Catching Up With Kieran/Flagship Episode (26/5/26)

[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

[00:00:26] They've got a Facebook page, or you could go old school and call them on 029523 9300 Back in the Shire, turn your port slides off because we're coming home with a trophy.

[00:00:55] Hey there, welcome to SharkCast, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. My name is Sam Shadazium, an OG from 2015, 12 seasons of podcasting, having a great time doing so. So we are in Manly game week at Ocean Protect Stadium. We're pumped up.

[00:01:22] We haven't been down there for about three or four weeks, and Fosball's coming to town. So it's going to be a big week for the Sharks, big week for the SharkCast, as Luke Lewis calls it. And we're ready to rock. Brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking. The Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking. Jason Hall's of Crips and Crips Real Estate. And when we get our coffee, we get it from Mr. Paisley's because it is a morning time adventure, sometimes an afternoon adventure as well down at Mr. Paisley's. And just to prove that it's not just an empty cup. Here we go, Kieran.

[00:01:53] Delicious. On the other end of the line, if you are listening, of course, if you're watching, you can see him in his Cronulla Hawaiian shirt, I want to say. And he's a nice hat. Mr. Kieran Fraser, this is a, I believe the word is amalgamation. It might be the first time I've used that word on the show. Of Kieran's show on a Monday in the flagship, which we do Tuesday, Wednesday.

[00:02:16] We're going to mix it together right now, just because it's a quicker week this week with the Friday night game. Kieran, and we've got State of Origin on Wednesday and Thursday. So here we are, Kieran. I've talked enough. How are you? What's going on? Good. I thought, you know what? The weather this week is really bringing out the Hawaiian vibe. So I thought I'd put it on a Hawaiian shirt. But I was just going through because I usually wear a work polo throughout the week and then change on something just while we do this,

[00:02:44] because I don't really want to be having my work stuff on the Sharks podcast. And then I found this and I thought, you know what? I've never worn it. So I chucked it on and it is very comfortable. My wife looked at it and said, that is the ugliest shirt that she's ever seen. But I think it's fantastic. And I look forward to wearing it more and annoying her. So play on. Grace is a woman of taste, but I would disagree with her there. Particularly the color helps it out a lot. You know, it's not too in my grill. Now, let me ask you this.

[00:03:11] Are you one of those people, and no judgment here, that purchases clothes, for example, and may not wear them? Like, is there a few things in your wardrobe or is this like a one off pretty much? Oh, I've been with my wife for about nine years, almost 10 years. And my clothing privileges have been revoked. So I don't actually buy any of my own clothes anymore besides basically anything. Sharks is something that I've bought. If it's not sharks, I definitely haven't bought it myself.

[00:03:38] So everything that I get bought is probably around Father's Day, birthday, and Christmas. And then I just wear them. So I doubt there are clothes that I haven't worn. But there was definitely a time there years ago when I was in control. I would just buy stuff and I just wouldn't use it. And then you're sending it off to the finish a year later. But you're sending mixed messages here because you're saying you have no control, but then you're saying you get things on the big celebration days. So is that you getting things on the big celebration days and not purchasing other things or you're not allowed to purchase other things?

[00:04:06] I just don't get clothes any other time. And I am a very busy person with my stuff. So I don't really look to buy clothes. And then there'll be an event on and then the wife will sort of say to me, hang on a minute, what have you got to wear to this? And I'm like, oh dear. Because again, laid back Australian, pretty relaxed with what I wear. But when you go to things like Greek Easter and all that type of stuff, you've got to dress up a little bit more than I probably would have historically. So you'd think I would have learned my lesson, but luckily she buys all my clothes for me. So I don't have to really worry about that.

[00:04:36] I just wear what I'm told. All right. Well, let's get into some sharks action right now because I can hear the fans already saying enough about Kieran's wardrobe. Let's talk about Kieran foreign or something. But later on, we might have some time to talk about your usual Monday shenanigans. We've got a bunch to get through. We'll jump all over the place, but it's all going to be shark related at the very least. Kieran, I think are we technically halfway through the year or we're approaching it? That's the way people in the media are talking.

[00:05:05] Is that, that sounds about right. Yeah. Week 13 coming up as 27 rounds. We're almost there. That does not feel right. Like once you put it like that, it absolutely is true, but it doesn't feel like that. It feels like a real stop starting season. I don't know if that's because we've had two buys. Win loss. Win loss. Yeah. It doesn't feel like we're at round 13. Put it that way. I kind of would have thought that I would have a better read on where we sit this year.

[00:05:29] Um, but again, the magic round having, um, Ramien and Ronnie back kind of changed what my perception was on the team because just having that edge back together just made us look a lot more complete and just having Ronnie's energy. So it's, it's really hard for me to work out where we're at right now at this halfway point, but Ronnie couldn't have come back any sooner.

[00:05:52] So I look at some of the stats and when we see it as far as team rankings go throughout the stats categories, we're kind of mid range at the moment, which isn't surprising to many. I think attack wise, we're probably top five, which is good. Uh, completion rate. I think we're second. So there's, there's a lot of good things there. There's some bad stuff like the penalties conceded and receiving, which we've talked about a lot on the show. We did win our first penalty count against the Bulldogs, which was great.

[00:06:20] Uh, first since August or whatever. I think in those categories we can obviously lift in most areas, but there are some nice things like completion rate surprised me. I was like, Oh, okay. We've got the second best completion rate, which means not that many errors. And as far as the players go, a guy like Trindle is really high up in line break assists. Hines isn't too far behind either. Like they're both trending really nicely. So there's a lot to like, obviously a lot to work on as well.

[00:06:50] But yeah, halfway through, I think we're in ninth place. I think that's correct. And I don't want to get too deep into the ladder, but the problem there is we've already had two buys and some teams have only had one. I'm assuming everyone's had one. I can't confirm that, but that means we got to win some games to finish the year to get where we want to be.

[00:07:14] Yeah, I think I saw it on one of the other podcasts last week where the Sharks had to win something like 10 of their last 15 games or something along those metrics before the Bulldogs game. Because once you start to get to this point, everyone starts doing the maths. And you remember last year with Penrith and everyone was like, oh, Penrith has to win 9 of 11. And then all of a sudden it became very easy. Was that for top four or top eight? This was for top eight. It was something that the Sharks had to win 9 or 10 of their remaining games to get there. Right.

[00:07:43] So I think there was a few performances early in the year that could prove pretty costly. I think top four was something someone can go and fact check this for us, but I think top four was something like 11 or 12 based off last year's points required to make those positions. So, yeah, we're in a bit of a weird spot.

[00:08:02] But the thing that gives me a little bit of comfort is it's been such a weird year and I don't know how the rules and everything like that might change after origin and if it might get a little bit more normality back. I'm not quite sure, but it's going to be interesting to see how we go up against Manly because Manly is in such great form. It's at Shark Park. It's going to be in the wet. A couple of players might be backing up after origin.

[00:08:25] It could give us a bit of an idea of where we stand because if we go out there against Manly and put in a good performance after the two months that they've put together, I'll feel a lot more stable where we're at. Yeah, it's a huge game and we'll talk about that throughout the show. So, yeah, ninth place is never good. So, I want to see us rise from there. But I'm more concerned about week to week at the moment. I'll start worrying about the ladder specifically probably around 20 or whatever once we're on that downhill slope.

[00:08:55] You mentioned Ronaldo's back. That's awesome. Ramian's back. That's awesome. We've talked about the Dogs game fairly in depth. So, we don't need to go there necessarily. Let's talk about players' contracts. That's always a big one and we have had some movement since you and I last spoke. What's that you got there, Kieran? What are you drinking from? This is the Sharks Yeti Cup that is from the Sharks store. So, I picked this up the other day. Again, with all the members' discounts, it actually worked out cheaper than buying a normal Yeti.

[00:09:24] But it doesn't have the straw because I don't know if you see all the videos around people with their Yetis and the straws get a bit of mold in them and people are drinking the mold. They do have a straw option, but I went for the straw. So, there you go. Now, you know, I'm a simpleton. I don't get out much. When you say Yeti, I start to worry about our ratings. But define what a Yeti is for me. These are like specialized coolers.

[00:09:48] So, this drink bottle will stay colder than if you just bought a drink bottle from like Big W or something like that, right? So, they're designed to be a little bit more durable and to hold cold or heat a little bit better. If you go buy a Yeti from like BCF, they're probably about $60, $50, $60, $75. But if you buy it from a Sharks store, it's the same price, but it's a Sharks logo. So, I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah, nice. Good one. Sorry for distracting. Play a contract. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's all related. It's all Shark related.

[00:10:18] We said it would be Shark related. So, Ken McInnes is going to York for three years. I happened to watch York on the weekend, believe it or not, for work purposes. And they got a bit of work to do there, but they're not – they weren't terrible. I think you'll fit in pretty good. I think you'd be a great influence. But what is your feelings – what are your feelings on losing Cam? And tell us about what he's meant to us and give us the Cam story.

[00:10:47] Well, I just – I went and had a look at his stats and it kind of blew me away that he's played more games for the Sharks than anybody else. And if you consider the fact that he's – the first little bit he was here, we took him on, but he didn't play for the first six months because we were helping him rehab. And then he did his ACL as well. So, the fact that he's played 99 games for the Sharks, so this would be his 100th this week. It is, yep. There you go. So, that puts him into a bit of a rare class. And you look at how many great Sharks players have never actually got to 100 games.

[00:11:16] It's actually quite surprising. 80th Shark to play 100. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. And have a look at some of the names in the 90s and even 80s and 70s. Like, there's some real guys that you kind of really attach to the Sharks that never quite got to the 100 mark. And I know a lot of clubs, like I think Manly does, if you get to 100 games, you instantly get a life membership at the club. I'm not sure if we do anything like that, but it would be great to see us if we did. I was a little bit surprised to see that he went to York.

[00:11:45] Given Cam's talents and leadership abilities, I thought maybe a club like a St. Helens or something like that over there might have made a play for him or one of the bigger clubs. So, the fact that he's gone to a smaller club, I think, one, says that the offer was really good and they really wanted to get him. But two, speaks to the type of job that he knows he's going to be going to do over there, right? Like, he's going to go and play for a team that doesn't have the highest of expectations compared to some of the heavy hitters.

[00:12:13] But he's going there to say, I'm going to go there and improve them, you know, pass on my knowledge and try and build something with the roster. And Hull Kayar recently did that and they kind of went from nowhere into, you know, a really successful team and they're trying to do it over there. I do think it was interesting that the talks with Perth broke down. I kind of thought if anything, he could have really given them a little bit of something that they didn't really have in terms of veteran leadership and experience.

[00:12:40] They've signed a lot of players, Perth, but they don't really have somebody of that kind of two, three hundred games plus. Like, I know they've got Kurt Sorensen, who's a veteran leader and a couple of other guys, but they don't really have that. They don't have Kurt Sorensen. Oh, Kurt Sorensen. Jeez. Well, if they signed Kurt Sorensen, they'd be in big trouble, right? They'd be going well with Kurt Sorensen. Don't worry about that. Well, not at this current age is what I'm saying. You're thinking of our old friend Scott Sorensen, yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:05] So, it was interesting to see that he didn't end up at Perth, but I kind of feel like given where Cam's at in his career, he's 32. He'll be 33 at the start of next season. The way the game's moving, I'm kind of okay with us going in a different direction, but I think he's been tremendous for us and what we're building at the club. But I just kind of think it's time. He got a great deal. I think everybody wins.

[00:13:28] It's a slightly slower competition over there, a bit more traditional, and I think that might suit his body and style. That may have been a reason. I am intrigued, though, as to why you think he didn't go to Perth or PNG. I don't know anything about it. When I spoke to him a few weeks ago, we were talking about post-football career. Would he go into coaching? Would he go into media? Whatever.

[00:13:56] And he said something like, I wouldn't mind stepping away from the game for six months just to sort of clear their head. And I'm paraphrasing here because I've been involved in the game since I was 10 or whatever. It's been his full-time job since he was a teenager, more or less. And that was interesting to me. And so maybe the overseas lifestyle, the travel, the family, et cetera, maybe that's got something to do with it.

[00:14:23] But having watched York on the weekend, he'll fit in really good. He'll suit the competition. It's pretty humble surroundings. Like the ground, it looked like a cross between Carrembar Redback Stadium and not even Ocean Protect Stadium. Like it's humble. And it's quite charming and beautiful. Very working class kind of vibes. So I think he'll be great.

[00:14:53] I get the feeling maybe it's more for the experience, though, as well. I think it's the extra year. I don't know anything about his contract or anything like that. But if he's going to be 33 going into next season, if Perth only gave him 33-34, this just extends his maximum money-making years, you would assume, into that extra year. It does come with some risk with Super League because of the way that the contracts are. They're not backed by the Super League over there and everything like that like it is in the NRL.

[00:15:22] And there's been cases of players playing for like Toronto. And then they've gone past and basically players didn't get completely paid. And Salford went through a couple of different versions of that as well, right? So there is some risk with going for that extra year. However, why wouldn't you, right? It's a young family, a chance to go and travel, experience a new culture. And for his body, his size, his toughness, I think he's going to go really well over there versus trying to squeeze out a couple more years in the NRL.

[00:15:52] And I remember when he did, maybe it was his last contract with us or the contract before, he was sort of saying that if I don't think I can go at 110% at the NRL level, I'm not going to sign for an NRL club. So I don't know if that's played a part here or if it was just the extra year, but maybe a combination of both. Yeah. And it's just part of the puzzle that we're going through with the Sharks. There's a bunch of rumors around which we can talk about, but we have to just tell you their rumors.

[00:16:18] You and I don't have any inside knowledge on what's going on with these specific rumors. But one of them is that Sionika Toa has been heavily linked with North Queensland, the Cowboys, and the other rumor which fits in with it is that Sam Stone Street allegedly signed a multi-year deal with the Sharks. Again, now by the time this comes out, this may be out, it may be squashed.

[00:16:47] So we'll just keep it as rumors only, please. But that's interesting. And then also Jesse Ramian linked with the Cowboys as well in addition to Katoa. Again, got no idea whether it's true or not. We're just talking for speculation, a bit of fun. How does that sit with you? It's an interesting one with Katoa and Stone Street. So if we're trying to win a game tomorrow, I'm going Katoa.

[00:17:15] And this is a decision we are making for years, 27 and 28 and onwards, right? So it's going to be very difficult to determine who would be the better player in two years. Sioni's had a number of injuries with his legs that could be potentially impacting things like his speed. However, his finishing ability is right up there. It's world class. He's been one of the best finishers in the NRL for a number of years.

[00:17:42] If you give him half a gap, he scores to the point where I believe if he played in that finals game against the Cowboys in 2022, instead of Connor Tracy on the wing, we go in at halftime in the lead, et cetera. And that's a different game, right? So that's potentially something there. I do understand the club going with Stone Street. I think Stone Street has improved rapidly over the last year or so. Am I completely sold on Stone Street? Not yet.

[00:18:09] However, I also look at depth charts and I see a fair few centers in the mix. I don't see a lot of wingers below Stone Street that I think are at that NRL level. With Haradi moving on as well, I think with Katoa moves on as well, I think we've got to go into the market and bring another winger into the club with NRL experience.

[00:18:30] I think we've seen this year when we had Katoa out and Ronaldo out, like you really need that extra NRL winger in the mix that can kind of go. There's been some good players that have come on the market and gone in that space. I look at that young winger from the West Tigers, Luaki or something like that, that first pick. I thought he's fantastic and I would love to see us get in the market for a winger with a bit of size and speed.

[00:19:00] I think that would be great for us. How that works for our salary cap, I'm not sure, but you're losing Sifatala, Jesse Ramey and Sione Katoa, Cameron McInnes. That's got to be a lot of salary cap right there to go and bring in some fresh talent and refresh the squad. And just on the Jesse one, that's one of the most perplexing ones because I'm kind of shocked that there isn't more of a market for Jesse at the moment. And he doesn't have more options because you pretty much know what you're going to get from Jesse. In most weeks, he's a 7.5 at a minimum.

[00:19:31] Some weeks, you might get a 6 out of him. But historically, those have been few and far between and you could argue a past year or so, his form has dipped a little bit. However, you do see some flashes and some glimpses. He's close to getting back there. So if I was a club and I needed outside backs, I would be taking a gamble on Katoa and Ramey to bring him to my side. However, I totally understand where we're at and having this squad together for so long. I think we do need some fresh blood. But I would like to see us announcing something in terms of signings.

[00:20:01] Like we've announced Trout and that's it. A lot of players don't have the door. Yep. So I'm surprised, yeah, the Bears and PNG are not fishing harder. Excuse the pun. And when you say bring in an NRL experience winger, does that mean Stoney goes back to being three or does he stay at two and then the other guys, the backup?

[00:20:29] Well, I just would like to see a bit of competition, right, with NRL quality players. Like we've got this year, right? So this year we've got Sione Katoa who can play on the wing. We've got Ronaldo. We've got Haradi and Stone Street. So there's four guys in the two spots there. I would argue Haradi is more of a centre than a winger. However, you've got NRL experience and people that have been around the game for long enough. So do we buy a Tier 2 New South Wales Cup guy that is a dependable Haradi-style player? Potentially.

[00:20:57] And I think that's something that we will likely do. However, I would like us to aim to try and sign another starter just to keep that pressure on Stone Street to sort of say, you know what? This is going to be a shootout most weeks for who gets the spot. And also give us a little bit of coverage in terms of injuries because we saw it this year. It's highly likely you're going to go into a game without your first two choice wingers.

[00:21:19] And that's going to be quite difficult to try and get that because when we saw Talakai in the centres and Haradi on the wing, it wasn't ideal in my opinion. And I don't want to get in a situation where we have to put like, let's say, Teague Wilton into the centres next year and bring in an underdeveloped player from reserve grade or whatever the case is. I just feel like this year if we missed a trick, I think we missed a trick in terms of freshening up the squad.

[00:21:46] And I feel like we missed a trick in our outside backs depth, especially because we had that exemption for Ronaldo. Now, did we use that on internally? Probably, but it's not saying the club's going to really talk about it and let us know. So it's hard to work out. I don't know if there's a lack of three quarters compared to, say, for example, forwards in the rugby league world.

[00:22:10] But it seems like we and other teams struggle to have – like, I think you'd struggle to have an NRL quality winger come to Cronulla and play third string. Well, I think there's – we just saw the young fellow that debuted for South, who is a former Sharks lower grader, right? What was his name, sorry? Penitani, lad. Penitani, yeah. Yeah, so you've got Jordan Samrani that is doing great things over at Paralympic.

[00:22:40] I love Samrani. So what I'm saying is that potentially there's – it doesn't have to be a guy that's played in our lower grades, but I'm just giving some examples of younger players that might have gone elsewhere because we've been so set in our back five. And that back five has given us tremendous stability for a really long time, and I'm not complaining about that. That's the cost of doing business and having a really good development program that you are going to lose young players.

[00:23:05] We've also kept a lot of the young guys we wanted to keep to, the Gabriels and Nicora Williams and all that type of stuff. So I'm not complaining about that. All I'm sort of saying is I feel like there is a market out there for those players that are on the cusp. Yeah. And they're hungry, and I think that we could go and get – now, you could go out and try and buy like a Jake Averillo, for example. That's going to probably cost you too much money, and he's probably going to – But he's a first grader. Yeah, he's an out-of-first grader, right? So that's my point.

[00:23:33] You could go down that angle and say, all right, we're going to replace Jesse Ramian with a Jake Averillo, who Averillo might be slightly cheaper, younger, freshen up. But I don't think that moves the needle for us. I probably would prefer with our centers that we continue on the development path that we've got within the program. For me, it's just finding those wingers that would give us the depth. And I get why some of these guys had to have left the club because we have had those two wingers for basically the last seven, eight years. Yeah.

[00:24:02] And historically, they've been pretty injury-free. Now, Stone Street's played a handful of games. He's probably up to about 30 or so now. So he's always above you in the pecking order. And then we also have had Haradi, who's dependable too. So there hasn't been a lot of room to bring in some of these younger guys, right? So I would be going to other clubs that have these development programs and have a lot of these younger talents that have gone well in the under-20s, under-18s, and just fish for an opportunity for these guys. And we do have those guys in our reserve grade right now.

[00:24:30] But I just feel like we need an injection of freshness and something new to push the current prop that we've got. How do you feel about some of these centers? We've got, I think, four really good centers coming through. Potentially, and it's not my go, but I'm asking you, potentially playing for a wing spot next year as the third string, as the backup.

[00:24:56] Well, it's hard because it's not ideal and it's not something that I kind of lean towards. However, you look at players like Ronaldo, and I believe Ronaldo played his whole juniors at fullback. And then he comes to the end of the world, he's a winger. The reason I also bring it up is that Cora Williams, one of the best centers in Australia at his age, is playing on the wing for Newtown. Yeah, absolutely. So it can be a way to ease them in. We saw it with Sueli at the Roosters. He started on the wing and then moved into the centers.

[00:25:26] Shane Flanagan swore by the role. Of bringing them in on the wing to... Yeah, and it works. Yeah. Even Val Holmes has successfully done it. And, you know, there's an argument there, is he a better winger than center? Did K.L. debut on the wing or am I making that up? He did. That one game he played. I think K.L. debuted in center. But I know K.L. plays... Had played fullback for the Cook Islands. He's played a number of positions. I thought he played in the wing that... Remember that one game and it wasn't that great? The first half? Was it against the Warriors maybe or something like that?

[00:25:56] Anyway, someone will correct me. I can't remember. But yeah, there's a chance that he might have actually done that as well. So it's there as a possibility. And if we want to keep some of these four really good young centers that we've got on our books, we already have K.L. signed up on a long-term deal. Michael Gabriel's got, I think, another two years out of us as well. So we're going to have to find places to fit a lot of these guys, assuming we just say we are moving on from Jesse and Sione, which is not guaranteed. No.

[00:26:25] But there's still centers, in my opinion. And how long they stay on the wing, you just never know. So I like the idea of the tall, athletic, strong, powerful wingers. And I would like to get another one of those into our system just to try and give a different look to what we've currently got. I feel like if they offer Rameen one year and he's open to it, I feel like that is something the club might do. Again, this is purely opinion. It's not fact-based.

[00:26:55] But out of all the guys off contract, I feel like Rameen, if he was to take a one-year deal, if he was open to it, I believe they'd lean towards offering it. But just because he's very reliable. And he's very set in the shire. He's left the club once. And I think he's been pretty vocal about how he was unhappy with that decision to leave the Sharks and all that type of stuff that went into that.

[00:27:18] So potentially it does feel like Sione's on the outer just based off he's the only player that really got dropped after a bad performance. And again, you can sort of argue, was that good? Was it not good? You know, I'm not discussing that. But I'm just sort of saying I found that interesting that, yeah, he did have a bad game over in Perth, but he did pay the consequence for it and subsequently been injured. He probably would have been back by now. Who knows? I believe he would have been, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:45] So it's just interesting that that messaging came out. And it's also interesting that two of the clubs he's been linked to, which is Perth and North Queensland, has phenomenal fishing. So I think either way he's going to land in a pretty good spot and it's going to work out well for him. It will be really strange to see him in another club if that does eventuate, just because he was part of that really great under-20 side. He's a junior, essentially. Yeah.

[00:28:10] And they went basically undefeated that whole year and then they went to custody in the finals. But he's been with us for a long time. He's brought so many exciting memories, so many great tries and just been such a hardworking player for us that I think when we look back on history, it'll be a shame that he doesn't get to 100 tries for the Sharks. I think he's at 85. I think injuries have cost him there because you look at Ronaldo, him and Ronaldo were neck and neck for a while there. But it seems like he's not going to get to 100 for us, which is a bit of a shame.

[00:28:41] Anyone else we need to talk about contract-wise this week? Will Kennedy. Oh, yeah, the Will Kennedy series. Here we go. I predict Will will be signed by this time next week. What is that based off? Absolutely nothing. It's based off nothing. To Cronulla. To Cronulla. I just feel like given everything that's gone on with Will over the last couple of years, I feel like he – well, it's been rumoured that he has an offer in front of him from the Sharks and the Sharks won't sign.

[00:29:11] I kind of feel like the club's not going to want this to drag out any longer. They're going to want to get it done. And I feel like once you see Cam leaving and you're seeing potentially Catoa leaving, potentially Raymond leaving, they're going to want to get a kill in the player market and they want to lock somebody down. And I feel like Will probably will be that next cab off the rank. So definitely not a rumour. The coach spoke of it in one of his press conferences that he didn't say the words, but they want to keep him and there is an offer there for Will.

[00:29:41] I have to think there are other clubs, franchises chasing Will Kennedy given the form he's in. And I'm reasonably confident we're going to get him. But I don't – personally, it's just me speaking. I don't think it's a done deal he's going to be a shark. Now, as I said, I'm fairly confident we'll get him. But there's a part of me, the negative part, the singer-songwriter,

[00:30:11] the depressed part that comes out and goes, we waited too long, we low-balled, we low-balled on the years, and someone just has to come in with a slightly – not even slightly, just a better offer and romance him a little bit and we lose him. This is honestly like an abusive relationship, this relationship we have with Will. It's like having a really great loyal partner and not treating them right

[00:30:41] and then all of a sudden another person comes in and shows them a little bit of interest and is quite kind to them and then our partner sort of says, you know what, I've had enough, I'm leaving. I just – again, running the numbers and I know there's a few clubs that are looking for fullbacks and certain clubs have been mentioned in terms of looking at players to play fullback and changing up and I kind of trace he's under some pressure now and all that type of stuff. I just can't see anybody moving the dollars required to go and find the cash

[00:31:08] to put into a contract to get Will off us. That would be us. Like let's say right now – and again, I have no idea what numbers that he's on. Let's say he's on 450. I think that was one of the reported numbers last year, right? So that 450 is the floor. So we would potentially have to go to 556, whatever the number is. But that jump for us is much smaller than another club that would have to move on a player or find that money because I feel like in terms of paid fullbacks

[00:31:37] at clubs, he would be one of the lower paid fullbacks in the NRL. So every other club would have players that are signed at higher values, if not the same. So they would have to essentially dig that up, move a player on to bring him in. And I just feel like he would have a number in his head that he would want and feel comfortable with. And I just can't imagine we would be too far away. Like I can't see him going to the Sharks saying, I want 900 to stay free. No.

[00:32:04] So I just feel like the gap is not going to be too big because even if somebody was to come in and make a play for Will, they're only going to use him for fullback. They're not going to use him for center or 5A or 4B. No. I just can't see another club that could drum up, say, $600,000. Here's the thing. And my memory is not amazing. I have to declare that to everyone if you don't know me by now. But I feel like the number you are speculating on is way more than what he's

[00:32:34] actually on. That could be the problem. Yeah. Well, that's going to be a hard one. But I do keep going back to the fact that I would argue then every other NRL club would have a fullback that is on more cash than Will. I would assume there was not many other lower paid fullbacks in the NRL. rather than Will. Just based on starting, because you look at it, you've got Jai Gray over at South. Potentially, he's on a smaller contract now that he's growing into.

[00:33:04] You've got the Hammer. Drinkwater just signed for $900. Manly's got Turbo. Tedesco. Buller, who's on reported does $800,000 moving up to $900,000. Ponga at the Knights. You're right. You're right about that. I can't see another club that would have a fullback that is paid under $500,000 outside of potentially the Bulldogs with Connor Tracy. He would be the only fullback I could see that would be on less than $500,000.

[00:33:31] But there were some reports about his contract that came out that he just signed two weeks ago that I think peaked him around that $500,000 came up. Wait, who are you talking about? Connor Tracy. He would be the only person in that vicinity of dollars-wise. Because even Nick Meaney over at Perth is apparently on a huge wicket to go over to Perth. I think potentially at the moment I would speculate that next year's deal for Connor Tracy or whenever it kicked in is more than Will now.

[00:34:00] Yes, I would agree with that. I like your point about the relationship example. I do feel like if David Peachy or Craig Fitzgibbon, whoever comes in and puts their arm around Will and goes, we really want you to stay. And I'm sure they already have. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. It may be enough because the guy loves the club. He loves the area. He's loved within the Cronulla Sharks playing community. Fan base is probably 65-35, whatever.

[00:34:31] That's out of our control, out of his control. And he shouldn't worry about that. But I'm certain he doesn't want to go anywhere. I just think sometimes, yeah, if someone just kind of comes in and gets under the rug a little bit from the Sharks, there's just that negative part of me that thinks it's not a done deal until he signs on. But I am reasonably confident. Reasonably confident.

[00:34:53] Well, I'm just looking at his player profile on zero tackle because I was just trying to look for off-contract players when we were discussing the winger situation. And looking at Will, he's 30 in April of next year. Sure. So it lists him as $350,000 as his contract value. So I don't know if that's true. That was more what I was thinking like, to be honest. Yeah. So that's 350 puts him in the shock window.

[00:35:19] However, he would be leaving a team where he is the walk-up starter that is competing for top fours versus potentially going to play reserve grade. And I don't see a lot of clubs that would have a backup fullback that would be paid $350,000 or above in terms of a backup. Now, I don't know what we're paying Ison. However, I do know that he was a highly touted lower grader that would have had some interest from a lot of clubs. So you would have had to have given him a decent deal to get. But I wouldn't imagine he's not on $350,000 or $300,000.

[00:35:49] I would be wrong. But I'm just saying, like, that's more backup money, right? And maybe the Storm when they had Sua Falongo, he was on that sort of backup money. However, he was playing a bit of a different role where they were injecting him off the bench. And there was a plan to get him into the game. And even when Pappenhausen was leaving, they were kind of like, you know what, we're kind of all right with that because we've got this guy. I just look at the NRL landscape and I just can't see a market for a 30-year-old fullback unless he's a starter.

[00:36:17] And, yes, you could argue there's a couple of teams if they swapped him out, they would improve. I agree with that. But they've all made long-term commitments financially. And I think for them to unwind that is going to be difficult. And the thing where we lose the leverage is we're not in the market for another fullback. We're not going out saying, let's go and buy another number one. We've sort of said we want to re-sign Will. So unless that changes, we don't have a lot of leverage and we can't really pressure Will into getting this done.

[00:36:46] And this is probably why it dragged out so much last year as well. And that's where the negativity for me comes in because I wonder if they've just lost – like there's no more sort of chances for the Sharks. Here's the deal. Well, and obviously you can back and forth with that. The management could go, oh, we want this. And the Sharks can go, okay, well, let's talk about that. I'm not saying anything's closed off.

[00:37:12] But just based on the last couple of years, why near deal? Why near deal? Why near deal? It's lucky that he's such a low-profile player that it's not more of a story. Now, journos do ask. I'm down there at the press conferences and that kind of stuff and they do ask. And the club always put out a positive attitude about Will Kennedy. And again, he's very well-loved, particularly amongst the players' group.

[00:37:38] And I've started asking the players on and off air, just like, tell us about Will, just because I'm so intrigued by it all. And they love him as a player, as a person. And I'm not here to say that he is James Tedesco. I'm not here to say that he is David Peachy. I'm not here to say he is – I can't say the word Jarrod Hayne on the podcast.

[00:38:02] But, you know, what I'm saying to you is he's one of our form players and has been for three years, I would argue. And this year he's been terrific. And I've said it a few times now. I'm not in the habit of letting go of one of my form players. That's my issue. I hear you saying he's 30 years old. And you're not saying don't sign him. I get that. But I hear what you're saying. I'm signing him. But 30 years old, da-da-da-da-da. It's like I'm watching what he's seeing.

[00:38:29] I'm seeing him on the field lighting it up every week. I don't know what more he needs to do. That's where this podcast series gets mystifying is that what else does the guy have to do? And you can have all the Facebook comments you want from people who can't stand him and his defense is no good. It hasn't improved. Okay, cool. Okay. You keep watching that game, friends. But what more does he have to do?

[00:38:55] And I stand by the fact that we could sign him for another year or two years if he's lucky. And he stinks it up every week. I'd find that surprising. Yeah. My point is, basically on current form, and if you want to say current form being the last three years, what, three or four weeks he's been out of luck, out of form, whatever? Come on, man. He has a presence when you see him on the field.

[00:39:22] And I touched on this last week when I was sitting behind the try line at Magic Round and just watching him play. It was a very adult-like performance from Will. And sometimes in the early years of his career, he could be a little bit erratic. And his defense, I would agree, was a little bit whimsical. I think now the will that you get is a very mature Will who I feel is confident within the four walls of the Sharks.

[00:39:46] And I don't know how he would go in other systems and environments because he's been within the four walls of the Sharks for a really long time. And I feel like he's very comfortable with that and very comfortable with the leaders that we've got and comfortable with the playing group and bossing them around and telling them what to do. And I don't know if we've taken advantage of that a little bit with some of these negotiations. If he wanted to go to Super League, I feel like he could have a Ben Barber-type run in Super League. He is that talented over there.

[00:40:13] With the speed of the game there, his ball-playing skills, I think he could go over to Super League, make probably double the money and be one of the form players in Super League. Now, if I'm a Super League club, I'm absolutely going for Will Kennedy because he's one of the best options you could get in the open market right now. My only thing is I just feel like the level of competition we face to steal him off us right now is where we're sitting at and why we're playing a little bit of games with him fairly or unfairly. The club's got to do the right thing for the club. Yeah.

[00:40:42] They have already re-signed Ison. We did that a while ago for another two seasons. He's now coming back from his injuries, getting back on his feet. I do think if there's a world where you've replaced Will Kennedy and Jesse Ramian, Sione Katoa in our team, and you throw in Ison, you throw in Gabrielle, and pick your winger of choice that you want to add in there as well with Stone Street. Sure, great. We can continue with that. And Ronnie, you're going to get a bit of a faster Sharks team. Is that more advantageous to the new interpretations of the rules, et cetera?

[00:41:12] Potentially, absolutely. But it's going to be one of those things where that is a big jump to take out 100-plus games of NRL experience from Ison and 150, whatever Jesse's at right now as well, from our back line. However, there has to be a point where that Band-Aid is ripped off and actually done. I'd have no problem with that, Kieran. But the fans would have to realize it would be a year like this year where it's win-loss, win-win, loss-loss.

[00:41:39] Like it's not going to be a breakout season the first year. Now, just before I forget those two great points you made, I have zero problem with the club signing Will Kennedy for one year and then continuing on that path of, no, no, Ison is the future. Touch wood. No serious injuries for Ison. He's got another year ahead of him. And that's the plan. I've got no problem with that because I believe in Ison.

[00:42:05] I also have zero problem with, even despite everything I've said over the past 45,000 episodes, about club first, Will Kennedy second. I've got no problem with that. I'm a club guy first. Everyone knows that, right? So I have no problem with the club acting the way they're acting, for want of a better word. I just want everyone to realize that should the unthinkable happen and he goes, which some people would be happy with, some wouldn't.

[00:42:37] That's why it would be because the club has kind of slowed down. They've left the negotiations, not late, but they haven't, he hasn't been a priority until now. Now I'm told he's a priority. But to me, that looks a little bit like, well, why wasn't he a priority a month ago or two months ago when we still saw him in great form? That's all I'm saying. I'm definitely club first. So I don't, I wouldn't say they've handled it badly if they pull it off because, because last year they pulled it off.

[00:43:05] And we still got to have Adnif and Blake and Nico Hines and upgrade Trindle. Look, it all works out. I get it. I just think sometimes the little guy on the small money probably deserves a little bit more and a little bit more love. I think now was the time to do it, given that he's been informed for quite a number of years. And the age thing, okay, he's almost 30. So give him a year, give him two. But you can still groom us and no issues there.

[00:43:32] So I think it can all work as long as he signs on. Yeah. And I expect a one-year deal. Possibly I could see a two-year deal. But the expectation in my head would be it's a shootout every week between him and Ison. And I'm not saying that Ison is ready and we all should go because if I'm picking a team this week, I'm picking Will Kennedy to play a fullback for the Sharks. It just comes down to, again, we've had the same roster together for a really long time.

[00:44:02] And so when we say, what does Will have to do? I think Will has to have one of those games against a top-tier team and absolutely crush and dominate. Like we've seen him do. And to be fair, he has done that. But we need it in like a major semi or something like that in a finals game. But then the decision is going to be too late. Like he's not going to get to this time around, I believe. You're not going to have Will in September off contract like last year and sign him two weeks before the preseason. No. And I hear what you're saying about those big games and I get it.

[00:44:32] But gee, it'd be great if the 12 other guys had big games too. 100%. Yeah. I'll take that back. Sione Katoa always has a big game aside from Sione Katoa. Someone else having a big game in a final. And that's why I get kind of fired up, dude, because we put this spotlight on the fullback because fullback money and fullback reputation. The minute Will Kennedy drops a ball, we take the contract away.

[00:44:59] The minute he misses a tackle, we take the contract away. But then for 99% of the game, he's like 9 out of 10. And we go, look at that pass, Kieran. He held the pass. Like he's amazing. Right? Yeah. And that's my problem when you say, well, he's got to have a big game in a big game. It's like, well, yes, he does. No, he does. I'm not saying he shouldn't. I'd love him to be 10 out of 10 in a prelim. We'd probably win the game. Right? But I just want that pressure on everyone else.

[00:45:29] I don't understand, and I'm going to use a big word, and it's not even true, but the bullying of Will Kennedy. And I'm not talking about you. No, I get it. But just that kind of mentality where like today in the prelim, you were not James Tedesco, so you got to piss off. Like I don't get it. The issue is though, we have made a long-term commitment to Braley and a long-term commitment to Nico. And Trindle is now on a decent-sized contract. All reports are next year it takes a significant leap.

[00:45:59] And he's signed for, I think, three more years too. So there is no ability to make any other changes. Now, you can go and say, all right, their spine didn't get it done. Are we going to keep Will, though, and move on Trindle? Like I'm open to that as well. I just don't see that as being realistic. Now, Trindle would have a lot of suitors on the player market if we decided to move on from Trindle. Nico would have some suitors as well. Black Braley would certainly have some suitors.

[00:46:26] I just don't feel like where the club is heading and the decisions that they've made, that those are realistic possibilities. So we are forcing this decision to the bullying point on the fullback position. Now, is that the right move? I can't answer that question right now. But the only ability we have to make a change within our spine is coming down to that spot. And I don't think it's fair, but I just think that's the reality.

[00:46:51] Is there a chance we can look around the spine, above, below the spine? Like why? I understand the answer to what I'm going to ask you this question. Why are we obsessed with spines? I get it. Is there a chance we could do other things within the team that will give it the freshen up and we can still win a comp with the spine? Well, that's what the Fenua Blake signature was supposed to bring. And it has looked a little bit more of the same since he's been here. Now, that's not a reflection on Fenua Blake.

[00:47:20] I think he's seen tremendous purchase for us. If that has made other players fall into some of these traps that we've got, potentially. But, so let's strip it all back, right? So how do we rebuild this team but keep the spine together? Which is an absolute possibility. So you move on Katoa and you move on Rami. And you bring in fresh speed and you're trying to find something different.

[00:47:45] So Michael Gabriel gives you a player with a ton of speed, a bit of X Factor and a different look of a player. So you're replacing Jesse with that. That makes us look different. There's a trade-off of experience and all that type of stuff. But that doesn't concern me for what we're trying to do here. You're putting in Stone Street full-time over Katoa. I feel like that's not really much of a change for what we're doing. I feel like we kind of know what that looks like with him and Ronaldo on the wings together. That doesn't really move the needle for me. Kale's not going anywhere.

[00:48:14] We just re-signed him on a long-term deal. So then I look at our back row. I think Colquhoun is our 13 moving forward. I think Puru definitely should be in the mix to replace McInnes. I think that that's a different option, a different X Factor, a player that can play dummy half now that we've seen at the NRL level as well as playing in that 13 role. Then we look at our back row. So Teague Wilton is on a longer deal than Nakora. And they both play two different styles.

[00:48:43] The way we use our back rowers, they're not used as meter reading back rows. We kind of like to do a little bit of finesse, get them out the back of shape and have them running different lines to try and really punch holes through the opposition halves. That's been successful for a long time. So I'm open to saying we're going to have to change that up and go into the market for a different second rower.

[00:49:04] Who that would be, I would think you'd have to try and get an offloading sort of style player that's a little bit different, like a Kai Pierce Paul, for example. He would have been fantastic for us to bring in, but he's not available. But I'm just sort of saying, like, if you move Nakora out and you bring in someone like a Kai Pierce Paul who has size and offloading or Fainu from the Tigers, that sort of back row could change how we look. And then I just look at the front row. That other spot next to Fanua Blake, we need to have that locked down.

[00:49:32] So this is where I was hoping you were going. Just on the back row, would you elevate Billy Burns to full time or not if you moved on, Britton Nicorah? I don't feel like that changes anything for us, right? So let's say we move Billy Burns into Nakora's role. What are we doing with Nakora's money and where are we spending that elsewhere? Are you spending that on the front row? This is where I'm going. If you can have a younger, angry version of Fanua Blake, so to speak, that changes things a lot.

[00:50:00] A lot. Yeah. And I also look at some of the best football for Neil Blake played. He played it with Mitch Barnett. So Mitch Barnett was an aggressive player with a high work rate as well. Sorry, go ahead. We've spoken about it a bunch. But – and I hate – look, I don't like saying this because it's so minimizing to the people I'm referring to. But you essentially need Pryor and Fafita is what you need.

[00:50:29] And we have the Fafita more or less. Yeah, it's a great way of putting it. Who that player is in the open market, I'm not exactly sure of who I would ideally pair him up with. But if you moved on Britt, you would save a bit of cash. And then if you put in Burns there, the downgrade I don't think is significant. And some people would argue – Different style. If you put in a grade, then Nekora, it's your preference in whatever style we want to play. It's pretty ruthless to do.

[00:50:59] I'm not opposed to it. And also, too, if you did that, you would be taking Nekora, Jesse, Katoa out of the same side of the field. Yeah. And you're recasting that net there, which I am totally fine with doing. Yeah. But I'm just – in terms of open heart surgery, that is a lot to do in a short period of time. So for me, I'm not against moving Nekora on and getting a new front rower. I would find that a tough pill to swallow to ever see him in a different jersey because of what he's done for us.

[00:51:29] But, again, I want to win a competition. And if we feel like it's the best thing for the club to spend that money elsewhere, I'm down for it. My only thing, though, Sam, is I get we are upgrading players. I get it. But we are losing Sifatala, Jesse Ramian in this example, Sione Katoa, Cameron McInnes. There's others I'm sure I'm forgetting, right? But that's a lot of salary cap room that we are losing and then bringing in players that are on lesser money.

[00:51:56] So I feel like there's got to be – like Sifatala was on reportedly a good deal at the Sharks. Cameron McInnes has been a captain of the club. Like those two guys alone – Braden Hamlin-Ueli was a player that we signed on good money as well. So he's unlikely – With the three of them, I would estimate – I'm only estimating with the three of those guys at least 1.5 for all up. Exactly. And the players that you're probably backfilling them with might add up to 800, for example. Maybe. Maybe.

[00:52:25] And then you've also got to factor in upgrades and all that type of stuff for other players like Trindle. Yeah, it's not as easy as what we're painting, but also it's not as hard. I do want to just say I wasn't necessarily saying move on, Britton. I'm nodding and saying yes because it makes sense financially to bring in a new prop. Yes, but I'm not – You don't have to go. Well, I'm not necessarily even saying that. I'm just saying magically I think if you find a prop, whether it's a young guy who's busting down the door or a veteran who's going to cost more money or a veteran who doesn't cost a lot of money,

[00:52:54] I do think if we're able – if you don't want to change your spine or we're not changing your spine, a way to freshen it up. Either way, I do think we need a guy starting next to Fanua Blake every week who's going to be in the same quality category. It doesn't have to be the same style. I want someone hard-nosed. I want someone who's going to beat down the door week in, week out, play some big minutes.

[00:53:18] But I do think that whether it's spine-related or not, we need another starting prop who's going to start every week for us. The only alternative to that is the Colquhoun move and Colquhoun becomes that guy that you project him to be and then he's – on paper, he would really do well in that role if he gets his experience up. Absolutely. He needs to improve at the rate that we're seeing. So then you are now changing your lock. Now, is that a Puru?

[00:53:47] Is it like a smaller lock with a bit more ball playing to help the attacking options? And then you buy more of an Aiden Tolman-style harder like clean-up guy for your bench to come in and fill those gaps in the middle. Where that lands, I'm not sure. But I think the hardest part is working out where to make the changes to get you the cash to spend the money in the other position. Because it's not as if you're going to go out and drop Jesse and move him on and go out and buy Katoni Staggs.

[00:54:16] Like that, for me, Katoni Staggs is an upgrade. You can say that, sure. But it's not going to tip us over the edge or change what we're doing. So for us – But also, it's not realistic, to be fair. Yeah, exactly right. So you can go ahead and say we want to get all these players like Joey Manu and all that type of stuff. It might happen. It might not. But there's got to be a way to have it realistic but also have it impact other positions. Because more than likely, the player we move on, we will replace from within to spend the money somewhere else.

[00:54:45] So in the example where Will takes a deal with Super League and so now Will's out the door at $350, that gives you $350 to go out and buy somebody else. And where we would go and buy that, I'm not sure. But Parramatta has gone out and bought a good fullback from Penrith who Isom was head of and he's done good things over at Parramatta. So it's not the end of the world because players want opportunities.

[00:55:07] Like if you could have got your hands on Falongo two years ago from the Melbourne Storms – Storms, one of the common storms – but you would have overpaid to get that guy into your system. Yeah. And now you would have a guy that is ready to go. So it's going to be fascinating to see what they do in terms of this because there are so many ways this can go. And the point I'm trying to make is the players that we're losing are probably going to be filled from within.

[00:55:31] The players we bring in are probably going to be a blend of different needs to change what we're doing. Yeah. And I think that the fan base is going to be pretty mixed on how that is. Like there's people who really obsess over the lower grades and they'll be comfortable with that. And there's people who probably don't obsess over that and they'll be unsure about it. I do think Liam Eisson has it in him. I definitely do.

[00:55:55] We've just got to see the runs on the board at a lower grade, which to be fair, we've seen throughout his young career. It's just there's been a stall last year and for obvious reasons he had an ACL. Fair enough. So I believe in the guy and I am excited by him when he gets his chance. But we just need to see it because it would be a disaster for the club, let alone the players, if they let the number one go who they've got now at the Sharks

[00:56:20] and then the next in line, for whatever reason, wasn't ready to go, that's not a good mix. Then you start talking about your spine and going, our spine's not very good. Yeah. And I think for us, we've been so locked into such a core 13 players for such a long time. Any sort of change to that is going to feel strange and disruptive and is it the right move to do?

[00:56:46] But there has to be a point in time where we change this 13 around because we have given it more than a fair crack. Yeah. And for all the criticism Fitzgibbon has copped, the biggest criticism that Fitzgibbon has copped is that he's been too loyal to this group of players. And Fitzgibbon has now signed on for a long-term deal. I'm a huge fan of that. He has learned so much over the last few years around loyalty and things.

[00:57:10] And if you listen to people like Brad Arthur, Brad Arthur talks about the biggest thing that he learned at Parramatta was he was too loyal to certain players and he kept giving different chances and all that type of stuff. And Fitz is not in that mold just yet. I think Fitz will make the hard calls when he believes that there is somebody better to step into that role. But right now we're at that point of what do we sign ourselves up for in terms of depth for the next 12 months? And for me, I would 100% keep Will Kennedy.

[00:57:37] I think it's the right move for us and given Isen's up and downs with injuries. The flip side is if we went out and bought a Chevy Stewart, for example. Now, I know that you are basically just doubling down on the Isen conundrum there because you're going for an untested, unproven fullback. But you could sell that to me on we're going to get two really super talented 21-year-olds or however old they are, put them in a dogfight against each other and the best man wins.

[00:58:07] And that's what Chevy found himself in at the Raiders and KO Weeks has got the spot. I think there is something to be said around that. And I love what Canberra have done in terms of their recruitment and going and buying a bunch of players of a similar age, throwing them out there and saying, go and do your best. Like the fact they got that, is it Mitchell Black down from the Broncos this year? They got him early. He was touted to be the next number seven at the Brisbane Broncos. The Broncos go out and buy Jonah Peasant. Then this player was available.

[00:58:34] He went down to go to Canberra to compete with Ethan Sanders. Ethan Sanders went there to take over from Fogarty. Now, the fact that they're able to have such a good system where they've got the best player for the halfback at that age group from Queensland and from New South Wales competing out against each other is a really good spot. So if we did lose Will, I would like us to go into that world of going, all right, who is the next best guy?

[00:59:01] If we think Isen's the best fullback in reserve grade or under 20s, who's the second best? Let's get them in the mix and make them have a shootout. So we will move on, but you're saying potentially there's a world where, for whatever reason, Kennedy doesn't sign on with us. Isen's there. Hopefully he's had a great year this year. He's ready to go next year. But then we've got, for example, a Chevy Stewart chomping in his bit. They have trials, off-season training, best man wins. Yeah, I mean, I don't hate it. You just got to make sure one of those guys is the guy there, right?

[00:59:31] Well, the issue, though, is if Will goes, you can't really go and find yourself an experienced option unless you're going to the Super League and trying to get a Bevan French or something like that at 30-31, which is not going to happen, right? So I'm just trying to stay realistic here and go, I would be going for a player that's had their pathways blocked and try and get them to agitate a release and get them to have a shootout for that role.

[00:59:55] Because just because we signed Liam Isen on this deal, there's not guarantee him the fullback spot next year in round one if Will's not here. And we've got other guys under 20s, too, that are playing fullback and representing as well. So there's players in the mix. And I feel like the more competition we have, the better it's going to be for us. So we wouldn't be able to go and buy a 100-game NRL fullback, for example. Let's go and get a guy that's on the cusp and we're going to have to go within experience

[01:00:22] and try and surround that with an experienced team, which we should have for the most part. But we will be losing, you know, 400 games worth of experience if Katoa and Rami and Leaf together, as well as Talakai, as well as Cameron McInnes, as well as ULA. So there's a lot going out the door is my point. Yeah, potentially. All right, let's get a bit lighter because it's been a bit of a heavy half an hour. It's talking about the Will Kennedy situation.

[01:00:50] We should change his name to Will Kennedy, the Will Kennedy Review. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, Nico Hines, our halfback, has been documenting his life. We're two episodes in. Love the name, hindsight, very smart. And when I first heard about it, I kind of went, okay, let's check this out. I wasn't blown away by the idea because I felt like Nico is always under the spotlight.

[01:01:19] What's he doing here? Is this going to open a can of worms or whatever? But then having seen the first episode, having starred in the first episode, I do think that he's doing it on his own terms. And I think it's just a kind of cool insight into the life of an NRL player, pretty big NRL player. I think it's kind of inspiring for younger, maybe younger athletes. And I don't think it takes up a lot of his time, to be honest. He's just being filmed. He's not doing the editing. He's not doing, he's chucking it on Instagram.

[01:01:49] It's not taking up much of his time. I don't think it's taking anything away from his game. I know that for a fact. And I think it's actually a really positive thing for him and for the club, but more so for him. And he definitely lets his guard down. I'm a little bit surprised how much he lets the guard down. Two episodes in, Joe from Mr. Paisley stars in the second episode. What are your thoughts? Well, two thoughts before I get into it. One, what are you wearing on the sand?

[01:02:16] You're at the beach and you're in a long, you're in a flannel and jeans on the sand. What is he doing? That's true. Now, I was getting in my mental health beach time. So I'm not there to bake. I'm not there to swim, especially this time of the year, right? And I woke up, dropped the kid to school, go to Mr. Paisley's, go to the beach.

[01:02:41] So it's more to get the air and look at the sea and the plans going above that. And also, I wasn't counting on being in a documentary about the number seven from the Corral Settle on sharks. Now, I will say this. Whenever I see a long-haired bloke with a board at the surfboard at the beach or in a weddy, I go, oh, is that Nico Hines? And it's never him. Never Nico Hines. I see him around a lot, but it's never him at the beach. The one day, I go, is that Nico Hines? That's Nico Hines.

[01:03:12] I can see he's filming something. I'm minding my own business in my jeans and my hoodie. And then, for whatever reason, he walks my way. And I didn't know, honest to God, the camera was rolling. So that wasn't scripted. And I didn't know until I watched the first episode. And then, when I saw him the next day, he had a bit of a cheeky smile and a bit of a cheeky grin. So that's – and it was also an overcast day. It wasn't exactly hot.

[01:03:41] That was what the vibe was. Now, I think if it's between November and February, maybe even March, I'll cop the criticism. But there was a reason why. What's your next question? Well, everything you've said about going to the beach for your mental health is absolutely fantastic. And it's something that I do, my wife does. We're very lucky to live in the Sutherland Shire. Voted the best place to live in the country. And the best beach also as well got voted this year too.

[01:04:11] So a great place to be. And also, shout out to the Shark Island bodyboarding contest last week. And it looked like it was absolutely packed and crazy. But where you were sitting on the sand, Sam. Yes. There was a huge hill of grass behind you and bench seating. So you could not have the agitation of the sand. No, I'm not a huge sand guy as well, which won't surprise you. However, I've got to feel it. If I'm on the grass, I'm just on the grass.

[01:04:41] Well, it's like that Anakin Skywalker scene where he talks about how much he hates sand. Because for me, I'm thinking if I've got my shoes on, if I've got my socks on, if I've got jeans on, I'm not sitting in sand. Well, I do it so regularly I have a routine where I can kind of not come home with buckets full of sand in my jeans. Now, it has happened earlier on in my career of doing this. But lately, I'm actually pretty good at avoiding the sand sticking around on me. And the other thing is being so well covered.

[01:05:10] What's that? Did you have a towel underneath you? A little blankie. A little blankie. Okay. All right. Well, you get a pass for that. But that was the first thing that stood out to me on the documentary. The second thing was when the boys wrapped Mr. Paisley's having their breakfast. Second ep, yeah. Yeah, the second episode. It was so quiet at Mr. Paisley's of the time that they went. I was like, that is an outrageously quiet back section of Mr. Paisley's that is always humming with activity, right? So I thought that that was interesting.

[01:05:40] It looked early. It looked early. It looked early. Yeah, it'd be the right time of the day to go there. And Mr. Paisley's is a great place. And I do giggle whenever I see the Mr. Paisley's Cup because it's becoming a real thing in the Shire now that you've absolutely connected and made it quite known that Mr. Paisley's and the Sharks are a thing. And it's a great coffee shop. There's a good playground for kids just down the road too.

[01:06:04] Well, we have to also declare that, like, yes, it's always been a bit of a haven for local sports people. But you and I, at least as far as Shark House goes, that was our first date, many dates, which led to this becoming the show. I said to you, this is the show. And you were like, what? This is the show. And it's great coffee. It's great coffee, great food, great people. Amazing. Amazing.

[01:06:28] But it's only been, I would say, in the last three to four years where it's really become specifically a team hang. You know, like I don't think that was always the case. But you would often see them in Cronulla itself and some of the other cafes there. And I'm not going to name and shame one of those cafes, but one of them is absolutely terrible coffee. And whenever I'd see somebody there, in general life, let alone a Shark's Bar, I'd say, why are you at this place?

[01:06:58] The coffee's terrible there. And if I'd ask my wife for a coffee and she was in Cronulla. We all know the franchise you're talking about. We won't mention it, but. No, I'm not talking about the one you're thinking of. I like that one. I'm thinking another one. Get out of here. Well, off air, you can tell me the one you're talking about because we're not here to name and shame. But yeah, great place. Just go check them out. Tell them what we sent you. But point being, yeah, I think it was early in the morning. I have been there when they've had legitimate spine meetings, team meetings.

[01:07:28] Not that that wasn't legitimate, but no cameras around. And sometimes they're like in the front window and everyone's just harassing them. And they're like, why'd you lose? What's going on? Like it's, you can get pretty heated. But let's talk about the fact that Nico Hines is dropping his guard. He talks about losing the 100th game. The first episode was deep, deep, intense look back at the origin, ill-fated game.

[01:07:52] So if you haven't checked it out, if you're hesitant on checking it out, I'd recommend it just from a shark's point of view of seeing what goes through this guy's head, how serious he takes it all. If you think he's just some sort of pretty boy or whatever, like he's pretty into it. He's pretty into the football. Like the car ride home where he was talking to, I believe it was his mother in the backseat. And she was sort of saying like, you know, talk to us like what's going on? Like how are you feeling?

[01:08:17] And he was so filthy on himself for coming out of our system in defense and for letting a try in. And you could just see how much that was absolutely irritating him and irking him. And to your point earlier, like this is what's going on in this guy's life. Like so he is driving home in that ride regardless. He's not putting that on for the cameras and saying, I'm going to make some content here. He's giving an insight into what actually happens. And I think from Nico, it comes from a very genuine place.

[01:08:44] Like I don't feel like he's doing this in terms of trying to be like a social media star or anything like that. I think he's got a bit of a platform and he's like, you know what? I'm going to open this up and share this with people who are interested because it's something that I would have liked to have watched when I was a kid or a fan. And I just get that feeling that he's obviously doing it to see where it takes him and all the type of stuff. But he's done podcasts and things like that in the past. And, you know, I saw that attract a little bit of criticism. But again, when I look at the messaging behind it, it's like, you know, the podcast he was doing,

[01:09:14] it was about your eight-year-old version of yourself and making that person proud of you and, you know, actually recognizing how far you've come in life. So Nico thinks a little bit differently to a lot of people. And there's a lot of self-reflection. There's a lot of critiquing and how can I do better and things like that. And that just shows you that he's obviously all in and absolutely cares about this. And it's not all fun and games and it's not all, you know, we won this week by 40 points. How good's that? It's the ups and the downs.

[01:09:42] And when he released it after that first loss, I thought that's a brave decision because Nico could be at an ice cream shop and he could buy like the last scoop of chocolate ice cream and everybody would be like, oh, this guy. That's a great example. He gets hammered for everything. He could be walking down an island, Cole, someone drops their guts and someone's going to go, it was definitely Nico. And, you know, he's innocent, but he's just a guy that was always going to attract that sort of attention.

[01:10:07] So I do get some fans saying, well, we worry about him taking on board some of that outside noise and just shut it all off. But I don't think that's authentic to who he is as a person. And I think for the most part, he does stay off all the social medias and that and tries to limit his scope and his vision. But I thought it was very interesting. He's controlling the narrative, but also he's letting that out because you don't want to keep that stuff in. And, okay, you can let it out without having a camera on. I get that.

[01:10:37] Most of the players do, right? But, yeah, I have zero issue with it. You know, he set up a camera and he's sauna and he's like giving you his life story. Like, if that's what he needs to do, go do it. Yeah. And I would have loved to have seen this when it was Paul Gallen coming through in 2008 or, you know, Greg Bird or whoever it was back in the day. It's a great point. Imagine Greg Bird filming this around like 2008. Like, it would have been a must-see TV. You could have sold it to Netflix.

[01:11:05] But it's just, it's the way the world's going and other players are jumping on and doing this too. So, I don't know if this is like a management thing where they've sort of suggested some players do it. But the fact that Latroll is doing stuff around like his farm stand and all that type of stuff, I thought that was quite interesting. Just go through, guys. Yeah. Thought it was quite interesting on that point. Got the workers in? Doing your work for you? No comment? Got some gyprocking going on at the moment. The old gyprock.

[01:11:34] So, for the people listening, Kieran just had two strange men come through the house. Now, yeah, it could be a management thing. It could be a Nico-driven thing. He's going to inspire other people to do it, which I think is great. On your point about players of the past not having that chance to do it or not taking the chance to do it, my first thought was, and I'm not a huge fan of the word content, right? Like, I know that this is what we do. I do a lot of it every week. I get it.

[01:12:01] I'm not a huge fan of just going, here's some content. Like, I'm a storyteller kind of guy. I like a bit of meaning behind what I do. Some may argue that's not what we do. Some will fight for us that that's what we do. But I think of it as a great insight. I forget the word content. Insight into one of our guys, right? And as you said, imagine Paul Gallen, whether it's in good times or bad, having that kind of – like, we had to wait for his autobiography to really get the full story.

[01:12:31] And that's fine. There were different times, different player. I get it. But the one thing it does scream to me is – I'm going to use the word content. You know, we go to our favorite team's website. But there's a lot of stuff there every week. It's not always here's an insight into Nico Horne's life. He's giving you that. Zero negativity from me.

[01:13:00] I think it's – and it's done really well as well, to be fair. Yeah, I was surprised. I looked at the views and I also looked at the views that Latrell was getting and they were pretty decent as well. And it gives him a chance to do something outside of football when he retires as well because there's going to be a lot of people that will get different access to him and then they'll come to him with different sort of ideas or things like that in terms of maybe this guy could be a good ambassador for our brand or all that type of stuff that you can look at down the track.

[01:13:30] But I think if you watch it, the focus is very clear. Like he is a young man who is going through the stages of planning a wedding. He is playing football, living his dream. He's very understanding of where his place is within the rugby league landscape and his importance in affecting the outcome of results for the Sharks. And that was the takeaways that I kind of took from it. And I was like, you know what? This is something that, you know, I'll keep watching. And keep supporting.

[01:14:00] And I am a Nico fan. I'm very proud that he's from the Central Coast as well and the things that he came from, his background. And I think a lot of the times where he's found himself in circumstances, like luck could not have gone any worse for him. Just even for being in the Melbourne Storm 17 on Grand Final Day, not getting on the field. Out of his control, most of it. Yeah. Like playing State of Origin, finally getting a shot at halfback and then having a centre take off somebody's head, get centre off. They have to play out of position.

[01:14:29] After already playing out of position, the first time you get a chance and throwing in at centres. Like there's so many things that you can say, well, just be better and get it done. And yeah, sure. That's one way to look at it. But there's a very hard standard to hold people to when you look at it. It's not as if he went out there, played with Nathan Cleary, like Mitchell Moses has had the privilege of doing sometimes and could just play a small role and get the W, right? Like the centre literally took someone's head off and got sent off in the first three, four minutes. Who was it?

[01:14:58] And it was Sueli that did it to Rhys Walsh. And so basically that just marked his Origin career over. And even to the point where we're getting an injury at 5'8 this week and we're bringing in Matt Burton. Now, show me one statistic that Matt Burton has outperformed Nico Hines in this season in terms of a 5'8 role. Well, even stranger, excuse the pun, is we're bringing in Ethan Strange who's played 55 games. I mean, he's a great player. Well, I'm fine. I'm fine with Ethan Strange getting in there and playing it because Origin's going to play a different style. He's going to be very running.

[01:15:28] But Nico, and I'm not saying he should be, I'm not saying he should be, but he's not even mentioned in this conversation anymore, rightly or wrongly. And I just feel like that's now kind of a thing that he's accepted as well. That's the state of Origin BS that I don't put up with in my life where it's all just like, you know, there's talk this week that, and it's been around, Nathan Cleary has to dominate Origin to certify his legacy. No, he doesn't. You're talking stupid. You're talking about a three-week tournament.

[01:15:55] Get off your high horse, especially particular former players who, whatever. No, we normal people do not live our life for state of Origin. I'm sorry. The guy's won four titles in five years. He stamped his legacy. Let's move on. I'm getting angry. Need more coffee. Kieran, you know what's not angry is, and I need to talk about it briefly because people can go listen to the episode yesterday about it.

[01:16:20] The Sharks, in conjunction with Luke Lewis's company and Sharks Have Heart, are doing this amazing, I'll say, competition. You'll hear about it this week. It's going live on Friday. It'll be live for a bunch of time, I think. It's a raffle, essentially. Is that the right word? Kieran, a raffle. It's a competition, and it's not about the highest bidder. It's about you'll purchase a ticket or, in your case, 4,000 tickets, Kieran, and you go in a draw.

[01:16:48] There's 17 winners, I believe, and that will be drawn, I think, the week before. It'll be like round 26, the week before the Storm home game, last game of the year at home, more or less. It's potentially a league club opening. We're not sure about that. But just as important, the All Boys Day and 10-year anniversary celebration of the premiership. And there are 17 premiership rings to win. Now, they're not actually the players' ones. They're replicas.

[01:17:17] But when I say replica, they're not like plastic ones. They're like amazing, jeweled, infested, proper premiership rings, just not the players' ones. And whoever picks your name out of the hat. So if, in my case, Jason Baku is going to pick my one out, he'll be like, Sam Shnazzi, you're going to be my guest.

[01:17:40] And then I hang out with Jason Baku and the whole team and the coach, Shane Flanagan, and probably the staff around that. And so what will happen is they will present you with the ring. I believe it will probably be in front of the crowd. You'll do the lap of honor with the 2016 team. You will cheer on the 2026 team running out. And then you'll go up to an area. I think I know where the area is, but I won't say it in case it's not happening.

[01:18:09] But there will be an area closed off, especially for the 2016 team and their crew, plus the 17 winners, Kieran. Now, I'm not sure at this stage if there's plus ones. But obviously, anyone who listens to this show and wins, and I don't, I'm your guaranteed plus one. We're coming up to 800 episodes I've given you, Kieran. 800 episodes! I've got to be someone's plus one. This isn't about me. This is going to be live from Friday.

[01:18:39] Released an episode yesterday with your mate Jimmy Maloney, Luke Lewis, Wade Graham. Exclusive chats. Amazing to talk to those guys. I love them. I'm emotional talking about it. Go listen to it on all your podcast feeds. There's the audio version on YouTube. And that literally gives you the full insight into it. So we don't need to get too much into that right now. But obviously, you're very excited about that. Yeah. It's something that I'm going to try and use some influence and try and rig the system to try and win. But I'm not going to have any success in doing it. No, it's all about board.

[01:19:08] And I will definitely be buying a number of tickets because this is something that I'm desperately interested in. And I think it's a great opportunity for everybody. And I also think it's great, too, that it's not just a bidding war. It's not just the 17 Sharks fans who have the deepest pockets can go and do this. This is something that gives everybody an opportunity. It's completely above board. And knowing some of the people that are in that team, they will be genuinely excited to share something like that with an excited Sharks fan.

[01:19:37] Like, they will be stoked to hang out with a Sharks fan and get on the source or have some Chinese food or whatever the situation is and celebrate it for a night with a fan. Because we're going to try and get Maloney on the podcast later on in the year. But just having a bit of a chat with him around some of the Sharks memories that he's got and stories that he's got, you can still see the love and the passion that he has for the Sharks. And some of the other players that you see around, too, are all in the exact same boat. And they all – they love talking about that season because it was such a special time.

[01:20:07] And I think if you've got like a Fafida or if you've got like a Ricky Letelli – Ricky Letelli is one of the great followers on Instagram at the moment. You can get a chance to check him out. He's absolutely killing it on Instagram. And it's not something I would have expected. I know. But even if you've got a society thinking, like – You can't lose. You can't lose. It's such a fascinating conversation. And whoever gets Matt Pryor has to be bashed by Matt Pryor for 80 minutes. I think that's only fair. So go listen to the episode, everyone. It's about half an hour of chats. It's amazing.

[01:20:36] We talk a lot about the season. It's not just about the promotion. Every player is guaranteed to be there except for Jack Bird who has a Super League contract. And even though he wants to come home just for the weekend, we're led to believe he won't be. So every player will be there except for Jack Bird. The coach will be there, Shane Flanagan. There'll be a few kind of other people who worked behind the scenes who'll be there.

[01:21:04] I think the only – was there someone else? Oh, so Val and everyone will be there because no one's playing that night that's affected by it. So everyone's going to be there. Yeah, everyone's going to be there. And it's going to be a lot of fun. And your point about – you can't get a bad person. And the other thing is you're not just glued to that person. You'll be in a room with all 18 and you can mingle a little bit. So, you know, you want to get your big cue yourself as in nice and nice.

[01:21:33] And they'll be in a great mood because, one, it's Old Boys Day. Two, it's a 10-year celebration of it. There are some wild characters in that team that will be well and truly enjoying themselves. And these guys don't see each other very often because life pulls everybody in different directions. So it will be one of the better parties in the Sutherland Shire that night that you can count on that. Yeah, congrats to Luke Lewis for the initiative and proud to be involved to help promote it. But there is nothing in any contract that says I can't enter this competition.

[01:22:03] So if I enter and I win, I don't want any hullabaloo about Chinaz rigged it. There's no rigging it. They probably don't even want me there, but I want to be there. And, again, almost 800 episodes I've given to our SharkCast community. Now, I'm not saying I haven't got anything back, but, boy, what a great way to reward the podcast guy. You're my plus one. I don't know if there's any plus ones. Kieran, we're jumping all over the shop. We've got to get a move on. State of origin this week. Men's and women's, very exciting times. What's your gut feeling?

[01:22:31] Are we going to see some Sharks get some game time in the men's game? Well, I really think Nekorah is going to start. I just think it makes too much sense to have him blow him out in the first 20, 30 minutes of just having hitting holes, especially if he's going to be up against, like, Ethan Strange. Like, that's something that I would be all about if I'm Queensland. I'll be saying, like, let's get Britt on. You've got Sam Walker in there. You've got Munster, two creative halves. And I'll be getting Britt running a million miles an hour at whoever we've got in the halves,

[01:23:01] especially if it's Ethan Strange. Because Nathan Cleary is obviously a really good defender. In terms of the Blues, I think Vanilla Blake's prime for a big one. And you sort of see it in his interactions with people. I don't know if you saw the interview that he did with Joey Johns, but he talks about, like, how one of his origin memories is when they finally won in 2014 and what that meant to him and the state. You can see that he's – he also – I feel like he likes these challenges where he's going into an arena like this and everybody's looking at him going, well, can you do it?

[01:23:31] And I feel like he's just – he takes that challenge. It would be great to see him take that challenge on 27 weeks of the year, which he does for the most part. He does. I do feel like he's going to go to another level in this, which, again, makes me more confident for when he comes back to us. Because, again, he's going to be – he's going to do a really good accounting for himself. I've got absolute faith in Vanilla Blake every time he steps on the field. Yeah. I really want to see Braley go. The conditions are a little bit different. I mean, in Sydney this last week or so, it's been bucketing down with rain.

[01:23:58] I think they said it's going to be all raining all until Saturday pretty much straight. I think Thursday's going to be the worst day. So that works out good for us on Wednesday and Friday. But I don't know if that changes how they'll use Blake. Off the bench with his speed, I think on a drier night with a bit of a clearer weather, I think you would have probably seen more of Blake. My only fear is that they put a Dylan Lucas instead of Blake or something like that because the game becomes more of a forward battle. That's just my only concern.

[01:24:26] But having Ethan Strange off the bench now into the starting lineup, I think really improves the chances of us seeing Blake out there. Yeah. And I have complete faith in him. Whether he has any kind of highlight reel moments, couldn't tell you. Hopefully he does for good reasons. But we'll see what happens there. On Fanua Blake, I just think that sometimes we forget that he's an older gentleman in that arena. We all think of Fanua Blake at the Warriors and Manly just, you know,

[01:24:57] getting through 12 guys, busting them through, you know, and scoring tries and killing blokes. Alex, he's in the Tamalolo stages of his career where he's still really consistent and he can still find some really great form. It can almost be career best form. It just looks different, right? Yeah. And on that point, I think Fafida was the same age when he dominated around 2017, 2018 in Origin. So Fafida had played for a few years. Was he 30 though? Was he? I think he was pretty much bang on 30. Okay.

[01:25:26] Okay. Maybe I'll check that up while I'm talking. But he had the benefit of playing Origin for a few years. So he was 28, sorry, if it was around 2018 or 29. So he's around that age group. But he had the benefit of playing for a few years beforehand, before being expected to walk in and dominate. And I think if you had Payne Haas there, it would have been a lot easier for Fanua Blake. But the fact that he's got Barnett, who he has that experience with, I think it's going to set him up.

[01:25:54] And I am such a fan of Adan. And I can't wait to see him have one of those performances, like at Fafida 2018, I believe it was, Origin performance, where he was just like unbelievable. And I feel like Adan's got that in him. I'm not saying it's going to happen at Origin. I would love for it to happen at club level. And every week he's in our top players in terms of our forwards. Everyone just expects him to run 500 metres and score six tries. It's not going to happen. But he's always taking a tough carry. He's always getting big metres.

[01:26:24] And I just feel like this is a bit of a shot for him of like a bit of a jolt. You know, they started the year a little bit flat. There were people questioning whether he would get picked for it. There were people questioning whether Laurie Daly liked his form. And there were some comparisons to Terrell May that were brought up in the past, but Daly didn't go with that style of player. So I think this is going to be really good for him. And I think he's going to come back with even more confidence because he's dominated at a higher level. Let's jump into a tiny bit of mail here.

[01:26:53] Our friend Paulie's been in touch. We sort of covered this, but I just wanted to get Paulie's message across. He said, I won't lie, I'm concerned that Cameron McInnes is gone, potentially Katoa and Sifer and Ramien, but no talk of anyone incoming. Stoney re-signing potentially is nice though. So we did cover that, Paulie, but I guess we're just thinking they're going to sign a bunch of younger guys, right? That'll be the majority of the re-signings, which we sort of covered, but that's kind of the short answer, right?

[01:27:23] We picked up Trout, who is an English international, and that's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. Sure. But I would expect maybe even like if you go back, what, seven years ago now when we had that time where we had no cash, we had some salary cap restrictions, and we went out and we got Royce Hunt, Sifer Talakai, and a few of those guys to come through the Newtown Jets that were kind of players that actually propped us up for the next four or five years. But they weren't high-profile players.

[01:27:53] They were kind of players like Sifer, who were outstanding lower-grade players, hadn't quite kicked on at the level of expectation at first grade, and we kind of pushed them and incentivized them to battle it out and fight for a contract, and we picked up a handful of first graders. Sifer is still there today, and Haradi's been with us as well for about six years too. So he was a little bit after that, but it's the same type of principle. So I would expect us to do a little bit of that. And for mine, it has to be wingers, and it has to be front rollers.

[01:28:24] Jake was in touch, and we forgot to say this, but Tom Hazleton, the tall one, was called into New South Wales Blues training. He got a couple of days there training as, I guess, a reward for his career so far and a potential nod to the future. There's no guarantee that these guys kick on to play for the Blues. But that was a nice little touch. Jake said, I also would love to have seen Teague Wilton or Jesse Colquhoun there, and I think at least Jesse Colquhoun will get that chance in the future.

[01:28:51] Hopefully, Teague does too, but a nice reward for Tommy to mix it with the big boys, so to speak. Yeah, and it kind of gives him a taste of what's possible, and I like that because you're going to have in that New South Wales camp, Raley, Fenil Blake, Hazleton. And when these players come off contract, the other players in the squad, they'll at least know three or four guys from the Sharks. So that's been one criticism, but we haven't had players in these representative camps to help us with recruitment. Because you go back to the dark days, what got us out of that?

[01:29:19] It was Paul Gallen personally recruiting players like Luke Lewis and getting Wade Graham over the line. So the more players we can have in these representative camps, the better. The flip side of that is we've got a guy like Britton, Queensland by himself, who's probably hanging out with a bunch of Broncos and Titans and Dolphins going, oh, maybe I'll miss home a little bit. But that's the truth. That's an interesting point. Lisa was in touch. She sent an episode through from – oh, gosh. I don't know what the podcast is called right here, but she sent an episode.

[01:29:48] It's a rugby league podcast, and they look at games throughout time. They just pick a game. There's no real order to it. And the other week they did Canberra Sharks 2016 qualifier. And I think it's a watch along. And she said it's not the most in-depth summary of the game, but I don't know an excuse to revisit it. So if you go search that, you'll find it.

[01:30:12] And then Lisa says, do you think Fitz will start playing Puru more based on what we saw the other week? I hope that he does. What are your thoughts on that, Kieran? It's going to come down to how we want to play with Cam McInnes because I think if you're running Cam and Puru and Jesse at 13, I feel like that's a little bit of overkill. Now, obviously, we also have Siffer as well in that mix. So Siffer goes up and plays front row, so does Jesse, but you've also then got Toby, AFB.

[01:30:42] You've got Kifusi. You've got ULA. You've got a lot of middles. So I think it's going to really come down to a decision for mine around Cam or Puru. They'll go Cam most weeks, but I think moving forward, Puru's got the spot. And I think he's got another year with us. He's not off contract. I think so, yeah. So, yeah, I think now that's kind of – you're seeing a bit of succession planning there where it's like, okay, we're going to go with Cam most weeks, but where we get the opportunities, we're going to put Puru in.

[01:31:11] If we're behind on points and we need to chase a little bit, we'll put him in. And then next year, I think you'll see a lot more of it. Yeah. It seems like a fit's given trait. We saw it with Trindle as well where they earmarked him. And I've said this a few times now. I had no idea he was 23 years of age. He looks like he's as old as me with all respect. Looks a lot better than me. But the fact he's 23, we've already seen what he can do.

[01:31:36] I think that he has one of those spots locked up, whether it's from the bench or starting next year. We'll see. But I think that's the way Fitzy kind of thinks. Yeah. And I was unsure of him playing nine. I know that he's done it in the past and things like that. But that's a versatility that gives us a lot of flexibility to carry him on the bench, especially with a six-man bench moving forward. I think he is now our backup number nine. And I know it was a small sample size. And I know that I had a lot of questions around who would be our backup nine.

[01:32:05] But I feel like he did a really good job representing himself. But I also think the flexibility to play him at 13 is going to happen in the mix more. And I think that's probably at the expense of a Beryl, who is the out-and-out proper backup nine. I think that gets pushed down the chain a little bit. Yeah. So to be clear, I'm talking about him being, yeah, a middle 13. Yeah. But obviously the nine thing is very handy. I think it just helps him. Got guys like young Xavier coming up. He's probably a year or two away at least.

[01:32:32] So you might see a Beryl go elsewhere at some point. I don't know. Maybe he'll stick around forever. I'm not sure. He's a great club man. That's for sure. And just on that, I wanted to – obviously everyone's done this already. But I'm not just doing it for the sake of it. I'm speaking from the heart. Sending our love to Joy Arrow, family, friends, everyone in the league community who's feeling it. Horrific news, obviously.

[01:33:00] And Jaden Beryl is a really good friend of his. He was interviewed by our mate Ricky O during the week about it. And just unthinkable stuff. And we send our best. And I just encourage you to get behind any kind of charity that's supporting either him or the MND, I guess, cause, et cetera. So yeah, get behind it. Horrific. Don't need to say too much more about that.

[01:33:29] Happy to talk about it anytime though if anyone wants to raise it. On a much lighter note, we did have Adam Barnes, the merch king on our show late last week. I haven't promoted that well. I pushed probably that today. But there's a – I think it's an hour, hour and a half chat about merch. It's exclusively Grinola merch. So if that's your go, if that's your jam, it's on YouTube. It's on the audio podcast as well. He's a great fella. He's a shark's tragic like all of us.

[01:33:54] He just happens to work in the position where he gets to kind of sometimes pick and choose. Otherwise, always facilitate how we get our merch and what it looks like, et cetera. So I know as a merch guy, you would have appreciated that, Kieran. Oh, that was a tremendous episode. So I think I fired that up on Friday night while I was watching the football in the background and learn a lot. Learn a lot about the integration of sponsors and just one thing I didn't know, right?

[01:34:18] So if we change the Amareks from red to white or black, you can only ever use that jersey one time a season. So for us, there is a thought that we want to use the jersey twice this year. So that's why they kept the box. And they also thought it was more authentic to the original. I have my thoughts on that. But again, I totally understand it. And I think it was great. The quality of merch that the Sharks are putting out is fantastic. I actually went in the next day just to check out the shark shop just because I was like, I do check the website on stuff because I do like more of the weird stuff that I can find.

[01:34:47] You and I have not spoken about this, but I'm guessing you saw stuff you didn't know was there, right? Yeah. So there's a few things, but also too, like when you see things like online, like say the hockey jerseys, for example, you don't really know what they look like in person. And there's a couple of things. They also have a lot of the NRLW stuff there as well. So you can get some more unique shark stuff that you probably might've missed on the website and things like that. But that space is a great space. They've got like proper memorabilia there that you can buy.

[01:35:17] They've got cheaper stuff that you can buy. Like if you need a present for a Sharks Fanny Life, they've got these type of things like the shirts, the Yetis, the hats. The merchandise at the Sharks has really stepped up in the last couple of years because there was a time where we went as high. I think we went like two years without a way jersey in like the late 2000s because we had no money and we just didn't have anybody to kind of take care of it. So the fact now that we've got a proper program and some of the new hoodies, like there's a new Sharks hoodie. I don't know if you've seen it with the old Sharks logo in the middle and then different Sharks things down the street.

[01:35:47] Saw one out in the wild on Saturday, saw somebody walking along with it. And that's another thing actually I have noticed, and I was going to bring this up. The amount of Sharks merchandise I'm seeing people wearing this year, it's way more than normal. And that's a little bit strange because we're not flying like we have been in the past. But the amount of Sharks hats, T-shirts, singlets, hoodies that I'm seeing a lot of kids in the Shire wearing, seems like everybody's getting presents for people and giving them Sharks gear. So I see a lot of kids.

[01:36:15] Do you think some of the retro gear is hitting a bit harder because it's retro, you can get away with wearing it after a loss, etc.? Like it doesn't really affect your life. Just even the hat. So I've got the caramel hat with the more blended in logo, so it doesn't really look like a Sharks hat. Like I saw somebody walking their child to school the other day and I was staring at the hat because I'm like, oh, that's my hat that I've got as well. And he looked at me like, why are you staring before I'm walking my kid to school? And I'm on my way. That's a fair enough question. Yeah, but there's a lot more stuff that's a bit more subtle than in the past.

[01:36:44] And sometimes in the past, it might have just been a little bit like too in your face maybe, like this Hawaiian shirt might be. But I feel like there's a lot more subtle things that they've brought out that you can just wear without it being like your missus saying, why are you wearing a Sharks hoodie to dinner? Which I haven't done that in a long time. No, because gross controls the wardrobe. So now, I don't know if I've asked you this one. Stop me if I have. Our good friend Michael Gillard, former statistician in the John Lang days for the Sharks,

[01:37:14] he raised the question about a game you could change the result for. Have I asked you this one yet? Nope. Okay. So essentially, if you could have one game in Sharks history and you could change the result, what would it be? His one was the 73 and 78 grand finals. He talks about the changing of the financial impact. He talks about Steve Rogers maybe becoming an immortal. Yep.

[01:37:43] And then he does come to the one which I thought everyone would go to and not everyone has, is the 99 prelim because we're capable of winning the comp, that kind of thing. So do you have an answer on that? And it can be any answer you want. It doesn't have to be grand final. It can be anything you want. It can be a trial match. It doesn't matter. For mine, I wouldn't have changed the history of what got us to 2016

[01:38:09] because I feel like the journey to 2016 was such an exhausting journey and it was such a personality-defining journey for a lot of us that for a long time if you told someone you were a Sharks fan, you got laughed at, kind of like the West Tigers now and you kept getting it thrown in your face, they'd never won a competition, et cetera. Oh, yeah. And I feel like that builds a lot of character in people as well because it's easy to support the Roosters, for example. It's easy to support Penrith now.

[01:38:37] But if you were a Sharks fan that stuck with us for that whole journey, there's nothing better. And if they'd won it in 2002, which was where my first thought was going in that game against the Warriors, it wouldn't have meant as much. It would have been great. It would have been the best. But I was a little bit older when it happened in 2016. Sure. So that's a personal way to look at it. I'm not disagreeing with you. Like, would my life have been easier if we'd won 99 and even like 88 or whatever? Yeah, absolutely would have been easier. Yeah.

[01:39:05] But I completely, 100%, as all of our listeners would relate to as well, understand what you're saying because on that night, 2016, it was a good time to do it. Well, where he did raise the point around 73 and 78 and the financial impact of the club, like that is a completely reasonable and actually very great point to bring up because it did set us back a long time, not the fact that we didn't win it, but the fact that we didn't have the success to build up that fan base.

[01:39:34] And now what you're seeing in the Shire, which leads into what we just spoke about, we've been way more successful than the Dragons. We've also been way more successful in the last few years than the Bulldogs. So there's a lot of people that are around my age in the Shire that go for the Bulldogs, they go for the Dragons, or some of them even go for weed clubs, right? But you look at the kids now, the kids, they don't want to go for the Dragons. The Dragons are terrible. They don't want to go for the Bulldogs who have been historically terrible. So I feel like the Sharks have done a really great job since 2016

[01:40:03] in capturing this market. So in terms of where I would change it, I would have changed the 2018 first final game, or sorry, 2017, 2017, against Cowboys where Gallon doesn't get the ball down. He thought they were offside and we get knocked out first round of our finals defense and the Cowboys go. Well, let's not leave out your best mate, Big Bop running towards the sideline when we needed a field goal. Don't tell him I said that. I'm a dead man. Oh, I'm a dead man.

[01:40:34] Oh, yeah. See, again, look, I've blocked that game out of my head. But the emptiness I felt when I walked out of the stadium was just like, it's over. And then also, too, you had already lost Ben Barber going into 2017. So you're saying you want a bit of a two-year dynasty there? Well, I feel like we had a real shot of going back-to-back in 2017. And the fact that Cowboys made the grand final, and I think we were objectively a much better team than the Cowboys. We've just come off the back of a grand final win.

[01:41:01] I think there was a couple of injuries there that might have hurt us a little bit. But it just felt like we never got going that season. I think if we had gone back-to-back, I think then that could have changed the whole narrative because no one had gone back-to-back at the time. And I think we were in with a real shake for it in that year. And again, it would have been a rematch against Melbourne. So that would have been absolute chaos. Yeah. But even if you went one-on-one against Melbourne, it's kind of like a free roll of the dice. We won it the year before. Yeah.

[01:41:29] So for me, if we made the grand final now and we lost, it's catastrophic. If we had lost in 2017, I would have been like, you know what? We just made the grand final. We won it last year. We'll be back next year. Hindsight is very different, but I probably wouldn't have hurt as bad. Now, a bit of love for one of our favorite Joshes. Josh, not Josh Bowling. I won't say last name just for, you know, privacy matters. But Josh, who you hung out with in Brisbane, he did write to us, and I don't know if I got to this or not. So I'm just giving him a shout out.

[01:41:57] He also thought that stepping back in time when we were on a bit of a downward spiral this year, instead of flying up to Brisbane as a team, he thought maybe Fitzy saying, having everyone jumping on the bus together and taking the road trip to Magic Round for the bonding, which is, I'm laughing, you're smiling, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Not from a, you know, athletic, physical point of view, but the rest of it mentally would have been fun. That was a good idea for him, I thought, and he was just looking at different ways

[01:42:26] to kind of get the vibe back. But it sounds like the vibe was back in Brisbane with all you guys and girls in Magic Round. So shout out to Josh there. What else are we going to talk about before we get out of here, Kieran? Because we've got to let you go, and I've got to get going, and our universe needs to get going as well. But what haven't we covered here? Help me out. Have we covered everything? Friday night. That's a good thing to cover. Let's go there. I've done a few number crunching here for us. We don't like playing Manly historically. We know this.

[01:42:56] If you're a younger listener and you've only been around in the Fitzgibbon era, you like playing them. He's only lost once to Manly. We're back, baby. We can beat them. Yeah, I didn't know that. I think they're in such a weird spot as a club, Manly. Obviously, results are going their way. They've bought into their... We can get to that. My point is Fitzgibbon does things that people don't give him credit for. He breaks hoodoos. Yeah, yeah. Because that was like 20, 30 years of just absolute misery against Manly

[01:43:25] where every time we played... It's our worst win record. It's our... Yeah, we've... We've won 31 of 101 games against Manly. That's ridiculous. That is... But guess what? Since Fitzgibbon came in, we've won six of seven. Happy days. Do you remember the loss? It's the semi-final game, was it? No. No. That wasn't against Manly. No, I don't remember the loss, no. Shows you how... 30 to 26 in 23 at...

[01:43:56] Then known Shark Park, now known as Ocean Protect Stadium. Was that a game where we were out in the lead and then they came back? Sounds like it. Well, there was that game where Siffa went ballistic and then they almost came back, but they didn't. That wasn't the one, yeah. So the three-game win streak currently, it's... What did I say? Five of... Six of seven, as you say. Six, seven. But the current three-game win streak is the equal most in club history against Manly. That's how much we don't like playing them. We could create history this week

[01:44:25] by having our longest winning streak against them. At Sharks home ground, Ocean Protect Stadium, played 41, won 17. We've won three of the past 14 at home. Got to change that, Kieran, as the rain tumbles down near Ocean Protect Stadium where I am right now. It's 100% rain every day this week. Is that going to help us or not? We like to score points. I mean, Manly's changed their game up a lot.

[01:44:55] They do, dude. They're trying to power through the middle a little bit more and then get it to their speed versus trying to go to their speed. If they were trying to do it their old style, it absolutely wouldn't have worked in these sort of conditions. But we need to make this a dogfight. And it's going to be cold. It's going to be wet at Shark Park. It will probably still sell out. We'll get a good crowd regardless because it's a better night. It's something to do. So I'm going into this game expecting us to get the win. However, it's going to be a very interesting test.

[01:45:24] But I do have my suspicions about how much Manly's actually being tested during this run. That's fine. That's fine. I will give you some Manly stuff now because I know probably some of our listeners are not as invested as what you and I, as far as time-wise, it's our duty to sort of get them up to date in case they're not. A lot of people are, of course. So they lost their first three games under a different coach. Under Kieran Foran,

[01:45:53] they've won their past three and seven of eight games. Their one loss was against Penrith by two points. Okay? They haven't conceded over 18 points in all eight games of Fosball. They haven't conceded over 18 points in every game, each game, Kieran. Does this not concern you? Well, I mean, it's the same team that scraped past the Titans on the weekend just won't pass.

[01:46:22] And if you look at some of the... You're not missing a bunch of their players. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. But I just look at it and I go, you're going to get the sugar hit of the change. You're going to get that inspiration of it. But now you're actually into the kind of dog guts of it all. And it's going to be a dogfight, a wet night at Shark Park. If we bring the fight and play the style of football the Sharks like to play, I think we can account for them. But it's a very interesting conundrum

[01:46:50] given they've rapidly changed their whole style of play without changing their roster. And they look so much better forehead that it is ridiculous. But in saying that, I just look at them and go, there's some interesting performance in there, right? So if we go back, where was the first game of Fosball? That was against the Dolphins. Or game four. Yeah, so it was against the Dolphins. And the Dolphins have been a lot. They won by 34 points. They scored 52. Sorry. But again,

[01:47:19] the Dolphins were very up and down study. Then they beat the Dragons by 10. Okay? That's a great performance. Then that leads into their next game where they thump the Cowboys. We didn't get the job done against the Cowboys. Cowboys are up and down. You just don't know. Sure. We're going to go into a really good win over Parramatta. What does that do for me? Not too much. The next one is the two-point loss to Penrith. The next one is a very convincing win over the Broncos. Now,

[01:47:47] that's probably one of the most impressive performances during that run. But from memory, did the Broncos have a lot of injuries that day? I don't know. But what I'm hearing from you is, not excuses, I'm hearing reasons why we shouldn't be so... I was looking at the Broncos 13 that day. Sure. Their starting front rower was Jordan Rickey and Goweski. Pax was their hooker. Willis... It's Goweski. Jack... Can he say his name? No,

[01:48:17] G-A-I-X. Oh! What? Oh, no, he was the dummy half, but Goweski is the front rower. I can't say that. I think we're saying it really wrong, man. Stop talking. The other Rickey... I'm saying names. The other Rickey was in the back row. Willison was in the back row. Then they had Hunt at halfback, because Reynolds got ruled out. I can't pronounce one of their wingers' names. Shebisaki and Arthur's in the centres, and Rhys Walsh as fullback. So again, they had a lot of changes, Brisbane, for that game.

[01:48:45] So they were the Broncos that we know and love. But we're talking about a team that looked hapless and helpless. Yeah. They were going to retire one of their greats, who now signed another year's contract. I'm just saying that there is something happening there. I don't know if they're going to win the comp, but they've literally not put a foot wrong. The loss to Penrith, they should have won. They literally should have won. Here's some stats for you. Rank fourth for line breaks, second for meters, and second for post-contact meters.

[01:49:15] Defensively, fewest line breaks, third, fewest missed tackles, third, fewest tries and points conceded. Conceded in the second... They're actually considering the second most offloads. That's something there. Second fewest errors. This one kind of worries me. Most points in the opening 20 minutes in the NRL. So I'm not sitting here shaking in my boots. I'm just saying it's going to be a heck of a game.

[01:49:43] I don't think it's just like new coach, new attitude that's short term. I think this is who they are. And it might be dependent on who comes back for origin for both teams. We'll find that out closer to the game. I just don't think it's going to be a walk-up win for the Sharks. They're going to have to really put in. Absolutely. I completely agree with you on that. And the biggest thing I think they've got is momentum. Now, let's go back last year. The Bulldogs had all the momentum in the world.

[01:50:12] The Bulldogs had a number of buys early on. They had a soft draw. Gus is now reeling that out as an excuse because now the momentum has flipped. So now they're kind of chasing their tail. I know they had a good win on the weekend, but before that, the world was ending and the momentum was going against it. They couldn't do anything right. Manly's on the other side of that where everything can't go any better. And they've actually got belief. And momentum feeds your fan base. Momentum feeds the players. And then momentum changes your on-field performance. We saw that with the Dogs last year

[01:50:42] because they did win some games that they shouldn't have won because of momentum and their belief that they had within the squad. Like those Manly players would be coming to Shark Park expecting to win. Like they would say, we'll do the Sharks. Whereas six weeks ago, they would have been going, this is going to be a tough game. We're going to be in for a big fight. Whereas they're now feeling bulletproof. Where I think we can get them is, it's at Shark Park. We have historically been a top four side for the last few years.

[01:51:09] This is where we're going to try and flex that mentality that we should have had baked into them. Now, if we come out and put in a terrible performance, like say the Dolphins game, for example, there's going to be a lot of questions asked. And we've had now basically two weeks to prepare for this game, two weeks to prepare for Fosball, where there's been no other focus within those four walls, besides getting this victory here, and then getting an extended break because it's like the first game of the weekend. Right. So I,

[01:51:38] I think it's going to be a fascinating coaching battle because Manly's changed so much and it's going to require us to have a different game plan to how we've played them over the last few years when Seabolt's been there. But I'm very confident that Shaft, if we step up and I just feel like now that we've got that edge back together, that filled me with more confidence than I've had all season, just seeing Ramian and Ronnie, um, feeding that energy back together within the rest of the team. And I maybe realized that how much we missed Ronnie when he wasn't there and

[01:52:08] the deficiencies that we actually went through by having Sifa in the centers and Haradi in the wing. I think we really underestimated how costly that was. Yeah, I agree with all that. I am confident we can get the win in all seriousness. I, I've spoken about Manly glowingly, but I do think we've got a lot to play for. I think it's a bit of a statement game, probably a statement game either way to be fair. And I usually don't go that way with a loss potential loss, but I think there's a statement game either way,

[01:52:38] but I do think we can do it, but you want to be at eight and a half out of 10 as a team. Otherwise I don't think eight out of 10 will get it. If Manly plays how they play. So I'm just saying that I actually think for once the, the semi hype about this game in the media will probably live up to it. I think it'd be a great game. I think that both teams, one more than the other is coming in with really good form, but I'm all for it. Ocean protect stadium. A lot of the troops back. We'll see what happens with origin.

[01:53:09] And that could be the storyline. Whoever's guys play might, you might have the advantage there, which is just how it goes, but they can't. Burn up the pace. Like if, if they get a roll on there, like with Cola and Hopawati and Garrick, like they've got speed. And if there's one criticism that's been against us, it's been, we looked a little bit slow at times. So the conditions are going to help us and we have to make it a dogfight.

[01:53:35] And we need to just absolutely set the middles loose and give them some of the Kurt Sirenson smelling salts and just send them absolutely to go ballistic and go nuts. Second time Kurt's got a mention on this. I've got a friend called Kurt Sorenson, who is a St. George fan. Never played. Oh, he probably played the game, but he's a St. George fan. He's a bit younger than me, probably your age and terrific guys and artists, a musician artist.

[01:54:03] Did the artwork for my second last album. His name's Kurt Sorenson. Dragon's tragic. I'm with a guy called Shane Flanagan. He was a real estate agent here in the show. There's a few Shane Flanagan's around actually. Hey, before we go, cause I want to wrap this up under a certain time, just for my own personal reasons. Manly this week, local Derby's on the horizon. Let's all stay calm. Sunday week at home.

[01:54:33] Then Warriors away on a Saturday. And then late Sunday week after Roosters into the buy, Roosters away. So let me go through that again. Coming off a buy. Manly at home this week. So Friday into the Sunday week, a bit extra time. Dragons at home. Must win. Obviously. Sunday afternoon, that game into Saturday afternoon over in New Zealand.

[01:55:02] So slightly shorter week and travel, et cetera. That'd be a tough game. And then eight days later, Sunday late game. Roosters away. Another tough game into the buy. So we want to chalk up as many wins as we can here. And to that point earlier in the conversation, we need to win something like nine or 10 games to get us into the top eight. And if we want to go even further than that, then we need to win probably closer to 12.

[01:55:30] So there's no guarantees that last year's points guarantee you the same results. So we might need to win more. We might need to win less, but it's now at the point of the halfway in the season where it's time to go. So there's not, we need to go on a run and we saw it last year with the sharks. They, they went like four or five, six games in a row or something like that there. And it just really rocketed this up the charts. And we just didn't really. Oh yeah. So it's, it's there to be done. And if you look at that draw, there's nothing there on that draw that absolutely scares me.

[01:55:58] You factor in some origin changes and players and things like that. There will be some tough games. Like the warriors will be tough over an end. I think warriors and roosters isn't easy. Yeah. But that's what roosters will be affected around origin, right? Well, so are we. Yeah. That's, that's the point. So it kind of makes it a little bit more even. And when we, when I saw us against the roosters earlier this year, I did see enough that I think we can go, go with the roosters. Now they've obviously improved since then and they've worked out their combinations, but I don't feel like the roosters are.

[01:56:29] I mean, everyone's kind of got them as their top two team. Whereas I've probably got more of the, I really like the dolphins. Um, I really like Penrith and I really like teams like the Broncos when they're fully fit. I feel like they can put it together. So let me go post by, and we don't need to talk about it. Post by Brisbane away dolphins away. Newy at home on a Friday. Newy are my, my bolters. They're pretty good. Manly away. South's at home. Dragons. So it's,

[01:56:58] there's no real, it's, it's a hard run this year. So we're going to have to get our gear into action and we're going to get out of here. Kieran, I want to tell everyone that there'll be more episodes coming. I'm pretty sure there'll be a team list Tuesday four o'clock today. Live stream. We'll not sure if you'll hear this episode before then, but we'll probably do that. And a few more things planned before Friday, but essentially Kieran has joined us for a flagship style episode. And, and if we get to another one and all the better for us for having the time and

[01:57:29] pleasure of doing that. But if we don't, we'll consider this as a flagship. So to speak, I know some people like to chalk up the episodes. Kieran, thanks for your time, buddy. I know you're important, busy dude. You're an important guy in my life. That's for sure. Boy, you bug me at all hours. Little texts come in, little messages. Hey, there was something flying over my, something flying over my house. What could it be? Yeah, it was a plane, Kieran. Don't worry about it. No, there was like a green alien thing or something. No, that's the portals, mate. The portals start opening up and that's where, that's where Bigfoot hides.

[01:57:58] And we're going to, here's a prediction for you. By the end of the season, there will be some more alien stuff that's been released because they'll talk about on the news. They've found four different species. Well, they found my favorite. How are we defining my favorite? It's the reptilian. Reptilians, right? So they're apparently the scarier ones. And the insectoids. I do not want to run into an insectoid. I'm not an insect guy at all. You know that. No, no, no. I don't want to run into an insectoid. They look like big praying mantises. They don't. I mean,

[01:58:28] what do they call the, the Nordics ones? I mean, they seem all right. And the little gray. The Nordics one looked like, and with all respect to our Nordic audience, look at that. They might kill you for fun. Well, I mean, they look quite tall. Apparently. While they're listening to death metal or something, you know? Yeah. But yeah, I feel like I can get along with a couple of those people. Might just put on some deft tones or something like that. Yeah, we can all know. It's heavier than deft tones, my friend. And it's death metal. This is where the places, this is the places we go. I'm going to stick with reptilians. I think I feel like I get along with reptilian. Well,

[01:58:58] you're going to hang out with reptilians. You're not scared of that? I'm not hanging out with the praying mantis. I'm not hanging out with either of those two. I'm going with the, I'm going with the Nordics. Yeah. I could wear a bit of black, I guess. The little grays. I feel like I could take them in a fight, but there's stories that they do other things and I'm not down with that. So I'm going to avoid the grays. Great way to get out here, Kieran. Thanks for your time, buddy. Appreciate you. Everyone else will see you down at the stadium and you'll be hearing from us before then as well. So take care. Appreciate you all. Go listen to the episode yesterday. It's amazing. Luke Lewis,

[01:59:27] Jimmy Maloney, and way Graham talking to us, having a bunch of fun and you'll be hearing more about that. So I know everyone's excited about that as they should be up up. Cronulla, Kieran, let's get the heck out of here and have some fun soon down at ocean protect. We'll see you down there. Up, up. Let's go. SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate. He's an expert in the Caring Bar region and has his eye all across the Shire.

[01:59:56] Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips and Crips Real Estate. SharkCast! SharkCast!

[02:00:21] Back in the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy. SharkCast!