Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla (7/7/26)

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[00:01:04] Hey there, welcome to SharkCast Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. This is Catch Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla. We have the coffee here, Mr Paisley's, a fresh brew made by my friend Will. And we are brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, and Jason Hawes at Crips & Crips Real Estate. We are Cronulla Sharks. We are the best club in the world. We are like fifth place now or something, Kieran. Is that right? Or maybe we've dropped. I'm not sure.

[00:01:34] We were fifth place. Yeah, I think so. How good. So welcome to your own show, Kieran. How are you? What's going on? I am feeling Olympic, Sam. It's one of those times. We're actually sixth. I have just clarified that because I was like, wait a minute. Thank you. We're sixth. And the team that's coming fifth is the Dolphins. So the team has had some ups and downs with the Dolphins over the last couple of years. And if animals are anything to go by, we should absolutely devour them. Mostly downs. One from four. We've won one game at home against them.

[00:02:03] And they stole this off us too. They stole that off us. For people listening, that's the Fins Up motion. And it's going to be Battle of the Fins. So we can't wait for it. It should be really exciting. It should be a great game, actually. Our boys have found some form again, which we're going to talk about. We'll talk about the Dolphins. Talk about a few other things on this lighthearted, but serious look. It's quite a mix we do, Kieran. We do lighthearted. We do serious. We're analytical and we're comedians. So here we go. Welcome to the show, everyone.

[00:02:32] And let's start with a downer, man. Let's start with a downer. NRL dub. Got the loss last Thursday. I was down there in the house and it was really disappointing. And I think it's okay to say that. They looked like it was a trial match kind of thing. I have no doubt. And they need to be because they're playing the Broncos this week. I have no doubt they're going to be a lot better for the run. And I'm sure that the coach, Tony Herman will put a bit of a rocket through them and say, hey, this is the NRL dub.

[00:03:00] We're not mucking around here, but it was a little bit flat. We saw some injuries already, but I'm hoping for a bounce back because I really like supporting this team and there's some really great athletes in the team. Yeah. Not a great way to start the season though. I caught the game. It did look a little bit disjointed. Do they play trials? They played one and they, they played against the Roosters who are the, one of the best two teams in the business. And when the, both teams are on the Sharks were actually winning.

[00:03:28] Sharks pulled their people off the field and sort of lost, but they have one hit out only. Yeah. Well, I mean, you see it with the men, the men played two, three trials sometimes and they will disjointed at the start of the season as well. So it's one of those things that are early in the season. It is strange now when you turn the television on, there always is a game of rugby league on now. And that's actually because the women's play at different times and then there's like reserve rate or twenties or whatever the case is. So, um, can't get enough football. So can't complain. Yeah. Good time to be alive.

[00:03:57] That's for sure. So they play this Thursday again, they've got the spotlight on them down at Ocean Protect Stadium against the Broncos who are in great form historically. And last week they put 50 on the Cowboys. So the Sharks women's team need to turn up and turn up good. And it is school holidays. So get down there with your kids or your nephews or your nieces or your neighbors, kids, and we'll just go with that kids if you like, and, uh, check out the game 745 kickoff.

[00:04:26] Uh, it's a great atmosphere. I'll say that it was a really good atmosphere down there. A couple of thousand people in the house and they, they're letting the, the fans sort of mingle in most places of the ground. Kieran, it's not just the one side now. So it's, it's a bit of freedom there for the fans. And we did have some success in the weekend though, Kieran, because we had our beautiful NRL Sharks head up to Suncorp where we've had a lot of good recent success there.

[00:04:54] And we played pretty good, not amazingly, but pretty good. And got the job done against the Broncos 2816. It was a little bit closer than that for a while towards the end, but overall Sharks dominated the game. I thought, um, what are your initial thoughts on what you saw on Saturday night, 735 PM? I thought the Broncos really turned up and had a dig. Um, they didn't have their best team out in the field, but from an effort perspective,

[00:05:22] they really tried and had a few players in their team that were really going after the Sharks. Um, the scoreline, I think flattered them a little bit. Like I don't think it was as close as what it ended up looking like, even though there was like that late try and things like that. But I thought it was a very good hit out from the Sharks coming off a buy and just getting the ball rolling. And we've talked a number of times this year around, you know, last chance saloon and Fitzy kind of alluded to that when he was talking about Sione Katoa in the press conference.

[00:05:51] Um, it feels like, okay, now's the time for us to really knuckle down. And I can't remember how many games is left. I think there might be eight or something like that. So it's going to be a really good chance for us to see what we've got and get a few players back. Because once you throw Fanil Blake in there, once you throw Braley, the core up into that team, you're going to have a couple of selection dilemmas because Jesse Colquhoun, I think he's a starting front row for us at this point and Toby's got to come back as well. So we're getting a few questions answered from some other players, which is good to see.

[00:06:21] Yeah. The selections are going to be fascinating. And let's start with Billy Burns versus Britton Nicker. Let's just go there because Billy Burns was close to our best on the weekend. Some pivotal moments that changed the game, but just throughout his, his aggression and mongrel and his involvement on both sides of the ball. Very noticeable. What are we doing there? Yeah, because Britton's coming from state of origin where he's had a pretty good series. That means he's one of the best dirty guys in the NRL. I mean, he's not really a bench player.

[00:06:52] Yeah. And we've seen enough of that sample size and it did work a little bit in the finals last year. But I think if we've taken a proper look at the whole evidence and body of work, I don't think it works for the betterment of the team. I like having Billy being able to come on and play in the middle, play on an edge, cover those multiple roles. And he's so physical and so awkward to tackle. And he hits so hard. He's just a really good bench player, I think.

[00:07:20] And I think next year as we go into what we could look at what our lineup would look at like. I would like to see Colquhoun starting at prop next to Fanual Blake and Burns at 13. Now, obviously, we have Cam McKinnis still at the club and we're not going to move Cam to the bench this year. But I think there's a role there. I think Billy could really come into that 13 with Jesse going to that front row role because Jesse, not just against the Broncos, but against the Warriors as well, has put in some pretty good stints in the front row.

[00:07:49] And I really like what I see from Jesse in the front row. So for me, I'd keep Burns on the bench and with the long term view to get him into that 13 role. Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. I'm not so convinced about the bench this year because I like him out there for 80 minutes, but I like your idea for next year. I'm not suggesting we drop Britton Nikra. I'm not suggesting he's a bench player. I just think it's quite fascinating that you can flip the switch whenever you want. Before we move on, Kieran, we need to let everyone know that there's going to be a giveaway

[00:08:18] or at least giveaway information in this episode. So stay tuned, keep watching, keep listening. This is big, dude. We got two tickets to paradise, literally. Two tickets to the Dolphins game this weekend up at KO Stadium, our friends at KO. If you want two tickets and you can't resell them, you've got to prove that you're there. Otherwise, you'll be not our friends forever. Blacklisted for sure. Blacklisted from Hop Sings and from Shark Card. Yep.

[00:08:48] So we're going to give them, not give them away. We're going to talk about giving them away later on. So stay tuned. Yeah, they're impossible to get these tickets. So I even tried to get two tickets back when tickets I thought would go on sale, like around when the fixture was announced. Even I think it's January, hitting up everyone that I knew to try and get access to tickets. So if for anyone from Brisbane, there's two tickets available and we'll talk about it more later. Or even if you're from somewhere else and you want to make the travel arrangements,

[00:09:17] it could be a bit late. But yeah, anyway, stay tuned. Now, I like the idea of Colhoun at lock next year. Sorry, Burns at lock, Colhoun at prop. There's no rules in the NRL this year anymore. Like we like the idea of Sifatallikai playing prop, but it hasn't quite happened. You can do whatever you want with your prop and your middles. You can make it work. I love the physicality of this game. I thought it was another good test for us in a pretty hot spot.

[00:09:45] Like Suncorp, they were, that was last chance saloon for them, as we all know. And a huge crowd. It may not have looked it, but there was like 40,000 people there. And we know we've got some Sharks fans in Brisbane and we'll see more this week, but it was a great test for the Sharks. They weren't perfect, but I do love the fact we went up there. We grinded it out after a buy one on the road, one against the premiers,

[00:10:13] our halfback and, and five eighths to be fair, led from the front. Our fullback was great. There was a lot of positivity here. There was some negativity in the penalties again, which I know you're obsessed with. Which I, which I respect. And a little bit of drop ball as well. But overall defensively, Kieran, I really liked it. I know we let in a few tries towards the end and they actually had a sniff.

[00:10:38] A dummy half try conceded up until probably what the 65th minute or whatever it was. That's a pretty good defensive line there. Yeah. And the Broncos are always going to try and finish fast given what was on the line for them and the season that they've had. And they'd lost seven games in a row at that point. It was a very desperate team that was throwing the kitchen sink, which is very hard to defend against. But I, I would never felt threatened.

[00:11:03] Even when they scored the first of their tries when it was like a semi comeback, it was looking at the clock and looking at the way the game was going. I kind of felt secure enough there. It probably got a little bit too close for my liking there at one point, but we were then able to address that. But the Broncos are a desperate team and for all the noise about match, they actually had a dig and they were very physical and really tried their best. So those are really awkward games to play in and to win.

[00:11:32] So the fact that they got the two points there was so critical given that there is such a log jam around the top eight. And there are teams below us that have had two buyers. We've had the full three buyers. Yeah, we need to bank as many points as we can now to make a run because you could even see some of the media that's came out since that game. It's like, well, you know what the Sharks are putting together a consistent sort of season here. Yes, there's been some ups and some downs and we lost right before the buy.

[00:11:58] However, we still have that little engine that could and we're always going to be there or there about. So I think a few people are now starting to take us a little bit more serious and sort of looking at the Sharks and saying, okay, we kind of know what we're going to get with them and they're going to be searching for another level. So can we see that at additional level? So there's only one way to find out. Six of the past eight. We dropped one to Souths a while ago and we dropped one to the Roosters, but six of eight. That's pretty good. That's very Fitzy like I like the way they're going. It's not the easiest run.

[00:12:28] So we got the Dolphins this week and that's going to be pretty hard. Now we don't know what team they're going to throw out there. We know Katoa won't be there. So that's a bonus for us. I would assume they're going to play the origin guys and I'm assuming we're going to play our origin guys, but we're not sure what's going on there. I think they have rested their guys before, but this is a pretty important game for them. So I don't see them resting people to be honest. Then we have the Knights at home.

[00:12:53] Manly away, Souths at home, Dragons away, Raiders at home, Titans away, Eels away, Storm at home. So there's three to four games there where you want to chalk it up. And I say the word want to, that's all I'm saying. And there's three to four games where you go, okay, this is going to be pretty tough. So it's an in-between kind of draw for me. I think once we get past Newcastle, potentially even Brookvale, it eases up a little bit, but we've been in the bad stretch now.

[00:13:22] And, you know, Roosters wasn't so good. Brisbane was pretty good. Let's see how we go against the Dolphins. But Hines from the start, Andrew Voss was going off about it. No, it wasn't Andrew Voss. Yeah, someone in the commentary was going off about it. And McEnnis, how he's running, running the ball. As soon as he, and he was running hard. It wasn't the kind of half run from Nico. He was running full pelt. And I thought he led from the front really well. It got him going. And then Trindle came in and did his thing. Trindle was amazing too.

[00:13:52] Overall, direct running from the back five were terrific. I thought all back five were terrific. Ronaldo really returned to form. That's what you want to see from Ronaldo. He's actually pretty quiet with the chirp, but he was very energetic with the game. So that was great. I thought Will Kennedy was terrific. And yeah, both centers running really good. And of course we can't leave out the Tongan Fisherman who was close to me. He was the main man of the match. He did a lot more than just put down a ball to score tries. Like he was really involved, some really great moments. And I know that would have pleased you to see one of your favorites have a great game.

[00:14:23] It's starting to feel real that he is leaving the club. It's such a great destination for him given his interests outside of football. Like he's going to have the best time of his life. He'll probably never leave North Queensland. And it'll be hard to get him down for reunions and things like that, I'm guessing. Because he's made Jesse as well. It'd be nice, nice touch. Yeah. Well, and I saw Jesse put up that caption business trip. So maybe there was a bit of feeling in there because it certainly seemed like K.L. had a bit of feeling in that game as well.

[00:14:51] And I thought all of our backs were really good. But Sione, I'm going to miss. And there's just something about seeing him in space. And it's such a great side. It's a shame he's not going to get to 100 tries for the club. But it's going to be really weird next year to have not have him and Jesse together at the Sharks. And then watching them together at the Cowboys. And there's a lot of questions there. Because again, we're going to bring in Stone Street, you would assume. Yeah.

[00:15:17] Gabriel is the leading contender for the other center position, you would assume. Maybe it's a Riley Jones. They also could get a market for a winger or a center who is not going to break the bank. Like they're probably one or two out there that you could grab who have played 70 games. And I'm not saying they are or they should. I'm just saying they might, right? So... Yeah. Well, it's looking like the Joey Marnie thing is not going to happen. So I think I might have to give up on that pipe dream.

[00:15:46] I wouldn't give up till he's gone somewhere. Well, I was thinking for this year, but I don't know if it's changed. Because around COVID, they did change the dates where you had to have your contract registered for the same season. And I think we've seen it in the past with players switching. Like I know Tavita Pengo Jr. Switched like two rounds before the finals in that period. But I do think they have changed the rules around that. So I don't know the official date for it. But if that window is closed, then obviously that's a shame.

[00:16:15] But yeah, next year, it's going to be interesting to see how we fill that gap. Because there are so many players leaving, Sam, as we've talked about. There's the Haradis, there's like the depth players. There's Talakai who's filled in for us in centers this year. There's, you know, McInnes and the list goes on and on. And there's not a lot coming through the front door. So it's going to be super interesting to see how we address that. Because they have made some re-signings. And we saw that with Felix, which is fantastic. But we still have a lot of guys off contract as well.

[00:16:43] So I'm really not sure how this is all going to shake out. What did you make a big Chukwu on the field? I didn't get a whole lot of time, but he didn't look out of place. I think every time I see him, I think I've seen enough to take a chance on this guy. The issue is there's just so many front rowers at this club at the moment. And we even saw the booing for the Knights. Lachlan Crouch, is it? Yeah. He spent the last three, four years as a front rower that we got originally from the Knights,

[00:17:10] who was highly touted and really earmarked as one of the best juniors in the Knights system. We had him and we couldn't give him a run either. So from a two-coup perspective, there is going to be probably some movement. And we don't know what's going to happen with Toby. We don't know what's going to happen with ULA. So there's potentially some spot there for him. It seems like him and Fitz have a really strong connection. He's pretty much the only Roosters player, I believe, that we've bought besides Ikevalu from Fitz's time at the Roosters.

[00:17:39] And that says a lot because Fitz, he doesn't buy a lot of players. We've seen that. So the fact that they've got that long storied history together, I think that, you know, if there is to be more movement within our middles, I think we will see him more consistently. Now, what that looks like with him and Hazleton together, is that too much size? I'm not sure because I don't think we've seen a lot of them playing at the same time. It would be interesting to see them playing both of them at the same time.

[00:18:03] And then maybe have a small ball lineup where you could do like Sifa and Cam McInnes as like, you have the two giants and then you have these guys. There's so many options that we have this season. I'm pretty sure on the weekend he came on with Kifusi. So another big body. Yeah. Well, I thought Kifusi was pretty solid too. And Kifusi is probably around that hundred game mark. And he's been around the game for a number of years. I can tell you that this week, if he plays, he's 150th. There you go.

[00:18:33] So he might not even make our best 17. And I'm not saying that he is a extraordinary player, but what I am saying is he's an NRL first grader. He's played 150 games and you know exactly what you're going to get from him. So the fact that he can't crack our best 17 if everybody's fit and available, I think it puts us in a really good place. So that's why it's hard for guys like Tuku to get that jump. But I do anticipate more movement with the middles that we've got off contract. I could see a role opening up for him.

[00:19:03] And I would have thought if a club was after Tuku to sign him, they would have made their play by now. And they would have tried to get him early, which we don't do that. But you would have seen something like maybe a Perth or something like that could have said, you know what? We're light on middles. Let's go get this giant from the Shire. We haven't seen that. So maybe there is a little bit of method in the madness of keeping him in reserve grade for a little bit longer while we work out what's going on above him. And we saw that with how Fitz talked about Sione Katoa and Stone Street.

[00:19:30] Like Stone Street's obviously the long-term future, but we want to give Sione the opportunity and the respect should his form allow it to finish his career in the top grade. Yeah, I thought he said that really well. He handled it really well. And I don't even know if he was prompted to be honest. I think he just spoke about it, but it made complete sense. We kind of knew that anyway, but to hear him say it and say it in that way, there's no argument there. Well, if you're Stone Street as well, you get it. You understand.

[00:20:00] You sit back and you go, I totally get it. And you're probably a little bit upset, but guess what? Stone Street's played half a season the last two, three years. So he's always going to have opportunities. If he has injuries or whatever the case is, he's going to be around the 10. And he's gone well, but it's not like he's gone so well that he's keeping another guy out of the team. That's the thing that I think Sharks fans who disagree with what we're saying need to kind of have a reality check is that he's gone really well.

[00:20:29] And especially for a kid who's played a handful of games, he's gone really well. And no one's disputing that. He got a three year deal out of it. That's that's you're not going so well. You're keeping this other guy out at the moment now. Now, now she only could have a dip in form again, like he did against the Roosters in Perth. And then maybe it's like, well, Sam, we need you. So I'm sure Sam's ready to jump in if needed. The thing about Sione, which I've come to really, I guess,

[00:20:57] acknowledge is that you know what you're getting with Sione Katoa. And when he made that break in the middle of the field, which changed the game, I knew he wasn't going to score now. Now, the naysayers come in and go, well, that's not good for a winger. And I go, I agree. However, he did what he had to do, got us out of trouble. I think we scored from the next few plays. He had a great game. So I was happy the coach addressed that though. And if you haven't seen it, go check it out.

[00:21:27] But there's a respect thing there. I mean, the guy's played a million games for us since he was a kid. Yeah, he's came through the system. He's he played under 20s for us. He's played reserve grade for us. I think he was part of that team that won the reserve grade competition. I'm not quite sure, but he's been around the club for a very long time. And he has always put himself at a high standard for us, which has been absolutely fantastic for us. And it's going to be really weird to see him in another jersey. I still remember when I saw Jesse in a Knights jersey.

[00:21:55] That just didn't feel right as well. But it's going to be a huge change for guys like Nico Hines, who has been defending next to someone like Jesse for a really long time. Nico and Jesse go back to manly days as well. So there is really a window here where these guys need to bite down on that mouth guard because this really is it for a lot of these connections and friendships that have go back a decade or more. And you see it in Nico's latest documentary, which Mr. Paisley's does get a run. I saw a couple of coffees in there.

[00:22:25] I believe the fiance was. Yep. Knock at a man like Coca-Cola. Yeah, there you go. So it's interesting to see like the different players that hang out with each other. Right. And always in your head you go like I wouldn't have pictured like Billy Burns, for example, hanging out with like a Will Kennedy or something like that. Like it's always such a weird mix of players, but it just shows you that this is a really tight knit group and there's no hard feelings.

[00:22:50] And we talked about this after the Warriors win when there were players in the sheds that weren't playing, but they had these huge smiles on their faces because they were so happy for the group that they're in. So, yeah, I know we'll talk about this a lot over the next few months, but it's really going to come down to the last chance saloon. So get your cowboy guns out. The good thing is they're putting themselves in a good position to make a run. Now, that may be dependent on these two big games against the Dolphins who are in really good form

[00:23:19] and the Knights who are in really good form. Short turnaround at Cronulla on Friday next week. So you're going through those two, particularly with wins, and you're setting yourself up nicely for a top four finish. And that's where you want to be. It's kind of where you've got to be. Like we can finish fifth and sixth and go, let's give it a shake. And there's no rules. No one's done it, but there's no rules. So not to say we can't do it, but you make it a lot easier on yourselves with that week one win. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And we saw it in 2016.

[00:23:48] That was such an important game for us going down to Canberra where the odds were against the Sharks. There was no Gal. Wade goes down almost straight away. Matt Pryor turns into a superhuman. But getting that week off was so important because the Cowboys and Broncos absolutely annihilated each other and extra time from memory. And then we came out super fast against the Cowboys and the game was over at halftime. So if you want to make that jump. It was circumstantial to a point. Absolutely.

[00:24:16] I wonder though, and we've never really, well, we haven't talked about it in depth, really. We could do a podcast about it, but what happens if we lose week one? Do we win the comp still? No. Is it impossible though? Impossible to say? I don't think it's impossible, but we would have had to have gone down and, and Canberra almost beat Melbourne in Melbourne that year. So it, and we did beat Melbourne in the grand final. So it was absolutely doable. And I remember, I think it was maybe around 26 that year when we went down to Melbourne and we lost to Melbourne in a really tough game.

[00:24:46] And then there's that story of Gal and NS saying, we'll get these guys. Um, and I kind of had that feeling after the Roosters game a couple of weeks ago where I was like, I saw enough there to say that we'll get these guys. I'm not saying we're going to play the Roosters in the grand final, but I do think we will run into the Roosters again at some point this season. Um, but I don't think we would, we would have came away with that because all I'm saying is those guys and that group and the individuals, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say it was impossible.

[00:25:15] We don't know. I'll say that though. All right. So let's say we go down to Canberra and it's a really tough loss and you've lost, uh, Wade, who was injured. Um, you, you've benched Townsend after the game, how that played out. Uh, there's no guarantee Gal would have been back as well because of the injury that he had. So I can't remember who Canberra played in week two of the finals, but you would have had to have gone in there pretty bastard off the back of a really tough loss in Canberra, as well as that game against the storm the week before.

[00:25:45] So confidence would have been maybe a little bit rock, but you had those guys in that team that were straight gangsters. And that's what I mean. That's what I mean. That's the only reason I'm not going to say they couldn't have done it is because just those guys individually and collectively, they were bad ass. And, and, and the more I watch of that season, the more I'm reminded of it. But anyway, we'll never know. Point is let's finish top four this year. We are, we are setting ourselves up nicely though, because yeah, there's a bunch of games we should have won already.

[00:26:12] We know that happy to talk about it, but we can't change that. All I can focus on now is from here on in and huge game against the dolphins and huge game against the nights. They all are like Brookvale is going to be huge. Like they're all huge. Don't get me wrong, but it just starts with the next game. The next game is dolphins and they're going to put up a great test. They're a really good team. I like the fact Katoa is not going to be there because he's an amazing halfback, but I think people have slept on Cody Nicarima.

[00:26:39] Like his assists are out of control and his impact on that team. And the other fellow is who hasn't escaped the media because he's a darling of the media. And so he should be is a big Herbie. Herbie has like triple the offloads of the next best player at that team. Like amazing tackle bus. So that's just like, that's one guy, two guys who are going to be there. Who are going to give us a lot of trouble, but there's a whole bunch of them as we know.

[00:27:07] So it's going to be tough, man, but I like the fact that we're on the road again. Like I know two trips to Brisbane in a week is an ideal, but it's a routine, right? It is. And we're also going to have a couple of players that are already going to be up there. So they're not going to come back down and then go back up. So it's the NRL draw is such a weird concoction. I think I saw somewhere online and I don't know if this is true, but I read on the internet.

[00:27:35] So it must be, we've got like four home games left for the whole season, which like where the heck is the time gone? I can tell you right now. We have the Knights at home. We have the Rabbitohs at home. Yeah. The Raiders and the Storms. Yeah. So that doesn't feel like a lot, does it? Because it doesn't feel like we've been at home a lot this year. We're going to get 10 there. Don't forget. We're going to get 10 games. But just the way that this whole draw works and they're going to Brisbane two weeks back to back, like it's...

[00:28:04] It's silly. It's really silly. It's such a weird draw. And next year when you factor in Perth, then you're going to have to factor in PNG the year after when you think about things like travel. I don't know why whoever is the new, I guess Peter Landis is the new second in charge. Whoever's second in charge in the NRL, which is probably Peter Landis again. I don't know why he can't get the final version of the draw and then look at it, spend the night with it, get a Mr. Paisley coffee and just drink, study over it and go, hang on a sec.

[00:28:32] The Sharks are going to Brisbane twice in a week. Maybe we can like not do that and do it for all 17 teams. Like, I don't know why that can't. I don't know how they go. Yeah, that's okay. They're going up there twice in the space of a week. That's fine. It's... And I don't know how we can... And I know we do move home games around and things like that, but I also don't know how... Like, the last home game we played, I... What game was that? Why don't I just tell you what it was?

[00:29:01] We have Dragons on the 7th of June. So, it's the 7th of July today as we record this. Like, that's a month now. Next game will be 17th of July. So, that's like six weeks? Week or so. Yeah. And Magic Round must have been in there somewhere, I'm assuming. Magic Round was before that, I want to say. Is that right? Oh, wow. Yeah. And we've had two buys in that period as well, I'm guessing? Round 12 and Round 17, yeah. So, you know...

[00:29:30] The fact that we got our third buy so early as well was just a little bit perplexing, but, I mean, we're not going to solve the issues of the NRL draw and Fitzy won't ever say anything about it. It's just more of those frustrating things that you look at and you say, well, they're paying a company in Canada probably hundreds of thousands of dollars around this. How do we not get that right? Like... I legitimately don't know why. So, say we need the draw out November 1. You say to them, give it to us first week of October.

[00:29:59] Give us the draw. And then you have a team working on it for three weeks. Yeah. And you're obviously talking to the clubs and you're talking to the media people, Channel 9, Fox. And you have three weeks to get it right. And I'm not suggesting stuff like this doesn't happen, but this is how I do it. But you need a team of people. And maybe Kieran is the Brisbane guy and Sam is the Dolphins guy. And Josh Bowling is the Cronulla guy. And we just have one team and we look at their...

[00:30:29] We go through each thing in the travel and everything else. Turnarounds. Turnarounds. You know, and this year, our turnarounds haven't been too bad, whereas others have been. And it's just not fair. You know? And... But I do think... I do think if they see a team's traveling interstate, they know they're not going to stay there for the week. That's very old school and it might happen one out of a hundred times. Like I think the Dragons might have done it five years ago. You stay in the state for two games or whatever. It's not going to happen in this day and age. And...

[00:30:58] It's just a little... It's a minor thing. I know we're hopping on about it. It's a minor thing, but it is a bit of an inconvenience. I said it's good routine, but it's an inconvenience. Go back to last year, we came back from Vegas and our next game is in North Queensland. Like there are so many things that just don't make sense with this draw that... And then I saw somebody the other day when Nico was talking about when we beat teams, it's always about who they've got out, not who we're missing. And he listed the players that we had out. And then somebody commented saying,

[00:31:28] it's because you guys have the easiest draw every year. It's like, what are we talking about at this point? Like people just become puppets and say these things. And to that point, if you watched NRL 360 last night, they were wrapping Nico Hines in the first part of the show. And then they get to these questions. And one of the questions is, should the Sharks move Nico Hines to fullback to unlock Trindle? And then they said, well, if they don't get the job done this year, yeah, maybe I would look at that for next year. And it's like, hang on a minute, 20 minutes ago, you were just saying how good Nico played and how it was great to see him running.

[00:31:57] But also, they're talking about a 31-year-old man, 30, going back to fullback. Like a position he hasn't played for five years with Bill Kennedy, who's like the third best fullback in the game. That's just people on the spot going, oh, that'd be a good idea. Like it's not, you know. That goes back to my point though, Sam. It's just like, with this team, because we haven't got over the hump and we haven't got that respect that we are desperately searching for, you're going to get people say these ridiculous comments

[00:32:25] where they actually watch the proper Sharks football. And calling out our draw is being easy when we haven't had a home game for like six weeks straight. We'll go into the back end of the season with four games at home, which doesn't sound too bad to you. There's usually eight left. I watch all the shows and I'm not going to hammer Braithy because he's my colleague and I'll probably get the sack if I do. And I'm not saying I want to. I'm just saying they're on the spot and they go, oh yeah, how are they going to get over the slump? And they talk about it. Yeah. And I know a lot of our fans do.

[00:32:55] So take Braithy out of it. A lot of our fans talk about it, right? And that's fair enough. They want to get to the final dance. And people who listen to the show regularly know that I'm more like, I want to be there so I can make that step. Yeah. And it's not so much I'm happy to be there full stop. I'm happy to be there and I want to go to the grand final and I want to win it. But this whole thing about that next hurdle, it's like, well, one team's going to win the grand final dudes. One team, two teams are going to be in the grand final. It's hard to get there.

[00:33:25] We're at the moment pushing to be in the week before the grand final. I hate to be the realist here for everyone listening, but we're not any guarantees to make that thing we've done for the past two years, let alone the one after. So I don't see it that way. I don't see it as like, like I see last chance saloon for the guys who are leaving. Yeah. But there's no way this team won't be competitive again next year with the players we have and with the coaching staff we have.

[00:33:50] I just, I find it very dramatic for whole, like, what are they going to do to get the, what are they going to do? They're going to win the prelim. That's how you get through it. And it's not going to be moving Nico Hines, the fullback, and it's not going to be putting Will Kennedy to 5'8", and it's not going to be having Liam Eisson at fullback, and it's not going to be having Sam Stonestrier in the wing. This is your team right here. And if they're good enough, they go do it. Yeah. And I did see somebody linked us to like the North Sydney Bears of the 90s, of a team that made a number of prelims and all that type of stuff.

[00:34:20] Now, I don't agree with that because the Bears, I think, made four. But the flip side of that is you look at South. So South had recently gone on that run where they were constantly in the prelims. They couldn't get to the grand final. They did get to a grand final and they couldn't get it done. And they've been retooling along the way with an aging roster. Now, we don't have an aging roster. I would say if we look at the players that are going out the door and the players that we're likely going to be bringing in are younger.

[00:34:46] I think next year when you inject and let's just assume it's Michael Gabriel in the centers instead of Jesse Ramian, it's a different look of a player. It's a different style of player. It's just different. And again, with Stone Street there versus Katoa, it's just different. And I think we're going to get a freshen up in how we play. I do think there will be some sort of regression, not in terms of sense of the world will fall in.

[00:35:13] But when you're replacing someone like Jesse with over 150 first grade games, probably close to 200 with a rookie, that's going to bring you a little bit of inexperience and errors and things like that. So we will have to cop a little bit about that along the way. But we're at that point now where we have to do it because you cannot possibly roll out next year. Sione Katoa, Jesse Ramian, Kaleiro, Ronnie and Will at fullback with Nico and Trindle in the six and seven in 2027.

[00:35:41] You just cannot do it for another year. So we've got to make the changes. A post-game show went down well. People mostly happy. People conceded it wasn't the perfect game as I did. People into Nico about, and I say this respectfully to the people that mentioned it, about the seven tackle set that he gave away towards the end of the game. And I get it. Don't give away a seven tackle set. But man, he was like an eight, eight and a half out of 10.

[00:36:10] And they got the job done. Trindle was probably an eight out of 10 and he got the job done. So this, this way we like painstakingly look at their performances and then we pull the bad stuff and don't talk about the good stuff. And I didn't think the halves had, I didn't have too many problems with many of the players on the weekend or any positions. But I think as a team, they're a little bit clumsy. I thought as a team, they were definitely ill-disciplined. I didn't think individuals were bad.

[00:36:38] I didn't think, I thought our halves were two of the best players out there. And I just don't, when, when they're put in a position to do their job, they usually get the job done, you know? Yeah. And I just, I find it, I know we're getting into this moment of the year where it's going to be intensified, this whole spotlight on the guys and I get it and I'm all for it. But I just want people to be realistic about it. Like what more could Nico have done on that weekend aside from not give away a seven tackle set, which, which obviously could come back and bite you.

[00:37:05] I'm not saying that that's not important, but you talk about a moment in 80 minutes of moments. But I liked it because he was still attacking. And I liked it in the sense that I think we went to short side, he puts the kick over and we score. And that's something that if Nico's not playing with confidence, he would not attempt a trick shot like that. He would have tried to play for the safe option. When we saw him at his best, he was absolutely flying as like a second fullback and just causing absolute mayhem and chaos

[00:37:34] because he was popping up on short sides. He was running hard and direct. He was kicking with a short kicking game as well. So when I see him do that short kick over the top for a try, I look at it and say, there are times of the year or in past seasons, sorry. And we haven't seen it lately to be fair, but where he would go in his shell and not attempt that.

[00:37:54] And I don't know if that coincided with the new arrival of our attacking coach who has turned up or if that's just a Nicky, sorry, Nico getting to the point where he's like, you know what? I'm 30. I'm confident. I am an NRL first grader. I have talents and I can ice these moments.

[00:38:11] And I will cop a halfback giving away a seven tackle set and things like that because some of the things that really frustrate me as from a Sharks perspective is we often will just die with the ball in the last tackle and we'll just turn it over in a corner. And we'll just, we won't, we won't roll the dice from an attacking perspective because we'll back our defense, which for the most part to your point, nine times out of 10, it does come off and work. I mean, I think we're in the third highest win percentage of the last four or five years since Fitzy's come to the club.

[00:38:39] So we don't lose very often, but when we do lose, it's often in the same fashion from the same issues, which causes that frustration. Now my frustration, nine times out of 10 is not with the halves. My frustration is usually with our lack of go forward in the middle. So I think those things are really linked, but I had no issues with Nico. And it's funny, sorry, just quickly, Sam, is I saw all these, I watched all the podcasts and the reviews of the round and all that type of stuff.

[00:39:03] I won't name the podcast, but one podcast was sort of saying when Nico's there, Tricky goes into his shell, doesn't do his thing. Then they went and looked at the receipts of who actually got more ball and Tricky got more ball than Nico. Tricky was, I think, 61 and Nico was like 54 receipts. He's kicking more, he's handling the ball more. He won the game for them, but Hines had more assists. Hines had more runs. Like he was, he was heavily involved and that's what you want. You need them both.

[00:39:31] It's no use one of them starring and one going into their shell. You need them both. And they're both there on the weekend. And if you don't see it in the highlights, they're still there in the 80 minutes, you know, grinding away on that. That's why I encourage people to watch the replays because you're not going to see that much of Trinnell in the highlights necessarily. I think a good try, sis, but he was grinding away for 80 minutes. He was great. And Hines was great too. I'll say this, the, the goal kicking he missed two that he should have got.

[00:39:59] And it looked like it might've cost us at one point, but we're talking about one game. Now one game is important this time of the year. He's got to get them. There's no excuses, but people were like influencing that onto his performance. Oh, he's not very good. Hang on a second. He's missed a penalty goal from in front. Should have got it. But he set up two tries. He's running the ball. He's kicking the ball. He's doing great. So he's just got to get that better. And we know he's the second best kicker in the game. I think besides whoever, who's the dolphins kicker.

[00:40:29] I think he's the best. Asako is the best. My man, Asako. He's the best. Nico, I think he's got maybe the second best record this year. And we know he's pretty reliable. He's way more reliable than triple Trindle as a goal kicker and anyone else in the team. So I thought that was really frustrating too. And like, you know, my dad, who's on the elderly side of things, watches a game in a very kind of, naive, innocent way. He's I knew as soon as he saw me, he'd be like into me about Nico Hines is goal kicking. And he was. And I was like, okay, you're an old man.

[00:40:58] I can forgive you for that. But when we've got, you know, younger people online harassing the guy for his goal kicking and then saying he had a bad game. It's like, no, no, you can say his goal kicking was off, but he didn't have a bad game. He didn't even close to a bad game. Can I just read out some stats? And now I'm just on the arrow website and I know you've got some official stats that are probably more accurate and better because some handsome man probably created them. But from a run meters perspective, he had 117 meters.

[00:41:24] He, he ran for more meters and closer to closer to 75. They do it a bit differently, but yes. Okay. Well, but so based off this metric on nrl.com, that's more than Billy Burns. It's more than T Wilton. It's more than, you know, Kofusi, Talakai. He's only beaten up by the two props and by some of the back five who do a lot of work from that. Um, 31 post contact meters. Again, this is how the NRL website measures that. That's not how you might do it. Um, that's more than T Wilton. T Wilton had 30.

[00:41:54] Uh, Billy Burns had 36 and we're wrapping up T Wilton for what a great game that he's had. One line break. You don't even need stats. You just need people to go have a look at it. Look at the, even the, the KO mini, whatever mini you're on the way he ran the ball. He wasn't doing this, the soft looking for someone else hit up. Yeah. He was doing hit ups and he's a huge body. Like he's a big body guy and, and he's doing a great job. Um, I want to say on the team, Kieran, people don't know this. We have the second best completion rate.

[00:42:22] We're missing the second fewest tackles. Like there are things that they're doing that are really good and they're not getting the headlines. Sharks, second best completion rate. We always give the ball away. No, no, we give the ball away in the wrong spot. That's all. We give away the ball, the second least out of anyone besides the Warriors. And sometimes they're in a cluster. Like we're the, the Roosters game. I think for example, we gave away a lot of the ball at really bad times. And it's like, what are we doing here?

[00:42:47] But if you actually look at the most part for the 80 minutes or most weeks, we're not actually doing that, but we could just sort out those penalties. My goodness. Yeah. I'd be much happier. I mean, there was one, was it, was it towards the end of the game where they're getting a roll on and it was a crusher tackle on their line and it gave them the, the time to go up the field.

[00:43:10] That kind of thing is, I know, I know that can be dangerous for the, for the player being tackled, but those ones that I saw really innocuous and really 50, 50, but they count. They count on the stat sheet and they count on the field when you march up 50 meters. So it's, I understand we're the most penalized team and we received the second most, uh, second fewest penalties. I get all that, but I think sometimes we look at it and go, we lost 10, five.

[00:43:39] Well, in real, in real terms, if you really would look at it play by play and you would give the penalties based on what you're watching on TV, rather than the guy in the heat of the moment, it might be more like seven, three or something. Like it wouldn't be as dramatic. There are moments we go, Oh, it's 50, 50. I'm going to penalize him. No, no, let that one go. You know, we need to turn it around. I don't know how you turn around those ones though, where it's where it really is just like split second, like split second. You can't really change.

[00:44:07] It's just in extremely infuriating because on that ladder of penalties given and conceded, we were at the top of that last year as the best performing side. And the Warriors were, I think number two. Now the Warriors are number one and we are number, we're coming dead last by almost double second. Yeah. And so then if you look at that versus the Warriors, it's like a 60 penalty difference between the two sides.

[00:44:33] Now you cannot go deep into September and lose the penalty counts every single week. Now we're not going to go out and blow up about the refs because a lot of them are those really, there's not a lot of stinking or howling calls that are in there. A lot of those calls are those 50, 50 ones where we're not getting the rubber of the green on. Now, how do you change that? I'm not sure. Maybe we're just in the naughty boy corner at the moment with the referees, but we have had referees come down to our training sessions and work with the team around trying to fix it. It's not working at the moment.

[00:45:02] It doesn't feel like. So we need to go back and work out how can we actually not put ourselves in these positions? Because there are so many times in games where we, we were almost in cruise control and then we'll give away bad penalties and then the opposition is in it. And the opposition can't make ground on us unless we give away these penalties. So it's an extremely infuriating situation. I think that might've happened before halftime, before full time as well on the weekend.

[00:45:30] So yeah, we need to definitely need to stop it. I concede that. Dolphins this week going to be a tough one, Kieran, but not impossible. As we said, they're going to have some guys out. We'll have some guys back in. I do think if Blake Braley plays that game and I thought how he did a good job. I thought Beryl was, he was okay. But I thought if Blake Braley plays that game against that forward pack against the Broncos, I think we win by a bit more. We score probably two or three more tries.

[00:45:58] I mean, it just felt like Beryl really wasn't on the field for a lot of time. Like I'm just looking here. It says that yeah, two stints, one for five minutes and eight seconds and one for 10 minutes and 10 seconds. Yeah. I it's, I've got to say, it's the most unfitzy thing ever to name her at 14 and then play him every week at nine and Beryl at nine. We get a lot of mail about that, Kieran, like more mail than I would think. It's not a fitzy thing. Like, why do you think that? Because I don't have an answer for you. I might try and get an answer.

[00:46:27] I don't know if I'll get an answer. I might ask, but I don't think you'll get one. Yeah. I don't think there is one. Right. Well, I think this honestly what I think the answer is Jaden is our second best number nine at the club. So, with Flex not playing, he's our number nine, but we're playing Hoepa there because we think he can do a role and we still value what Jaden does and what he brings. And the fact that Jaden's been around for the last five, six years. So it's a respect thing? I think it's a respect thing because there is, Fitz would just name Hoepa at nine and Beryl on the bench. Like that changes nothing.

[00:46:57] And opposition teams think that's coming anyway. So it's not as if it's a trick shot. The first time it happened, it certainly was a trick shot where I was like, oh, I didn't expect that. I'm not having a go at anyone because the people who are listening know who I'm talking about. So I'm certainly not having a go at them, I promise. So we love our listeners. I'm going to ask you to gauge your opinion versus theirs just so I can get my head around it. On a scale of one to ten, how much does it frustrate you? It doesn't frustrate me whatsoever, but I just find it very un-Craig Fitzgibbon like.

[00:47:27] Yeah, fair enough. Because usually he's big on that respect thing. So if you're in our starting 13, you would get a number assigned to that. It's just one of those things where I- That might be an answer for our listeners because our listeners have been writing to us like more than a handful. And again, I'm not disrespecting them. For you, it's a zero out of ten frustration. For me, it's a zero out of ten. The people writing to me, I'd say it's around a six. And I can't relate to that, but I respect that. So that's the mail I'm getting. And I always reply and I say, dudes, this is your biggest complaint. We're going pretty good.

[00:47:57] Pretty, pretty good. Yeah. There's some stories I've heard over the years of players making requests around jersey numbers because their family members got the big league magazine and all that type of stuff. So I don't think it's a case of that anymore because that magazine doesn't even exist anymore. But if there's a kid debuting, he'll just name that player in that position. Like he doesn't really play those games with last minute changes very often.

[00:48:23] Sometimes you might see a change between like the middle that we would have on the bench back when it was a four man bench. Whereas now we kind of keep that into our pocket a little bit more because you can have six on the bench. Do the old Shane Flanagan in 2016, Matt Pryor, never in eight or ten. Never. Well, when I say never, hardly ever, at least in the first half of the season. Do you remember that there was like a period there when Flanagan was the coach and he kept not picking Ben Pomeroy and then he kept playing Ben Pomeroy. So Pomeroy would be playing in like number 18 or 19 every week.

[00:48:52] And it was like, it was like a four or five week period where it was like, he's not playing. It looked like, it looked like, yeah, it looked like he was, he dropped Pomeroy. And the next thing you know, he'd be back in at number 18. I'm going, what's, why are we just naming him a three if we're going to do this every week? Well, I reckon someone might've given the tap on the shoulder and said, you're playing Pom. That's what I reckon might've happened. And I reckon I'm in trouble for saying that. Now, dolphins this week, three o'clock on a Saturday. Don't be put out by the early time, everyone.

[00:49:19] Saturday, three o'clock, KO Stadium in Redcliffe Boutique Stadium. And we have breaking news. We have two tickets to give away. Now there's no real rules around who can get this. If you live in Queensland, obviously it's going to be an easier trek for you. If you live anywhere else in the world and you want these tickets, you're free to get them, but you got to use them. So if you have no intention to use them, don't waste our time, please.

[00:49:44] Now, the way you're going to do it is we want you to follow us on the YouTube. Now I know that everyone's going, Shanaz, I don't want to do that. Shanaz, don't be like those content creators who do this. Whatever. We're doing it. We're doing it. So we want you to follow us on the YouTube and all you got to do is go click and then you're following us. Okay. And then we want you to comment on the YouTube page on this episode, if you will.

[00:50:14] And we want you to, are they going to answer a question, Kieran? Or just say they really want to go? Because it's going to be a random draw. I'm going to take the names, put them in a draw and... Let's just get people to throw the name in. Throw a comment in there to make us laugh. It's not going to affect your chances of winning any more or less, but we'll get a randomizer. Yes. We'll get a randomizer and we'll put everybody who enters name into this randomizer. And yeah, that lucky person will get the tickets. And again, I can't stress this enough.

[00:50:40] If you've tried to get tickets, you will understand how hard it is to get tickets to this stadium. It is impossible to get. So please, if you do win, make sure you use them. Yeah. Make sure you use them. So just to reiterate, you've got to follow us on the YouTube and we can look you up. So don't try and get one past us and go, I follow you. We can see who follows us, right? And all you've got to do is then go on the YouTube page on this episode, if you will, in the comment section. And just go, hey, I would love to be in the draw.

[00:51:10] Or, hey, I want to go. And if you want to tell us a funny gag as well, feel free to, but you don't have to have that pressure. We're going to take those names and we're going to put them in a random draw. And we'll let you know either via the socials, certainly in other episodes. We'll do it in the next sort of 48 hours so you can get all your plans made. We will get to you. We will let you know though. So again, don't waste anyone's time or anyone else's chances.

[00:51:34] If you're living in Willoware and you're a 1% chance, you go, I'm going to enter anyway. No, no, don't do that. You've got to be 100% sure you're going no matter where you're from. And we'll get you these tickets and you'll have a great time. And that's what we're doing. So I dare suspect someone in Queensland will take them, but we're not going to put a rule on that one because we're not like that. Yeah, more power to you. It's one of those things where we're not going to pay for your flights or your hotels. So you can do that yourself. No, we're not.

[00:52:02] But if this is a bucket list item for you and you would like to go to KO Stadium and check it out, which is one of the things that's been on my bucket list, then yes, certainly put your name in there and it'd be good to win. Tag us in a photo at the game. That'd be great. Yeah, definitely got to tag us in a photo. Now there are flights available, so you can get flights at least from Sydney. I know they're available, so but we're just saying whoever it is. I know a lot of people in Queensland missed out.

[00:52:28] So hopefully without putting any pressure on who we're going to pick because it's going to be random. It will be random. I imagine there'll be a lot of people in Queensland who would like to get two tickets. And it's only two tickets. It's no more. It's no less. And you cannot sell them because we'll find out. So do not sell them. Do not even pass them on to your friends and family, really. We want the people who enter to really want them. And that'll be that. There's only two. So in the comments section on YouTube, let us know.

[00:52:55] If that's all too much for you, just send me an email and we'll work it out. But we want you to follow us on YouTube is the point. Kieran and I personally don't care, but other people put great importance on these things. So that's what we're going to do. No, I was just going to say, look, Sam puts a lot of effort into building out the SharkCast pod. And it's just a way of supporting Sam and to make sure that he feels a little bit of love. Right. So the more that people like subscribe. Oh, I feel the love, baby. I feel the love. It helps.

[00:53:20] And like, like jokes aside, like Sam does have sponsors and it's important to show these sponsors, these metrics. They're not asking for this. Let me be clear on that. This is just saying that I wanted to try and help Sam out with. And it came up. So yeah, look, like, subscribe, comment on it. And I look forward to hearing how the game day experience was for the lucky winner. Yeah. And we have to triple down and say, like, we're doing great. Like the podcast has never been bigger and better. We've had never had more listeners. Everything is super.

[00:53:47] Unfortunately, just some people put importance on this one particular metric. So we're going to try and build that up. But at the end of the day, we're doing fine. And, you know, ain't no stopping us. So we're all good. Don't worry about little old SharkCast because we're doing pretty good. Now, before we go, Kieran, you have to watch a new Larry David show. It is unbelievable. Only two episodes have dropped, I believe, so far. It is funnier than funny. It was essentially Larry David putting himself in moments of time in history, in American history leading up to the 250th birthday which he had the other day. It's unbelievable. It's on HBO.

[00:54:17] It is so funny. So please get your head around that. And did you watch Sky King yet? I completely forgot. Come on, man. What are you doing? I was talking with you last week and the June 30th deadline sucked me up like a vacuum and put me in a tornado for a few days. And I'm only just getting out the back of that right now, a week later. So I will check that out. I will look at that. The other thing as well that I want to go check out now is, speaking of Sky and things in the air,

[00:54:42] is that Netflix documentary about the Skywalkers, the couple that climbed the Empire State Building. I want to go check that one out. Oh, is that actually like a doco thing? I just saw the grab or whatever. Apparently they did a documentary back in like 2024 but it's getting released now or so. Maybe it's been out there the whole time. But people are saying it was like a promotion thing for that. But that was absolutely insane. And as somebody that has a respectable fear of heights, like I'm okay, I'm not going to go and seek out that. I'm with you, yeah.

[00:55:13] That was pretty incredible. And the memes that have come off the back of that have been 10 out of 10 as well. So was there a proposal up there? Is that the end of it or not? He did propose and it was much better than the proposal I gave my wife. So, yeah, I've been hearing a little bit about that. Well, we need to ask. So you might as well just go for it. So I bought the ring for my wife and I'm terrible with keeping secrets. And if I've got a gift for somebody, I want to give them the gift. And I want to make sure that they like the gift.

[00:55:44] So I bought it. Well, I put the deposit down. Well, again, at this point, my wife and I, she was pregnant. We've already bought our first house together. We've been together. Hey, no judgment here, man. So my wife knew it was coming. Anyway, put it that way. So I showed her the photo of the ring that I had put a deposit down on. And because she had sent me rings in the past and all that type of stuff. So I knew the exact jeweler and everything like that to go to. So I showed her the ring and she looked at me mortified.

[00:56:12] She said, Kieran, that's my friend's ring. That's not the ring that I want. That was just me showing you my friend's ring. So I put a deposit on the wrong thing. Jump on the phone, got all that sorted out, got the right picture of my phone over to them, got her the ring that she wanted. Then we came a week ago past. It was finally ready. And it was in my backpack from work. And I was really nervous about that she would find it because I got you. Was it in your backpack from work? Well, it was in a bag.

[00:56:38] And then I put that bag in my backpack because I was, you know, commuting home from the city. So got to make sure that I can't walk in with a jewelry bag. She's going to know something's up, right? So I had to stuff it in my backpack. Then I started getting head noise about having this in the house and thinking she'll find it. And that's going to ruin the surprise. So I always said I was never going to do like a restaurant or do it overseas or anything like that. And we couldn't at the time because she was heavily pregnant.

[00:57:02] So I thought, why don't we go into our soon-to-be-born daughter's room and I'll do it in there. That's nice. Now, that's what I thought. Now, in hindsight, I probably should have got some flowers in there or something like that, or maybe set the room up a little bit. Instead, I... Were you standing by the cot or something? Hey. Pretty much. And I put the ring inside the cot and I said, come up here and check this. What is this? That's what I've gone wrong. Now, I didn't actually even clean the room up.

[00:57:30] So there was an ironing board right next to the bed that she hit her head on as she showed back up after receiving said ring. So anyway, we ordered some Chinese food. She said yes, and I watched Friday night football. That's pretty good. I don't mind that. Look, it's not climbing the Empire State Building, is it? No. No. I like the hitting of the head though. That's a reminder. Well, look, I say this with all great love to everybody that's Greek that listens to SharkCast. My wife is Greek. Greeks, they like to do things quite large and big, right?

[00:58:00] So I probably should have maybe had a photographer or organized something a little bit better than what I did. But again, the time was very hard. Like life wasn't as successful as it is right now. I'm not saying I've got a successful life, but we were grinding away pretty hard back then. And she was heavily pregnant. We were in our first home. We didn't even have furniture really. So money was pretty tight to do an extravagant thing, especially that was the most expensive purchase I had ever made in my life outside of a house or a car. So I didn't really have time to throw up a big shebang or pay.

[00:58:30] I think they said that they got fined like $2 million for that stunt. So I certainly did not have the ability to pay a fine like that, but they're going to make so much money. But also, yeah, Grace, Grace, heavily pregnant. It's not going to climb the Empire State Building to be fair. No, she's not. She's not. But we did do a photo shoot down at Cronulla Beach and that was extremely awkward and embarrassing for me because it was like a Sunday and had to dress a certain style. It's not really clothes I usually wear. Yeah. You just see everybody up at like at the top of the wall just looking down again.

[00:58:59] What are these guys doing? We know what you're doing. Don't worry. It doesn't have to be said. We know what you do. Hey, it's all right. At least I wasn't wearing a guano on the scene. Well, so Nico Hines has released his fourth episode, I believe, of Hindsight and I'm not in that one. But there is a scene. He's down at the same spot and he walks back to the car or whatever with his dog. And there's some dude in the background in a hoodie like fair enough. It's cold. But I was just thinking, I wonder if he's going to be ridiculed. Like I was ridiculed that whole week.

[00:59:29] And I did ask Nico the other day about royalties and there's none coming my way. There's none coming my way. So I'll say this if you haven't seen the fourth episode. Like you got the same sort of stuff like day in the life, which is great. Like, you know, it's day in the life. But he has a really good chat as a spoiler with Greg Inglis. And it's kind of the feature of the episode. And when it's just him and Greg talking, it is really great, fascinating. The subject matter is quite heavy.

[00:59:56] But I think that's what he needs to potentially move to is just talking to other people in his episodes. Because it really steps up a notch when it's just him and G.I. talking life. Yeah. And you can see the respect that he holds G.I. in. And you can sort of see him kind of acting like me if I was to talk to Nico, where you're a little bit excited and bouncing around a little bit. So it's pretty cool to see that and to see an athlete looking up to another athlete like that.

[01:00:26] Yeah. I think Greg Inglis is probably the most underrated player in the history of the NRL. I think he should absolutely be in the conversation for being an immortal. I think Queensland go and win eight in a row if he was in New South Wales. He single-handedly turned series and scored match-winning tries. And if he was on our side, we would have won those games. I think he's criminally underrated in history because I've never seen a player that could play 5'8 like he did, wing like he did, center like he did, fullback like he did.

[01:00:56] And even as he got older and slower, he was still just as dominant. He was like, there were players making breaks and he would level them out. Like I've never seen it happen. People talk about how he was the next Mel Meninga. And I know Mel was a tiny bit before your time. He was more my time growing up. And Mel was awesome. Like he was incredible. Don't get me wrong. But the way they talk about Mel is how they should be talking about GI if not more because he was just the complete player.

[01:01:26] And, you know, without getting too controversial, I know Latrell gets mentioned the same breath as GI. That's not a thing because GI did it repeatedly week after week, year after year at every level. And I know that Latrell's had a lot of injuries. I get that. And I know Latrell's not playing in the Melbourne Storm. I get that as well. And I'm not having a go at Latrell. He's a sensational player. And that's the bottom line. Like he's a sensational player.

[01:01:49] But point is GI, as you said, even as rated as he is, because he is rated, I'm with you that he's a little bit underrated. And I remember hearing the stories about him when he was like 16, 17, because we're about the same age. And I remember hearing about this player and all the comparisons at the time were David Peachy. And if you look at early Greg Inglis, you can see him gliding around the field and he was skinny and lengthy and he was playing fullback. And he was just unbelievable.

[01:02:19] If there was one player that I really wish had played at the Sharks, it's Greg Inglis. Like I would have loved to have a Darren Lockyer or an Andrew Jones or something like that. Yeah. But I just feel like a GI would have been, he would have fit us like a glove in our club's history. And it would have been so special, but look, South's got him in the end. And obviously Broncos had him for a second there, but then he didn't get on the plane and Melbourne found him. So I think it's one of the biggest rorts up there with the World Cup with Donald Trump getting that player off a red card that Queensland stole. Give me an update. What's the score?

[01:02:48] What's the score? Let me check that right now for you, Sam. It's a, what a shocking thing that was by FIFA to do it. Well, Belgium's winning 3-1. 3-1? Are we calling it? The 72nd minute, so. Well, there's some justice. How's he going to turn this one around? Well, he might put another phone call in and you never know with FIFA, it could go to extra time. I don't know if you saw the memes about the cartel making it go for an extra 11 minutes yesterday against England.

[01:03:18] It was a long time. Well, I mean, that is justice. And, you know, I say that as someone who has American friends and I like a lot of their culture and everything, as in like the entertainment side of things, but ridiculous. And I even, I've done myself. Because now, if somebody else gets a red card in this tournament, you can't suspend them. You just can't. And they will suspend them. That's the thing. And then it's just going to go into this more and more. So. Because I didn't really look into it too deeply.

[01:03:46] And then, and then when I realized he actually put the phone call through, I was like, yeah, that's really not what you do. He did a press conference and he said he didn't even know what red card was. I believe that. Yeah, I believe that for sure. But then it's like, well, don't go and mess with this tournament. And look, I love the Socceroos. I think what they've done this tournament, we should be very proud of. I can't wait to see what they look like in four years. I'm calling it. I've already got approval from the wife. I'm going to Spain. Should Australia make the next World Cup?

[01:04:12] I'm going to be doing all those crazy things that the people are doing. But you're not going to be on the Fanatics tour, that's for sure. Well, I might get blacklisted. Well, let's see how that feud goes over the next four years. They might forget about me. Can we also have a different coach for the next tournament, please? Yeah, it would be good to see them playing a less defensive style. Like I get why we do try and play that style that Australia plays. In a shootout? Come on, man. Yeah, you were putting up two centre-backs.

[01:04:41] And I know you go for confidence with the shootout. But putting up two centre-backs, I thought was a little bit... And again, we made a... Putting up an 18-year-old kid for the fourth shot, where you know the fourth shot's kind of lethal. Nah, man. Don't do it. But also, look at the bench. Who do we have available? Who could we have put on instead of maybe a Matt Ryan to get us a goal? Because, you know, Beach was going well in goals himself. I think he made some of those saves in the tournament. So, look, I get the idea of putting in a specialist like Matt Ryan and trying to throw the opposition. I do understand it.

[01:05:09] But at the same time, it would have been good for us to probably put on another striker so we didn't have to have two centre-backs. And when I saw an 18-year-old going up, I thought, oh, go ahead. You could just see it. You could see the first guy wasn't going to get it. You could see the fourth guy wasn't going to get it. I think that, you know how Sharks fans, especially our Shark Cast listeners, they've had enough. They just want to win comps. I think that's where the Socceroos fans should be at. But it's not enough that we made a round of 16 or whatever it was because that's where you should be.

[01:05:39] And the way they lost it was terrible. And I think that they need a new coach and they need to look into how that guy was selected and the whole thing because it fell apart, man. It fell apart. The whole tournament for me was a bust. I know we won a game. The whole thing was a bust. They should have done a lot better. I'm not saying they should be winning the whole tournament. But for me, we're at a level now where it's like it's not good enough just to be there. Sorry. Not good enough. Yeah. There's a few confusing selections and players playing in different positions

[01:06:09] and not really playing to the strength of what we could actually build. But bringing it back to the Sharks, we should be on the phone to the FFA saying, build your center of excellence in the Sutherland Shire. We have so many juniors that play soccer in the Sutherland Shire. We have a hotel down the road. So, someone in the SharkCast text group said that we'd already kind of addressed that stuff and it didn't go too far. So, maybe they have tried. Pick up the phone. Always be closing. Come on. Ooh, I like that. Some business advice from Kieran.

[01:06:39] All right. We're out of here. You got to go to the dentist. We won't tell anyone where the dentist is for security reasons, of course. But just remember, people are always watching in that room, Kieran. People, people, people, people. Can we talk about that? No, that just ruins the whole experience for me. The whole time I'm sitting in there, I'm thinking that it's supposed to be. Well, you just spoiled it for people who know where it is.

[01:07:01] Now, don't forget, if you want to go to the KO Stadium and watch the Sharks beat the Redcliffe Dolphins, make sure you subscribe to YouTube. Put a comment in the comment section. It's quite easy to do. If you can't work it out, let me know and I'll help you work it out. And all you've got to say is, hey, I'm interested to go pick me and then we're going to legitimately randomize the order and pick one person for two tickets and they'll be on their way. You have to use the tickets. You cannot sell them.

[01:07:30] You cannot not go. And we'll let you know within, you know, hopefully like Wednesday sometime we'll let you know and we'll let you know via socials. I'll try and get in touch with you personally if I can. Either way, it's going to happen. Get in touch. Kieran, thanks for your time. Good luck at the dentist. Don't worry. There's no other people in that room except for you, the assistant and the dentist and a few thousand souls. All right. Bye up up. See you all later. Let's go.

[01:07:58] SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. He's an expert in the Karimba 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.

[01:08:28] Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Sharkies! Sharkies! In the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming over the train.