Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla (19/5/25)

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

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[00:01:10] Hey there, welcome to SharkCastPod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. This Monday morning edition of Catching Up With Kieran about Cronulla over coffee or as we technically call it, Catching Up For Coffee with Kieran. I don't know what we call it. This is a great start. Welcome to the show, everyone. SharkCastPod brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, and Jason Hawes at Crips and Crips Real Estate.

[00:01:38] On the other end of this semi-regular podcast on a Monday morning is my good friend, Kieran Fraser. He was arm and arm with me in the trenches. That's like the second time in 72 hours I've mentioned warfare, which is not my go, but he was with me in the trenches at Shark Stadium in the upper Andrew Reading House and having a great time. He was a barrel of emotions as we all were.

[00:02:08] So, Kieran, welcome to your show. How are you, man? What's going on? I feel like my voice is starting to come back. Yesterday, it was very croaky. The atmosphere at Shark Park was kind of like that 2022 season where the vibes were really high and the whole crowd was into it. And like, I don't know, it's because Melbourne were kind of laying all over us in the rock and we just didn't seem to get the calls. But then we, you know, we fought back and it was just a really good game of football. And all my mutual friends have messaged me saying what a great game that was too.

[00:02:38] So I'm feeling good. I mentioned to you off air, like just walking around the Shire yesterday, you could see a lot more Sharks gear on. People seem to be a little bit more bouncy and kind of like smiling at you when they saw it. I'll be a Sharks gear too. Shout out to the new burst range. How good is it? Yeah, I've got one too. But yeah, the vibes are high, mate. Yeah, they are. They should be. Our team's doing really well. Coming off of just a very memorable win, one we'll be talking about for years to come, I think. I kind of knew going into the game, it would be memorable for some reason.

[00:03:07] When I say I knew I had that feeling, but I didn't really envision what we saw. It was just a roller coaster of everything. It has to be said, they started pretty slow. We both watched the replay back. It started pretty slow. But then after their first try of the storm, through Nico, but he got no help from either side, from Rami and I think Britt. After that, they really got a roll on with the forwards, especially the Sharks. Scored 18 points. It was great.

[00:03:35] And then the storm came back and then we went on with this. You guys know what happened. But that was the sort of game it was throughout. And the more physical it got, the more controversial it got, the more the crowd arced up. As you said, the lying down on the ruck was crazy. I'm still not convinced that Will Kennedy dropped ball and to play the ball was his fault. I don't know why they didn't challenge that. But let's talk about positives first.

[00:04:06] Perseverance. Third week in a row, I'll say the words icing the game. Coming off the Balmain loss. So what do you have to say about the perseverance and the attitude? There's been so many times as a Sharks fan that you go into a game like that with a little bit of fear because you're going up against a really good team. And I said this last week on the show, I didn't really give us a lot of chance. And then I thought about it a little bit more and said, no, you know what?

[00:04:33] I can see a way of us doing it, but it's more so what I think about Melbourne than what I thought about us because I always think Melbourne is so good. And then they bring in Harry Grant an hour before kickoff and you go, oh, geez, this is going to be tough. They come out of the blocks, Melbourne. And I think the first five minutes we didn't touch the ball and Melbourne just marched up field. They made space. They made breaks. And it was kind of like, oh, no, we've we've been through this before at Shark Park and expectations are high. We don't deliver.

[00:05:00] So for them to go down and then to hit back really quickly, it was kind of like, oh, wow, like we we do have this in us. And then, you know, the great first half, that's the most points Melbourne's had put on them in a half of football, the first half of football since 2003. So like that in itself is something we should be very proud of. But then to start the second half and have like the will can be dropped all and, you know, two tries from Melbourne straight away and they bring it back to three points. And you see me going, wait, what's going on?

[00:05:29] Like how could this happen to us again? And then, you know, if it gets that great ball for Akko out on the wing and we get the ball down for a try. And that's all the points that we had in the second half. Right. And apologies to all Sharks fans. I was sitting with Sam and Souther Dan and I said, when Nico was lying up the kick, there's absolutely no way he can miss this. And lo and behold, he missed it. So apologies to everyone for that. I definitely jinxed him. But it was just one of those games where we saw that resilience.

[00:05:55] We saw that fight back. And to go down to 15 men against Melbourne, to have players playing out of position, Siffel was on the different side of the field when he did play in the centre. And Daniel Atkinson was up against a man, Mouton and Coates. And we were moving Ronnie around. And there was even times in the game where Atkinson looked up and saw that they'd moved Coates back to put him on to him. And then he's calling Ronnie, like Ronnie switch with me now. So what a great win. I'm still buzzing from it, mate.

[00:06:22] Yeah, the coaching was fantastic. We spoke about it in the post game, but the coaching where they were swapping sides and the wingers were just swapping each other like it had to be done. And Bellamy did it. We did it. It was back and forth. It was fascinating to watch at the game. And I felt for Atko. Like I felt for him. Like, how's he supposed to catch that ball with the guy twice his size jumping over him?

[00:06:46] I actually don't lay any blame there really. I don't, I could have done slightly better. Sure. But he was never going to get it. But how does that always happen to the Sharks? Like when you see these memorable tries and these put downs, it's Brett Morris against the Sharks. It's David Meade against the Sharks. And now it's Xavier Coates. And Paul Atko is going to be at a highlight reel. That's going to outlive him probably because that will be played for decades. Even the AFL people were posting about it as well, because they're saying we should get this guy to come and play for our team.

[00:07:14] So I do feel for him, but I think this week and we'll touch on it later going up against the Roosters. You know, they've got, I can't pronounce his name, the rugby union convert. Who's a really good head-headed blinder on the weekend and Daniel Tupu. So there's no way we can put Akko up against those two men mountains. So look, it could have a little bit of a silver lining for us that the Akko on the wing, we're going to have to work out a way to fill that hole. Should something happen to a winger in a game again? Yeah, we will get to that a little bit later on.

[00:07:43] A memorable performance, obviously for Noah Blake, pretty much stole the show. I thought Nico Hines was potentially the man of the match though. I love what Blake Braley was doing. The guy that no one's really talking about. We've been critical of him lately. I thought Trindle was a step up this week. I watched it closely and I thought he was good. The Trindle torpedoes were such a great weapon for us. So shout out to Mr. Docking who would have been stoked to see that.

[00:08:09] But the height that he was getting on those bombs, you know, we've watched Trindle play every single game of first game. And I did follow him a little bit in the lower grades. I've never seen him get that height on those bombs. I had no idea he was capable of that. And I didn't feel like the wind was that crazy on game day. I mean, the team stands a little bit sheltered to some of those elements, but those kicks he was putting up.

[00:08:32] I think when you've got Nico performing like he is and Trindle can put in those kicks, then that's the real secret sauce for us. But it all comes back to Blake Braley because he was my man of the match. He was getting everyone on the ball. He was bringing Fenil Blake into space and changing the angles. And I encourage everybody to go back and watch the replay again with a bit of a karma that you know what's happening and actually just look at how we played.

[00:08:57] And Michael Ennis touches on it a few times about the different angles and different looks that he was getting the front rowers. And I think when he said that you could actually then notice because I wasn't saying that I was looking out for, right? Like I watched the game of the fan. I don't try and break things down technically. But when he sort of articulated that you could actually see that Fenil Blake was getting on people's shoulders and all that type of stuff. That was just great to see. I agree with you, Kieran. Blake was awesome. We're obviously big fans on the show.

[00:09:25] I can reveal that he'll be one of our interview guests this week, probably out tomorrow on Tuesday. I've already had the pleasure of talking to some players. They're in a great state and I love the way that he runs those lines. You're right. Like you watch the front on replay of second Atkinson try, is it? The one where it goes through Kennedy and Siffer and watch the eyes of Blake. And they're so connected. That word they love to use. It's hilarious how connected they are. It's amazing.

[00:09:54] I kind of like the fact that we're not losing anyone to origin. I know we've got injury issues, but I love the fact that it's just our team now. Like our little team actually could shake up the comp if they wanted to, if they choose to. You know, it's hard not to get ahead of ourselves because we've been there the last three years and kind of experienced some heartbreak. But why not? Let's get on this ride. And we were so close to a grand final last year and we're a better team this year. So who else can we talk about here?

[00:10:23] Kieran, we talked about a lot of, let's get to the back of the spine. Will Kennedy was quite topical on the weekend. Decent first half, second half, 20 minute spell. I'd forgotten about the second bomb that he had, that he dropped the clear cut one. That was no good. The first one I can live with in the sense that it was a howler from a bomb to him. He let it go. He should have cleaned up a lot better. He didn't, but that second one was pretty bad.

[00:10:53] Yeah. It was, it was, it was one of those annoying ones. And because you're seeing it in the air and then you're watching it. And then even like when the ball bounced, it was, it's kind of like a swat. And it's like, well, that's not going to, that's not going to help. Right. But I can reveal he's no longer the Dalian leader. He has been taken over by former Shaft Luke Medcalf. He will score zero points in that game. And hopefully all the noise now can stop about that.

[00:11:22] But selfishly, I want Will to win that award. Cause I love the drama that that brings and how much hilarity that, that in, that brings along with it. Um, but just on the Dalian points quickly, uh, Fenella Blake got six. Uh, Braley got four and then Ken McKenna Scott two months ago, one. So, um, interesting there, but, uh, look, we'll, we'll set a bit of a quiet the two weeks, but I thought he's working attack was actually quite good. Helping us get on the outside. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:50] I think that if he's scoring points, it's good for us because it means he's actually in better form than what he was in the weekend. Uh, but I've got no doubt. He's going to be fine. It's as I said, one of the three errors I thought was really bad. The third one, I wouldn't even count. I thought it was a penalty, but he's got to get it right. He's got to fix it up. Ken McKinnis deserves accolades, especially last few weeks. He's, he's been a real leader and you saw that in the weekend.

[00:12:20] Did you notice how much he was holding back Ronaldo when Ronaldo was literally about to go nuts? I did notice that. And I noticed that he was doing it in a way that was a very loving way and showed you his true feelings of Ronnie. And sometimes when you see players getting those sort of situations, you can sort of see the players kind of push them and, you know, a little bit dismissive of that player. And so this is like, get out of here, like stop it, blah, blah, blah. But can was literally hugging him and was like over the shoulder hugs.

[00:12:50] Like, Hey mate, it's going to be okay. And then in Fox sports, they went and showed the sheds. The bloke sitting next to Ronnie was cam and cam was sitting there like a big brother with his arm around him. So it's okay. Like, don't worry about like all that type of things. But I don't know if you saw it, but I think Gary got some of the best photos of all the shark stuff he's done with his time at the sharks. But there's one photo that I'm assuming is from Gary where Fenella Blake scores and he hits the pose. That was unreal. But there's another one at the end of the game where we're winning.

[00:13:19] And it's like Fenella Blake's like cheering to the crowd. And in the background, you can just see Ronnie's on the ground and all the blokes are trying to pull off. And it's Blake Braley in there, just like shoving blokes off because the other guys have no idea that it's going on. So shout out to Gary for some great work that he did there. Yeah, for sure. Always. We'll talk about Ronaldo. The other fellow I noticed in there when things were heated was Hamlin Welly. And he was more of a, I'm bigger than you. And I love you. Get the hell. Like he sort of gave him the, what are you doing?

[00:13:48] The game's over about to win this. Yeah. It was right at the end. And I think that's the only thing that I have any kind of issue with, with the Ronaldo stuff. And I think a lot has been made of it more than probably what it should have been watching the replay. The replay is nowhere near as bad as what the media is suggesting. There was one moment where the fellow makes the error at the air towards the end where they get the penalty for the Sifa high shot.

[00:14:16] And he stands over him. And that's never a great look. But aside from that, the only thing I really had a problem with was right at the end with that last incident, we didn't know what was going on. And you're just not sure how these referees are going to go. And if he does something silly, says something silly, it's a penalty to them. You know, they can always reverse the decision. I think just in those moments, I know it must be extreme chaos in your head and you're so pumped up.

[00:14:46] But you just have to recognize where you are on the field, where the clock's at, what the score is. Like there's no excuses there for me. He didn't cross the line there, but he kind of could have. Aside from that, I think it's all a bit of noise for the media to kind of just go nuts with. Like, yeah, we get it. He's a pain in the butt. We get it. Imagine if he just was on his wing on that weekend, on Saturday night, just on his wing minding his own business, doing 100 meters. Like we're probably not winning that game. Yeah.

[00:15:12] And I think some of the media stuff has been a little bit exaggerated in the last coverage. Like I saw one article that just absolutely tore shreds off Ronnie. And I just completely disagree with it because to what you were saying, like nine times out of 10, what he was doing was after an error, he was just loudly clapping in their face saying, yeah, like he's not being like physical. He's not saying things derogatory. Nine times out of 10, he's just saying yes in people's faces and clapping. And that's annoying if you've just made an error and he's getting a reaction. Right?

[00:15:42] So standing over the drop ball wasn't a good look because it actually was a Sifra high tackle. I don't actually think we realized that at the time because it was just like, oh, they've made an error. We've just won the game. How good is this? But then on the replay, you can see that Sifra got the guy high and all that type of stuff. But, you know, the very last one and people were criticizing Ronnie for it. I find absolutely insane. Ronnie got hit with a swinging arm by Ryan Pappenhausen, who is one of the most calmest people in the world.

[00:16:10] So that shows you the mental state that Ronnie was able to get those players in. And he did it the week before with Reuben Garrick as well. And there will be a time where this backfires on us. It backfired in Vegas. And we all sit there and we go, Ronnie, like, come on, mate. Like we, we need better from you. But at the same time, the output is what we need. And he is doing it for the team. And I don't have a problem with it. I would like him to turn it down a little bit. It's never good when you've got guys like Andrew Johns coming out saying, pull your head in. Like that's just head noise that you don't need.

[00:16:40] Right. And, you know, I saw Brad Fittler was talking about what a motivating factor that's going to be for the storm next time they're playing. Sorry, it was Billy Slater saying that. And again, that's true. I think he's, I think he's right. I think he's right. Yeah. Yeah. And that's not the place that you don't want to give these teams any extra motivation, but at the same time, that also most motivates our guys too. Right. Because if Ronnie was not a popular squad member, they wouldn't let him get away with this stuff. They love him because he is who he is. And he does so much great work off the field.

[00:17:09] And, you know, everyone that even after the game, he was walking around all the storm players, shaking their hands. He shook hands with Puppenhouse. And I saw it like, he's an emotional character. And I'm so glad he was a shark. And I'm so glad we re-signed him because he's on the verge of, I think, breaking club records in terms of try sport and all that type of stuff. Because whenever we've had that guy who could take those records, like a Matt Rogers or a Val Holmes, they haven't stuck around long enough. We're going to get 10 years of Ronnie. And I think he's going to break some records.

[00:17:37] I think the other important thing to note, and the reason why he can, in inverted commas, get away with it, is that his form is dynamite. Like he's busting tackles, making line breaks, obviously scoring tries. And he's doing that thing where he and KL, they swap positions in attack and it works really well. I just think he's having one of his better years. And so if that kind of motivates him to play better, that's awesome.

[00:18:05] My favorite kind of angry Ronnie is probably last week where he was the response guy. He wasn't the call. Like he was answering the questions. He wasn't asking the questions. That's my favorite kind of Ronnie, but I can live with last week because it's totally fine. Now, I mean, what happens if he gives away a penalty at some point and we lose the game by two points? We're probably steaming completely on the other side. So it's a, it's a very fine line. Yeah. And I think we just have to all be aware of that.

[00:18:35] And so if you and I are saying now it's fine, then in a semifinal and he loses the game because he's pushed the guy or whatever, we can't really, we can, we can criticize him. Yeah. We can't really forget about this conversation either. Yeah. And I mean, that trine he set up for Cale off the scrum was just a great illustration of what Ronnie can do with a little bit of space and time. And, you know, he's been on a journey with us since that first grade to be in Brisbane and all of that type of stuff. And we've kind of watched him grow up with it.

[00:19:05] So I think a lot of us have that expectation of he will eventually shake some of this stuff and not put us into a potentially bad situation. If he could find that level and tone it down five, 10%, I think we've got a really good situation. Gal went through this. Greg Bird went through this. It's, it's a bit of a maturity thing. Ronnie's what mid twenties now, probably 25, 26. So, you know, as he gets closer to 30, I think some of that stuff will take it down a little bit, but you know, in terms of his performance, he's absolutely killing it.

[00:19:34] I don't know if it was a little bit personal there with Xavier coats because of the Queensland state of origin thing. And now Xavier's kind of got that journey, which probably would have been Ronnie's. Um, but look, I loved it and I love that we switched him on the different sides and you know, we neutralize that threat. Yeah. Great coaching. Great coaching. I would love to have a camera or be a fly on the wall there for that moment where lightning hit and he was like, quick do that. And they did it. They did it back and forth. I think I only noticed that maybe the second time around, I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:20:04] That's unbelievable. That's so good. You know? So, uh, yeah, coaching is going well, really happy with how he's, how he's handling things. Uh, it's gonna be interesting to see what happens Tuesday team list. We've got the roosters this week. Uh, before we get into that, let's just talk about the, the vibe at shark stadium. We had a great time personally, but overall it looked like everyone was having a ball. It was a near sellout crowd. I think there were a couple of hundred off sellout. Uh, the weather was looking dicey until that day. And then I thought the walkup would have been a bit more significant, but.

[00:20:34] Pretty full. Obviously anyway, it was rocking, uh, very vocal, especially up where we were, which isn't always the case. So, um, pretty, yeah, pretty inspired crowd by an inspired team. Uh, but gee, it was good to be back. Yeah. It was good to go to Harry man before the game too, and they catch up with some people as well. That was unreal. And I think when you see Harry man is overflowing and people are positive, you kind of get that vibe and then you get the walk down to the ground and you start feeling quite good about things.

[00:21:01] But, um, I don't know again, like there wasn't, we didn't see the junior game before it. So I don't know how that was and what the crowd was like for that, but it's just seemed there was just like that. It felt like a finals game at shark park in the right way, because I know we've had finals games at shark park and haven't gone our way, but I think that was a great time for like a fan of Blake to experience what shark park is like. And Nico spoke about it in the post game, right? Where he was saying this place was rocking and when it's like that, there's no place in the world like it.

[00:21:29] So it was kind of like a like art-esque atmosphere with everyone getting rabid, which we don't normally get at shark park. And I think that's playing into the fact that the storm are becoming our biggest rivals. So shout out to Fox sports for blaming that all on Ben Ross squarely for the elbow to Cooper Cronk's face. I mean, I forgot, I forgot how well Brett White got him. So I did talk to Benny during the week about it, just an Instagram messages and he just said, LOL, love it.

[00:21:58] So again, this rivalry has been going on for a long time, but I love that they've painted this all as his fault. Got the win that day. That was important. Yeah. Fantastic time down at shark stadium and yeah. Shout out to the hairy man brewery because they looked after us and they were, it's my ideal event where you can be somewhere local and get in the mood in a very friendly atmosphere, supporting independent business. And yeah, I just love that walk. I love that walk to the stadium.

[00:22:27] It's a, it's really sketchy kind of what it's all about. Yeah. It's sketch. No, it's not sketchy. It's dark, but it's not sketchy. So we are playing the Roosters in Gosford for some reason on Saturday night. It's the second game. Yeah. 735 ish. It's 735. Yeah. Yeah. Up at Gosford, closer to where young Kieran grew up. It's going to be an interesting battle. My friend, I think that they will only be missing one player from, oh no, maybe a couple, maybe the big prop. Well, barring injury, you would assume that he would be in that team.

[00:22:57] They announced it this morning and he is not in the, oh, he's on the bench. Lindsay Collins is on the bench. Oh, Robert Toa. On the immediate bench. Yeah. He's number 15, but their center, Robert Toa is in there as well. Yeah. I knew that. Yeah. That's huge news because he's played 10 games. So he's very good. I just didn't see that one coming. I think there's a few injuries there, but that's good for the sharks because he's a really good player. So it's one less person to worry about.

[00:23:24] We're obviously missing some players who they are when we're recording right now. We're not really sure. Uh, we do know that stone street won't be there. Uh, Ramien is very much TBC if he's been ruled out when you hear this, apologies, but the moment it's TBC and it's, uh, going to be a challenge with filling out those outside backs, see what they do, whether we debut someone, whether they stick with what they did on the weekend.

[00:23:51] It's all a bit of a mystery on a Monday morning, but certainly up for debate. But I can almost see us being, do you think we'll be outside? Is this in this game or not really? Is that silly talk? I think if it was in that shark park, we would probably be favorites. Um, I, I still think we'll be favorites. We're not really disrupted by origin. The only injuries that we really have is probably Sifar coming in, which again, two great try assists on the weekend. It's going to come down to that wing spot.

[00:24:20] So I would assume given the fact that most of our teams there will be favorites. Yeah, sure. I, in my head, it's not going to be that clear cut at all. As far as the win, I think just because of disruption to the right side. So they did pretty good on the weekend on the fly. So you think with more time, they'll be better, but the roosters, uh, the roosters should have won that game against the bulldogs. Many people think the bulldogs, the best team in the comp, whether you do or don't, obviously they're going well, they really should have won that game.

[00:24:46] Uh, it was a strange one because the fellow with the curly hair from rugby union, Mark, who scored probably the best try you'll ever see. Like it's in the top 10, at least he also helped contribute to the points against. I won't say lost the game, but, uh, because he dropped a few bombs. So obviously the trindle spirals are coming straight to him and I've got no problem with that, but the flip side is he's a really good attacking player. Teddy's going to be there and they're going to be not that disrupted.

[00:25:14] I like the roosters on their day. Like, I think they're a good team on their day. I really like their coach. And this is not going to be easy. Yeah. I mean, the roosters have actually surprised me this year. I didn't think that the roosters would be going as well as what they are when they turn it on there. You look at them and you go, why do I ever doubt this team? But, um, I think the, the few changes, Connor Watson has been really good this year. I think that's going to play into it. And, you know, without Connor there, I don't know who the number nine will be, maybe Docker clay.

[00:25:42] So they're going to have Docker clay potentially at nine. They're going to have standard Smith at seven. And then, um, who's that Sandin Smith? Who's been unbelievable in that means that day game at five, eight. So pretty inexperienced spine. When you take out to Desco, you just said Sandin Smith twice, but I know who you meant. You meant the tool for the halfback. The tool. Yeah. We all know him. Yeah. So, so severe, um, I'm terrible with name pronunciation, but, but there's a pretty inexperienced spine, right?

[00:26:11] So, um, did Spencer Lenny make the blues thing? Oh gosh, that's a great question. He did actually. So they're actually missing four. So they're missing Connor Watson, Spencer Lenny as well as Toa and Lindsay Collins. That's good. That's a big out for them. Spencer Lenny really leads that park with Lindsay too. So don't, don't forget that they've had, they've had some big wins this year under the, under the pump with injuries and that kind of thing. So it's, it's awesome. I'd rather play without them. I've said that a million times, but it's not a given, I guess for our listeners, not a given.

[00:26:41] Yeah. And also just playing up at Gosset. I mean, I've got my tickets. I'll be there. Um, that's just a different variable for us. And, uh, I don't know what our record is at Gosset, but it seems like we do okay up there, but, um, just a little bit of a, I would have liked to the, to have still been in Sydney. I just, that changes things a little bit for me, but just talking on the favorites thing that we spoke about before again, don't gamble. I hate it. Um, the sharks are a dollar 40 and the roosters are $2.96. So the bookmark is at ever only back in the sharks here.

[00:27:10] You're not the only one going home. Nico's going home as well. So Nico at various points of his life is from there. Yeah. And I am I, I'm correct in saying he debuted there by some mystery chance. Yeah. So he made his debut for Melbourne. Um, I think it was 2020 or maybe it was, yeah, it was around maybe 2019, something like that. And, uh, yeah, there was a big contingent from, uh, you minor way, way he's from the peninsula. Um, yeah. So that's, that's a positive, like that I'd rather play there and have him pumped than

[00:27:39] have us playing at alley. Uh, is it Alliance? Whatever it's called, although it'd be easier for fans to get to, but, uh, I don't think it's gonna be that much of a disadvantage us going there. I know what you're saying. It's a bit of a different thing for us, but that's what we do this year. We just travel and we play in different stadiums. So I think, uh, I think being in Sydney has been a blessing the last month or so, however long it's been. And this is just out of Sydney. So I'm not too concerned about that. Interesting to see if they do a camp or not. They might do it the day before.

[00:28:10] Uh, I know they've already done a bunch of things this week. So maybe it's the week leading up. Maybe there'll be away the Friday, Saturday. So we'll see about that. But, uh, yeah, look, I'm not overly concerned about this game, Kieran, but I am not walking into it thinking it's a done deal, especially because it's a lot of things. Because they're missing players. I think that absolutely on paper, we should get the job done. I assume we will. I really like how we're playing. I love the form. I love the attitude more than anything. The attitude is so good and the spine's going really good.

[00:28:37] I know Kennedy had a few iffy moments, but as you said, he had some great moments as well. That should be enough to get us home. Yeah. We'll see how the teams line up. At least we can't really speculate too much on that until the teams are named just on opinions. What would you do with the sharks right hand side this week? So I'm going to assume that Sifar is out and I think the, What would you do? Yeah. So you do. Sorry. I'm going to assume I can't pick Jesse.

[00:29:03] So I'm going to put Sifar in the centers because I don't like risk. We've got the buy coming up after this game too, right? So I don't like risking players if they're 50-50 or anything like that. Just take the extra week, come back in a few weeks then. Then on the wing, I can't go Atkinson. I can see potentially a world where Fitzy puts Atkinson in the centers and leaves Sifar as the utility on the bench. I can see that. I don't agree with that, but I could see that.

[00:29:31] I think you've got to go for a specialist outside back. And when I look at New South Wales cup and he's been our 18th, 19th man a number of times, I think we've got to go with Veyella. We've recently extended him and Stone Street was in a similar position to this when he debuted. It was kind of like, well, if not now, then when are we going to play with him? Right. So I think he's in a good chance on the wing. I've seen some talk about Gabriel who I understand missed the Jets game on the weekend. There's some talk maybe with some HAA protocols, but I'm not sure on that.

[00:30:00] But I think Veyella, he's an outside back. He can get the job done. He's going to be defending outside of Sifar. So in my team anyway, so hopefully that they can get the job done. And he, from what I've seen of Veyella, he's a first grader. He's got that potential. So I'm really keen to see him mix it with the big boys. But what about you? I tend to agree. I think he's ahead of Gabriel and I think he's more of a, he's probably had more time on the wing than what he has. So I would go with him.

[00:30:29] And as far as the centers go, it's tough because I think the Roosters back line is one of their strengths and we've seen Sifar against fast back lines, not being able to cope as well. If it's an average to less average back line, he's fine. But against a more, not even elite, but fast back line, he can struggle, which is not his fault. It's just the way he's built. So I'm torn there, but his hands are unbelievable.

[00:30:58] He'll set you up two or three tries. He might be in the position to let one in. I agree with you that I could see the coach going, okay, Akko, you're going to play center and we'll bring a young fellow in to play on the wing. I could see that happening. Again, I'm not sure if I want that. I don't really know is my answer. I would probably go Sifar. I probably would in the centers. Can I ask you a question? Would you move what Ronnie or Kale over?

[00:31:26] So you don't have a, like potentially a makeshift center and a rookie winger. Would you look to split up Kale and Ronnie? Because Ronnie can play both sides. Ronnie's showed that in the past. He can do both sides equally as well. Right? So he's the trade off where you put Baylor outside of Euro. Yeah. So Kale's a great defender. He won't have to do much. Yeah. Yeah. I could do that. I could do that as long as the young fellow was good on the left. I could do that. It's going to come down to these preference, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:31:52] I'm not sure about Kale swapping sides, but having seen how good he's on the left, I mean, who's to say he can't do it on the right? You know? So they're interesting questions. I don't, I think whatever I would do would be the, the thing that would cause the least disruption to the team. And if that meant not blooding someone, then that's what I'd do. Or if it meant bringing in the, one of the young blokes, then I would like, I just, whatever's best for the team as little disruption. Then I think we're on a winner. Yeah.

[00:32:22] If we have to keep swapping sides and doing all sorts of things and like, maybe they try and do the thing they did last week with the mid game swapping, but that seems a little bit dicey for an 80 minute game. Yeah. So interesting. I don't know. Interesting. There is fascinating stuff. I don't have an answer though. Unfortunately. Yeah.

[00:32:41] Cause I'm just going back to, I think it was the Tigers going where we had Billy Burns and Harati next to each other and everything else stayed intact, but it was kind of like we had just two brand new guys defending next to each other. And that did get exploited. So my thinking is just, if we've got more of if. Yeah. But are we then taking away from a strength? Yeah. So I don't know. But again, 50 shown he's got a great ability to handle these situations.

[00:33:07] But again, it's pretty unlucky to lose Katoa, Harati and stone street, like any club that they lose that sort of depth is going to be in the position that we're in. Now just on Sione Katoa, what I will say is tune into the interview episodes tomorrow. Cause I caught up with a whole bunch of personalities. I'll say at the sharks this morning, and there will be some breaking news from Sione himself on when he's coming back, but I'm going to make you stay tuned to the episode tomorrow. So listen to that when it comes out.

[00:33:36] And we also caught up with Braley, be caught up as a spoiler with Jesse Colquhoun, which is a great chat. And there's some cameos from Hamlin Welly. There's a few guys in there. It was a pretty bright and bubbly morning. So if you're interested in some Katoa news, stay tuned to the next episode after this one. It will be out on Tuesday, probably Tuesday afternoon in time for the team list. Kieran, we're going to let you go soon. But before we let you go, what else can we discuss? What else is going on in shark land for you? What are you interested in?

[00:34:05] How do you think we're looking up to the buyer? I think we're looking pretty good. I think if you said we would be sitting in fifth, and if you'd sort of said we'd won the games that we, the amount of games that we did, I probably would have shuffled around some of those games. I would have thought we would have been the Tigers. I probably wouldn't have thought we would have been Melbourne. I'm looking a little bit at this going, well, you know, I'm happy with fifth, but there was the Canberra game and the Tigers game where if we just ice those moments, we would be seeing, you know, probably first or second.

[00:34:33] But I look at that and I go, well, if we didn't go through that, then would we have had the execution and the ruthlessness to handle the storm situation that we just went through? Right. So I do feel like it's building. I think the buyer's coming at a great time, especially with a bunch of injuries that we've got coming up and all the travel that we've had. And as we get into July, August, where we're on that New South Wales only run, whereas we basically stay in Sydney for two months, I'm pretty happy with where we're currently sitting with things.

[00:35:01] Let's not forget that the game against Para, they were back in it. Now I know they're coming, what last, but Moses was playing. It was at Suncorp, a neutral ground, and we could have lost that game after what happened in Leichhardt, after what happened in Canberra. Let's not forget we were at Brookvale against, I think what was a pretty full stacked Manly team.

[00:35:28] And they got back into the game and we beat them. And let's not forget what happened on Saturday night against a very stacked Melbourne team. I don't know how much more stacked they could be. Yeah. And we got them. So the learning the lessons is happening. The coach is correct with that in these press conferences. It doesn't mean that we can take everything easy from here on in. It doesn't mean that we can necessarily forget about the close losses, but it's good to see that they're on a winning way.

[00:35:57] I need them to do it at the pointy end of the season, obviously. But I'm pretty happy with all that. There's always going to be like regrets in the season, every season. You know, I mean, if you look at the premiership season towards the end, it was just like, exactly. They obviously worked it out and we don't really stress about it, but there's always going to be games you should have won. Probably should have played week one at home, right? Yeah. They didn't. And they went to Canberra and they made history. Awesome. This year we went to Canberra. We definitely should have won that game. West Tigers. Yep.

[00:36:27] Should have won that game. So we're already four points behind where we should be. Hopefully they can make it up. Finish top four, ideally top two. You never know. I haven't ruled out that kind of thing. I think Canberra going to be a little bit hard to catch, but you just don't know what's happening. I mean, this week they're going to name a team full of like three people we've heard and a whole bunch we haven't. Like they're going to be hit by origin pretty hard and injuries as well.

[00:36:51] So there's always jockeying for positions at this time of the year leading into the finals, which is obviously a way off. But just thinking ahead, I don't, I haven't ruled out anything this year. Like I think we could finish top four. I think we could finish top two. I'm hoping it won't be any lower than that. Point is, say we finished third and we have to play. Are we playing away if we're third? We are. Yeah. So we'll be like, oh man, if only you'd won in Canberra.

[00:37:19] If you only need one in, you know, we're going to have those conversations, I think, unless we can finish top two. If we finish top two and someone wants to have a conversation about minor premiership, you say, shut the hell up. It doesn't matter. Yeah. But you know what I'm saying? We're always going to have those unfortunate losses, but at the moment, three weeks in a row of winning tight games against decent teams. I think that's pretty cool. Yeah.

[00:37:45] And to beat Melbourne anytime, and I know that's like the fourth time in a row we've won at Shark Park versus Melbourne. And, you know, we beat them last year down in Melbourne, but like they're still the benchmark. And I think that even the Bulldogs sit at number one. I think people still look at them and, you know, Penrose had some issues this year, but people look at Melbourne and go, that's the best. Yeah. That's the best spine. It's the best coach team. And Greg Alexander touched on this during the Fox sports post game.

[00:38:10] He said it's very rare where Cameron Munster has a blinder of a game and Melbourne lose. So he was actually given a sharks low credit. And I know Randy cops, a lot of hate online for being a sharks hater, but he was very complimentary of that sort of saying that, you know, the shark seems really stepping up. And again, I look at for no blagues numbers, you know, like 260 meters, a hundred post contact. It's like now he's starting to fit into what we do because it's easy to say, all right, just throw in for Noah Blake and expect it to work. We've got to get the rotations, right. We've got to get the lines, right.

[00:38:40] We've got to get the ball and the right positions for him. Right. So I think it's starting to come together. Our halves are clicking together. Kennedy's playing with a lot of confidence and always had, you know, a couple of hiccups recently, but Eero's coming on board. We can get Jesse back to, to keep these levels and Katoa and Ronnie on the wing or Stoney, whoever it ends up being. I feel like it's really building. You know, Billy Burns coming in and depth has been great for us too. But even a guy like the core has had a little bit of a quiet two weeks, but it hasn't really seen who affects us.

[00:39:09] So things are going in the right direction, mate. Yeah. I mean, he was probably at his worst on the weekend, but he was still fine. He's got balls like that. His worst is obviously not that bad. Yeah. Yeah. And he knew it. He makes it up. You know, I think he's doing fine. He's my favorite. He's your favorite. Thanks for your time this morning. I know you got a bounce. Appreciate you. We'll talk to you real soon, but I know you've got an extra spring in your step because your central coast games coming up. You know, it's a lot of fun for you and for Nico. We'll talk to you again soon. We'll talk to everyone real soon.

[00:39:38] More episodes coming before you know it. The Sharkast pod, catch up with Kieran over coffee about Cronulla. I got the name right. Kieran, we'll talk to you soon, my friend. Up up Cronulla, everyone else. Let's go. The boys in the black, white and blue.

[00:40:05] Up up Cronulla. Sharks, sharks forever.

[00:41:34] Sharkast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. He's an expert in the Caring Bar region and has his eye all across the Shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450.

[00:42:03] Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Closed Captioning by the Sutherland Shire.