Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla (3/8/26)

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

[00:00:26] They've got a Facebook page, or you could go old school and call them on 029523 9300. And to all you people back in the Shire, turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy.

[00:00:50] Oh good morning, welcome, hello to SharkCast Potter Podcast, dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world. For those listening, not viewing, Kieran and I are homering out in our gear. Well, I've got matching hat and matching retro jersey. You've got Sharks matching hat with your jersey they played in yesterday. The recent retro traditional, Barns is going to kill me if you're not knowing what it's called, jersey. Kieran Fraser is here. We're pretty happy. We're sitting in fourth place.

[00:01:17] And this show is brought to you by Dysons Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking. Jason Hawes at Crips and Cripps Real Estate, who was in the house yesterday. Mr. Paisley's, now that's the cup I had this morning, just proving that I had it. But it's actually long gone and I need about four more because I haven't slept. I'm just buzzing on Mr. Paisley's and Sharkdom. Oh my God, what a great end of the season we're having, Kieran.

[00:01:41] Kieran, everyone flexed their muscles on the weekend. No Summer Slam. Night two spoilers for me, Kieran. But then we flexed our muscles and we didn't think it was necessary, but we did with a 16 point win against the Rabbitohs at Ocean Protect Stadium. You and I had a ball. You couldn't believe my brother and nephew were related to me because they were so hostile. No, that's not the right word, hostile. Loud, just loud, not hostile, loud.

[00:02:08] Nice guys, but loud, booming voices unlike myself. I save it for the podcast, not allowed to yell too much. Kieran, how are you, man? Sorry, longest intro over. How are you? I am absolutely Olympic. I am... Olympic. I'm starting to really get that feeling that finals football is around the corner. We're now in August, so September is not too far away. And it's coming up to the 10 year anniversary of the Sharks Premiership, which we might touch on a little bit today as well.

[00:02:37] So the vibes are in the air. The vibes are high. And it's funny too, because the team scored 32 points, I think it was, or was it 36? Yes, 32. Yeah. And people are like, oh, you know, they could have done better. Scoring 32 points is a good win. Like some of these scores that have ballooned out and with our 66 that we scored the other week, whatever it was in the Roosters game the other day, 32 points is kind of looked at like a little bit. But that's a great score.

[00:03:02] And you actually saw from the press conference that Fitz, he fired up a little bit about some of those forward passes, because he was like, the score line was, was more flattering than what it should be. And you never get that from Fitz. Well, it could, it could cost us, you know, those two tries could cost us down the road. The whole thing about, oh, was it a big winner or anything? I mean, if you're going to win a finals game by 20 points in this day and age, say week two and week three, I'd be very surprised.

[00:03:27] So let's not expect us to win every week by 30 or 40 points. We won by 16. That's good enough at this point. We'll get to the whole Fitzy thing. I was getting a million messages in the post game show, Kieran, about our friend Fitzy, who sits right behind us. Because he's right behind us, we don't really turn around and look at him. Occasionally you want to turn around when he's doing something a bit hokey and I have to turn you back and go, no, no, no, you can't do that. We're sitting in the seats. You can't be that guy that gives the coach any grief.

[00:03:57] So we didn't see him banging on the window and he was doing all sorts of stuff. But that's what that game brought out. And that's what this part of the year brings out. That's what the pressure of last dance brings out. And I'll say this, Kieran, about his press conference when he was asked about, you guys are humming, you're firing. Is this the best you've ever been for the first time this year? And it's not a negative. I saw the frustration in him. Is frustration the right word?

[00:04:23] I saw the emotion in him where he realized there was still five games to go because he was pretty happy we're at. He got five games to go. We're sensing some injuries. Anything could happen. So we've got to buckle ourselves in. And I think he thinks, you think, and I think we wish it was week one right now. Let's get, let's go. But that's not a negative. That's not a negative.

[00:04:46] Well, he even touched on it a little bit when he spoke about starting Colquhoun in the front row and bringing Thunall Blake and Hazleton to the bench. And sort of said, the last few years we've got to finals and we've kind of been a little bit busted. So the next five weeks or so, I think you can expect to see a few more players do that. I think Burns might start a game. Wilton might come off the bench. I think you might see a little bit of this type of stuff just to try and stagger out some of the minutes.

[00:05:14] I don't know if we will go to resting players because again, we're still fighting for that top two spot ideally. But I think you will see some players have their roles slightly tweaked. And I think the Sifatallakai situation will definitely play into that a little bit more as well as the Kailiro situation now that we're kind of finding ourselves in. So I think keeping on team selections, it's going to be interesting to see how we do it.

[00:05:39] In the case of say you lose KL and then you lose Sifatallakai, do you go with a young guy like a Michael Gabriel with the view of next season? Because he's going to be here next season. And a guy like Haradi, who historically has been available, is not going to be here. So who do you trust in these situations? I think it's a very interesting position that Fitz finds himself in. The only answer I'm going to tolerate is the best player has to play. And if that's a guy on debut, it's a guy on debut.

[00:06:07] If that's a guy who's played 50 games, it's a guy on 50 games. I will not tolerate any other answer from you, Craig Fitzgibbon or any of our fans about what the right thing to do is right now in the season. I couldn't give a rats about next year, brother. It's about this year. I'm looking at the ladder. 32 points plus 177. Pretty good. Who's behind us? The Finns on 30 points. They're about, let me do the math.

[00:06:36] What's 177 minus 90? That's what they are. So we're ahead of them almost by two games. But we know in the NRL, especially a team like the Dolphins, that could flip either way in one game, man. We got to keep winning. We got to keep winning. We can't, we can't look at any games like there. Well, we could maybe drop one. I'm not saying that coach is thinking about, but I've, you know, people on the show yesterday were saying, well, if we lose a game, I agree. If we lose a game, it's the end of the world, but I'm not looking to lose a game from here on out.

[00:07:06] From here on out, we're going all the way to the grand final. Like, there's no point in dropping a game now. There's, unless it was like, potentially, and hear me out. Well, I don't want to say round 27. Unless it was round 26 and it didn't factor on our ladder, then whatever. But otherwise, we're going to have to win. I think that's the game that you might see some players rested. So just from looking at the games that we've got left, we've got the old boys day at the last round. So that's, I think, going to be a big occasion.

[00:07:35] It's the last week before the finals. And I think we've seen this with Penrith. Penrith started wrestling players the week before the last round, just so those players could get a rep in. Then do the first final, then get a week off again. So it gets a bit disjointed if you go the last round of the season off, you win your prelim, and then you have another week off. So I think that game against Parramatta, you might see some players rested in that game.

[00:08:00] But the fact that there still is five games left is not the end of the world, though, because it does give Siffer a chance to try and get back. If that's the last time we do see him in a Sharks jersey to go out the way that he did at halftime, his 150th game after scoring a try, I just don't think that's just or fair. And I know life isn't fair, but I feel like I need to see Siffer back in the Sharks jersey. So be watching the news on that very carefully.

[00:08:28] It wouldn't surprise me or anyone if he played through some pain. Now, how much pain you can play through, obviously, is a different story. We haven't, when we're recording this now, we don't have any more news other than Fitzgibbon said in the presser that it was the part of the bicep was the better part to have. But he himself didn't sound overly confident. But let's wait and see on that one. But we are pretty concerned.

[00:08:53] But I do think if there's any chance that he, say, for example, doesn't risk it further and say, for example, doesn't impede the way he plays, which is a big if, then he will play at some point. But otherwise, yeah, we'll wait and see on that one. But yeah, team changes are going to be intriguing. He did mention Toby Rudolph will be back.

[00:09:14] Like, he mentioned something like, and I'm almost quoting him, not directly quoting him, saying Ueli is back to firing week to week for the Jets. He scored a try yesterday. So he's in contention to be playing if needed. And there's a whole bunch of them. Big Sukuha Tsepua has been great this year when he's got a chance. There's a lot of forward situation there, but the outside backs, not so much.

[00:09:41] So it probably does come down to, and we do know that Iro will be missing. That's locked in. So for one week only. So it does come down, you would think, and correct me if I'm wrong, Kieran, to Haradi, Gabrielle. Is there anyone else circling in there? And I'm not talking about moving forwards there, for example, like we saw yesterday. Is there any other outside backs around? Look, I don't think you're going to see a world where we bring Stone Street up and then we move Ronaldo into the centers or something like that.

[00:10:09] So I think it's really going to come down to Haradi and Gabrielle. I think it's going to come down to who's in the better form at the moment. I don't necessarily see an issue with throwing a younger player in, especially this week against the Dragons. I'm not being offensive or taking them lightly. It's a local derby. They've shocked us before in these things recently. So again, it's not something that I would just say throw a kid in there, but he's been at the doorstep for a while now. You know what you're going to get with Haradi.

[00:10:38] And I think that if you're going to be playing in week one of the finals, Haradi is the guy that they're going to pick. So I think he's the safer bet because he's been the guy that's been the one that they've promoted up for the last several seasons. There were even people calling for him to start the season over Jesse Ramian. Those people have been locked up and arrested, but there were people asking for that. So it's going to be an interesting situation. Gabrielle plays a very different style though.

[00:11:05] So it's going to be interesting to see which way they go because I genuinely don't know. And also too, do we keep Katoa and Ronaldo on the same wings? Do we move them around a little bit? I think the least amount of changes as possible is the best way forward. And Haradi is probably that guy. So my rant before about the best player only will play. It also comes down, of course, majorly to what you just said, least disruption to the team. That's completely how you win comps is least disruption.

[00:11:35] Now we know Gabrielle has been close before. So until we hear further information, I think it's probably 60-40 Haradi over Gabrielle. But I think Gabrielle's a chance. But it just depends. It depends how Fitz is looking at it. And yeah, we're just sort of wasting it. Two different players, right? Two different players. One's a bit of a live wire, some speed that's just completely different to Haradi,

[00:12:04] who's tradesman-like, very Fitzgibbon-like. It's very different. It's leaning towards him, I think. I won't be displeased with either one. If I'm coach, and I hate to disappoint all our fans listening, if I'm coach, I'm going Haradi just for the stable nature of the situation. But I have no issue with Gabrielle playing. He's a really good player. He's got a big future ahead of him. I got to watch most of the flag game yesterday, Kieran.

[00:12:33] And boy, we've got some good centers there. Both Nick Gora and... I need to look up how to pronounce the other lad's name. I don't want to disrespect him. Played Queensland origin. I can't pronounce it. He was terrific. And the whole team was really good. I think they were down 6 or 12-0, and they ended up thrashing the other mob. So a really good depth chart for the centers overall.

[00:13:03] But yeah, it's down to Haradi and Gabrielle for next week, you would think, unless there's some other spanner that they throw in. Overall, Kieran, super happy with that performance. Completed. We haven't discussed this, you and I. Completed at 90%, dude. That's pretty good. Wow. Yeah, that's a ridiculous level. Especially when you consider, like, they were throwing the ball around a little bit and trying different things. So 90% is... That's very handy and something that we're going to need in September.

[00:13:33] So just looking at where we're sitting now compared to other teams, we have five rounds to go. Only Penrith score more tries and more points per game. So we're second best at that. Defensively, we're a top five team. I'm happy to say defensively in all categories. Metres-wise, we concede the third least. Miss Tackle's second least.

[00:14:04] Offloads, Kieran, for the first time in our lives, we're in the top five for fewest offloads conceded. Second best completion rate aside from the Warriors, which means third fewest errors. We're still conceding the most penalties. No. No, I take that back. We're conceding the second fewest penalties. Brisbane have overtaken us. We're receiving the fewest errors. Unfortunately... Excuse me, I haven't slept.

[00:14:33] We're receiving the fewest penalties under four per game. We're conceding the second most. Ruck and Frimbers look pretty good, which is always pretty bizarre. So, stat-wise, we're going okay. It's looking all good, Kieran. I love the completion. I love the scoring points. I love it all, actually. Like, there's not a lot of negativity in our game. Well, there's none in our game, actually, at the moment. I think the only thing that if I was to try and find something, it is that penalty situation. Yes.

[00:15:03] But looking at it yesterday, like, I've just pulled it up in front of me. The South conceded six penalties, and then they only got two... We got four six-against, but we conceded... We conceded only three penalties. So, it didn't feel like that on the ground. And I know the Teague-Wilton sin bin was a bit controversial. And some of the replays that I've seen of it just clearly states that it didn't really look like a sin binable offense. So, you factor in that. You factor in some of the forward passes. We're never going to be a ref guy.

[00:15:33] The reason we looked like it was ill-disciplined is because they were letting every forward pass go. And it's funny how... And we know this, but it's funny how different fans see different things. Because I've got some really close South mates, and they were into me about the referee. And I was like, what are you talking about? You literally scored from an NFL pass. Yeah. And it shaped up and threw it forward. So... And there was honestly some times where that 10 meters was about four meters.

[00:16:01] There was one set where the second marker was actually in the line. And look, I'm not a big yelling out at the football guy, but the guy that was sitting behind us was really trying to get some of those messages across to the referee. So that was quite good. Yeah. It was a lively crowd yesterday between Mark and my brother and my nephew and everyone else around the stadium. Full house... Oh, near full house. I don't know if it was full house. Near full house. It looked beautiful. It came late.

[00:16:28] I've got to tell you, like, the two o'clock Sunday really makes our ground look, you know, in a class above what other people would think it is. And the experience, like, look, you and I weren't bustling through all the crowds. We were down amongst it a little bit before the game at halftime and that kind of thing. But, you know, for people who don't know, we sit in pretty good luxury in the upper range reading house. But it looked really good, man. And people were having fun.

[00:16:56] And I like the afternoon football vibe of Ocean Protect Stadium. Look, it's such a... It's a weird one. So it's probably my favorite time slot for us to play all at that four o'clock spot. We parked in the actual Woolaware Bay shopping center. So we pre-booked parking. My mother's husband, he's done his ACL. Sorry, no, his ACL. His Achilles, sorry.

[00:17:24] And so he can't really walk too far. So he's got like a walking stick and all that type of stuff at the moment. So we parked there and we did the lineup to get into the car park. Honestly, it took maybe five, six minutes. So it wasn't too bad. But just even seeing how many people were still going to the shopping center at that time of day, because you do forget that. And my wife was going to like do groceries earlier that day. And she tried to get a park at like midday and she was like, what the heck's going on? Um, so like, I think even Gary's wife was doing some shopping. She was, yeah.

[00:17:54] Well, he was at the game. So it's a, it's a potential for us to kind of do something unique. Uh, I just don't know like a parking situation because there's only one level that's open to the general public. And I think there are people that probably would go to the game and just pay the parking because they're going to be a couple of hours. So help me out here. And we're assuming who people are listening and watching this know the car park we're talking about. If you don't, we won't keep it very long, very long. Where am I parking for football in that car park?

[00:18:23] So if you're coming from say carrying bar and you're heading towards Cronulla, you don't go into that exit that's right next to one of the entrances because they block that up off. That's the, the ramp to go up. You go left, uh, at the end of basically the shopping center where the petrol station is, you go to there, that lower level is open to the general public. So they can go to Woolworths, uh, reject shop, et cetera. Um, Dan Murphy's is closed on game day for a certain amount of hours on the side of it.

[00:18:49] Um, and then you, you can go onto levels two, three and four, uh, if you've pre booked your parking. So maybe like a security guard that kind of checks people's tickets that you show and then you can park up there. But getting out of there was interesting as well because it's a Sunday in the Shire and they direct all the traffic out like Kern Elway. So then you've got like a bank gap of all this traffic, like trying to get back to like Woolworth Road or then so towards Northies.

[00:19:15] It's so if I'm, if I'm coming out the way I came in, I can't go straight or right. I'm just going to go left. You got to go left. And so then you've got everybody coming back past like the high school there and all they're trying to go down past the other Cronulla high school and go like towards Northies. So the traffic is backed up. If you don't have the local knowledge of, okay, getting to like heading towards Northies and then turning off where the golf club is and going to back streets and all that type of stuff.

[00:19:41] It took me about 40 minutes to get home and I live less than a 40 minute walk. So if I'm turning left where I'm so where I come out, go turn left at lights down towards Cornell. Now remind me, is that a roundabout or a set of lights when I get to the next thing? It's a roundabout. If you got it, it's a, it's a long road and then you get around about at the end. If I'm turning around there, then coming back. If I'm not going to come back or you can go through towards Cronulla. Right.

[00:20:06] So my tip there for anybody that is maybe not local, go turn at the golf course there. There's another roundabout. Go to the back streets and get yourself like towards Willoware train station. You'll be fine. Yep. All right. Let's stop with the car park talk cause I'm falling asleep, but that's on me. Not on you. Uh, yeah. Game day experience is good, man. Like it's fun. Obviously it's fun when you're winning. We're on a streak. Now we're heading to the finals. It's fun. Like there's a lot of hope. People are really starting to believe.

[00:20:33] I think I got a text from good mate last night saying he's a dogs man saying, are you daring to dream? And I'm like, I'm daring to dream brother. What's there not to dream? Let's go. Let's go. Now it seems like a four team comp. Potentially, potentially. There's some twists and turns here. And I love the fact that most of the top three are playing each other in some way or excuse the way I said that, but they're, they're playing each other in some capacity. And that's going to be really interesting for us.

[00:21:00] If we go lights out, we're going to finish higher than fourth, my man. There is a real chance. We, we, we win five from five and I don't like saying that. And I think maybe that's why Fitzgibbon was a little bit more animated yesterday. Historically, these are the sort of games that we've tripped up on. But if you saw that graphic that came out during the week where people were trying to troll the Sharks and they were putting up the Sharks record versus teams outside of the eight, by the way,

[00:21:26] Souths are in the eight, but we were nine and O versus teams outside of the top eight. Now, if you actually looked at that metric, we'd actually played the second least amount of games against teams outside of the eight. So the majority of our games have been against teams within the eight. So actually that's kind of proven that that's a weird stat. It's just, we've executed and on years gone by, those are the games that we've slipped up on. And when people have their knocks on the Sharks and all those things, that's what they always reference.

[00:21:54] Oh, they can't win certain games, et cetera, or they're flat track bullies. The reality is we've only lost a couple of times this season in recent months. We've had a couple of losses to the Roosters. It's one loss in like nine weeks or something. I think it's 10 weeks now. Yeah, one loss in 10 weeks. So we've definitely turned a corner and we've got to keep banking those two points because we want to finish second or first. Yep, absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:22:19] I think if we can finish top two, my man, the dreaming becomes a reality. I think if we finish third or fourth, we're dreaming pretty strong still. So let's see how we go. Long way to go. Not fourth. Please don't give us Penrith. Please don't give us Penrith. At this point, dude, I'm saying it doesn't matter because you're going to play someone at some point. You know what I mean? Like, and you know what? If it is them, you get a second bite. Right.

[00:22:45] And if it is them and you beat them the first time, then you can deal with them when they come back in the grand final. Like at this point, I'm past caring because we can't manufacture how the draw goes. We can't do all that. And we've got to be the best team in the comp to win, right? That's how it works. So let's go be the best team. And I don't think we're worlds apart from Penrith at the moment. On our day at 90% completion rate, guys kicking out of their skin, et cetera. Like, I think we're ready to rock. I take your point.

[00:23:15] But yeah, I would love to finish first or second just for all the benefits that it brings. And especially playing down at Ocean Protect Stadium week one. Now, let's look at some of these performances. I'm going to start defensively. His name is Will Kennedy. When you look up disrespect in the dictionary, his picture comes up.

[00:23:40] But when I look up loyal, growing, talent, unique, heart, soul, and club man, I see Will Kennedy. That tackle was unbelievable. And then the next tackle after that, how they stopped them from scoring was just, I mean, it was bad footy from south. But also just remarkable.

[00:24:07] There were a few different defensive sets yesterday that really showed with a real deal. But that one was, you know, if people are still on different social medias talking about Will Kennedy negatively, they can probably stop supporting this club. Strong words, but like, come on. What else is the guy going to do? You know what I mean? Like, give me a break. Well, I've got one for you, Sam. Let's say that the Sharks get the job done this year. Yeah. Let's say. Let's believe it. We're talking.

[00:24:36] We're going to manifest this one, right? We're talking this into existence. We're talking this into existence. Well, would he be? We've talked about his ranking in the Sharks' top five fullbacks. I think he would overtake Peach. Now, he looked very much like David Peach yesterday. He did. In the retro jersey with the shaved head and the gliding. I think he would overtake Peach. I think in all, if you put all the metrics together in one complete table, I think you're right.

[00:25:04] And it's not just the fact that he'd have a ring on his finger. It's the fact that he's done a lot this year to take them where they are. Like, he has been, he has been a key player. I won't say instrumental. A key player in them sitting fourth right now. Whether it's saving tries, scoring tries, etc. Well, Peach was one of the main reasons why I became a Sharks fan. So, I don't mean this as any disrespect to David Peach.

[00:25:29] But if you actually take a step back and you look at the body of work, and the highs were very high. But how many years was he actually at that level? Right? You can say 97? He was at the peak of his powers? 97? 96? No, he went a while. It's not like 99. Definitely 98, 99. 99 was very good. 2000 still high level. 2001 high level. I hear what you're saying. He hung around.

[00:25:58] With the changes of coach. He hung around. I think you're better off going down the route of, you know, errors and key moments in key games. I think if you want to have an argument about Will versus Peach, and I personally don't because I love them both to death. But if you wanted to, that would be honestly, and we all forget it. That's where you'd win the argument. Yeah.

[00:26:25] And to that point, and I was listening to one of those podcasts that goes back and reviews the Super League war and everything like that. I think they were talking about the grand final where Peach runs the ball back with the ball in his hand like this. Or was it against Manly in 96? And he's trying to pull back with the ball like holding like a can of Coke and just drops it on a kick return for no reason. So like that type of stuff was... That's who the Peach was. We wouldn't change him honestly. Like he's a club great. And he's one of the reasons you and I love this club so much.

[00:26:55] Absolutely. If you said to me, who do I love more? It's still David Peachy, obviously. But I have a genuine, genuine man love for Will Kennedy. I have for a while. Point is, let's take Peach out of the equation because we don't want people to think we're dissing him. We're bashing Peach. No, we're not. Point is, Will Kennedy is just in unbelievable form and he could be off contract next year as a Premiership winning fullback. Well, it just comes back down to that whole where do we place him in history and then how do we actually look at him in terms of like where do we want to go moving forward with him?

[00:27:25] Do you re-sign a Premiership winning fullback next year? Come on. We're going to be having this same conversation. The answer is yes. And Steve Mace will have to fund it from his personal bank account. That'll be it. You know what I mean? Like there's got to be a way to keep him financially because that's probably one of the biggest reasons they can't. And I just said that, you know, potentially he would be the greatest fullback in the history of the Sharks. He would be 30 in April. I'm not re-signing him.

[00:27:56] Because, hang on a minute, because the reason why I'm not re-signing him, well, look, if the price is right, obviously we do. I don't want to even continue this conversation. I just, I look at it and I just say, we've, I would have moved heaven and earth to keep Sifatalechi. I would have moved heaven and earth to ensure that he stayed. However, it just feels like we're now at the point where we've, we've been with this unit of players and there will be a refresh next year. There will be new guys in the mix.

[00:28:25] There will be new players in the mix. I, I have no problem with if Will Kennedy is our fullback. And again, we're talking about 2028 here. Oh yeah. Sorry. Sorry. So when we're talking off contract, we mean they can talk to him. Sorry. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I was just, I think in season 2028, I don't think a 31 year old Will Kennedy will be our fullback. It could be that thing. I'm not saying it's right or wrong.

[00:28:52] It could be that, the Shane Flanagan thing where it's like, you want to come brother, you're staying for a while. Like I'm not saying like 50 doesn't play that way, but imagine if he did it, it's be like, you're all sticking around. You're all get bonuses. You get contracts. Well, and I don't have a problem with it. Cause I've just spoke about how great I think Will is and how important he is, but it just feels like it, Blake, Blake Braley spoke about it this during the week. The guy has got no job security, which is wild. And it would be so hard with a young family playing at the level that he does.

[00:29:21] And sometimes we forget, like I just mentioned, he's 29 years old, like the pressure and responsibility on a 29 year old male. And we've had these expectations on him since he was like 22. It's all, it's wild. The only thing I'll say to that, and I'm happy for you to debate it in a short fashion, because it's not something we should really be talking about. I don't think he has the same financial pressure. I'm not saying he doesn't have response, financial responsibilities.

[00:29:51] Of course, he's got repayments, the whole thing. I don't think he has the same pressure as the person on the street who's earning one 10th of that. Yes. So I want to just take that out of the equation just for him because it's a different kind of job and, and, and pressure on him. Absolutely. I a hundred percent agree with what you and Blake are saying, but I just want to point out that it's different to live the life we live. Yeah.

[00:30:19] I mean, he could make his life a lot easier and just take a two, three year deal over and super league or something like that. If he wanted that security cause he was getting stressed or whatever the case was. Um, but like that would be a just mentally like, am I wanted? Why are they doing this to me? Like you could really get into your head about this. Instead, he buckles down. Um, he plays to the best in his ability every single week. He's been a most consistent performer with Braley for a number of seasons now in a row. Um, he is starting to get a lot of love in the media.

[00:30:48] I saw Joey Johns in the week talking about will and saying how much he loves will Kennedy and how he can't believe he doesn't get talked about highly more. Um, but I just, there's so many quality fullbacks in the NRL. That's the problem. It's been really split in the media. Like it's been mostly people saying you can't like literally saying quote, you can't win a comp with will Kennedy over the past three, four years in the media. Hmm.

[00:31:10] And I've got names and receipts, but then you've had like an Andrew Johns and Matt Johns people who you would think are slightly above the others as far as football intelligence experience goes. And they're going, no, no, he's remarkable. And a lot of the people I've spoken to the last few years who have played, who are really proper analysts of the game. When I say that, I mean, they do it for a living. It's, it's there. Everything is X's and O's.

[00:31:41] They're like, this guy doesn't get the respect he deserves. And they're the people, the people I kind of listened to aside from my own brain telling me how great he is. But anyway, will Kennedy was terrific. They were all terrific yesterday. There was no, I didn't have any negatives just looking at this team. I thought Britain Nicker was really good. He ran for more meters than he usually does. He's been copying a lot, kind of around origin before origin. I think he's bounced back to form Britain Nicker.

[00:32:09] Now, as we said earlier, Fitzgibbon said that Fanua Blake will not be starting the finals and probably games before the finals from the bench. So that's problem solved. We don't need to debate that one. It certainly is working as long as the starting props in this case, Kofusi and Colquhoun do their job, which they did. I think we're not talking about the two guys we should be talking about, the halves. It's Nico Hines, just sublime form. Forget the goal, just for a second.

[00:32:39] Just for a second. And he's setting up tries. He's running the ball. He ran for, what do we got here? One, five, six. He ran the most meters for the Sharks yesterday. And that's your halfback. And granted, there was one big break in there. Sure. There's one big break in there. That's the point. You have your halfback making a line break and going 30, 40 meters. This is the second week in a row that Nico has made a huge line break and not had support backing him up.

[00:33:09] So that's something that needs to be addressed pretty quickly because he was in the backfield just going, I can hit anybody. Where is someone? So that was a little bit of a frustration. But seeing how happy Nico looks, seeing how confident Nico looks, and you know the talk track is going to be as soon as he misses one goal, he's lost his confidence. Yeah. I mean, that's what they'll say. So don't buy into that. But he's going to miss a goal at some point. But right now, he doesn't look like missing. He's absolutely nailing them.

[00:33:38] I think just for the safety of everything, it was a blessing that Katoa try was a no try at the end because it was the wrong side for him on the sideline exactly. I'm not saying he wouldn't have got it. Like he's in a great form, but it's probably best he didn't take that one for the streak. And I don't think once the streak ends that his confidence goes down like, and unless you know, if it was like going for the record and it was right in front and it hits the bar, like, you know, touch what it doesn't.

[00:34:05] But if it did, okay, you could go, well, that's a bit weird. But I honestly, and I don't know how, if it's controversial or not, I don't equate his playing to his goal kicking. His playing is completely separate to the goal kicking. Does that make sense? It does. I kind of think that the two are really feeding each other at the moment.

[00:34:26] I feel like he is absolutely on point with how he wants to do and execute different things. And the goal kicking is absolutely one of them. And I think the more that he's nailing, and he is getting them from everywhere too. Um, I think that's really helping him as well. So that's a great point. And I, I think it came out of my mouth how I did not want it to come out.

[00:34:50] So I guess I'm saying I've seen Nikko this year get two from five, but his in game play would be eight out of 10, like no real issues. You know what I mean? That's how I'm not linking them, but you're right when he's getting them. He's in really good form. It all feeds into each other. So I completely agree with that. He's feeling bulletproof. And he even spoke about it. He said like when he's lining up the kicks, he shouldn't do it. But he's like, okay, this is number 27. This is number 28. Is he? Yeah.

[00:35:19] He said that he goes, it's, it's unavoidable to, to try and not hear all this noise. And he even had a joke on the post game show where he was actually a little bit happy that the Katoa one got disallowed. Cause he's like, the wind was crazy in that pocket. But so, yeah, I think we were counting it. Everyone, I mean, everyone was counting it. Like we were counting it. Everyone was counting it in the stand. Like it was like, you've got to face this because everybody's, everyone's talking about it. So you've got to face it head on.

[00:35:47] And the fact that look, if you just, if you only get 32 in a row, you still got 32 in a row. Like that is an insane figure. That's only three times before. He's the equal second best in the modern era. So there's nothing to shy about. This is the whole thing. So like, even if he has a stinker of a kick, he's still in an area of history that rugby league players for a hundred plus years, only two or three of them have got to that level of consistency.

[00:36:17] So fair play to him. Cause he's absolutely fine, but he's, he's performance with the ball at the moment, but also his defense. When he did that chase down and stopped, we ended up getting a try in the other corner, but Nico's chase and defense on that was 10 out of 10. And that's a guy who really wants it. He's looking bigger. He's, he's, he's on point at the moment. Yeah. I thought it was interesting that he had almost half as many kicks as Trindle.

[00:36:47] So in other words, Trindle's doing a lot of the, uh, in the opposition 20 kind of kicks, but half the kicks for almost the same amount of meters. So a couple of big boomers from Nico. What about that kick from tricky yesterday? That was just on the line. Like that would have been a belter of a 40, 20. It was like a 30, 10. Like he, he just whipped that out of nowhere. Like it was, he just snapped it off. But Nico ended up getting the one, didn't he? Yeah. Nico got one in the end. Yeah. Nico. I think Nico did get one. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:15] I've got to go back and watch the replay on it, but, um, it did the two halves that have been playing together for a really long time. And that's what gives me that confidence in September. And if you listen to the outside noise, they'll say, these guys haven't performed at big games, et cetera, et cetera. We have won the second most games since Craig Fitzgibbon has taken over. We're only behind the Penrith Panthers. Okay. So we are higher than the Melbourne storm under Craig Bellamy, uh, Brisbane Broncos. We've made the last two prelims. So we have proven we've won in these big games. Yeah.

[00:37:45] We guess we need to win a prelim. I completely understand that noise. They need to change. They need to change the, the definition and terminology. We can win big games. We haven't won the last two prelims. You say that you and I will party smoke cigars and go, you guys are right. Absolutely. We haven't, but don't go around saying we haven't won big games or big occasions. It's absolute BS. Absolutely true. Completely agree with you. And you can see that coming out in the coach's box. You can see that with Fitz getting emotional because he knows what's coming in.

[00:38:11] That is so left of field to what we normally see from calm, collected Craig Fitzgibbon. He is a deliberate person. He knows what he's doing by showing that emotion. He's showing that. So the players see that and the players feel that because the intensity in that building is really about the skyrocket and how he's answering questions. And last year we saw a little bit of this too. If you remember last year, we kind of had a F you. We're going to get this done.

[00:38:37] And after Brisbane, after Brisbane, up until Melbourne, it was, and I asked a few people about that and, and I don't know if I've asked you about it, but for me, there are traits there. I think I have asked you. It's just that we're playing better, but there are traits there of the same. Don't mess with us. And I love it. And they should do that 24 seven. It Siffer is such a big part of that. And that's why I'm really desperate to get him off on the field, but having him at AFB

[00:39:07] and I know Craig said that we're not going to have AFB doing that moving forward. It's just a plan that we're doing at the moment to keep him fresh for the finals. He's had some disruptive preparation. Yeah. But like we weathered the storm for, from a South perspective in that first sort of 20 minutes or so down, down, down, down a man as well. Yeah, absolutely. Down a man, down on the scoreboard. And then we bring on for Noah Blake, we bring on Burns, we bring on, you know, these

[00:39:33] sort of humans hazeln and just steamrolled them and the game completely flipped. So it's a really nice thing to have in our back pocket, but you think if the momentum is going against you and, you know, the chips are down a little bit, you're bringing on for Noah Blake to come on and be the big brother for all those guys and make them feel invincible. It's a really handy card to have, but I think you're really going to see the sharks really change in terms of more emotion.

[00:40:04] And I think Fitzy is starting to start feeding that in because he's obviously, well, they work in blocks. So this is probably like a five game block now where he's like, all right, how do I best prepare this team for September and get them ready to go? It's got to be interesting. The only problem in this modern day of living is you need to control that emotion because you want it peaking in week one and we're five weeks out.

[00:40:31] So if they're on this emotional rollercoaster from now up until then, it could become a factor. That's why I think he's starting to tinker with things. So that's why he is moving AFB and Hazeln to the bench. He's talking about, well, maybe I'll put Wilton on the bench. I think it's just that little bit. And they'd be sitting there saying, guys, like the most important thing we've got to do this week is beat the dragons. One hundred and ten percent.

[00:40:57] We, we, but everything that we do will build up for five weeks time from now, but we need to focus on the current moment, the present. This is the things that we have as non-negotiables and standards. This is what we're going to do. This is the plan to try and measure these different things. So like, I feel like we've had a lot of experience going into finals under Fitzgibbon and this roster has been so connected, which is that, that buzzword again. But I do feel like this is now a chance to take in the lessons of the years gone past.

[00:41:27] Like remember a few years ago when we went up against the Roosters. Oh, sorry. You good? You good? I got you. Sorry about that. Yeah. I just, my headphones played up a little bit, but we had finals games where we were bringing back Talakai after two weeks after he was out for six, seven weeks. We had Toby busted. We had one year where ULA and Toby were busted and they both just kind of came back at last minute. I'm pretty sure Kennedy was out for one of them. Kennedy. Yeah.

[00:41:56] We had Connor Tracy on the wing one year instead of Sione Katoa. And we almost bombed a try at halftime against the Cowboys at home. And who knows how rugby league would be different then. Like, so there's so many different things. So I feel like right now, if we can just make sure that we get the right players on the field for that first week of the finals, we're going to be okay. But there is still so much football to go. Yeah, there is. There is. And it's exciting, but also it's annoying. And I'm with you. I think that every week we just want to go win and get the two competition points.

[00:42:24] We don't want to get into shootouts. And if we happen to win, say for example, against the dragons, we win 14, 12, well then guess what? That's two differential points in the positive for us. It's not 30. It's not 66. But as long as we're not going negative, it'll all work out. And I can hear people screaming, no, no, you need to win against these teams by however. It's like, no, this is the time of the year.

[00:42:52] The dragons are playing for contracts, playing for pride. Kooky stuff happens in these games. We're going up the Titans, the same thing there. Titans can lose by 30. They can win by 30. You just want to win the games, get you two competition points and anything else is a bonus and let everything else work itself out.

[00:43:08] But if we go to Coggera and we lose 42, 12, or if we win 42, 40, for me, that's a step back and a little bit negative. If we win 14, 12, I'm okay with that because we're just moving on. It's all about moving on. It's not about, we've made our statement. We don't need to keep making statements. It's just about moving on.

[00:43:38] Yeah. And it's bad getting the reps in, getting the different opposition, throwing different things at you and handling that adversity and turning up in September with confidence. And if you drop a game here or there, that shouldn't, if you've done the right things and you've put up a fight, it shouldn't really make you feel that bad. But again, looking at the draw that we've got, realistically, we should not be dropping a game.

[00:44:02] Sunday, 4.05, we have the Dragons at the stinky, very stinky, stinky, stinky, stinky, stinky, stinky, stinky Coggera. We then come home in the game I absolutely didn't even register yesterday on the post-game show. Left it out. Saturday, 15th of August, 3 p.m. kickoff. We play the Raiders at home and that'll be a tough one given the form they've shown, but it's perfectly winnable.

[00:44:29] Then we go to the Titans on a Sunday afternoon and that's, I don't know if that's their last home game or not. It might not be, but they're a difficult team to get your head around. Yes, of course, we should win. We will win, but what the score line is, that could be the shootout. I've got no idea. I hope it's not. We then talk about the Yields game, which you and I have discussed. It's a Sunday afternoon, late game, 4 o'clock at Parramatta. And that may be their last home game.

[00:44:58] All those situations come in, the fans come out, it's old boys' days, the whole thing, whatever it is, whatever the occasion is. So it's not an easy game, but it's a winnable game. And that might be the one where you might rest some dudes. And we've got round 27, which we know about. Melbourne come to Ocean Protect Stadium. You better get a ticket like now if you want to go. A whole lot of things going on around that. And that we don't know about Craig Bellamy. Like it could be his last game. I hope to God it's not, but it could be. And they're not going to be in the finals.

[00:45:27] They're mathematically out, right? Yeah, they're eliminated. So they're playing for pride, man. And that's a scary thing. The Melbourne Storm playing for pride. Munster might be back. He might rule himself out for the year or he might come back just to go, you know what? I'm sending out Bellamy as a winner like he is. So there are no real easy games. But point being, if we win these games by smaller margins than what we think, it's not negative. But I think if we win them in shootouts, it could be perceived as negative.

[00:45:57] Which end of the day, life will go on. And I don't think it'll come to that. Like I don't think we're going to have a shootout with Parramatta, for example. But yeah, I'm just strapping everyone's expectations in because at the moment we're all going, get me the number for Ticketek right now. Yeah, well, we're a top five defensive team. You just went through the stats. So we cannot fall out of the top five as a defensive team.

[00:46:22] If anything, we need to try and get that up as high as we can because these teams that we're playing against are going to be throwing the ball around. They're going to be trying to play attacking football, their best version of themselves to try and either secure a future, impress a coach that might be coming, going or whatever the case is. So it's going to be really hard for us in terms of these teams have nothing to lose when they play the Sharks. But also the flip side of that is, it's a really good opportunity for us to get our things together.

[00:46:52] And the Melbourne game will be difficult regardless. Like it doesn't matter who Melbourne have in or out. The whole Bellamy situation is going on as well. So, oh, boys day, the 10 year anniversary of the grand final. Like that's going to be like a finals like atmosphere at the ground. Um, so there's a lot of tests that are coming up, but all the tests are different. And potentially our last home game at the venue if they don't give us a finals game. Uh, last home game for the year. Everyone settle down over on that silly podcast over with the people who go watch and cheer on the Australian team.

[00:47:21] Screw you. You know what I'm saying? I'm getting all emotional. I've had too much coffee, not enough sleep. I'm hating on every other podcast except for our other friends who go the Sharks podcast, of course. But point being, it could be the last game of the year at our beautiful home stadium in that round 27 game. Sorry. Yeah. Well, when you were mentioning that Saturday game in August, I started my head. I started thinking about last year when I was walking to Shark Park.

[00:47:50] And I remember there was a game in August. Ocean Protect Stadium. Ocean Protect Stadium. I got swooped by a bird. Um, and it hit me in the head. So yeah, the bird swooping season is coming back. So residents of the Shire, there are signs up on certain streets. Now I did not know this, but the street that I live in has one of these signs. And I was wearing a shark's hat. That was a camo hat. And I thought that the bird was going for my hat because it was like all sticks in that. However, I got to the end of the street and this bird was still chasing me. And I saw the sign saying aggressive birds.

[00:48:20] And at this point I'd lived here for like nine months. I was like, it goes to like November. That's bringing down property right there. I tell you. It's, I can't walk my dogs. Now I've got judiciary news. I don't know if it affects us or not. I'm just going to open up the email. Here we go. Here we go. It was a long list. Damn this small phone. I can see sharks. Oh, oh no. Oh yeah. Oh geez. Teague Wilton.

[00:48:49] Is it possible he's been sighted three times? What? I'm not even kidding. Teague Wilton. Eleventh minute. 30th minute. 77th minute. So Teague has been sighted three times.

[00:49:14] Now they're all, no, they're not monetary. One is, oh geez. Okay. One is if found guilty. Oh, hang on. No, they're all early please. I take that back. Everyone don't freak out. They're all early please. If he was to contest one on Cody Walker, it would be a two match if guilty at panel, but they're all financial.

[00:49:43] It should be okay. Well, I mean, being sighted three times, the fines are probably about two and a half grand to five grand sometimes. So that's a really costly. The finding system is really harsh. I find because I think they take it out from the players post tax. So. Oh, really? Yeah. So like if you're a guy that's on a hundred grand and you're losing five grand here or there to these, these suspensions,

[00:50:12] like it's a lot of money for people. So I, I do feel for the players in that instance because we saw it with Ryan Madison. His career was never the same after he said, you know what? I don't want to pay the fine. I'll take the suspension, but the expectation now and rightly so, I think from the whole, the whole game is that. Can you imagine if T, if T did that this week, T, T's like, nah guys, I'm going to sit this one out. I reckon Fitzy would put him in the gym and get his, his gi out and they'd have a good old fastened jujitsu match. I think T,

[00:50:41] he'd be on a one way ticket to the English super league, but we know T, it's not like that. So it's going to be okay. If I'm reading that correctly and you'll find out by the time you hear this, uh, cited three times, but it all looks financial. So make of that what you want me in years gone by. It would have been two or three games, no matter what. Like that'd be it. Yeah. It, it, it is better as a fan, the way that this new system works, but from a player perspective, it's pretty harsh, but I'm much happier having a players on the field.

[00:51:09] Can we just focus on those forward passes? I mean, I haven't watched the commentary back full on. Do they mention it in the commentary? I haven't seen the replay of the game just yet. However, I have seen a lot of talk online about it. And a lot of people were sort of saying that was kind of ridiculous. Um, talking to some people this morning around the area, everyone was kind of laughing sort of saying like, how did some of those get through, but there was more forward passes. There was four passes just during the sets of six. Yeah.

[00:51:37] That didn't lead to tries that kind of like, hang on a second. I think one was even before that break when Nico might've made that cover tackle. I think there was a pretty deliberate forward pass in the play just before that. So. Yeah. One of the tries, there was multiple ones as well. So yeah. Have you, what's your thoughts Sam on them doing like a technology where they put the chips in the bar in the ball, and then they put the line on the field and all that type of stuff. Make it work. I'm cool with it. Make it work. Yeah. Well,

[00:52:07] it's because look, if we're stopping for a challenge in the 78th minute, when it seems winning by 60 or losing by 60, like we've done Thursday night, we got time for chips, baby. Well, also like Jack wider needs to put some head tape on and we'll stop the game for three, four minutes. Like, so stuff. I don't think, I don't think it ruins. I don't think it's ruining the game because we still see a great game of these unbelievable athletes.

[00:52:34] Is it like two thousands where it's just back and forth and there's no dead ball? No, it's not. But I don't think it's messing with the game. I think anything to slow the game down, to be honest, from a football point of view, I'm okay with from a viewer point of view, it might be a different story if you're at home and whatever, you know, want to get on, but I don't have a problem with technology. If that's going to get it right, I've got no problem with it. It's just,

[00:53:02] I guess the traditionalist in me kind of looks at it and sort of says, well, how many more changes do we keep making? And then how far removed is it from like 2016 when we won the grand final and would we have won the grand final? Some of these things were like, like for example, he's just, I know, but I've just, I've never been a fan of rub of the green. I've never been a fan of it all evens out. Cause that's not, you can't prove that unless you go and prove that you just sprouting nonsense as usual. A lot of these people say so like cliche. So it'll, oh, it'll,

[00:53:32] it'll all even out that you're just saying stuff, prove it. Um, before we get going here and you've got a controversial subject you'd like to bring up about the podcast. I just, I was thinking, I was laying in bed the other day and I was just thinking about the podcast as I often do when I'm in bed. And I just, it came, it came to the name and I was like, how did you get the name shark cast? Uh, Newman and I back in the day had a list of, cause you know, it's one of the first things you do, right? You get a name. We had a list of, I would think five,

[00:54:02] maybe you start out with 10 names. We've got down to five, down to three. And then there was something else. Like I, he would maybe know, have a better memory than I do. I couldn't confirm what it was, but there was something else. And it wasn't like, it wasn't like ET stand with respect to our mates over there, but it was something in that ballpark. It was like, you know, and it wasn't Pete Burns, but it was, there was something related to the ground or something. And we were like, Oh, it's kind of cool.

[00:54:32] But it seemed a little bit, you know, just, we wanted to go big. Like we didn't want any disputing about people knowing what we were doing. We had things like Cronulla SharkCast. And I was like, that's not really, that's a bit of a mouthful. And it just sort of went, Oh, I think it was my thing, but I'm not, you know, anyone could have come up with it, obviously. And, and we would, we just agreed on it. It looked good. And that was it. Sharks. Should it be sharks podcast?

[00:55:00] Because this is a podcast and you call it shark cast pod. Well, I leave off the pod. The pod was an earlier day thing. And I regret that. I'm not regret it, but I wouldn't have in hindsight kept that. And now it's just Luke Lewis. He calls it shark cast pod. I think it's, I think I've seen shark cast pod on posts and things like that. So it still lingers around because I was looking at it going, it should be. So you're saying that we should have, we should have. I like shark cast. Don't get me wrong,

[00:55:31] but it's just when you add the pod in at the end, it's. But shouldn't it be sharks cast? Is that what you're saying? Well, it's a podcast though, but you're, you've, you've cut the word podcast and you've cast with sharks and then you put pod behind it. Well, the pod thing, let's leave that out. But yes, I did, but we can't leave it out because it's still out there. Well, I know what you're saying. I'll, I'll put that in like a promotional thing or whatever.

[00:55:59] In case someone just can't understand the word shark cast is a podcast. These days, the word cast is pretty synonymous with podcast, right? Yes. So I'll tend not to use the pod, but if I do, that's why you know why, but are you saying it should be sharks with an S cast as well or not really? No, if you're going to go with that, with, with the sharks, if you're going to have the three words, sharks, no, what if it's two words? Oh, then you can get rid of pod, but I mean, I'll just look at, it's like, let's,

[00:56:29] let's use the Royal motor yacht club as, as an example, right? That's a mouthful. The Royal motor yacht club and board hacking. How many times have I mucked that up? Greatest place on earth. This is like calling it yacht club, Royal motor or, or your, or Royal motor club. You're saying, cause you're really getting thrown by pod. That's what you're saying. Yeah. That's, that's what's getting me, right? Because you've taken the podcast with the sharks, and then you've put the pod over here. Like you've surgically cut the word podcast up for no,

[00:56:58] no reason. And you've just dismeared them. See people thought that the, the basis of this podcast came from you and I discussing sharks passionately, but it was actually you and I sitting around Mr. Paisley's talking about science on episodes, which is what you brought to the table today. I take your point. I hear you. I sort of asked you to forget about the word pod and just go shark cast. I thought for some reason in my little brain, you were saying a sharks cast. That would sound terrible. Well, yeah, it would. I mean, I think shark cast. It'd be factual.

[00:57:29] It'd be factual. That's what, that's where I'm getting at. I wonder, has anyone ever came across this podcast, like from a fishing perspective, hoping. Yeah. So, so you do the searches, you do the searches and everything for names. And when you, when you, you know, if you're naming your kid, you know, seven Fraser, you want to see if there's any other seven phrases out there. Right. You definitely, you need to check that. I know somebody that didn't check that. And then when the baby came, they were quite upset when they Googled it. Right. And so if I'm forming a band,

[00:57:57] I want to make sure that there's no other band called death cab for cutie. Right. Oh, there is. I can't use that with a podcast. I'm doing the same thing. Oh, cool. No one's doing shot cast. Yeah, but they are. That's the long story to this. They are because if you look up shot cast in a podcast thing, I think our name comes up first, which is awesome. But there's, there's a educational Japanese podcast series called shot cast.

[00:58:27] There's two or three others that sort of started doing, you know, whatever in Wisconsin and they stopped doing it like two episode kind of episodes, um, series. So there are other shot cast out there, but there's no other shot cast thing. And I real, there's no, there's no, there's no shot cast pod, which is my, my might've thrown in. Um, you know, I, I own a lot of the naming rights to all that kind of stuff,

[00:58:52] but I don't actually own like the word shot cast around the world. Like, like people can use it, but they can't use it in this case for a podcast for Cronulla. Cause I could legally go, no, no, no, there's already one. And I've, it's happened with me in bands before happened once in a band. I had, we had a band name and someone actually ripped us off a local band, which was kind of really weird. And we got legal advice and that kind of stuff. And,

[00:59:21] and it became a bit of a stout. So it does happen. Well, I'm just thinking about names and, and I guess it's really easy to come up with a bad name, like rugby league outlaws. Like that's just absolutely terrible. Boy, you know what? I've, I've been in podcast wars before and I've been in podcast wars with those guys. And I don't want to be in a podcast war, but I don't want to be in a podcast with those guys. So you sort of,

[00:59:50] I know you represent us. You represent us. I get it. You represent me. I'm representing the things that you don't want to say out loud. And we've discussed this off air. And that's not true. Things you were saying about Dan. I'll, I'll send them texts quite often. And, and, and as they say on their show, Shanaz was into us cause our audio was no good, but I also send them texts when their audio is good. And I go, Hey boys, the audio sounds good this week. So, um, we got local Derby, always a big week.

[01:00:20] We got a win for pride. And then we got a win for the other reasons. That's all you can get to the, the big place we want to go at the end of the year, which is coming around real quick. Uh, Kieran, how are you going to spend your week in Derby week? What are you going to do? Uh, not talk to the wife cause she's technically a dragons fan. So that's strictly off the table. So a lot of silence in the house, which could be quite nice. Do you do the Seinfeld? I have grace. I have no grace joke or not. Is she a Seinfeld?

[01:00:49] She's a Seinfeld girl. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Um, no, I have grace. You haven't done that. Uh, I'm sure we've been together for 10 years. I'm sure at some point I've, I've made that joke, but it's not saying that that comes up regularly. Um, didn't take. No, no, she scares me. You'll be honest with you. Your long suffering wife. Oh my God. Oh my God. Right. She's, she's doing pretty well.

[01:01:19] All right. Kieran, thanks for your time. Appreciate it. A lot of fun yesterday at the stadium. A lot of fun, but your brother and your nephew, absolutely. They brought the ruckus. They were, they were a ball of fun. Um, your brother, if we should get him on here, I think it's Derby week. We could get him just to let everyone know what he really thinks about referees and the opposition fans and Cody Walker. Cody Walker copped a few sprays for staying down. He's always, um, he's always had the booming voice, like booming man.

[01:01:49] The one thing I want to ask is, you know, when people yell at the footy, how often does it happen with their voice cracks? When someone yells out and then they're trying to go, it would happen regularly. And when I've done it in the past, it would happen to me like, you know, eight, maybe after the eighth, Hey, get them on side. Like, like within a quick succession, maybe five after five yelling out occasions, it breaks and I stop. I'm an idiot. There's no coming back from that. Like, I think if that happens,

[01:02:19] if you're yelling out and your voice cracks, um, you just got to go home. Like, don't finish your drinks. Don't finish your food. Just stand up. Get out. Take yourself out. In 40 years, I've never heard my, my brother's booming voice crack and I don't think it ever will. And I hope that's the case, but like, I'm talking like growing up, we used to sit on the other side where they had the old wooden stands in front where the concourse was in front of the Pete Burns. And his voice would travel like across the ground, like booming.

[01:02:48] And it's never like yesterday. Yeah. It's never like, he never swears. It's never like, it can be a little aggressive, but it's not like a scary graphic. It's more just, he's making his point, but he's just got this. It's a bold voice. Yeah. Like you feel it coming out. Like it's like, this is audio. So you're not seeing me do this move. He's not a small guy. He's not a small guy. It just comes. It comes from within. Yeah. Yeah. Like he made some good things. It was a bit of fun. I really enjoyed it.

[01:03:17] I think maybe we should give him a cast pod and let him unleash on the world. Well, he does watch regularly more into the live streaming sort of stuff. He does watch regularly and listen regularly. So I'm sure he'll get, this will get back to him and my nephew, but it is a lot of fun having them back in the fall. They were gone for a long time for reasons we won't disclose, but I'm going to say they're semi-regulars. So, so you might be hearing. If you were, was he always a sharks man? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

[01:03:45] So maybe I got it confused with are you other parts of the family that sometimes turn up in night ski, which is just absolutely horrible. We don't talk about that. Uh, I sat next to my nephew, uh, the grand final. So, um, um, my brother, we sort of had tickets were a bit split up and we, we got the sort of better ones. And my nephew and I were amongst it. And so he would have been, I don't even want to know what the math was, but it was 10 years ago. So he would have been, yeah, maybe 10 or whatever, or maybe, maybe nine. So it was kind of fun. And I had that whole story,

[01:04:14] which I've told many times where I said to him, let's go to the bathroom before the game. Cause we're not going during. And then at halftime, he was looking at me kind of funny. I went, okay, buddy, it's all right. I've got to go to the toilet, uncle Sam. And I went, let's go half times. Okay. A million stories. All right, Kieran, we've got to get out of here, my friend. Thanks for your friendship. Thanks for your, your knowledge. We get a lot of mail about you, Kieran. You only see a little bit of it. You don't see the, but the bad stuff,

[01:04:43] but you see the good stuff. I do see some of the bad stuff. I do see some of that, but I want to give a shout out to Susan who always comments on the episodes on YouTube and says nice things to us. So I think she might be from Adelaide from memory. She might be from Adelaide. She's going to be in round 27. So we might bump into her hopefully. Yes. Come, come have a beer and make fun of Sam in the name of this podcast. I might be wearing a Jersey that day. Who knows? Back two times this year, I've seen you wear a Sharks Jersey. That is more than the five,

[01:05:12] six years of friendship that I've seen combined. So look, anything is possible. I'm a Jersey guy. You are a Jersey guy and we've got the indigenous Jersey coming up. Which week? I think it's this week. Maybe the next home game. Our mates, um, our mate Jay, who made his debut on the postgame show yesterday, he will correct us if I'm wrong, but yeah, I think it's in George and Canberra. Looks fantastic. That Jersey, like again, they've done a really good job with the jerseys this year. So, um, well done to the team on that. And there's some really cool merch coming out as well. So, um,

[01:05:42] really looking forward to getting my hands on some of it. It's gotta be any second because it is a premiership. 10 years related. All right, Kieran, we'll talk to you soon, brother. Up, share, tell everyone about the shark cast pod, shark podcast, whatever you want to call it, or as Luke Lewis calls us, the shark cast quote. I love the shark cast. Luke Lewis. Right. If anyone was to like the shark cast, it's definitely Luke Lewis, mate. He's, uh,

[01:06:11] he's his own man these days. You see the size of that guy? Like he could be a professional wrestler and he could talk about the shark cast at WrestleMania for us at this point. So I was sitting, uh, I set up in the, in the area next to where your mate from the ABC and Luke Lewis, my mate, we're doing their post-game thing. I don't know if Luke was there, but your mate was there. And, uh, that was fun. He gave me a little wink. He's a very good man. Very scary man. Very quiet man, but good man. Yeah. Very good player.

[01:06:41] Remind me what his name is. Dean Halitau. Dean Halitau. Very good player. I was not being smart. I just had that brain fade. He in that game where Benji absolutely ripped us apart. Halitau scored two tries on that one and it comes up every off season. And he'll just give me a little cheeky look at, you see Fox sports last night. No, I didn't. You idiots. Now, is he involved with the magic round in our W where they are giving away the, the balls if they go in the ground, out the ground? Um, I am not a hundred percent sure.

[01:07:09] I saw him this morning and obviously if he was there, so yeah, so maybe not, but no, he's usually, I think he does stuff around like the HIAs and head knocks and all that type of stuff. Well, I was just thinking because his job, his job was in Vegas when we were there to count the, make sure there were football. Yes. And he had to take all the footballs over in the storage unit. And like, that was, it would have been like, I can't remember how many he said he talked, but think about the cargo, the cargo hall of just footballs.

[01:07:36] I'm thinking about that English game where it was a hundred nil or whatever. Yeah. And the super league game as well. Like the women's game with your referencing was, was a blowout. And then the super league, I think was a bit of one too. So it's a lot of balls. It's a lot of balls. All right. On that note, that mature note, we're going to get out of here. Up, up Cronulla. We rule the world and it's Derby weeks. Don't forget to give badness to your Derby friends. You know what I'm trying to say? I'm going to have another coffee. Up, up. Let's go.

[01:08:05] SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips and Cripps Real Estate. He's an expert in the Carring Bar region and has his eye all across the Shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450.

[01:08:35] Jason Hawes, Crips and Crips Real Estate. Sharkies! Sharkies! Back in the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy. The thing is we are looking for theoing and go to the montón of theoing machine. What are you doing? I can do it.