharks in the last few games I've been to compared to this one. And yes, the Bulldogs weren't great. But we were under just as much pressure as the Dogs. Like we have won one game of the last four. And I think that was zero and four. So for the Sharks to weather that and to come out and to not even make it a contest, like to blow them off the park, I thought was really impressive.

[00:29:02] They were attacking kicks. They were doing the one percenters. You'll see the change in Jesse Ramian. It's the first or second hit up down the middle. And he makes about 25 metres and busts about three tackles. That's the change. He's ready to go. No matter where you stand on Ramian, the fact that we had our starting centre-back who's on his day, borderline elite, not on his day. He's about a six. Out and out centre. And he knows our system back to front.

[00:29:30] Have him there and then throw in our winger who is elite and does know the system as well. We were always going to be better for it. As you said, it's nothing about Haradi. It's nothing about Sifer. You've got guys playing in their position, guys who are really good at their job and guys who know each other like the back of their hand. It was always going to be positive. I think the fact that we just out enthused them defensively really good. Toby Rudolph over 100 metres. Finoa Blake over 100 metres.

[00:29:59] Jesse Calhoun almost made it on the match. 130 metres. That's three middles making over 100 and we beg for that every week. And then you can throw in all the backs except for Will Kennedy who was elite making over 100 metres. Just on Will, mate, he was fantastic live. And being in that position where I was, it kind of reminded me, do you remember when Sam Burgess and Wayne Bennett sat in the stands during the COVID years and they sat behind the goalposts? That's kind of like where I was.

[00:30:27] And to watch Will control the defence, like you would see times where Finoa Blake's coming back running and he's got his hands are like this, where do I go? And Will's screaming at him, pointing at him in different directions. Rick was the same. It was a – I think the communication was the biggest thing that I took out of it because at times they looked really flat and not disinterested but like a little bit just like bleh.

[00:30:51] And adding in Ronnie, it just kind of balanced out the side whereas before we were just kind of maybe a little bit too much like going to the other edge because we didn't have those weapons and bringing Jesse as well. In hindsight, maybe I was too harsh on the team based on missing those two on that edge. I mean, Nico Hines, near man of the match performance. Trindle was good. Like they were all good. Like no one was bad. I thought Sifo probably had the least amount of impact just because he wasn't on the field much. Like everyone was pretty good and above.

[00:31:19] Will Kennedy, I mean, he was asked the question I think pre and post game Fitzgibbon about the status and he said, no, no, we want to keep him. There is an offer around. So they're trying. Did you see his post on Instagram? Will Kennedy posted a picture of, hey, this is awesome and then Ronaldo said sign the damn contract or whatever. Sign the contract, big boy or something like that. So again, there must be something in front of him and he's got to be feeling that love from the playing group.

[00:31:47] But he was another different player too with Ronaldo out there. Kieran, what happens when other clubs come knocking? I dare suggest what's going on. Who's knocking on the door? That's a genuine question. Why hasn't he signed the deal? He's probably holding out thinking you guys did this to me last year. I had a great season and I want to see if I can get more money out of you because this year I did take a pay cut. And if we're going to ask him to take that same money or less again, I think he's waiting to see if there's a better option.

[00:32:14] I would think the deal is slightly elevated to whatever it was. Well, all right. Do you think it was like, so he took a downgrade this year from financial aspect, right? Are you saying that maybe we're getting back to the level he was on in the past or would it be slightly less than that? Somewhere in between.

[00:32:31] Yeah, and for a player who you would argue is better today than he was two years ago, that's a hard pill to swallow to not maybe be on the same value, if not more, when you look around and everybody else that has improved the last two years is getting more money. He's just in a really unique spot that there's not a lot of fullbacks. There's not a lot of clubs that need fullbacks, but does the Cowboys, who are they replacing Drinkwater with? Is it Purdue? Is that the plan?

[00:32:58] I'm just telling you that there would definitely be other clubs, whether it's here or around the world, in a similar boat to the Sharks going, hey, Will, what would it take, man? What are we doing here? And I'm not surprised by that. And I've been warning people about it for months and months and months that someone else is going to want him if he keeps playing eight out of 10, which he is. Now, magic round, big stage, peachy-esque performance. I really hope we get him because it opens up a whole can of worms if we don't.

[00:33:27] I'm not saying we're not going to get him, but I really hope he signs pretty soon. I think he'll stay. I, again, just based off... I hope so. I'm sure there's better opportunities overseas financially for him because that league he would absolutely go over and tear apart. You look at what Ben Barber did over there, some of the other players that have gone over there that are really good footwork and good at ball playing. Like, he could go over there and probably play five eight and kill it as well, right? Like, he'd be that good over in the Super League.

[00:33:54] When I look at other inter-roll clubs, Perth seems to have invested in players and then made a commitment to not change their plans. Like, you look at... So, Metcalf comes available off contract, but they were deep in negotiations with Jamie Humphries. They didn't pull the Jamie Humphries deal, even though Humphries had strung them along for, you know, a month or so. And they didn't even attain it, right? So, I think that they're committed to maybe Meany as their fullback and they're not in the market for one, right?

[00:34:22] So, you look at him and go, who else could... Where else could he go? And it's... I don't see a real landing spot from anywhere else. Like, there's nowhere really in the NRL that... He's not going to go to, say, the Knights. They've got, like, four fullbacks. You look at Souths. They've got Jai Gray. And you wouldn't be... With the cap that they're in, they don't have the position, right? Manly doesn't have the money and Manly's got, like, four or five fullbacks. They just pulled another bloke out on the weekend with a great performance. You look at the Roosters. They've got Teddy and Salary Cap. That's not going to happen.

[00:34:52] So, the Dragons have just jumped in on drink water. The Broncos have got Reece Walsh and, you know, a line of players. The Dolphins don't need another fullback, right? Like, there's not a rule. They've got the Hammer. They've got Herbie. Who else... Who else would make a genuine play for Will in the NRL? The West Tigers won't. They've got Buller for Will. It's great for us. It's unfortunate for Will. I would think that there are people going, let's at least talk about how we could potentially make this happen. Unless they're not watching Cronulla games.

[00:35:22] Yeah, which they all are, right? So... Because it's very well advertised. Sorry, interrupt. Very well advertised. How much approximately the Sharks want to spend on him. Now, if they spend more or less, we're not sure. It's been speculated about how long they want to sign him for. Now, whether that's flexible or not, who knows? Are you telling me a club can't come up with more money and two years in all 18 clubs for next year? Are you telling me that? I am. Pretty much. Because if you look at it, right?

[00:35:52] So, what club would spend more than, say, half a million dollars on Will? We're not talking half a million dollars. What? 400. Like, we're going to go on a reverse bidding war here, right? So, again, if you give Will 400, but you're committed to a baller or something like that, you have to go, well, could I play Will in the centres? Or would Will be, like, my number 14 or something like that? I understand what you're saying. I'm just saying, like, are you telling me all 17 clubs are happy with their fullbacks? Is that what you're telling me? They're happy with them? I think so, yeah.

[00:36:22] I genuinely do. Okay. Because the teams that aren't happy have made their moves. The Dragons, if I was the Dragons, I would have gone and signed Will Kennedy at half the price of what you're paying Scott Drinkwater. Like, straight up. And then would have looked to try and redistribute that money to try and find other players there. But the Warriors have got three or four fullbacks. Like, everyone's got a couple of fullbacks at the moment. Let's move on. We're getting into our little cast. Weekly Will Kennedy. Weekly Will Kennedy. Which we love, but that'll be an offshoot series.

[00:36:51] What are you doing when Katoa's fit? Is he coming back in or is Sammy holding his spot? Is there any news on when Katoa's due back? No, I don't have anything. I was told sort of two to four when it happened and we're probably approaching the four-ish soon. Yeah, three to four. My instinct would be I probably would have to put Sione in reserve rate just for a week to get a little bit of match fitness into the legs just because the wing role requires a lot of speed

[00:37:19] and all that type of stuff and a lot of Ks that they have to do throughout the game just for match fitness. I would be looking to bring Sione back into the 17 as quickly as possible, which is a little bit unfair to Stone Street because, to be fair, on the weekend he was good. I think Stone Street has improved this season over last season. But if you, again, if there is an alien with a, which we can talk about aliens, maybe we should talk about other portals or Bigfoot later, yeah. But if there is somebody with a gun at this earth and says you need to pick a Cronulla Sharks team

[00:37:48] to win this game because your life depends on it, I'm going Sione Katoa every time over Stone Street. Personal preference. Nico Hines, electric, amazing, phenomenal. But I'm in a fair few of Nico's photos in the background screaming like an absolute idiot. So it was great to see Nico put in a dominant performance like that on a big stage too. And Nico's under just as much pressure as Lachlan Galvin. And Nico's on, you know, we chuck a change. And when the Sharks don't do well, it's all about Nico.

[00:38:18] So to see him go out there and actually just put it to bed so quickly, I thought it was great. That try he scored, when he's running the ball, we're a better Sharks team. So that was what excited me about Nico. He was great all over, like both sides of the ball, kicking, goal kicking and the whole thing. Like he was really great. I thought him, Colquhoun and Kennedy were our best three out of a really strong performance from everyone. Like Ronaldo was amazing. Maybe I throw Ronaldo in as well, but they were all great. But I thought that, yeah, Nico was terrific.

[00:38:47] And I can't wait to see what those guys will do against Manly. So that's the game that we've got coming up in a few weeks. But to actually get your proper team back together and to even have like Siffer back on the bench and all that type of stuff, it just builds a level of confidence, right? So I'm sure they're saying, well, we just did it against the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs are out of sorts. And we did it against the Tigers. The Tigers are out of sorts. But now you've got an opportunity in a couple of weeks to do it at Shark Park against a Red White Manly side.

[00:39:15] So that's what you need to see in these other games, because if you don't build confidence in those other games, then when you go into a Manly at home, you don't know what you're going to get. And that's what we went into this week, not knowing what we were going to get from the Sharks. So I thought it was a very good performance from Nico. And to see him score 1,000 points in his career is great. It'd be great to see him go over that mark for the Sharks, because I think we've only got like two players, if my memory serves me correctly, that have scored over 1,000 points. Three? No, two.

[00:39:42] And he's fourth in the list of point scorers at the moment for us. Yeah. So I think as a club, as old as we are, we should have more players that score over 1,000 points. So that'll be great to see him hit that milestone. And he's got a real shot at becoming probably our greatest ever point scorer, because he's here for a couple more years. Before we get to what's coming up in the next month, just give us a wrap on the rest of Magic Round. Any highlights, thoughts, et cetera? Yeah. So I did get into the Dolphin Sheds.

[00:40:12] That was a bit of a highlight. Ends up. Had some friends that were with the Dolphins. What's their song? It's a cracking song. And I've seen some of the songs. It's an original song that goes back to, I think, their Queensland Cup days. To Redcliffe. Yeah, to Redcliffe. Yeah. It's like, we're the boys from Reddy. We just beat you. Ha, ha, ha. There's some expletives in there that I can't repeat. Who was leading the way? Like, who was banging the drum? Who was doing all that?

[00:40:42] Gilbert. Oh, yeah. That's good. He has an intensity on the Esky that was very intense to see. Did you get any selfies with, like, the halfback Katoa or the Hammer or any selfies? No. I didn't really want to embarrass my buddy. If it was the Sharks, I would because you're my buddy and I'll embarrass you. But I didn't. I was also in Shark Ski too, right? So it was a little bit awkward. But I had to turn my jumper inside out as well to go in there because security was like- Did you take your Orioles hat off?

[00:41:12] Your Baltimore Orioles hat? They said, are you sure that this guy's supposed to be here? But I thought you can see what they're building there as a club because they have a policy around the type of player that they want to recruit and the type of man they are. And, like, every single player. And the Sharks are like this too, right? Like, if they see someone standing around that they don't know, they'll go up to you and they'll introduce themselves and say, hey, nice to meet you. I'm so-and-so. And it's like, I know who you are, Hammer. Like, I just saw you do what you do, right? But it was nice to see that type of stuff. And, again, I've never been in the sheds before.

[00:41:41] So that was a really cool experience for me, just seeing, like, how the media has to stand in certain spots and do all that type of stuff, right? So that was pretty cool. The next day, went to an event with James Maloney. It was hosting it. And Jeremy Latimore. So two former Sharks were there. So I listened to some stories that he was telling around, you know, his career and his time at the Sharks and, you know, how death pretty was to stay with the club. But it just didn't work out. But, yeah, it was an interesting weekend.

[00:42:10] I'm glad to be home. This morning's training session was very hard at 6 a.m. Yeah. You recommend everyone just to go do it? If you haven't done Magic Round, definitely put it in the calendar because, like, Vegas is great. And Vegas is far, though. And, like, the currency in Vegas is so expensive. So to go to, like, a pub and spend Australian dollars and to not be spending, like, $20, $30 on a drink was really good. The Suncorp Stadium experience was outstanding.

[00:42:39] Like, I had not been to watch a game of footy there since 2017 in an Origin game. But just to see all the different outlets they had, the different themed bars and all the other ex-players from the different clubs that were there, I'm pretty sure, I think I saw a former Sharks, but I don't want to name who it was because it might not have been there. But he was wearing a, I had to message Ash, the historian, to verify when this jersey was from because I had seen it before. But it's not a jersey we wore in a game.

[00:43:06] It's an all-gray Sharks jersey with a black collar from, like, 2005. Why don't you just name who it is and say you think it was him? I don't know. I don't know who it was. But it looked a little bit like Luke Harlan. But I don't know if it was him. But it was, like, that sort of era of a player. And, like, it was, like, a training jersey, not a jersey we wore in a game. But it looked like the full, because it had, like, the logo. Maybe it was a trial jersey. But it looked, maybe that will be the next one that we do. But how good did that jersey look out in the field?

[00:43:34] And the amount of compliments I got from other fans about that jersey was 10 out of 10. Yeah, I got the jersey on the day it was released, as everyone knows who watches. And I think it's really great. Like, I recommend you get it. I'm not just saying it because they gave me one. Like, it's a nice jersey, as you will test. On TV, it jumped out of the screen. It looked even a thousand times better. Like, I'm saying it's a 10 when you look at it. It was an 11 on TV. It was remarkable. People are calling for it to be the one.

[00:44:03] I don't know how I feel about that. But I quite like it. And I think it looks really great. Really, really great. Like, congrats to everyone. A thorough success. Well, Blake was talking. I think I watched, like, an Instagram stories that they did with Blake on the day. And Blake was sort of saying he was very disappointed that he didn't get to wear that jersey. But he's heard a rumor that we will be wearing that jersey maybe at another stage during the season. I've heard that rumor too. The amount of people I saw in the jersey was, like, credit to the Sharks that they actually got this out there so quickly.

[00:44:33] Because I have seen in the past when we released stuff and the timing's not right. And, you know, not everybody gets it in time. But for us to release it when we did and to have everybody wearing it, like, I think I saw that as probably the most worn Sharks jersey I saw on people. That gives you an idea of how many they must have sold because it's a great jersey. To that point, it was not available at the ground. No.

[00:44:57] You would have had to have bought it online and they mailed it to you or potentially one of the retail outlets wherever you are in Australia. Now, we have to be up front. A lot of people missed out on that first batch. And their order is in the second batch. And that's just unfortunate. That's how it is. You're right. Like, the figures and the numbers and the representation was really cool. And it's off the back of the Reebok one last year that we redid and we did it properly and it actually looked really good. Well, maybe that wasn't last year. Maybe it was the year before.

[00:45:26] But we released the 95 version in the retro version. So, if you look at the merchandise the Sharks are putting out in the last few years, I think it's definitely taken a step up. The one thing I would say, though, is maybe if we gave people a little bit more time to do, like, the two batches of orders for the jersey, that might have worked. Because it's unbelievable how many people had it on. Interesting you raise that. But, and just being completely transparent, there is a intention to get Adam Barnes, who's the head of merch, on the show this week. He and I have chatted. We're going to try and work it out.

[00:45:56] We should be able to work it out. We should have a chat with him this week at some point. It won't be like the last chat we've had. If you didn't listen to it, go back a couple of years. Kind of two-hour chat about his life and merch and the whole thing. This will be a lot more current chat, shorter. And that's one of the things a few people have mentioned to me is, like, things around jersey releases. Like, how can we get a bit more information about when it's happening? Stock, numbers, et cetera. Can you put fields out? Like, there's a lot of questions people have sent me, which I'll try and ask him.

[00:46:26] But having said that, we all know the operation the Sharks run under compared to other clubs, i.e. they're a pretty small club. Great effort. Great effort. We don't have a lot of bold designs as a club because we've been pretty stock standard with the jersey that we wore for a really long time. And if you look at some of the other retros we've done. I like that. Yeah, I like that too. But I think we could probably do the trial jersey, which we've released as a retro for one of these Magic rounds. You could do the away jersey. That's the white version of the blue one we wore.

[00:46:56] You're probably not going to do the yellows and all that type of stuff. I know people are scared of seeing. But there is a few other jerseys. I think the next one probably off the rank would be, weirdly, like that 04 one. That was the one that came after this one, which I saw a fair few people on the weekend wearing it. I thought you were going with the grey away. Well, I don't think – I think that's a bit ambitious to bring that one back. I would like to see it just because it was so out there. Do you think it's not known enough? Like, people aren't focused enough on it kind of thing? Too short-lived?

[00:47:24] I think you really – yeah, it was pretty short-lived. And I think if you're going to do one of those jerseys, it should be a home jersey. But I am saying that I think the white one for us should be next just because you did it this year with the blue. And we wore that white jersey for a few years, and it is pretty memorable. The only thing I'll say is, like, take advantage of the new features that jerseys have. So please don't put a big, ugly black box on it. Integrate the sponsor in it, and you watch.

[00:47:51] Like, that will sell even better than this current one. All right. We'll get to all that. Let's get back to some footy before we let you go, Kieran. So the next month of footy, we've got the week off. How good is that? Two points. Let's all have a break. Then we play FOS football at Ocean Protect Stadium, 8 o'clock kickoff Friday week. It's going to be pretty enormous. Manly Sharks is always a great spectacle. I can tell you from an entertainment point of view, our very good friend Donnie Rogers is going to be doing a song or two.

[00:48:20] He's got a new release coming out, and at least one of the songs is about his parents, and one of his parents is Steve Rogers. So stay tuned on that. But Donnie's going to be doing some songs there. But even that aside, Manly Cronulla. Cronulla Manly is always a great spectacle. There's obviously a lot of history there. They're playing such good footy. We are in for it. And when I say in for it, I mean a really great contest, one that we can win. I think it's going to be one of those classic Manly Sharks games.

[00:48:49] I think we're both going to be up for it. It's at our beautiful stadium. And anyway, point is it comes two days off State of Origin, two nights after State of Origin. It's just a Friday, is it? Yes. Because I was going to talk about it. Then we have the home derby, actually. So I don't even need my memory for that. Sunday week is the Sunday after that. So it's like the 7th or something, I want to say. Does that sound all right? The 7th of June is home derby, the most important day of the year, of course. And that'll be with all of our players.

[00:49:19] But then after that, we go to New Zealand on a Saturday 5.30. And that's an Origin-affected game, I'm pretty sure. So our Origin guys won't be playing. And then we have the Roosters. And then a buy. So it's all kind of done by then. My point, very long-winded point, is we're going to play, if my math is correct, I think it is, we're going to play the Manly game just after Origin 1.

[00:49:47] And you had thoughts on that about who we may or may not see. Well, Game 1's in Sydney, if I'm correct. Yes. Yeah. So there is probably more of an elevated chance you would see certain players. I think you can write off Fennel Blake straight away. I don't think you'll see him playing two days later after playing front row. Well, I mean, Payne Haas did it last year. And a lot of people were saying that Maguire was running him into the ground. Now, I'm not saying we're going to do that with Fennel Blake.

[00:50:13] Because I actually think that Fitzy left him out there a lot longer on the weekend to try and prove a point around Origin. Because it looked like they had a conversation and he gave him that leadership role and sort of said, right, well, mate, we're going to follow you. I'll leave you out there. Because I think he did the full first 40, if I'm correct. Yeah, I think he did 50 straight. Yeah. And he was very impressive in person as well. So I think that's probably the hardest one to back up.

[00:50:40] Depending on the role that Britt plays, I'm not sure. But also to remember, we can just put in Burns and we can just bring in, say, Hamel Nuelle or something like that. Sorry, Brad Nuelle. Just to be in that 17 if we don't have those two guys. We've seen now what Puru can do at 9-2. So I don't know if we're going to play them all. But I would – because Manly's going to have Kola, Oluwatu. Yeah. Anyone else? I'm not sure off the top of my head.

[00:51:07] But my issue is you say we can bring in guys and guys who I love and respect, but they're not Faneel Blake. No. Whereas the Billy Burns, the Britton Nicker, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I don't think if you're going to play Faneel Blake, I don't think you would, say, bring him off the bench, for example. Like you'd start him in that game, right? You know where you'd bring him off the bench? I feel like he's going to have such a physical origin game because there is going to be no Pane Haas next to him.

[00:51:36] And he's going to be the physical enforcer for the Blues. And that's the role that we're wanting him to play. So if I have to sacrifice losing him 48 hours later, but have him go through that experience and get that confidence, it's a trade-off I'm willing to make. But if you are going to play, you want to play sooner than later. So his body won't be as sore 24 hours, 48 hours later compared to if we were playing on Sunday.

[00:52:03] So just to be clear, I have no issue if they arrest him, if he wants to be arrested. I have no issue with that. I'm just a bit surprised. I just thought he would have played. He's like one of the toughest guys I've ever seen in real life. Now, is that smart? I couldn't tell you. Is it harmful? I couldn't tell you. So obviously, I'll let the professionals do their job. Whatever happens will happen. It's part of the origin exhibition series, as I call it, Kieran. We know that, unfortunately, for all the pros, there's a couple of cons and one might be they might not play that weekend.

[00:52:33] We know that. That's how the system works. Now, Dragons after that on a Sunday at home, that's not affected by anything. Then the Saturday after that, the 13th of June, Warriors, that is an origin affected game because after that is origin two. And then the Sunday after, so Sunday late game, 6.15 p.m. Okay, Sunday 6.15 p.m. at Allianz Stadium. You and I will be heading out there to Moorpark.

[00:53:01] That is Sharks, Roosters after origin, whatever it is, two or three, whichever one it is, three probably. So what's going to happen there? Are they going to play? Is everyone going to play or not? I think you'll definitely see Blake play because he's just an Ironman. And I think part of him would be a little bit irked that he did miss a game recently too. So I think he'll be the guy pushing through. It's going to depend on minutes for him and Britt. That's the big thing, I think.

[00:53:30] If they're both coming off the bench and they're playing 20, 30, 40 minutes or whatever the case is, maybe not 40, maybe 20, 30, then I would expect them both to play. I just think Fanu or Blake could be playing long minutes because if you look at the New South Wales bench as well, it's not a big bench, right? And also you're going to have Isaiah Yeo playing up in the front row. So there's not a lot of coverage otherwise there because they're not going to put Victor Radley in the front row position.

[00:53:56] So it's going to be an interesting thing to see how much they actually leave Fanu or Blake out there, especially with the speed of the game. He's been pretty vocal this year about how he's not maybe the biggest fan of how fast the game is. Well, typically Origin's even faster. So I think Fanu or Blake's one of my most important players. I think we have enough depth in the squad that we can give him a rest. But at the same time, I hope he plays. I'm with you. I'm with you. My initial reaction was, no, no, he'll play. But I'm with you.

[00:54:26] Whatever's best for the team in the long run and him in the long run, I completely support. Now, I do not get any kind of accolade for saying this, but I just want everyone to know that Friday 29th of May against Manly and the week after, so we love two home games in a row, Sunday 7th of June against Dragons. It's 4 o'clock kickoff. They're two of the bigger games that we play. It's at home. It's a limited capacity of, what, 14,000, whatever it is. Manly will bring some fans.

[00:54:54] Dragons will probably bring a few more, even though they're not going that great. If you want to get a ticket, I would get one while you can. If you can get one today, get one this week, do it, because it will fill up. And especially the time slots, like a Friday late, is a bit of a party vibe down at Ocean Protect. And then Sunday 4 o'clock is very family-friendly against its local derby, so they should be pretty full houses. Don't be the one that misses out and writes to me and goes, Sam, I can't believe we've got a small stadium.

[00:55:21] I'm telling you now, if you want to go and you have the means to pay for it and you're confirmed, there's no harm in just booking one now. Because I can tell you right now, someone who wrote me today about sitting sort of where we sit, Kieran, and they've jagged a couple of singles, but that's all that's there. Yeah, especially that Manly game will sell out. Friday night at Shark Park, there'll be people trying to jump fences. It'll be absolutely heaving. So, yeah, fingers crossed, this should be, right?

[00:55:51] Because going up against Manly is in red-hot form, and we've now put a little bit of a performance in against a not-so-great Bulldog side, but it's a real test for the Sharks, and I genuinely believe we should beat Manly. And as a Sharks fan, I want to be there to see that because that feeling that you get when you're there and they put in a good performance, it's pretty good. But in saying that, I've been to a lot of Sharks games and they've let me down, and I walk out of there going, ah! But that's not going to happen to us, Sam.

[00:56:20] You say more than that usually. I'll leave it there. And just on the Queensland experience for you again, overall, just Sharks were everywhere. We looked on the Friday. It was good. Good representation? It was, I think, a real credit to Sharks fans, and I was just talking to one of my neighbours as well, and it turns out he was up there as well. And I think not going on Magic Round before, I didn't really know what to expect. Like, should I go to all three days, or what does it look like? I'm really glad I just went to the one day of football

[00:56:50] and then was able to just have some drinks and stuff like that around in the precinct. Because it's not like it's Homebush, because there's nothing really at home. Well, there is stuff at Homebush, but there's like two bars. They're super packed. It's really busy. Like, the places were good, definitely busy, but there was live music, there was bands, there was, like, different podcasts. We're hosting different shows. I think we should try and do a Shark Cast show up there next year, Sam. I think we will. We've already... Players or something like that up there. Because I saw the West Tigers did one,

[00:57:18] and they got a few of their ex-premiership players. The Sharks had a premiership 2016 reunion up there as well with some players too. So, I think we should definitely try and do a Shark Cast one next year up there. Yeah, let's do it. Let's semi-lock it in right now. We did have, I think, even Josh and a few other people. Josh Conway was trying to help us with that. So, we'll get that, hopefully, all being all locked in. I was going to say, were you bumping into even just, you know, dudes and dudettes with cameras and little microphones everywhere you went?

[00:57:47] Because it looked like every man, woman, dog, and podcast were there with little mics going, hey, who's going to win this game? I saw every version of a podcast that you would expect to see or one of those Instagram accounts. I saw every single one of those content creators, every single one. Which is great. Which is great. We're not putting shade in it. Like, it's great. But it was very noticeable out of all the people I follow, people I don't follow, clubs, just general rugby league. Like, it was the whole, for want of a better word, spectrum. It was cool.

[00:58:17] Like, it looked really cool. And even, and obviously, every media outlet was there as well. Like, it must have been just intense, the coverage of the Magic Ground. Even, like, I saw people in Bears jerseys. There was a ton of Bears jerseys, right? So I even saw there was Gary Larson and Billy Moore were there in their Bears jerseys from back when they were playing and they were taking selfies with people and all that type of stuff, right? But I also saw Broncos players. I saw players from all different clubs that were just going around

[00:58:46] and interacting with fans. And I think if you want to go and see some former players and just have a beer and have a chat with them, they're all super welcoming. Like, there's no real players that go there and they're just, they're not friendly. Like, they know what they're getting into when they go to a Magic Ground and things like that. But even talking to a few of the guys that I know that are former players that were up there this morning, they all had the time of their lives and they were like, it's the best weekend ever. And it is a lot of fun. And you can actually do a lot of stuff, right?

[00:59:14] So you can go to, like, let's say you like the Levels podcast. They usually will do events on each day. So you could maybe go to that at lunch. And some of the events, they start at 10 a.m., right? So you could go to one at 10. You go to another one at two. Go to the first game at five and that type of stuff. So you can really mix and match what you would like to do. So I go to Brisbane a fair bit for work, but I have never seen Brisbane in terms of, like, partying. And even when I checked into the hotel, there were NRL flags all throughout the hotel that I was staying at.

[00:59:44] And they were giving you, like, a magic round, you know, coast. What are these called? Koozies? What are they called? This is my shark cage one. Yeah, like a beer. Like a beer holder. Yeah, yeah. So you'll definitely get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of things to do around the game outside of just going to it. Even just walking around Caxton Street and around the stadium, there's a lot of different things that are on. It's really cool. I was very impressed. Did you go to Munster's new bar? That's where the Maloney event was at.

[01:00:11] So it's a great location. So it's pretty much right next door to the Caxton. And it's just been renovated. So I think it's almost finished. But in terms of, like, the day, it wasn't like, oh, this place is half finished. But you can tell what they're building there is going to be a great facility. He's going to make a truckload of cash there. But there's someone who's walked down Caxton Street when it's not game day. It's kind of a weird place to be when there's no footy on. But, yeah, it is.

[01:00:40] It's a weird place to walk. It's kind of like a ghost town. But there are some shops. I guess now they have almost one a week or whatever. The Dolphins playing most of their games there. Well, it does raise the question around, like, the 20th team. And do you put that Ipswich bid in? Because the Warriors are so successful, right? So do you want to harm that and maybe put one in Christchurch? But you might be taking it from the WARS. But if you could get more of that in Brisbane, I can definitely see the appeal. Because the NRL owns that hotel on Caxton Street as well.

[01:01:10] And I think there was different themed bars that were, like, all in the political stuff. I didn't stay there. No, I stayed more in the CBD. And it was about a five-minute walk. But I think that's the other thing, too, is if we were to do it in Sydney. And I saw somebody put up this saying, it would be great to see something at Allianz around rivalries. So you just do the Sydney-based clubs. But you don't do, like, sharks versus dragons, right? So what you do is you do, like, say, sharks versus, say, manly.

[01:01:40] And you do, like, bulldogs versus roosters, right, instead of south versus the roosters. So you have it as kind of the clubs in Sydney playing each other over a two-day period. And you include the bears in that, maybe have them play Parramatta or something. But you do it just over two days with just the Sydney-based clubs. Or maybe you throw in the night sets, too. I don't know how old. And it's Queensland doing it as well. Well, you could maybe do it like you could do, like, the Gold Coast versus Cowboys. And just try and create, like, a different rivalry in terms of that round.

[01:02:10] You've got to find something to hold on to. Like, with us, you could do manly. Because maybe manly versus sharks at Shark Park, we don't get the biggest crowd or whatever the case is. But you could do – you couldn't do a full magic round because then you'd water down the magic round concept. But if you did it, like, as a smaller, you know, two-day thing at Allianz, I think that could work there. But you don't have the ability to really walk like you can do in Brisbane. Like, in Brisbane, you can walk from your hotel to the ground if you're in the city. Like, you can walk down Caxon Street and you've got 20 pubs.

[01:02:38] You can kind of do that around the Allianz Stadium. But you're more in Surrey Hills or that type of stuff. Yeah. You're not really at the precinct. But I would like to see something in Sydney. I don't know if it's going to work. I'm just going to be the naysayer here. I know you build it, they will come. And I'm not saying we can't have a crack at it. But there's obviously something very special about Queensland, the location, the footy vibe. Like, I get it. You can't move it. Well, they're not moving it anyway. Before we go, any UFO sightings in Brisbane?

[01:03:07] No, but I did see some interesting plane that was flying pretty close to me that was leaving a lot of trails behind it. I don't know what that was about. But anyway, but I don't know from the UFO stuff. What about Bigfoot? What's your thoughts on Bigfoot? Is Bigfoot around? I reckon Bigfoot exists. Well, hang on. You were basing last week's speculation around a lot of media attention about aliens. Now you're just going left to field and going Bigfoot's around. I want to believe in Bigfoot. Is there only one Bigfoot or is there multiple Bigfeet?

[01:03:36] Well, there's one of my favourite conspiracies, which, you know, you could sell me on this one, is that there's different vibrations, like different frequencies. Are you saying this quietly and looking around so Grace doesn't hear what you say? Yeah, absolutely. I don't want anyone to know about this. So please don't click this one up. But... No chance. The theory that, you know, maybe everyone exists on different frequencies on this planet. And maybe we do share it and there are portals that open up in certain places. And Bigfoot might come in and out of those portals, mate. And that's why sometimes when you see him, he's like, oh no, I've got to get back to my portal.

[01:04:06] Does James Maloney believe in UFOs? I don't think he believes in what day today is, to be honest with you. After spending a bit of time with him on the weekend after a while. But... Right, Jimmy. Yeah. I think he might... I reckon you could convince him. I reckon you could show him a Bigfoot and he'd be like this. Cool. And he'd just walk off. He wouldn't care. I'll tell you what. He may not be able to bring him down, but he'd definitely have a crack. That's how I remember Jimmy defending in his career. Like, he always had a crack. He'll jump in there. He'll jump in there. All right, Kieran. Thanks for your time. Appreciate it.

[01:04:35] Glad you're back in one piece. There were bets going around about how many pieces you'd be in when he got back. But you're in one piece, which is great. We'll talk to you soon. Appreciate you. Everyone else, we'll be back with other things throughout the week. So don't go anywhere. This is Shark Cast Pod. It's a bye week, but we're not going anywhere. Up, up, Cronulla. We rule the world. Goodbye. Shark Cast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate.

[01:05:03] He's an expert in the Caring Bar region and has his eye all across the Shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast, if you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Shark Cast.

[01:05:45] Back in the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy. See you next time.