Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla (4/5/26)

[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

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[00:01:05] Hey there, welcome to SharkCast, part of a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. This is Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla, a series we do every week, part of SharkCast pod brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the legends of the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. And if we had a coffee right now, each of us, it would be from Mr. Paisley's.

[00:01:31] Now, Kieran, you've just revealed to me you live in a double cul-de-sac. Now, as a cul-de-sac kind of guy throughout my life on and off, what does that mean? Well, basically, there's only one entrance to my street. You can't drive in it, you can't drive at it, you have to just enter in the middle of where I live, right? And the Sutherland Shire is a busy place, right? So a double cul-de-sac is actually quite nice because there's not a lot of people around. My last place, which was very close to Shark Park, was a lot of traffic.

[00:01:59] A lot of people driving through there all the time makes it hard for kids to ride bicycles and things like that. So this is quite nice, very quiet. But also, dude, did you see that Sutherland got named as the best place in Australia to live? I did not see that. Not the Sutherland Shire, Sutherland itself. I've got feelings on that, I'm not going to say in case it loses us some listeners. Well, if we go back a few months ago, Cronulla just won the best beaches in Australia.

[00:02:28] Now, Sutherland itself, and I'm a Sutherland guy. I spend a fair bit of time there. I'm there every Saturday morning. You can see me at the markets. We buy our fruit there. I like the markets. I like the markets. But yeah, Sutherland, the best place in Australia to live. Well, you would sort of debate whether it's the best place in the Shire to live, wouldn't you? My personal views is the Shire ends at Kimmelia Gardens.

[00:02:53] That one right where Kimmelia Gardens is, like if you're driving to the Miranda, that's where the Shire ends. Everything else is Western Sydney. Even I've never gone that narrow. That's pretty harsh. We love our friends in Guymeer. We love our friends in Kiriwe. We love our friends in Sutherland. I actually would love to live in Oyster Bay. That's where I would like to live. Beautiful place. Beautiful place, honestly. The mayor of Sutherland is a consumer of Shutka. So we love Sutherland.

[00:03:23] I think that's the right term, mayor. Anyway, one of those big wigs. We're here to talk about our brilliant team because we are brilliant. We won by 42 points yesterday, 52 to 10 over the West Tigers at Ocean Project Stadium. You and I were blessed to be there in all of its glory. It was a slight rollercoaster of emotions, particularly for you, but got the job done in the end. You had some emotions, especially in that first half, which we're going to talk about. Overall, great win. We're up to eighth place.

[00:03:51] Things are looking a bit brighter in the Shire, all the way up to Sutherland and back. Give me an overall takeaway, my friend, an overall takeaway from the game. So I came home and then I watched the replay. So I feel like I've got a bit more of a grounded view on the whole game. The first half was very close and I was very unhappy with a number of things, as anyone sitting around me would have heard. One thing in particular. Well, the tries off a scrum, like again, the second week in a row.

[00:04:21] And if you've listened to SharkCast since I've been on in the last couple of years, you'll know Sifatalakai is one of my favorite players. No doubt. Absolutely heartbroken that he's leaving the club. But there's even an article that just came out where he was sort of said, I'd love to be buried six feet under this place. Like they gave me a chance when nobody else did. Just to blow smoke up our own podcast. Prior to that, weeks before that, he did say he would die for the club, which essentially is the same thing. Didn't quite get six feet under quote, but anyway, go ahead.

[00:04:51] Yeah. And so like, he's one of our absolute favorites in terms of our top three players every week. But I just don't feel like he's a center. And I feel like we're doing him a disservice by putting him in that position. And to see that try off a scrum and then to see when they had a bit of an incident where, you know, Toby came in and then Nico had to go in and the Cora goes in and then there's Talakai that gets burnt again in the centers. Yeah.

[00:05:16] It was a bit of a hard pill for me to swallow because I just genuinely do not think he has any business in the centers. In attack, it's fine, but I just defensively, I just don't like it. And we'll talk about some of the selections and how they actually worked for the positive, like Burns off the bench. And I thought that Cora had his best game in a long time because he was actually starting and played longer minutes. But I just, I just really don't like Sifar in the centers and I just don't feel like him and Heroti are a good combination on the edges in defense.

[00:05:46] And yeah, those two tries early on really got me. But just looking back at the game, it was kind of like we did to them what other teams had done to us. And the last sort of 20 minutes, we piled on the points. And if the knock on the Sharks has been, we usually get to the 60 minute mark and knock off and we don't go on with the job. This week, we actually went on with the job so much so that I had a degenerate bet on and I cashed it out because I thought the points were ending.

[00:06:14] And then we ran in two more tries like the final five minutes. Right. So great to see some attacking football. But I think if we go back and actually look at the game, it was a lot closer. And if you add a few of those Tigers players in, especially Buller at the back of shape, I thought the Tigers left a little bit of points on the table with some of their moves because Churava is not obviously the same player as Buller.

[00:06:39] And there's a few times they got almost out the back of us and we were able to hold on, thankfully. But great to get the win and great to build the confidence from. And that team position for the West Tigers also affects their wingers. And one of their wingers had a nightmare game. And maybe that wouldn't have been the case if Tarouba is there or someone else is there and they push the center out there, etc. So on the postgame show, a lot of people talking about, hey, let's just settle down. They had guys out and there's been a lot of, I guess, social media activity this morning about West Tigers missing players.

[00:07:09] We were missing players too, maybe not as spine essential. It was a fair game and they were in it and we just dominated. And our defense was, once the defense clicked in after those 10 points, it was pretty good. It has to be said. Yeah. And I watched Benji's press conference. I haven't seen Fitzy's yet, but I watched Benji's and Benji was very clear. He said the Sharks ran harder than us and they defended and communicated very well.

[00:07:35] But he was very clear that we just ran harder than the opposition, which was the tightness, right? And if you go back and look at a few of the last games, it was kind of like, oh, we haven't really had that momentum and things like that. And, you know, I kept saying to you when Kifusi came on in that last sort of 20 minutes or so, he was like a demon unleash in defense and with all. And I hadn't really seen that from him. But one of the benefits when you do go to the game live is you see a lot of these things.

[00:08:02] And Kifusi was a man on a mission that last 20 minutes when the game was essentially done. It was almost like he was playing to justify his spot in the 17, right? And we also saw it with Nico and his communication with Nekora. There was a few times there in defense where Nico really gave it to Britt telling him where he wanted him to be. And one of those actually forced an error. So it was actually quite good to see. And then as soon as it happened, you saw Nico turn around and point to Britt like I told you so. And you saw Britt acknowledge it too.

[00:08:30] So there's a few signs there off the ball that I thought were really good. But again, just good to get a winner after a rough couple of weeks. Yeah, they were very much in tune with what needed to be done, even when they were trailing. It's not like we all put our hands up and went, the game's done. Like we weren't happy, but it was a contest, as you said. Like first half really tight, went to the break with the lead. But it wasn't until we scored again in the second half that we kind of had a bit of breathing space. Then they got on with the job just on Kofusi.

[00:08:59] And we'll talk about all the players in a bit, but Kofusi off the bench, according to FoxSports.com.au, 74 meters off the bench in a small window of time. Now he doesn't usually even get that sometimes when he's playing half a game. And that is circumstantial. I want to say it's not because he's lazy or anything else. Sometimes that's the way his game plays out, makes a lot of tackles in the middle, etc. Has the nice offload going. But you're right.

[00:09:27] His post contact last night was awesome. Some quick play the balls, which I noticed yesterday is probably one of the things we need to really improve on. It's hard with a guy like Hazelton because he's so huge. AFB, when he lands proper, he's super quick. When he doesn't land proper, it's a lot longer. But Kofusi was really just in the zone. And I'm glad you praised him because he's a guy that people don't see the full picture of what he does.

[00:09:57] They don't see the full potential. He's still relatively young for a prop. He's played a chunk of games. He played a grand final. He's a cool, calm, collected guy. He's not your beast type kind of prop. Although yesterday he displayed some of that, which was really great. Yeah. And we were even talking like, who do you play as that 17th man like on the team yesterday? And maybe with Puru because the game was still kind of tight. And then we got out to that lead. So maybe you could have tried that in that instance.

[00:10:26] But to see him come off the bench and to actually have a real mission, I thought, and again, I haven't looked at the stats, but maybe you can tell me compared to say Toby. I thought it was much a much more polished performance compared to say Toby. Toby had a couple of little things that went here and there that just weren't ideal. But I thought Kofusi was very impressive. But I also really liked how we brought on Jesse Colquhoun and McInnes then dropped back to the bench.

[00:10:54] And then we recycled Burns into the middle as well. And I just felt like the whole flow of the team looked a lot better in that sort of instance. Yeah. And it was a lot more how people want us to play the game with the modern type, very modern type version of the game with the more mobile players. So a much better looking pack. I believe I said to you, Kieran, at some point, I believe I said, I don't think I'd bring on Kofusi right now because the game was kind of done. Yeah, you wanted Puru.

[00:11:22] Yeah, I wanted Puru just to have a bit of fun and throw the ball around. But I'm glad that the coach has a lot more smarts than I do because Kofusi was great. And it's not a slight on Kofusi because I'm a very big admirer of what he does. Compared to Toby Rudolph as far as meters, there's only about 15, 20 meters between them. And you would, I don't have the minutes in front of you, but you think Toby would have played for 15, 20 minutes more. So I thought out of all the players, yeah, the only real blemish was on parts of Toby's game.

[00:11:52] It wasn't the entire performance by him. His second stint was better than his first. Absolutely. But the first stint wasn't great. And especially, as you say, from an aerial point of view, maybe not from a TV coverage point of view, you see him. Yeah, he looked like he might have even been injured, like the way he was sort of struggling at times. Yeah. Overall terrific performance. Who was your best on ground, if I had to pin you down on it? Well, it's funny because I went online and I read a few comments last night and things like that.

[00:12:21] And then I looked at it and I thought, well, you know what? We actually scored seven tries between Wilton, Ero and Stone Street right there on that sort of bench, which is pretty astronomical. But I just really liked the work of Blake Braley. I thought he really got us on the front foot and I thought he was so creative. And even the kick that he put in for the Wilton's try, I just thought it was great to see him back himself. But again, I want to go back to somebody that I've talked about a few times this year that I'm thinking he's having a tremendous season.

[00:12:51] And I want to back Nico. I thought a few of his touches were outstanding. I thought the intercept was great. I thought his defense was great. I thought his communication was outstanding. I thought he wasn't maybe as flashy as some of the other plays from like Will Kennedy and Tricky was. But I thought Nico had a really strong game. But then I've just said his name. It's Will Kennedy. I think we have to sign him. And again, we'll probably go down that wormhole again. What do you do with Will? But especially that try he put on for Iro with a double pump.

[00:13:21] It was unbelievable. And right now, like if you saw Will Kennedy turn up at another team, you'd be a little bit filthy, wouldn't you, Sam? I would be. Let's come back to Will in two seconds. All right. Because let's get back to Nico and then we'll get to Will because I wanted to talk about him. I'm glad you brought him up. Nico Hines for me, there were two key moments that really stood out to me. Both involve him running. And the first one was setting up the Ero try from the scrum in the first half, I believe.

[00:13:47] You watch the energy and the style in which he runs on a short amount of space, short distance. That is very much Nico at his quickest and most successful. And that's why it was such a great setup. The second one more obviously is the intercept. It was the foresight. It was the execution. But you know what I, when I saw a front on a replay of it, it reminded me of young Nico. Or shall I say younger?

[00:14:18] It reminded me of Melbourne storm Nico, almost to be fair or unfair, manly NYC Nico. Like he looked like he had lost 10 years of age in every facet of what I'm trying to say. He's obviously still got some pace. Got the smarts. Good looking dude. I love the celebration at the end. And I think everyone in that stadium was really willing him on. Like it was, however you feel about the guy.

[00:14:42] I feel like there's a part of people, even some of his biggest attractors that want him to do something amazing. And okay, that wasn't amazing. It was really, really good. And the game was done. We get all that. But it really put a full stop on the, before, on the result. So I guess what I'm saying is just run the ball, baby run. Yeah. And there was a few plays where he ran so fast into the line and really sucked in the defenders where you go, wow, that speed looked really good.

[00:15:12] And look, I'm a Niko fan. I've watched Niko since he was 14 or so on the Central Coast. And I've always kind of backed him from afar. And to see some of the ups and the downs that he's gone through, I've always believed that by the end of that contract, I think you're going to have a really good player that's going to be very deserving of everything that we've given him as a club. And I think we're seeing a player that's getting better year on year. And there is a lot of focus around Braley and Trindle.

[00:15:41] And I'm a Trindle fan as well. But I think Niko this year has really dominated Tricky in terms of how consistent he has been. Because look, Brayden had a good game and some really nice highlight plays, but there were a couple of clunky moments there with some really awkward kicks that just went like absolutely too far or whatever the case was. Right. So I think, again, they're still working out how to find that proper connection.

[00:16:09] But Niko for this season, I think he's been one of our top three players. He's been a lot more consistent than Trindle. Have to say yesterday, I thought Trindle was really good. It took him a little while, right? It took him a while to get in there. The second half was good. Yeah. So four try assists, 450 kick meters. I would say that the majority of his kicks were excellent. And there was one or two that were like, you probably couldn't get worse. But it didn't cost us in the end. That's fine.

[00:16:39] And he looks like a sort of guy that kind of learns from those kicks. If we get that Trindle every week, I'm pretty happy because it's not necessarily a 10, but he's around an eight. You know, like he was good. And I'm consistently looking at our spine and saying, what can we do to pull more out of it? Right. And even last week when we caught up, it was kind of like, well, it's not really about our attack because we let in all the points. But this week we kind of did see a bit more polish.

[00:17:04] And as the weight of possession, you know, went our way, Trindle was able to run downhill like better than anybody. Right. And, you know, if you take out some of those kicks, it was a really good game for him. But I just want to see him doing the second half every single week because that's what he can do. And if we have him doing that and Nico doing what he's doing now, I feel like there's a real winning combination there. But again, it goes back to the whole spine.

[00:17:31] You need Braley going and you need Will Kennedy doing what he did because Kennedy was really, really good yesterday. And he has been so good. Mate, I'm literally going to have to start separating episodes. The Weekly Will. Yeah, Weekly Will podcast series because it's getting out of hand. It's sort of been like four years in the making, to be honest. And I still don't know if I keep him. Yeah, that's because you're a schmuck. What are you talking about? At the end of the day, we're going to have to make some sort of change.

[00:18:00] Okay, okay. This is beautiful. Let's go there. And you're not a schmuck. I apologize. Now, why do we have to make a change? Answer that question. Why? This spine has been together now since we moved Matt Molyne on what? End of 23? I don't need a history lesson. Why do we need... We haven't got the job done. Is it their fault? Is it their fault? Well, I would argue if it's not their fault, whose fault is it? I would say our spine is locked in long-term majority of them on contracts.

[00:18:28] We're not a club that releases players and moves players on. There has to be a window of something in that spine. Now, again, if I look at our overall makeup of our squad, you're probably going to have a change in the centers, I'm going to assume next year just through values of contracts. We might keep Ramian, but I'm just maybe assuming he could get a great offer somewhere else. We've already lost Talakai. Yeah. So there will be a little bit of a change there. We have Katoa and Stone Street off contract.

[00:18:53] So maybe there's a change on the wing, but we haven't been active in the player market going after anybody and Harati is leaving as well. If you look at our front row, there has been a big question mark about who partners AFB. Hazleton's on a longer deal. Gafusi's signed. There's a few other guys that are younger that are signed. Is that going to give us a change that we need? I don't know. And then if I look at our back row, Britt, Teague, Burns, Colquhoun are all on contract, right?

[00:19:23] So it's only really camp that you're going to recycle in or out. So I look at it and I say, where are we going to get the most bang for buck in changing our team? And, you know, maybe it's, and I feel so weird saying this, maybe it's, we'll eight out of 10 games every week aren't going to cut it for us. We need something else. And we could suffer there because we could bring in an Ison who gives us a six. You don't know, but there has to be something that gives because you cannot roll out this team again next year, surely.

[00:19:51] So, well, I'm not saying you can't. I just want to get your feelings on why. And to be honest, like you've given me an honest answer. I don't know if it's an answer that I find acceptable. You're just saying you can't really because of, well, you're giving me some reasons, but. It's hard because we just had a really good performance on the weekend where we looked great against the Titans, right? Yes. You go back the last couple of weeks before and you're going, we're rolling out the same team and the same style.

[00:20:16] And we're doing the same things from 2023 or whatever the year is, whatever the case. And I get it. I get the cohesion and I get the fact that, you know, we just need incremental changes and improvements because there's more that we can get out of everybody. But at some point you have to draw a line in the sand and you've seen it with Craig Bellamy and what he's saying right now. And like, you know, he could drop monster at this point. Like he's, he's fuming, right? With, with all the things he's going to say.

[00:20:43] And I think the hardest part for me is I know what I expect out of this team. And I know what the minimal acceptable standard looks like. And that's not like the few weeks we've had before yesterday. Right. Going into yesterday, I wasn't, I genuinely did not know how it was going to go. And then they put on that performance and you get, well, that's why we backed this same roster and this squad and what we're doing. But now we're playing South next week. And again, it's another great test for us. I think we can do it.

[00:21:11] But at some point there has to be some sort of change. Agreed on that point. Now back to Will Kennedy, you're kind of purely only doing it because of a money thing, right? Yeah, that's right. If you flip the, the, the problem there, you go, well, hang on. There's no problem because he's on this amount of money, but he's kind of delivering this kind of performance. He's delivering more than his contract value. Put it that way.

[00:21:37] So that's what you kind of want in every player across the board. That's the key. This is the Will Kennedy conundrum that I cannot solve. And I've spent years trying to work this out. He's the victim of the Sharks losing two prelims. Was he at fault for single-handedly losing his two prelims? No. Absolutely not. But at some point, somebody has to pay the consequences and it's ruthless and it's disgusting to say.

[00:22:06] But at some point something has to happen. And I'm not saying get rid of Will. If you re-signed Will tomorrow, I would be so happy because he has genuinely been our consistent best player, I would argue, most weeks this year. And you go back last year and say the same thing to them. It's just one of those things where it's like, you've got to make some sort of a shift or a change or I don't know. But again, I look at our team and I go... Let me ask you this. You have to make a shift or a change. Does it have to be in the spine? Yes or no? I think yes.

[00:22:36] Because... Okay. The only other way you could convince me no is if we got a dominant front rower to partner AFB. Ah. That lights out, kick the front door in, aggressive. And, you know, I don't know who's off contract at the moment, but like a Mitch Barnett style like AFB had at the Warriors or... Yeah. You know, even Leo Thompson, I'm not completely sold on, but I do like that. He's a little bit. Spencer Linu, for example, I think would be a great guy for us to get. Prototype, just not him.

[00:23:05] But I understand what you're saying. That mold. Absolutely. See, now you're getting down to what I want to get to. I think that that is where we need some change in a guy to help out AFB. So he's not the victim every week of he's not delivering enough when he's doing 160 meters every week. And you know who that could be? Why can't that be Jesse Colhoun? You brought that up yesterday about potentially starting Colhoun and at front row with AFB and then McInnes at 13.

[00:23:35] And I thought about it and I thought that's actually considering the style of the game at the moment, how fast it is. I'm not against it because especially when you saw Burns come on, our middle looked big and it looked fast. And you raised that point about the Tigers. And it wasn't until I got home and I watched the game, I realized if the Tigers are fully fit, they're monsters. Like they've got Fainu in the second row who... And he was going good. He's grown. Like he's bigger than ever.

[00:24:02] And they've also got Kai-Pierce Paul when they're fully fit to have those two huge back rowers. And if you look at what we're doing from a four pack perspective, Wilton and Okora are great football players and they really suit our team and our style. But we need that meter eater around AFB because otherwise it's literally... Yeah, it just all goes to him and get us out of every set and get us a quick play of the ball and things like that.

[00:24:32] So yeah, maybe we could even look at it in the second row. But again, I'm personally not moving on a Okora or a Wilton, especially when we've got Burns on the book. No, no, I don't think that's an issue. It's not a possibility. So you look at 13 and I think Jesse's our long-term 13, but I'm absolutely not against him being our long-term 10 as long as we then work out who our long-term 13 is. But I think if you're not going to change pullback, it's something there. Why does this be long-term? Why can't it just be another year to work it out?

[00:25:01] Well, I mean, look, we're in a window, right? Because we concede, you and I concede, we can't keep having the same spine for the next 10 years. We concede that. If you're old, that's one more year and you go, you know what, McInnes, you get one more year before you go to PNG. Colquhoun, you're going to be our starting prop on the same money, but you can go back to 13 like Paul Gallen used to do at the end of his career. You can be our 13 in a year's time. Oh yeah, beautiful.

[00:25:26] For me, I would struggle with that just because again, assuming we re-sign Kennedy and McInnes, we're going to look the same. And if we don't get the job done this year, I feel like there needs to be some sort of shift there. And maybe you keep one and not the other, or maybe you do keep both, but you change something somewhere else.

[00:25:48] I just feel like if we get to the end of this season and we have another prelim, which objectively is a good result, but it's not good enough. Then you can't then go into 2027 and then think it's going to be better because again, the talent is getting more distributed across the league with these more teams that are coming in and things like that.

[00:26:08] But perhaps you go and find somebody that is looking to go to PNG in 28 and you try and get them in for 27 on a, let's get a job done here. Similar to like, this is one of my weird rugby league memories. And I've no idea why I remember this, but do you remember when Sean Hoppy joined the North Sydney bears from the Canberra Raiders before he went to the Auckland warriors? Vaguely. Yeah, vaguely. So he was like the top try scorer at the Raiders. He was this great player.

[00:26:34] And then he signed in advance for the warriors, I think in like 93 and the Raiders were like, well, we don't want you playing for us in 94. So he went to an okay bears team and that bears team had a great season and he was like a great try scorer. So maybe if you can find a guy like that in the middle that wants to go to PNG and bring him in, but then you keep will and can maybe that works for us. But I just, I feel like, I feel like we need a peptide here, mate. I feel like we need something.

[00:27:04] Thank you. That's much better. I guess what I've just worked out in my head is that if we make a prelim, which let's be honest, is still a stretch from where we are right now. Absolutely. If we make a prelim and lose by two, four, six points. I'm steaming. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. You can steam and you won't be alone. But for me, if it's like flip of the coin, bounce of the ball, gust of wind, that's not anyone's fault. That's not a fullbacks fault.

[00:27:34] That's not a prop forwards fault. That's not a spines fault. Right. And that's a big if, if it gets, if it gets that far and we get that close. Right. But I'm just saying based on the last couple of years, we've been close enough. Right. Close enough. I'm not necessarily saying it's bounce of ball. We've been close enough in those prelims, but it's not like a, this guy's got to go. It's as a collective, get your act together and win the fricking game. My grand final or bust thing for me is a bit, it's a bit on the nose for me personally. Only I know everyone else thinks it's how it has to be.

[00:28:02] I just don't look at everyone's beating everyone this year. There are injuries galore. Like everything's, it's a crazy year. Like that's a huge expectation, even despite the last two great years to go, no, no, if you don't go one further and or win it, then it's been a bad year and everyone's got to go or that number seven or that number one's got to get out of here. I just think it, I think it's a little bit of a stretch. My only opinion.

[00:28:29] It's for me, it's not like you're not picking it on, say the fullback or the lock or the front row, whoever it is. Right. But for me, it's more so looking from when in doubt, zoom out. Right. And if we were to make a third prelim, which from right now where we stand is very far from where we're currently sitting. I agree.

[00:28:49] To expect to go forward from that, I would need to see something else for us to make the jump because I would feel like that hypothesis would be confirmed that this roster or this nucleus that we've got, for whatever reason, just can't get past the other factors that we're facing right now.

[00:29:09] So for me, I personally would rather, and you're not going to like this, but I would personally rather finish, say six and not make the prelim and make changes to restructure and go, all right, well, where do we think that we can get that little bit more juice out of us versus finishing in the prelim for a third year in a row falling. And then rolling out the same thing again, going through year four, because it's not just the two prelims.

[00:29:38] It's the two years before the prelims with a very similar roster with minimal changes. So for me, I look at it and I go, I genuinely love this playing group that we've got. And there's not one person I look at and I go, that guy's the problem. That guy's the issue. If we just could swap that person out, it'd be better. Yeah. Sure. If you brought in Reese Walsh for Kennedy, it'd be unbelievable. But I don't think Kennedy's the problem. And I don't think there's one player that is the problem.

[00:30:04] I just feel like it's that combination of guys that have been together for a long time, going back to majority reserve grade and flag, that at some point we need to deviate from it. And if you don't do it at the end of this year and you go through 27 with that same nucleus, you're not making changes until 28. So the only reason I'm putting up resistance to you is essentially because of Will Kennedy. Yeah. Because I don't disagree with anything you've said in all honesty. I know we're having a bit of fun here, but I don't disagree with what you're saying. I understand everything you're saying.

[00:30:34] And obviously I respect the hell out of your opinion. Will Kennedy, based on what we've seen for the past three years, doesn't deserve to not get a contract with the Sharks unless, and here comes the weekly asterix, it's now daily, unless you have Reece Walsh, Reece Wesser, David Peachy, whoever it is coming in, who's going to be better in theory and maybe in reality, then absolutely bring him in.

[00:31:03] And if you think that's Liam Eison, bring him in. Let's go. Liam Eison, who we love and adore, is not ready anytime soon. Will he get there? Definitely possible. Definitely. The guy's got a lot of great attributes. He's just got to stay fit. And for all we've heard, he probably will from here on in. Will he be ready next year? He possibly could. Like he could. But if he's not, I want to see what your backup is. Well, so look, I play a lot of video games, right?

[00:31:32] So I love like NBA 2K. I love FIFA. I love Madden. Those sort of games, right? Will Kennedy is probably like an 82 to 84 fullback out of 100. Like I could use a rugby league game as an example, but it's not a great game and I've played a little bit. Anyway. But so you'd be effectively replacing an 82 to 84 fullback with like a 76 fullback with Eison because you're just trying to see how it goes. And again, if you are trying to win a competition, you don't want to see how it goes.

[00:32:00] You want a, this guy's coming in to do a job like when we brought in for Neil Blake, right? So again, I can't wait for Joseph Marnie to turn up in the Shire. Shire via PNG, via the Roosters. The market's now a bit more open. It was exclusively Cronulla now. I'm sure we're still in his sights. I'm sure we're still on his sights. Off contract any second, isn't it? No, when is it? Well, his dad did say that they're coming down in June to sort out something, right? So obviously- Coming down to Woolaware or?

[00:32:30] Well, I mean, there's a lot of open space at Woolaware Bay at the moment, right? So we could give him a shop if he wanted some retail space. So you're telling me, Will Kennedy's in our top three every week, if Manu in theory was to sign in July, Will doesn't have a job. Still getting paid, doesn't he? Right now as it stands, Manu would slot into the centre, Sifu would go back to the bench. But I take your point that obviously if he has a desire to play fullback and then Ramien's

[00:33:00] coming back, like yes, obviously I know. But- So what happens there? Ramien's out. I'm probably playing Manu. At fullback. You hate Will Kennedy. Which again, I don't understand why I'm saying this. Like- No, it's a good example of what we're saying in all seriousness. If we can find someone who is more than an 82 or whatever you want to call it, then we're all for it. Like that's fair. Like that is fair. Like it's like any position, like if you can find someone, like, you know, I spoke about

[00:33:26] it with Benny on the show the other day about Cooper Cronk was merely rumored to become a Cronulla in 2017 or whatever it was. And we had a premiership winning half Chad Townsend, who I love. But you know, it's Cooper Cronk. Like I get it. I get it. The Roosters did it too, right? With Mitchell Pierce. And we almost brought Mitchell Pierce to the club too, because they brought in Cronk, right? So it's such a tough one.

[00:33:50] And I feel dirty when I say that I would upgrade a loyal and tremendous servant to our club, who again, we went back and we crunched the numbers and I battled with AI to, to justify where we would sit in our top five fullbacks. And he's in our top three. Like it's, it doesn't feel like that and it should, but it doesn't. And I don't know what to do. All right. Spine change. Could you get rid of one of the halves?

[00:34:20] In that instance, I would say Tricky is probably the more sellable asset in the halves. If I look at who's below it, I would say Pollard is more of a seven than a six. So again, that doesn't really open up a pathway for Pollard. Wait, wait. Doesn't that, that doesn't that suit him? If it was him and Niko, he'd be more the stable guy. Well, you have Niko as a six then, right? Then yeah. Okay. Well, depends on. Forget about numbers. Forget about numbers. Depends on the style, right?

[00:34:48] So if you think that Tricky's our genuine seven, then you, I think that Pollard and Niko. Yeah. You could sell me on that. If Niko is just purely running and doing all those things. I, when I think of Pollard, I think he's going to be our number seven. Right. And then obviously if you're moving on Trendle and we probably would give Pollard the six Jersey because of the whole kerfuffle with numbers and all that type of stuff. But anyway, no, I think it's a good line of the line of the sand. You go. Okay. Yeah. Again, depending on where you spend that money elsewhere.

[00:35:17] If you told me we could move on someone like that and we felt that someone like Pollard was ready to take on that role, then sure. I could entertain that. I think Niko would be harder to move on because he's dollar of contract is a lot higher. But again, I look at his relationships within the game and I look at people like Perth and I think if I'm now I'm calling Will Kennedy, I'm calling Niko and I'm trying to get them across and I'm trying to build something with those guys because they've kind of struggled in the player market.

[00:35:47] But outside of that, I'm not moving on Brailly. I mean, that's an absolute non-negotiable. Would I move on either of the two halves? I don't want to. I like when they're playing good football together and I think that there's something there. But at the same time, I think that you could find a better compliment for Niko and I think that you could find a better compliment for Tricky than maybe they are for each other. Yeah, it makes sense.

[00:36:14] Really, we're just going around and around and around in the podcast series. Will Kennedy, what did you call it? The Weekly Will. Weekly Will, why? Why, why, Will? Because... Kennedy Conundrum. Yeah, it's a big one. He's got a better podcast name than I do with a Kennedy Conundrum. I like that one. Yes, it's pretty good. I just find this fascinating and I don't mean to labour on it but it's just... I don't know the answer to it, mate. And I think that's probably one of the most frustrating things as a club.

[00:36:41] It's almost like we want Will to get a better offer and to force our hand. That's fine. I just would love to know who our fullback's going to be. I don't know. You genuinely don't know. It very well could be Isen and he very well could be ready next year. Like, he's got a long season still ahead of him. So if he plays every game this year in Cup, that's good enough for me if he's really good. Last week, he wasn't that good in Cup. I watched Cup late last night. A bunch of them weren't real good.

[00:37:09] A bunch of the Sharkies playing for the Jets. But Isen, I'm going to give him a huge amount of time to get back to his best because it's his second game in, you know, a year and a half or whatever. So I've got no problem there. But I'm just saying like that's where they're at, these guys, especially a guy like him because... I just saw Grace, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, I just find it fascinating, dude, because he's just... Like yesterday, he was fantastic, Will Kennedy. You know what?

[00:37:36] Just to kind of triple down on this, I was listening to Andrew Voss on SEN this morning and he had... Excuse me, I don't know his name, but the Perth assistant coach does a lot of media these days. Ben Gardner, I think it is. Ben Gardner, right. So he was on. And I didn't actually catch it to be completely honest, but they're going to put it up on their podcast feed. But Voss, he was talking about it in the next hour and he said, if you haven't, if you didn't hear it, we're going to put it up on our feed.

[00:38:04] The way that Ben Gardner was talking about Will Kennedy, and he was basically praising this chap just for having great analytical awareness. But he was talking about Will Kennedy's performance yesterday, how in the second half, the majority of what they did came from him. The runs at the start of the set, the runs down the rock, like he was so heavily involved. And so this isn't just like a Sharkast thing where Sharkast dude wants to keep Will Kennedy.

[00:38:31] It's, I'm telling you, there are a lot of people out there that see what he does more than what the average fan or even the fan that watches eight games a week, whoever we are. He's legit. He's real. Now again, asterix, can we get someone better? Cool. Can we get someone better to do this podcast? Cool. Like everyone wants someone better. Do it. But I just see this weekly thing against him. Every, like I haven't looked half the place I'm going to look today.

[00:39:00] I'm going to fall over and spill my coffee when they say he was so bad. Will Kennedy, what did he do? He's got to play better. Okay. I'd like to see where, you know what I mean? And I'm not suggesting he can't have mistakes and errors. It's just a very, and I know we've gone on way too long about this, but it's just a very interesting position. Yet again, the Sharks come to find, and I saw a headline. I don't know if it was real or not. The other week, the other day saying, Sharks don't have enough money to fit Will in the cap for next year. You know, I was like, I've seen this before, this headline.

[00:39:30] It's fascinating, dude. Yeah. And I was just looking at Perth's roster. And so Nick Meany is a person that people have kind of penned in for fullback, but Meany can play center and wing. And there's been some talk that, yeah, there's been some talk that they haven't gone in the market because there's certain players like Zach Lomax and for Manu, just because they've promised Meany the fullback role. So if that's the case, then it kind of takes them off the table to be a competitor for Will's services.

[00:39:55] And then when I look at what we're doing and what we're building, if you're going to have the amount of dollars leaving the Sharks salary cap, even with upgrades, we're going to have to bring in players. So again, if we want to keep a player that's in right now, we'll keep them because again, we've lost Talakai. We've lost a few other guys. We'll be, if we, there's not a Sharks player that we can't re-sign right now that we want to keep is what I want to say.

[00:40:21] I don't doubt that Fitzgibbon and Mooney have plan A, plan B, plan all the way through. I do not doubt that. So I don't want anyone to think that I don't think there's a higher power here working ahead of what we're speculating on. I just find it interesting from Will Kennedy's perspective. He's got a manager. I'm sure the manager is probably ringing up going, what do you reckon now? What about after this week? What about after this week? Being Will's manager. I don't know why.

[00:40:51] I don't know why. It shouldn't be. It should not be. An angel off the field, an angel on the field. I just find it more intriguing than I want to. It's starting to really annoy me actually. I think we should do an hour a week as a separate podcast just for people that want to listen to us talk about Will. We usually do. We just haven't separated it. But if I add it up, Sharks with 52 to 10, goodbye. That's the podcast. I thought Tom Hazleton was a lot better yesterday. Yeah.

[00:41:19] Again, I feel like there was a clear line in the sand from a lot of players with their attitude. And they ran harder than we'd seen in the last few weeks. They defended harder. And I thought Hazleton was a really good example of that. He was very strong with his carries. He was in all the rough and tough stuff. And not to say that he hasn't for the last few weeks. But it was noticeable that he was a little bit more aggressive than I had seen him recently. So, again, I thought Hazleton was a really good player for us yesterday too.

[00:41:48] Yeah, look, great all-round performance. We need to keep that going. We've got Souths this week, 5.30 Saturday at Homebush. Souths lost a game scoring 38 points and won on the bell they may have gotten as well, which they didn't. The Knights won. I'm really into the Knights this year. But 38 points, dude. They're coming. Souths will come and they will score points against us, right? And it's going to be on us and how we defend what they throw at us.

[00:42:15] But everyone said Souths left is going to be a really good attacking thing. And Souths right is really good too. I think for us, it's going to be the middle. I feel like our forward pack should dominate Souths forward pack. And if we do that, we're not going to give them the space to do what they would like to do. But they're a pretty similar style to us. If they get some momentum, they're coming. I feel if it's a Cowboys type situation like two weeks ago, we're in some trouble.

[00:42:42] If it's a West Tigers situation, we're going to get the game. Not as easily, but I think we'll get them. It's all about defense because we can score points. They can score points. Their defense isn't that great. We've seen ours in a couple of games be great and a couple of games not so great. But if we can stick with the defense this week, we should get the job done. And we don't know what the team lists are yet, et cetera, for both teams. But it's another challenge.

[00:43:10] And I kind of like this season, Kieran, where every game is a challenge. Like you don't know what you – like we didn't know what we were going to get yesterday. I hate it. No, I hate it. Like I wish it was 2016 where you knew you were just going to win every game. Like I do. But it was kind of entertaining. It was kind of like being back to a little kid where you're just like you're hoping for the best. But, you know, you see these big guys out there and Sam Finu is just going nuts on the left. It's like, oh, that's no good. He's good.

[00:43:41] That's the year we're in for. Like, I mean, even when it comes to the drags, like I know they're deplorable. But it's like, well, you don't want to lose to the drags. Like there's a challenge in every game, right? There's a challenge in every game. Don't turn up the dragons by then. Going to the Titans, et cetera. Like it's going to – they're all going to be challenges. And I think that will make you a better team. I think the best team – they may not win the comp this year, the best team. They're more likely to. But I just think if you get there and you get the job done, you're going to have really earned it.

[00:44:10] Because there's not really – I mean, last night I haven't seen much of it at all. But Manly pushed Penrith to the absolute edge. All right. So there's two things that I want to unpack. The first thing that if we don't win the comp this year, I want to say it's a soft comp like 2016 that Gus said because certain teams weren't very good. So I'll just throw that out there saying anyone could have won this year. So it doesn't really matter like Gus tried to do against us. How dare he when considering we actually beat every other team in the top four when we won the comp and we had the best winning streak of the NRL era at the time.

[00:44:39] But I digress. I look at it and go, all right, well, you look at the improvement in Manly. Manly made some very subtle changes to their playing style. And it's been pre-reported that when Sebo was there, he wanted them to throw the ball to their edges and use their speed versus going through the middle. Because he didn't really think that their middle was their strength. He thought their strength was their outside backs and their speed. And they got a lot of speed, right?

[00:45:04] Foreman's come in there and just tweaked it and said, all right, well, we've got these big bodies like Oluquatu and, you know, our front rowers. Like, let's just get it on the front foot first and then we'll throw it out wide. And the fact that they only lost by two points to Penrith, eight points, whatever it ended up being. And I know one of their tries really wasn't a try. So it should have been... I think it was two points. Yeah, so I think it should have been more of like an eight-point loss because one of the Manly tries was a little bit of a... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:45:31] Yeah, so it was one of those things where to lose only about two points to Penrith, like if we were in that position, we'd be walking out of there pretty confident. But the fact that Manly's been able to turn their season around, I think, gives everybody confidence to sort of say, well, you can go on a run in this competition. But my only concern with what we're doing is Manly have made some sort of structural changes to how they are performing, right?

[00:45:59] They've identified like the edge is not working, blah, blah, blah. We do the same thing and we do it really well. And nine times out of 10, if we play our best football, we'll beat 99% of the oppositions, right? And I just don't know with the changes in rules and everything that's going on in the world, how much I trust that in September because there's a long way between now and then.

[00:46:22] And I really want to see us go to that next level and I want to see us get some consistency because it's great to only concede 10 points on the weekend and score 50. But now we need to do it again versus South to make me go, okay, I feel more comfortable because I still don't feel comfortable and we're going to this South game. Yeah, I'm not comfortable. No, I agree. And I guess my only point is that it really is week to week, at least in the short term. Once you get those four or five wins in a row, maybe it's not, but I think now it's just week to week. So we know Ronaldo is getting closer.

[00:46:53] People are suggesting there's rumors he's coming in next week. I haven't heard that one personally, so I wouldn't, I'm not going to say it's not true, but I just haven't heard that one. But I'll say this, we both got out of our cars at the same time yesterday and he looks ready to rock. He looks fit. When he's ready is when he's ready. And if that's next week, if it's the week after, if it's after the buy, I don't care. Just when he's ready, let's throw him in. It's going to be amazing. We met a bunch of people yesterday at the game who sent us praise, which is awesome.

[00:47:22] There was one guy that we spoke to maybe the longest and that was Chad Shark in the upper Andrew Eddinghausen. And he was kind enough to say hello. We had a good chat to Chad Shark. So give him a great shout out, a good support of the show. And he was there with his son, I believe. Not sure who else, but his son was there. So that was fun. And we appreciate everyone saying hello. Fun, man. Almost 15,000 people. The numbers are going up. And so, again, I had a lot of people that weren't Sharks fans that live in the Shire that I speak to throughout my day.

[00:47:51] They're all saying that it looked the most packed they've seen Shark Park on the TV in a long time. So, you know what? I had to think about this, mate. And I think it all comes down to Mr. Paisley's. I think, you know, I went there for coffee on the day. I know the team was in there having some breakfast a day before or so. So I think it's the Paisley. And we sat with the Paisley crew. I feel like it was Mr. Paisley's, you know, not kiss of death. What's the opposite of the kiss of death? Kiss of life? I don't know. The kiss of life. A special touch.

[00:48:21] Personally put on the Sharks team. And so now I have to go every game day because I'm a very superstitious person. Oh, I like this. I like this. I made sure that I was there because there's a nice little park that's next to Mr. Paisley's that you can take the kids to and have some coffee and let the kids play around them. Just down the road. And I was there with my youngest daughter. And I said, you know what? I'm going to stop in there for a coffee. And the whole Sharks stopped in there as well over the weekend too, right? And you were there. I don't know. I think there might be something else. You know who else was there?

[00:48:51] It was Liam from the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking. And he lives in the pointy end of the area like your good self. And sorry, I shouldn't say that. He works in the pointy area of where you live. Lives elsewhere, I believe. But yeah, definitely works in the pointy end, obviously, at the Port Hacking Yacht Club, who make great coffee, by the way, at times. But when I say at times, I mean times of the day they allotted coffee. Let me be careful with that one.

[00:49:17] However, even Liam was in North Caring Bar and he kind of initially brushed me. And I was like, hey, we had a chat. We had a chat and he goes, the coffee is unbelievable. And I was like, I know, man. I know. I know. I know more than most. So I ordered my coffee. And again, I've been going to Mr. Paisley's whenever I can. That was our first date. Yeah. And I was there with my daughter and I was just on my phone and I looked up and it was ready straight away. And I literally said, oh, S word, because I was not prepared for my coffee to be that quick.

[00:49:45] So shout out to how great it was. And the coffee was 10 out of 10 as always. Yeah. So we had Joe, the manager, with us. He's much, much, much, much, much better half Nicole. I can say that because I'm a lifelong friend. And then Will, the barista, turns up. Will's the great barista. Will turned up and randomly got to sit with us as well, which was a lot of fun. So yeah, it was a big Paisley crew. We're giving them enough of a shout out now. But good time yesterday for sure. I'm loving Sunday afternoon footy, Kieran.

[00:50:14] I'm not sure how much more we've got coming towards us, but I'm loving it. Give me Saturday 7.30 because, again, I get home at about 6.00. I've just got too much to do at home, right? So I'm a Saturday night guy so I can kind of escape a little bit of my chores when I get home. Everyone has their own different stuff going on. I get it. I just think from a – We suit daytime football though. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? It's there for all ages to come to the game. If you're a young kid, you can come to the game.

[00:50:44] If you're elderly, you can probably go to the game. You know what I mean? It's a lot easier than a 7.30 kickoff home at 10, 10.30, 11, depending on where you live. I know it's the modern times. I'm not trying to get all old man on you. I'm just – I've had this realization this year only that going to Sharks Stadium, as we now call it, Ocean Protect Stadium, for me personally, I'm loving the afternoons. And, you know, I'm a vampire. Look how wide I am. I don't go out in the sunlight. Well, you don't sleep.

[00:51:11] Well, that's a bad rumor. I sleep every now and then. Allegedly. But, again, if you actually looked at that photo, the footage of – I believe it's Scooter's dad. That's Scooter. Oh, that's Scooter. Yes. He is a 10 out of 10 legend and, you know, his son is an absolute legend. You'll see them at Sharks Stadium all the time. And to see him dancing and to see how happy he was, it was just 10 out of 10 footage.

[00:51:38] But if you actually look at the background of the crowd, you'll see a lot of families, a lot of different age groups of different people. And I personally knew at least a dozen children around, like my eldest daughter's age, that were, you know, six or so, seven on the hill. Six, seven. Again, why do we keep getting six, seven references on this podcast, by the way? Because we both have children. But, like, it was a lot of families there, right?

[00:52:03] So to that point, they – maybe, like, back in the 90s, we used to campaign for the Saturday night games. Maybe we should start campaigning for the Sunday games like I know other clubs do. And I did kill myself laughing when I saw Tigers fans saying that our ground was no good when they are based out of Leichhardt. Like, our ground – you can say whatever you want about our ground. But when you go to the toilets at our ground, you are not ankle deep in urine. You can get a beer within 15 minutes and you don't have to wait.

[00:52:33] I waited a full half there at Leichhardt Oval. Let's not get too crazy, though. There have been times when maybe people have waited and have done the other thing in the bathroom as well. To be fair, I went to get some food at halftime and I was told that they were sold out of pretty much everything besides, like, Pluto Pups and Chicken Tandor. But, again, I digress. We should get some more food trucks in there.

[00:52:57] But, like, again, Shark Park, when it's full like that and the sun is shining and it's a great place to be on a Sunday. So, maybe that is a way that we can work with the NRL around our attendances to try and drive them up because you do get a much more family-friendly environment versus a Saturday night at Shark Park. I do wonder what other clubs – how they would react as in, like, what's their preferred time? Like, does everyone want that or does no one want it? Like, does Melbourne prefer a nighttime?

[00:53:25] Melbourne's very, you know, let's go out at night and be social. The Warriors would prefer, like, say, six on a Friday because that's their time zone. You're going to have Perth that's coming in that's going to have their time zone. We had Brisbane for, like, four years. They got exclusive Friday night games. I know the Tigers. And I feel like Manly's had a lot of Sunday games this year as well. So, maybe there's something in there for us. But we'll see. Scooter's son is Dylan. Were you with me when he showed me the tattoo?

[00:53:55] I think he just got it done recently-ish. Was it in – or was it last year in Vegas? He was somewhere. Do you remember that? I've met him a few times and I've seen him around the Shire in different places. But, yeah, Dylan is an absolute legend and you'll often see him passionately cheering for the dogs. They sit at the front of the Andrew Reddinghausen lower, kind of near the players and that kind of stuff. And he's got the wheelchair access. Yeah, where there's, like, a section where, like, the Sharks players will sit themselves and watch the game right behind our bench. That's where they are.

[00:54:25] So, to see Scooter dancing like that was pretty cool because, again, he's gone viral for it. I did repost something on Instagram and it was one of those joke – well, not joke accounts. It's one of those accounts that have some funny things, funny memes and everything. And it said, who let this dad out or whatever? And I reposted and I went, actually, he's one of the great dads that ever lived. Yeah, they were in Vegas. They go to all the games. I'm trying to think of where he showed me the tattoo. It was kind of fresh.

[00:54:55] I think about it in Vegas because his wife was there. And I met – we were talking to the three of them. And she was not impressed. Oh, no, you know what it was? He was showing it off at, like, a dinner party or a barbecue or something. And his wife was telling us. And she was like, he just gets it out at the most inappropriate times. As you saw yesterday at Shark Stadium, Ocean Protect Stadium, that he was having a great old time. It's great to see.

[00:55:24] And, again, like, I'm kind of in that period now where I want to get myself a Sharky's tattoo as well, right? That's the one. Life-size trophy. That is tremendous. And, again, just to see how happy he was. But also, too, like, if you watch that clip again, I just want to encourage people. Don't just look at the dancing. Look at the faces around everybody else and, like, how much everyone else was having fun, too. Because, again, like, it's a special place, Shark Park. And it's a special thing to be a Sharks fan because it's not easy to be a Sharks fan.

[00:55:53] And we all go through these roller coasters together. So, to see someone like that having so much fun, you could actually see everybody else was living through that moment, too. So, it was cool to see. That's the whole beauty of what we experience is that, you know, the last two weeks have been really sucky on the field. And then, you know, we all have, like, you know, our stuff off the field collectively, each and every one of us. But then we go down to this great place that we love. Everyone else hates. We love it. And when they put on a show like that, it's just pure enjoyment.

[00:56:22] I know you had a few moments yourself where you're a bit like, ah, huff and puff. But, you know, you and I are pretty much arm in arm the second half of the game, just loving life. And as you say, everyone around us having a good time. And, yeah. It's the narrative, mate. And, again, if you look at the narrative around Leichhardt Oval, go to Leichhardt Oval when it's packed. It is the worst place to watch football.

[00:56:45] But they've created this environment through nostalgia of all their older fans in the 80s that now work in the media, like Matthew Johns and things like that, who grew up a Tigers fan. And they say, oh, it's the best place ever. Like, go watch games at Leichhardt in 2002 when the West Tigers were running at Joel Kane. Nobody wanted to be there. But they created this environment where it became cool to go to Leichhardt and it's dilapidated, et cetera. And that has now got them an upgrade.

[00:57:09] So if we want to upgrade Shark Park, we have to have some sense of, like, this is the Bermuda Triangle or whatever we want to do and get around that and create that atmosphere. Because there were some videos around Tigers fans posting during the team videos. I don't know if you saw. But, like, they were announcing the players and not one person was cheering. Like, it was crickets, right?

[00:57:31] Like, so, again, it's on us as a fan base to have those moments like Scooter and to make Shark Park this place in the shire that doesn't matter what work of life that you're from, whether you're from the good part of Caring Bar, like myself or Sam in the depths of Caring Bar. That was a laugh for you there. But it doesn't matter where you're from. You go to this place and we're all one and we're all together. And when it's like that and you see that moment where he's dancing and everyone else is so happy, that's what we need.

[00:58:01] That's what we need more of. Now, we do love Joel Cain, so we send him love and respect. And you were just using Joel Cain as an example as running out. First West Tigers player in the game. Adam Sears or Robert Mears. A great, great West Tiger was Joel Cain. And a good fella. Now, on that point, you know what? I saw posts from people who traveled to Ocean Protect Stadium yesterday. Good people who I trust and like and respect.

[00:58:28] And they said things that weren't as pleasant as what you and I are saying and they're hinting more towards what Leichhardt is. People who are in the outer on the hill, long lines, not great thoroughfares, et cetera, especially for families. We know this is true. You and I, every now and then we'll venture down with the common people down on the hill. And that's what it's like. So we're not suggesting our place is perfect. We're just having a bit of fun with that. We've got to embrace it and get it through. I like what you're saying, yeah. I like what you're saying. And they're right about the crickets.

[00:58:57] Like, I always feel tremendous amount of almost shame when they read out the team. And there's barely – Nico might get a clap. You know, a returning player might get a clap. But there's barely anything for anyone. And it's just like you want to say to everyone in the stadium, everyone, what is wrong with you? Get behind your team. It's not enough. You're here with your bum on the seat. Get behind your team. Let's get up. Come on. Let's get it going. Like, I've never understood that, man. I've never understood it. It's not a judgment thing.

[00:59:27] It's a collective thing. Yeah. I feel pretty stupid when I'm the only one going, hey, because you do it once or twice. Then you're not going to do it for all 14 players or 17 players. I mean, maybe I should. I don't know. And I'm not suggesting there's not other people out there clapping. But I'm saying as a collective, you should be able to hear a bit of a roar. You know, KL Lero. Hey, let's go. It feels like the last maybe two, three years, there's been a sense of – Doom? Nervousness in knowing what we're going to dish out.

[00:59:57] And it kind of goes back to the game against the Cowboys in the finals. I think this is a record amount of times I've been booed on this podcast. But keep it going. You'd be surprised. But that atmosphere that night, after that, I feel like since then – That was the best atmosphere I reckon I've had at Sharks Stadium, Mention Park Stadium ever. Yes. And ever since then, there has been this level of skepticism

[01:00:27] of not knowing what we're going to sit through. Mm-hmm. And it flows out through maybe even to the players. I don't know. It would be great to ask those guys about that, maybe some players that have been around in that game and since. But, you know, I think back to a few performances at Sharks Park over the years since then. And I kind of go, well, it's been a bit of a – like the atmosphere is great. And when things are going good, it's buzzing. I get all that.

[01:00:54] But the first 20 minutes or so until we feel comfortable as a fan base, like it's like a little bit of a weird aura. Hey, there's controversy. There's controversy. And it's not anyone's fault. But yesterday I had a message about the Sharks running out to kickstart my heart by Motley Crue. And then someone else came on the show and confirmed it. But then the first person, I think it was the same first person,

[01:01:21] messaged me and said, maybe it didn't happen. And I don't want to name names here because I don't want to get anyone in any trouble. But I think the person that was on the show mentioning it might have been thinking about the flag team. Who was it? The Jersey flag team that ran out because I was there for that and they ran out to kickstart my heart. So in my head, there's a big controversy that thankfully hasn't snowballed. But if someone can just confirm what the runout music was, and I could ask the club, but I'm not going to harass them like I usually do.

[01:01:51] Or I might during the week, but not now. I don't remember either. But I think I would have noticed if it was kickstart my heart. It doesn't really matter. We're just having a bit of fun. But if someone can confirm that. And let me entertain you when it was like 2003 and we're getting beat by 60 points every week. No. You're ripping off these band-aids, dude. You've heard my spiel about

[01:02:14] one of my biggest dislikes in life was the old leagues club that just said, was it Sharks or Sharkies? No mention of Cronulla. And underneath it said, let us entertain you. Now, if one of my dear friends came up with that, if it was Scott Maxworthy, if it was Damien Irvine, if it was Peter Gow, who's not my friend, but I love him, whoever it was, I give you the respect that you probably deserve. But take that off your freaking time.

[01:02:43] I'm not dissing Robbie Williams. He's a great entertainer. I just had a massive problem walking through that every time going, well, you know, was it? That's what it was, right? Let us entertain you. Let us entertain you. And to put it in context for some of our younger listeners who probably haven't even got to enjoy the leagues club. Or Robbie Williams. But the leagues club was there. The ground was there. And then it was a car park.

[01:03:13] And on the other side of the league club was a petrol station. There was just nothing there. But now you've got the apartments. And now I think you can do an actual, a really good venue there because you've actually got people there. And now you've got, even like Green Hills wasn't a thing back then, right? So you didn't have people going down there to go to that section. And I don't know if you've caught up with some of the news in the Shire, but they've just announced that they're going to build like 30,000 houses in Kernel. So that strip is there. Am I booing or am I applausing? I don't know what I'm doing here.

[01:03:42] We want to talk about like infrastructure and the potential facilities and things like that. I'm Bret Hart in 1997 on this episode. But anyway, we'll keep going. Like that road is going to be so, gotcha. Like a block all the way down across Green Hills. And now they're going to have to turn into four lanes and they're going to have to do a lot of things, but that as a club, like. So they could really. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:04:11] Like you're going to have a lot more people in the area. And if you can, you walk around Aaron and the Shire, everything's becoming a duplex apartments everywhere at Cronulla. If they can nail this venue, which I think that they, they will. And they've spent a ton of time planning it. It could be a real money spinner for us as well as our facility in Cronulla as well too. So yeah, we could actually be coming into the funds. Imagine that we'll be the most, we'll be like the new Bulldogs, mate, with all the money just without gas and surrounding.

[01:04:40] How do you get a Bulldogs jab in there? No, that was booing them, not you. Sorry. Sorry. That wasn't you. That was Bulldogs. I just want to point out, I was thoroughly entertained. Most times I went into that Leaves Club. It wasn't about the Leaves Club. I just really disliked that sign. That was it. I reckon I've been to that Leaves Club inside maybe three times. I was not living in the area. That's getting a boo. I can't wait to go there. And I go to Wooloway Bay shopping precinct all the time. And like my wife went there.

[01:05:10] Geez, people are getting bored now. But my wife went there yesterday to get groceries at like 11. I was like, there's no way you're going to get a park because they shut off the... Oh, because of the football. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And she looked at me and she said, Kieran, there's nothing else there. Everybody's leaving and they're going. And she got to park within, you know, a minute and a half, right? So again, it's not that bad. But there's so much potential in that area there. They could build something really special. And again, it's not a Sharks issue. It's not something that's going to impact on us.

[01:05:37] But we'll have the facility there to have a Leagues Club that will capture the population that will be going to it. Complex people are on top of their game. Then they'll put in the right places and have, you know, the food outlets and everything else that hasn't worked so far. Yeah. So they moved the Shark Store. And the Shark Store is just across from where it was. But now they moved Priceline there. Now Priceline's always busy, whereas Priceline before was hidden. No one was ever there. Woolworths is always busy.

[01:06:04] One of the sponsors, which is the fruit store of the Sharks, is always busy. So like the butcher is busy. There's a lot of potential in that venue if they can just get the right tenants. All right. Well, on that note of this edition of Shark Cast, Sutherland Shire, only from Cronulla through to, I mean, what are you saying? Camelia Gardens. Camelia Gardens. No, that's Western Sydney. But wait a sec. Camelia Gardens, that's almost like a Souther Hospital area, right? Yeah.

[01:06:34] We'll write that line there. We're Sutherland Hospital pits. And that's the Shire for me. But again, I live in a triangle, right? So I'll go to Tarrant Point, Cronulla, and actually I'll go to Miranda. So I'm in that triangle. So maybe we'll cast that to Miranda. It's important to note that a lot of what Kieran says does not represent this podcast, except it does because it's his show. So when I go to places like... Yes. What's that place?

[01:07:02] It's just past Sutherland and like you go to, it's just like Loftus and things like that. I go there and I go, this is amazing. This is like Australia, like that I remember as a kid growing up in, like with like the big blocks of land and you know, the, like it's just, I could live here. I would, I would love to do it. Right. So again, let's build a stadium. I genuinely believe we should be building a stadium around that Loftus area because again, we're not just like, we, we should embrace the Shire as the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks and

[01:07:30] get something that's near a train station down that end and get everybody going there. Cause the majority of Sharks fans are not in like this little pocket that we live in. They're all over the Shire. Right. And let's make it accessible for people from outside of the area. That's a bit closer to a train station. And where are you going to get the land? It's around that sort of area. So I think for us, we should be doing something with the Bulldogs or the Dragons and trying to sell the government on, you know, a Southern stadium around that sort of area.

[01:07:59] Well, you've opened another can of whoop ass, but we can't get into that can right now. But I know at least Michael Langridge will write to us about what you just said. Hey, appreciate your time, man. I know you're a busy dude with lots of things going on. We'll be back with more episodes throughout the week. We've got the Rabbitohs coming up at Homebush Saturday, 5.30. So we'll get you there with lots of cool episodes. Until then, Kieran, enjoyed having your company yesterday. And again, today, really appreciate you.

[01:08:27] And everyone else, appreciate your participation. A lot of people, Kieran, watched our postgame. A lot of people listened to our postgame. And I really appreciate each and every single one of you people. So thank you so much. And we'll be back with more soon. Kieran, we're just going to say goodbye. I don't think we're going to put a video at the end of this. We'll just say goodbye. So bye, everyone. Up, up. SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate.

[01:08:56] He's an expert in the Karimbaugh region and has his eye all across the Shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast, if you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Shut up, there.

[01:09:38] In the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy.