Flagship Episode w/ Cameron Webb (7/5/26)

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

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[00:01:06] Hey there, welcome to SharkCast Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. This is SharkCast Pod, my name is Sam Shinazzi, doing this since 2015, having a fun time doing that. And this show is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, and Jason Hawes at Cripps & Cripps Real Estate. On the other end of this line, on this flagship style edition, a little bit late in the week, we have a good friend of ours, very good friend of mine, old friend of mine.

[00:01:37] He's not old, but our relationship is old. He is the world's best entomologist, hell of a guitarist, and just a great all-round dude. Mr. Cameron Webb, how are you, my friend? Yeah, great to be with you, Sam. It's always good to join you after a win, so I'm feeling a little bit younger than what I actually am. Big win too, but we're just going to jump out of the box straight away, because out of the box right now as you're watching this, as you can see,

[00:02:06] but people, of course, are only listening on the podcast as well, so we'll describe it to them. But I'm lucky enough to be wearing a just-released Cronulla Sharks retro jersey out now, 4 o'clock Thursday on, and it's based on the 0-1 to, I would imagine what Camo 3, 0-4, but think of 0-1 jersey, all the classics, your Peaches, your Rodgers, you know, the whole team. Amazing.

[00:02:36] They've released this great jersey, and they're going to play in it, the boys are playing in it next week at Magic Round. So if you want to be kitted out in this great jersey, it's available now. This is from the club, so I have to just disclose that. The club has allowed me to wear this at 4 o'clock, and we're here to tell you, go get it. It's awesome. It feels really good, Cam. I know you're a huge jersey guy, and a lot of our listeners are. It feels really authentic and nice.

[00:03:05] The sizing is really good. It looks good. I'm just going to get a bit of a close-up here, Cam, for people watching, bringing the camera so you can see. You know, Aramax is still there, Pilot's there, but it all looks very authentic. So the Aramax box, if I go back, is the same as, I believe it was LG, same colors, et cetera. So they've kind of matched it up as best they can. Everything else looks really authentic, the stripes.

[00:03:32] It really looks fantastic, Sam. And I think that you're right. They look like they've really nailed the color. And the design that I've seen looks fantastic. Love the color. Color is good. Yeah, it's really. And I guess the other thing, too, is that we've seen the club tease it in recent days. But the fact that playing in it is really awesome. That's fantastic.

[00:04:00] And I think that, you know, for some of these sort of heritage jerseys and stuff that we put out, I guess that's the one thing we all look forward to is actually seeing the guys run around in it. So, yeah, Magic Ramp's a good opportunity to kind of debut it as well. So that's fantastic. All around good work from the club. So, yeah, you look good, Sam. I'm sure that plenty of us will look good wandering around the field in it as well. Yeah. Yeah. So available from sharks.com.au.

[00:04:29] If you want it, like, straight away, go down to the Bay Central store and they have it there. They have a lot of stock there. And then you can order it online and they'll get it out to you as soon as they can. So I believe other stores like you, for example, without picking on any stores, your Rebels and those kind of places, I think they'll all stock it. So if they don't, you can ask for it, order it in. But it's available right now.

[00:04:55] And especially if you're heading up to Magic Round, you want to wear this, buy it before you go and look a million bucks. I have to say I was in the store as well for the first time in a while. There's so much stuff there, Cam, that, I mean, I'm sure it's all online if you go have a look, but I haven't been online and have a look recently. Amazing, like, hoodies, like, new hoodies, retro hoodies, current hoodies, hockey jerseys, like, all this stuff.

[00:05:20] And I was talking to the GM of Merch, Barnsey, and he just said, yeah, the idea is we don't want people walking out empty hem. There's something for everyone, basically, little or small, you know, inexpensive to higher price. It's a great store. So go check it out. This does sound like an ad. It's not necessarily an ad, but this jersey is there, and this jersey is an ad, but it's one I'm proud to wear and promote. Go do it. I'm sure there'll be more talk about it throughout the episode.

[00:05:50] But, Cam, we are here to talk about all things black, white, and blue, including the jerseys. Yeah. And, Sam, I think before we go off the discussion around the store, I completely echo those sentiments as well. I mean, I love going in there. And there's something about going into the store which is so much better than just browsing stuff online because, you know, some of that Merch kind of catches your eye. Stuff that you might not necessarily be specifically looking for on the website when you hop up there looking for stuff.

[00:06:19] And Stuffless looks better in person, doesn't it? And so, yeah, can't recommend enough that listeners and tell your family and friends to swing past Mother's Day is around the corner. I'm sure there's some mums out there that kind of want some Sharky's gear, and the store's a place to get it. Yeah, absolutely. And you're right. Like, you can try on things. It's a lot more convenient if you can get there. A lot of our listeners can't. We understand that.

[00:06:48] But if you are in the area, I just popped down there this morning. It was quick. In and out, even with the chat, even with a browse, even with a fitting, and I was still in and out pretty quick. So, Sharks win 52-10 over the West Tigers cam. We were both in the house having a great time. Big return to form. Defense mostly as impressive as the attack.

[00:07:14] A few issues in the first half, which we'll get to throughout the episode. But what was your overall opinion on the game? It's hard to walk away from a game like that and be anything but completely happy. Probably the biggest disappointment for us in the Monty Porter stand was that most of the game was played at the other end of the field, especially in the second half. But, look, how can you complain about that?

[00:07:39] And I think it's easy to kind of think, well, we were playing a team that was somewhat depleted. But for me, it's the fact that not only can you only play the team you're playing, but you could have excused the Sharks for taking the foot off the gas halfway through that second half. But they didn't. And they kept playing, playing well.

[00:08:02] And I think, for me, irrespective of the score, it's about their continued attack, consistent attack, but also strategic attack. And so I know much has been written about the poor kids in defence for the Tigers. But how many times do we finish a game and complain that our playmakers haven't targeted the weak points in our opposition?

[00:08:23] And so I think that in itself from last week was a really good thing to do as well because they've identified a weakness and they went going back there and exploited it the way they should. So while I'm sure there's a couple of things we'll talk about with regard to the game, you can't leave and be anything but completely happy with that. Great crowd, big crowd, biggest crowd in a while as well. Great atmosphere. So all around pretty good. Yeah. And on that, targeting the weak points.

[00:08:53] After that first, I think it was the first bomb, if not second, where Teague eventually scored from it. It was noticeable they were a bit sus under that high ball, particularly on that side. And Trindle especially kept going back to it and it paid off with probably two or three tries from kicks more or less. So completely agree on that, completely agree on running down that edge. And also just the foot to the throat I really loved.

[00:09:19] Like it was what, I think it was 40 to 10 at one point with maybe nine or 11 minutes to go. And I turned to my crew and I went, we could get 50 here. It'd be fun. Don't know if it's going to happen because we've seen in the past the boys kind of, you know, take the foot off. But then when we got that first one, I think it was the Nico intercept from that moment. You kind of felt the 50 was coming after that and they got there just in time.

[00:09:48] And that made it fun. It made it a lot more fun than just 40 to 10, like 52. That's a bigger statement. So you're right. We can only play who we get. Yeah, that's right, Sam. But also, you know, there might have been games gone past where the score ends up being 40 to 26 or 24.

[00:10:12] You know, like it wouldn't have been out of character for some of the Sharks performances we've seen in the past for them to let the Tigers run in, you know, a couple of tries at the back end of the game. And again, that wouldn't have been the end of the world. But I think that the way they finish that game is something that hopefully can give us faith and the players can get extra confidence from too. I'm not a huge ladder guy before round 15, round 20, but it does help the for and against.

[00:10:40] A 42 point difference makes up in some ways for the big losses or at least the big points conceded in the past two games at least. And I think we're at maybe plus 15 now or plus 30. It's gone from minus five to like up a bit. So even that is a win in itself. It's it's I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Cam. It's almost like a four point win.

[00:11:07] I know you're making up those for that differential, but it could come in handy going into the final round of the year, should we say? Yeah, I think that we we shouldn't be under any illusion that our for and against is going to play a really critical part in the makeup of the of the top eight. I just don't think there's any way that you can not be mindful about that. And they need to be mindful about it in every every game.

[00:11:33] And so whether it's about putting the foot to the throat and putting points on at the back end of a game that are dominating or or just stealing themselves not to concede more. Should should we be in a situation where we're leaking a few points? I mean, it's got to be something I think that's in the back of everyone's minds because the the competition is so close. It's you know, it could be two or three teams that miss out on the egg just on differential. Absolutely. So I was really happy with that aspect of it.

[00:12:03] Tell me who stood out for you as the best or your top three and give me give me some points on those guys. Hard to do that with it with a team that was pretty consistent across the park. But what do you got? Yeah, but I think, you know, Teague and Iro both are fantastic, obviously. And it's hard not to when when they score hat tricks. I thought Nico was really great.

[00:12:28] And I think it just continued his form this season, which seems to be he seems to be flying a little bit under the radar. He may not be having, you know, it's a funny year for him because I think he's playing really strongly, really consistently well. It's not like he's just like across the board, particularly his defense, I think is great. And so he was I thought he was really strong.

[00:12:55] And of course, Will Kennedy, like I think, you know, week in, week out now, he's really putting his foot down as being a really, if not one of the most critical components of this team. And it wasn't just I mean, his consistency with those runs and the meters he was making in those runs was was great, particularly in that second half and just sort of cutting back into the towards the ruck there. And so I thought he was really, really, really great as well.

[00:13:25] And I think probably Oregon Kofusi off the bench. I mean, I know he played only a short period of time, but I thought his runs were really strong. He looked pretty powerful. And and then I guess while we could talk a little bit about Toby's first half performance, I thought even though he had a short stint at the back end of that second half, he was strong as well. But we're all sort of running downhill at that point. So he had that benefit. Yeah, he was a bit off in that first half. We've talked about that throughout the episode so far.

[00:13:54] And there's no denying he was just off his game. And unfortunately, when everyone's kind of performing at such a level and then one isn't, it becomes even more noticeable. I know we had that a bit with with ULA earlier in the year and and even times last year. It's just like all the Jesse Ramian thing last year where he was sort of like a six or seven, but everyone else was like an eight. So it's kind of noticeable. But Toby Toby was a bit off his game in that first half, no doubt.

[00:14:23] I loved the Will Kennedy mid tackle ruck runs, which you were talking about. Just not they weren't even really hit up. So he was trying to find holes in that middle and he was incredibly busy. It seemed busier than ever because of those runs on top of everything else he was doing. And I guess this is a good time just to open up the weekly Will podcast, Willie Awoney, whatever we're calling it these days.

[00:14:51] But people know where I stand at the moment until there's a better option. I'm signing him definitely. And I'm probably giving him two years to be fair, as irresponsible as that is. Where are you currently in signing Will Kennedy camp? I wouldn't hesitate resigning him. And to be honest, Sam, I'm becoming nervous that there might be a lot of competition from other clubs.

[00:15:15] And so I think we may have touched on this in some of our discussions earlier in earlier episodes is that I'm yeah, I'm feeling a little bit anxious that there are other clubs that would be looking at needing a reliable fullback. And Will is going to be has got to be on other people's radar. I understand, you know, we've covered plenty of ground on discussion about Will, but how could you fault him at the moment?

[00:15:40] And I think that the reliability that he brings to us is is really important. And, you know, week in, week out, I watch other games where there are, you know, big name fullbacks or fullbacks we discuss about wishing they played for the Sharks. And I'll tell you what, some of them make some horrific errors that poor old Will would be crucified for if he was making it in a Sharks jumper.

[00:16:06] So, yeah, look, I'm at the moment, I guess that I don't think I are in some ways unless icing came from the clouds somehow. I think we need Will for next year at the very least. It's interesting because the more I bunker down on this subject and it's going to keep getting deeper and darker until something happens, the more I reach out to people.

[00:16:29] And so I reach out to people in all walks of life, including, you know, my work life where I get to talk to these amazing former players and analysts and coaches, et cetera. And not one of them on current form has said, no, you should probably not resign him. Like they all agree he's in special form. Now, in the past, some of these people have been like, I don't know if he's your guy, but I think he's turned that point where he's proven he is.

[00:16:56] But then there's other people who guys who have played the game more than say the analysts and those kind of people. And coaches and lower level coaches who I spoke to speak to, and they're like, they're at pains to tell me you need to, like, he is your guy. Forget about trying to find some superstar. Like he's the guy, particularly on a wholesome wage.

[00:17:26] And the more I keep diving, the more people keep saying, no, no, you got to keep him. So it's, it's quite fascinating. Now, what we'll say as a fan base, that's not the same story. Like a fan base is quite divided and that's totally cool. But when I talk to people who have experience in the game, playing it or coaching it particularly, it's a pretty universal response. So that I find intriguing. The other thing is, Cam, as far as you being nervous, I think you should be a bit nervous.

[00:17:56] I do ask about these things. And the response I get is no one's publicly kind of reaching out as far as the media and those sources are aware. But I'm with you. I don't think that they're not sitting back and going, you know what? We could make a move on Will Kennedy. Like, I'm sure there's talks with clubs. They just haven't made it public or known.

[00:18:19] But you can't tell me that there's five or six clubs who have either a position available or players who aren't living up to what he's doing on the wage he's on. Because let's face it, if the Sharks don't offer him a deal, if, and someone offers him a deal that's within that price range either way, he's going to take it. Yeah.

[00:18:45] And I think the other thing too is that the longer this sort of goes on, other clubs and the players they have earmarked to play in that position for them, what if there's season-ending injuries or other things that pop up, which all of a sudden, you know, club A, B or C, who may not necessarily feel like they need to go looking for a fullback, all of a sudden find themselves with their preferred fullback being unavailable until halfway through the 2027 season.

[00:19:15] And with some money to burn, might come looking at Will. So, yeah, I think we're both on the same page. I know others aren't, but I'd be more comfortable with him being locked in now. All right. So give us your game day experience, Cam. It was a big crowd, as you said, the biggest in quite a while. I think maybe four or five years, given there's a bit more space, I think, in the ground. But how did you find the experience? Did you have fun?

[00:19:44] Tell us about your day. Yeah, lots of fun. Got down there quite early because we were anticipating. I mean, everyone knew there'd be a good Tigers turnout. And we were worried about parking and how far we'd have to hike into the ground. But, yeah, got down there early. Yeah, love to see it sort of filling up pretty quickly. Obviously, it gets to a bit of a – it gets pretty busy there when you're trying to go and grab St. I mean, it'll eat at halftime.

[00:20:10] But I'd rather trade that off for sort of a full, noisy stadium. Probably weren't as many Tigers fans there as I sort of was anticipating. But I know they were probably up at the other end of the field predominantly. But, yeah, lots of Tigers jerseys amongst the crowd, of course. But, you know, and I think that's one of the things which can be pretty great for the atmosphere as well, is that it's one thing when we have a really packed crowd for an out-of-town team.

[00:20:36] But when we do have some of the local supporters in the mix, it can add to that atmosphere, which I kind of – I think we all probably like. But, yeah, other than that, as good as it gets. Yeah, for sure. There were quite a few – yeah, the other end where you were on the family hill or the other hill, maybe the boozy hill as well, where you can have the booze, I should say. But, yeah, I'm with you. Probably not as many as I thought. But they were definitely there, and you could hear them when they were leading,

[00:21:06] like when they were leading in the first half. You could hear them for sure. There's been a lot of – I know you've sent one round. I asked a lot of social videos popping up about people's game day experiences, and that one in particular went semi-viral. And it was a fair representation of what goes on, I think. Like I saw – I did see some still photos on Insta regarding getting into the ground and, you know,

[00:21:34] people taking photos five or ten minutes before the game starts, and it's just chockers and there's a bit of a line. Look, you probably don't have – you probably shouldn't be in a position where that's a given. Like you probably shouldn't be in a position where you should know that's how it's going to be. Because, I mean, I imagine that – I mean, maybe you can correct me, but imagine that like Parramatta Stadium, for example, if you rock up five times before. The facilities, the turnstiles, they're probably a little bit quicker.

[00:22:04] But really, anywhere you're going, if you go into a game of more than, you know, 100 people or whatever, and you've got to go through a turnstile, you've got to be a bit smarter than that if you can. I know not everyone can, but if you can get there a bit earlier, it's probably beneficial. Yeah, I think that – yeah, I think it's a bit unreasonable to be coming to the game just before kickoff and thinking that you're going to be able to stroll in, grab a beer on the way to your seat and be there ready to kick off.

[00:22:31] And that's no criticism of people who may not have been to Shark Park for a while, but, you know, probably Shark Park. To be honest, you know, Shark Park, there's probably not many other – I guess Coggera, but there's not many other fields that you go to where there's only two entrances, you know, like Combank or any of those other ones. You've got kind of 20 entrances, you know, you're going to. And so I guess the comparable complaint that we might have if we go out to Parramatta

[00:22:58] is that you realise that your entrance gate is kind of around the other side of the stadium and you're walking for 20 minutes just to get around the outside of the stadium, not through the turnstile. But, yeah, I mean, complaints about, you know, Shark Park on – you know, when it comes down to things like getting in at the last minute or getting public transport to the ground. Like I know that there's ways to do it, but there's probably not many grounds

[00:23:24] in Sydney that are more difficult to get to with public transport than Shark Park, maybe Manly, I guess. But that's always going to be a challenge. It's not like going to Allianz, Holmbush or Parramatta, is it? Yeah. And also, you know, if you think about the fact that the field was there from, what, 68 a year after we came in, and you think about public transport, and I know that, you know, there's been many years, decades to get it right in between that, but it's like, well, the train line's here

[00:23:54] and the oval's here, so we can't move the train line and the oval's not moving for the short term or whatever. So, yeah, we can get a bus going, we can do other things, but as far as people complaining about I had to walk 15 minutes from the train, it's like, well, aside from a shuttle, which has been done in the past, maybe it's still happening, I've got no idea, but you're going to have – like you look at your Google map, but, oh, from the train station to the stadium, it's a 15-minute walk. You know, you've got to prepare yourself for that. Yeah.

[00:24:24] So, yeah, but I thought – sorry, Sam, I guess the last – yeah, the last comment on that I guess is too is that we're – you know, we've got to sort of look at some of these reviews and stuff that you see on social media through the prism of the audience. Yes. Delivering it and receiving it, I guess, because I – you know, I think to myself watching some of those games early this season from Leichhardt, and I've been to Leichhardt many, many times. Yeah.

[00:24:52] You know, as a young man seeing the kind of nightclub-like atmosphere that's on that hill for a Friday and Saturday night at Leichhardt, you know, that's pretty attractive and you kind of love it. But if you're taking your young kids to the game, well, it's as horrific as it could be for any other game. And similarly for Shark Park, we know what it's like on a Friday and especially a Saturday night. It's a different vibe to a 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon game.

[00:25:18] And so, you know, sometimes I guess it's the old adage that you can't please everyone. And what some people are looking at to love a game experience is probably what other people look at and turns them off coming to the game. Yeah, definitely. Very well said. I mean, you cannot please everyone. And yeah, if we're going to get into specifics, particularly with West Tigers fans, like to have people being critical of our hill and then you've got their hill,

[00:25:48] I mean, you know, that's just chaos. Let's talk about the very disappointing, though we're very proud news that Natasha Gale team lost their grand final, unfortunately, 20 points to six at Lockhart Oval. Speaking of Lockhart Oval, Parramatta raised the trophy 6-4 at halftime, but they went on with it in the second half.

[00:26:18] But still very proud of the team and the coaching staff, our friend Big Bop, Andrew Fafita, and his coaching staff as well. So pretty good effort, Cam, just beaten in the second half by the hills. Yeah, no doubt. Congratulations to be in that position. Yeah, it was really, yeah, it was sort of a disappointing result, but at the same time, big congratulations to all the players and all the support team coaching staff behind it because it was a big achievement. Absolutely.

[00:26:46] It wasn't great news for FLEG and for the Newtown Shark Jets either. But they both can get the chance to bounce back. The jersey flag team looks pretty good. Like a lot of attack there, a lot of promise there. They've won the majority of their games. This was a bit of a hiccup, but did you see much of that game at all, Cam, on the weekend? Yeah, saw a bit of it. And yeah, it kind of looked like they were coming back to, they might have sort of snatched the game at the end there,

[00:27:15] but a couple of late tries. So good kids, fast. What do you say? At every corner, the sort of future looks bright, doesn't it? I think so. This week, the flag team plays South's 1145. The venue is, I believe it's at Coogee Oval. Just double check that. But for some reason, I think it's at Coogee Oval.

[00:27:45] And the center pairings of Nakora Williams and Preston Lane, Seattle, that's one to keep an eye on. Those two kids have got huge futures. Both have played origin at that under-18s level. Nakora Williams has been playing on the wing for the Jets as well. There's a bit of a maturation there, but both really gun centers. And if we can keep those guys in the system, I'd be looking out for them in the next number of years to make the step up. And I say years,

[00:28:14] not to put pressure on them. Young hooker, Xavier Catacciotti is really good talent as well. And Thomas Dello, the lock, possibly captain as well. Huge wraps on him. I know you've seen him play. Again, I don't want to say this, but Paul Gallen in the sense of, not stature, but heart, desire, and I guess style. So good local junior there. So a lot to look out for if you ever get the chance to watch these guys, particularly when they play at home at Ocean Protect Stadium.

[00:28:44] But both looking to make the step up to the victories. Cam, how is the NRL for you at the moment? And I'm asking for a reason. How is the NRL for you? Yeah, I think it's, you know, it's obviously a big point of conversation, the way it's being officiated. If I can get that word correctly. Officiated, sorry. And, um,

[00:29:13] that's the first time I've ever had to correct you on grammar in 30 years of knowing you. Don't worry. That's very, I'm glad that you stepped in. You're, you're not, you're not on my shoulder every hour, the rest of the days when I can't speak anymore. Um, yeah, I mean, that's obviously, there's blowouts and it's a bit different, but you know, Sam, it's, it's, it's always, it's always changing a little bit. And at the end of the day,

[00:29:44] if the sharks are doing well, I'm happy. Um, watching games, it's probably alternates between sometimes being super exciting and super boring, even though both might be really high scoring games that I'm watching for the other clubs. And so it's a little bit unpredictable, even how you enjoy one game compared to the other, even though scorelines can be very similar. Um, I don't know, Sam, I mean, you and I love rugby league.

[00:30:13] I don't think I'm really shackled to any particular perspective on what it should do or shouldn't be like. And, um, yeah, there's variability between games and how much I enjoy them. Yeah. I, so, so as a spoiler, we've got a 2016 recap episode coming out sometime today as well. And watching those games back, you sort of feel like the game was in a good place where it was, defense orientated,

[00:30:43] but you can still score points. The West Tigers game that we covered in 2016 still was back and forth, but it wasn't chaos. It wasn't every three minutes. So I, whilst I'm like you, I'm not going to turn off a game of rugby league. I feel like they need to tighten, tighten it up a little bit from an officiating slash probably more rules, to be honest, point of view. And the reason I raised that is because Reese was in touch and Reese was asking

[00:31:12] our opinion on that kind of thing. So we've answered that, but he also said, I'd be interested in your thoughts on the PNG tax-free situation following the recent news. And I should say we're jumping into the mailbag right now. So do you think the PNG tax-free situation will be long-term or short-term to get things more established from the outside? It almost looks like they're creating a significant advantage with third party deals effectively becoming tax-free,

[00:31:41] almost double the salary cap. No one can compete with that. Thanks again. And keep up the great work on the pod. So that's from Reese about PNG and some other stuff as well, but I believe it is a, I think it's a 10 year deal cam at the moment with the tax-free situation. Yeah. I hadn't seen any news around it being quite that long, but I guess the problem is, is that we won't know how attractive it is for players to go and play for PNG for another couple of years, will we?

[00:32:10] And I don't think we can make any assumption that it's like trying to get someone to go to Melbourne or Perth or Canberra or something like that, where there might be some aspect to the host city that might not be as desirable as being based out of Sydney or Brisbane. PNG is a different kettle of fish altogether. And yeah. Have you been camp? Sorry. Have you been there? No, no, I haven't, but I just due to my work, I know a lot about it and have to be mindful of it.

[00:32:39] So I haven't had a chance to be there, go there myself as much as I kind of would be interested in. And there's reasons for me professionally to be there. I just sort of think we, I just don't think we know enough about how it's going to work out for players and their families. And at the moment, I'm happy that there's some extra compensation that's available to players and their families to be based out of there. I know that there's some discussions about what it's going to be like and players staying in compounds and all these kind of things.

[00:33:09] And I guess it's hard to separate that, the challenge of uncertainty about what it's going to be like for a professional rugby league player based out of PNG and their families to know exactly what's going to happen. And I think just naturally, they're going to need extra incentive to get players to go there. And I don't think we're going to really have a good feel for how that's influenced the makeup of the team for a few years yet. And I guess, you know, it's probably not fair to make comments on individual players, but,

[00:33:39] you know, the fact that, you know, you've got a couple of really highly played players going there, you know, you're not necessarily going to have a team of similarly, similar level players. And so, you know, you saw how, how one player rallied, probably, you know, a more inexperienced team on the weekend against the Sharks. And if they've not got more experience in their PNG team, well,

[00:34:08] it could be a tough season for a couple of years. And so I think we, yeah, I'm not, I'm not convinced necessarily that we're going to end up with PNG being lopsided compared to everybody else in the competition. Yeah. And, and with all due respect to Lua and I believe Alex Johnson signed. He's signed now. it's been announced. Like, okay, greatest try score of all time. Lua is a multiple premiership winner. Origin, like he's done it all. But,

[00:34:39] end of his career, you wouldn't say he's in peak form. He's a competitor. We know that. I'm not talking him down, but if that's the best they get, then I don't think it'll necessarily, yeah, be a stacked team. Now, if they get a, if they get, who are they talking about? Maybe a Liam Martin, or even a, I don't think he'd go, but Isaiah Yeo was talking about, he's open to it.

[00:35:09] If they can jag some of those guys, some of the old Penrith boys, then it becomes more competitive. That's for sure. I think the comparison to Perth is interesting. And we'll get off this soon. Cause it's not chocolate, but the comparison to Perth is interesting because you look at their team and their team with all respect is pretty mid-level. Uh, as far as talent goes, like they're going to have a team, but you can't see that team winning a comp.

[00:35:38] Now I'm not saying that they're there to win the comp in the first year, but, but I also am not, I'm not a huge fan of the fact that Perth should be getting extra compensation. Cause they're so far away. Like maybe you can have a little bit, but I think PNG is a complete, as you say, a different ballpark altogether. The one thing I would say is, I don't know if you can separate it is, I don't know about the third party being tax-free, being a fair thing. I don't know if that's fair. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not sure. I must admit,

[00:36:07] I'm not familiar enough with how sort of third party sort of stuff plays out and stuff like that. So, um, but again, I think it's essentially, it's essentially non cap. It's not rewarding, but it's on the books and above board. But from what I'm reading in PNG, and for whatever reason, they reckon the third party in PNG is huge. And I can't work that out, but they reckon it's huge, but potentially also tax-free. Yeah.

[00:36:38] Well, so, you know, I think it's easy to forget that PNG has a pretty massive population. And so, you know, there's not, maybe there, there's plenty of opportunities there for those third party arrangements and also for other companies and things like that as well. But look, until we get to kick off and see the team, they're running out in round one, 20, 28 or whenever, whenever it is, I think, um, it's going to be tough for us to really get a good idea about how this is all kind of washing out, isn't it? Yep.

[00:37:09] That's from Reesey. And now Adam's been in touch, just made the cutoff, which is awesome. And said, wasn't it fun to see three tries each from TGWLT and KL? Oh, so he's gone for a bit of a nickname here. So KL trio. And, and, and three, so some cleverness there from Adam. It sure was. And he said, this is my annual request. And this is going to annoy Ash, the historian,

[00:37:36] my annual request to see if anyone has the shark attack cassette in their garage to please contact the show. Now, before everyone starts sending in their shark attack song, it's not the one you have. It's the other one we need. And it's kind of hard to explain, but it's around 1988, 1990. Uh, it's a different song to the one that they will, that everyone has in their homes.

[00:38:02] It's a cassette and it's just the one before that. So by all means, send me what you got. Love to hear it. But we're after one from around 1988 and all like, I can't, I'm not going to sing it for you, Cam. I'm not much of a singer, but something like it's a shark attack. It's a shark attack. It's a slower kind of groove to a song. Um, so anyway, I appreciate it. We need, Sam, we need, we need kind of like a, uh, a nat,

[00:38:31] like a national day of shark attack search. And so everybody, we pick it, we pick a date in the calendar. Everybody has to go and rummage through both their, their garage, but also the local vinnies and stuff for, uh, all cassettes and stuff. So. I'm sure that they sold it. They must've sold both versions. I feel like there's four years in between the versions. Approximately. The reason it's going to annoy Ash is because I don't think he has it. And that's going to annoy him anyway,

[00:39:00] cause he has everything. But also I think whenever I mentioned this, he sends me the song. I'm like, it's not that one. It's the other one. So, uh, we'll, we'll keep an eye out for it anyway, Adam. That's for sure. Now Matt was in touch. Matt said in regards to last week's retro 2016 episode, the round four 2016 game brings back many memories. It was Easter Monday and I headed to the game straight from the Easter show.

[00:39:27] Melbourne scored after we'd blown a lot of opportunities. You could hear a pin drop, but you know, they turned it around. Can't wait till we get up to the other two Monday night thrillers against the Cowboys and the Bulldogs. So that's some praise from Matt on our old episodes. And if you're not subscribed to the party, make sure you do it because, uh, the round five West tigers 2016 game will be out sometime this evening or today. Or when you hear this and it's a beauty.

[00:39:57] So Ben Harlem and I are going through 2016 game by game. That's where we're at. And they're good. It's a great series so far, Sam. It was good. I did recruit, recruit Ben. So it's good that because, cause I guess that, you know, even that it just kind of tests your memory of these things as well. You know, like, um, it's great for a great recap. So, um, yeah, can't, can't sort of encourage everybody enough to go and dive into those. I'm sure they're listening to them already. Yeah.

[00:40:24] And you don't need to watch it back before or after. I think after you're more enticed to do it, but it's more just in case you don't have the time or don't have the means or whatever, we're going to do it for you. But hopefully encourage you to do it. Now, Peter said, thanks for all the content. I'm not. And I told you so guy, and I know how much you love it. So he's being cheeky there. Cause I always say how much I don't like that. I am however glad that I was right about my idea of the alien body swap with the tigers.

[00:40:54] So if you refer last week, Cam, Sharky Pete wrote to us and he says it's going to be an alien switch because we've turned into the tigers. They've turned into the sharks, et cetera. He said, once the two teams saw each other in the flesh, the spell was broken and they returned to their own bodies. And the sharks put on a show. I thought Nico was outstanding goal kicking from all over the place. And that can win you games. He would however, like to see how Hepa Puru get on the field,

[00:41:21] but he also understands there's only so many interchanges that can be made. That's from Sharky Pete. And we'll talk about the interchanges soon, Cam. So we'll hold off on that one. Brock says, I like that we kept a winning lineup. The only change I'd make is Talakai to the bench and either Vyela or Riley Jones to the centers. He says, this is why. Uh,

[00:41:51] he's talking about how he's got a contact at South Sydney and they're going to be targeting Talakai in the centers this week, thinking he's the weak link in D with Latrell and Alex Johnson, Johnson going his way. The thing that worries me is the rabbits are using smaller players off the bench. So we'll get to that in a sec, but he's really concerned about the sharks not being aware of it. He says, I want the sharks to be aware of their back line, et cetera.

[00:42:19] And so I want to tell Brock firsthand that the sharks more than anyone are aware that those guys are coming for him and, uh, Talakai and Heroti will be on their game. Now the thing in our advantage this week, Cam, that makes a bit of a difference is that Latrell isn't the quickest man. He's certainly huge. He's certainly strong. He's probably as strong as Talakai, as scary as I thought as that is, but you basically got these two big guys going for it.

[00:42:48] And I think they'll both have some success over each other, to be honest. But I think, I think laterally it's not as big a challenge and I could be wrong. And I apologize if I am, but it's at least a certainly a different challenge laterally, at least to what he's experienced in the past few weeks. yeah, I think that if we're, you know, playing as Latrell, one of the informed players of the, of the competition this year, um, you know, it's going to be a, it's going to be a, uh,

[00:43:18] something that we're anxious about, irrespective of who's playing there. And I don't know who we put there, um, to be confident that we're going to completely mitigate, um, the impact Latrell will have. And so I, I sort of feel like in some ways, as you pointed out, I mean, he's, he's not necessarily the fastest guy. So it's not like the challenges we had, um, against the Cowboys with people running around Talakai, like with guys like Chester or Pejoo or whoever the case might be.

[00:43:43] And I think you have to invest in taking measures, not to have that last line of events or vulnerability exposed. And also kind of have confidence that Talakai can, um, get back, you know, make up whatever grant is lost in other ways as well. And so, um, I think for the, I think for this week, I think Talakai is probably the best option we've got. Um, but I do also think that after that game,

[00:44:14] I think it confirms two things. And, and one is that, you know, Talakai's benefit to us is in the forwards. Um, and he is vulnerable. Yeah. In defense. And I think, you know, I don't think that's not, that's not being critical. I don't mean to be critical of Talakai, but there were, you know, he, he played a big part in giving up those two tries that we conceded against the Tigers. Um, and so there's no doubt that he has a really important role to play in our team, um, um, for the rest of the season.

[00:44:44] I just don't think it's in the centers. Yeah. Look, and in relation to that, I've got to say that even though I was in Riley Jones play in the past, he, he really stood out to me watching the warmup. Like he's a big body. Um, and I'm not suggesting that he comes in particularly not for this week, uh, replacing Talakai, but he, it's not like a young kid, you know,

[00:45:13] like you talk about some of these younger players that are making their debut. Um, um, they're smaller bodies. Like he looks big, he looks solid. Um, um, I, I'm, I don't think I'm opposed to giving that kid a crack. Um, at some point, I know there's a couple of other people that might be ahead of him, but you know, watching him warm up, it was really noticeable kind of how you think he, he would not,

[00:45:41] he does not look out of place amongst the rest of the guys. Yeah. So slight journey, man, uh, not a kid found his position in the centers after floating around numerous, like fullback hooker, all these sort of different things he's done at lower grades, but at center for the jets, he's been, you know, decent. I mean, Michael Gabriel's above him and we'll get the go first before him. But I think as far as Brock says, throwing Vela or Raleigh Jones in,

[00:46:09] I just think against Latrell of all people, you can't do that to them for lots of different reasons, but I have to believe Talakai would do the best job out of those three guys. So see what happens there. But, and I think to be fair, you know, Heroddy has to be on top of his game and Nico and Nukora. They all have to be as one to get the job done. It's no, it's no use, you know, Siffa needs a bit of help or whatever. Like let's work on it.

[00:46:39] And we saw that throughout the game against the Tigers. There was a lot of chat between Nukora and Hines, more from Hines to Nukora about where he should be and what to do. And, and they got it right. So you can tinker on the run, which is what they did last week, which is positive. It's a good sign. Danny says, as you know, I'm a pessimist at times, but our attack was fantastic on the weekend. Our attack will get us home defensively. However,

[00:47:08] they may have only scored two tries, but it's how easy they scored them. What happened to our defense from last year? Granted, we're missing Ronaldo and Ramian, but it's like the back rowers are not moving out and following the attack. So that's a really good point about not blaming, for example, Talakai in this instance. He's suggesting that, you know, if one guy's off, they all kind of fall off. So that's why I'm saying it's a real team effort here. He says,

[00:47:36] I'm worried for this weekend with the trial against Talakai, not an attack, but defense. He says, we do need Ramian back when possible. And I find that pleasant to hear. And I don't know. I can't remember what Danny said in the past about Ramian, but people in general about Ramian have been very hot and cold. So it's interesting. Now they notice when he's missing. So that's kind of cool. He says, Nico has been underrated in the media this year. It's a positive thing for us. He plays better without the media noise.

[00:48:06] And I think that's pretty accurate, Cam. Well, I think it's certainly accurate that he's having a great season. And I suppose, you know, he's kind of been lucky that circumstances don't, mean that he's in discussions around origin, because I guess that that's been the start of the trouble, I guess, hasn't it in the past? So usually when he comes into those discussions. And so I don't think I haven't seen his name mentioned, and that's probably more because of the availability of others than anything else.

[00:48:36] But, you know, who's to say how he's, how that's sort of impacting him this year, but it's certainly whatever's happening on the field, he's performing as good as you can be expected to. Yeah. And it's not to say that he would have that same reaction if he was being spoken about, because I've seen him mature a lot in heaps of ways this year. Well, the past few years, actually, but I'm with Danny. I'm, I'm, I'm glad that it's not really, and with you,

[00:49:04] I'm glad it's not really a topic and he can just focus on the sharks. Uh, he also says in this era of six, again, Colquhoun should be our prop with AFB and McInnes at lock. Uh, he then says the bench should be Burns, Talakai Kifusi with either Hazelson or Toby. Must sign McInnes. Now the game has changed. What's your immediate bench at full strength? So I really liked what they did in the weekend,

[00:49:33] which is what Danny's hinting at. Oh, he's got Talakai on there, but I think your second prop for this year, at least needs to be the Colquhoun or dare I say, Talakai is what I would do. Maybe he could be off the bench Talakai. I'm not sure, but I would then have McInnes at lock, particularly if he's starting okay with his knee, and everything else. I think Colquhoun is fine to play in the middle. And there's a letter about that coming up as well.

[00:50:02] I did love the bench of Burns and we spoke about Kifusi. And I, I think it's almost, if the game dictates at a blueprint this week, Cam, where you tell Oregon he's not coming on until the, I don't know, 55th minute or whatever it is. And then you do exactly what you did because it works so well, because at that point, everyone's getting tired. Here comes this big guy who's pretty fresh. But do you have any opinion on what your immediate bench would be, Cam,

[00:50:31] if everyone was fit? Yeah, I don't actually. And one of the reasons for that is that I, I'm still a little bit uncertain about our, you know, who's starting and who's coming off the bench. I know there's a question coming up about Colquhoun. And I personally, I'm starting to think I might like him starting. Um, because I guess he's where the, I think,

[00:50:59] I think starting in the front row alongside AFB would actually be a really interesting and pretty solid way forward. I mean, I say that because I know Colquhoun seems to have that better stamina. Like he, you don't think you're going to see a drop off from him if he starts. Whereas someone like Toby, it's now been a couple of weeks. I get nervous when he's still on there after 15 minutes. And, and again, I don't mean to have he having a crack at Toby, but you know,

[00:51:28] when he has made mistakes so far this season, it's usually on the back of looking pretty gassed. And I guess that starting with Toby, you from a coaching perspective, maybe you need to be really attuned to when he's starting to get fatigued. Whereas Jesse, I don't think it's getting fatigued. You've got a bit more margin error, but then at the same time, we saw the impact Toby could have off the bench in the second half, whether he's better off making that impact at the back end of the first half.

[00:51:59] So, uh, yeah, I'm a little bit, uh, yeah, I'm not even a hundred percent sure myself, Sam. I mean, I liked how Hazelden played last week as well. So there is a lot of options, which is good. Uh, you just want to get it right. Um, we'll said, liking the use of the nimbler bench players, given PBL ball, uh, when everyone's fit, telecard is going to be a massive asset off the bench, deserves more minutes. And he asked that question about the bench. We just kind of answered.

[00:52:29] So thanks for that. Will, uh, drew said it's been a while. Uh, thanks for all the content. And then said, is it the first time we have defeated Jerome Louie? And so we answered that, I think on the post game show or somewhere, but it's the second time we've beaten him. I think in his first or second clash for Penrith, I feel like it was at Penrith might've been 2018 ish, maybe 2019. And Matt Moylan might've had a really breakout game.

[00:52:58] That was the last time. I think that's correct. But we definitely have beaten him once. I hope you're good, Drew. Don't be a stranger. Lee said, I love seeing Sifa hurt people. We need this. So that's pretty cool. And some of Sifa's runs in that second half as well, were pretty dominant. And even, you know, even from the centers. And I think that that just, every time you see him making some of those runs, you just imagine him coming off the bench into the middle and, um,

[00:53:28] you know, is, can be unstoppable, both in attack and defense. Yeah. And for whatever reason, they couldn't keep him for the next three years, but I'm, I'm like many people, I'm pretty disappointed that he's going pretty sad. And I think he'll be missed. Like I genuinely think he's a hard player to replace. Given all of his attributes, not impossible to replace. Maybe there will be someone who will step up in that role, but he's just such a unique talent. In my opinion, uh, Sean said, I just want to say,

[00:53:58] I've been loving the pod lately. Banter stories and footy chat have been unreal. So thank you very much. He said, I want to ask something a little bit different. If you, if you could replay one shark's game in history and change the result, what game are you choosing? And I'm guessing that 99% of, well, now I think about it. There's probably three games. Well, there's four games you could change cam. I'll let you, I'll let you, I didn't think about the big, big, big ones,

[00:54:26] but the one that came to mind for me was the 99 prelim against the dragons. And that's where I thought everyone might go, but I've got a background final. So I would a hundred percent just go straight to 99 and just eliminate it. And maybe even that paramount loss in 2003 by 70 points. But what would you do, Kim? You know what? I think it's easy to talk about prelims and stuff, but, or grand final. But I think for me personally,

[00:54:56] it actually would be that week one semifinal against the Cowboys at Shark Park a couple of years ago. And the reason I say that is that. Why are there so many? Why are there so many choices? Well, I think, I think it's, it's kind of like from a personal point of view, because I was there, I know that the atmosphere was unlike any other game. Really? I've been at, and we win that game. And, you know, there's a good chance to make the grand final that year,

[00:55:26] but we look, we walk out of that ground knowing that that is the greatest game ever to have been played at Shark Park. I really have no doubt about that, because, So you're saying if we jag a field goal at that point or something, right? Whatever happens, we win the game. Whatever happens that we win that game. Yeah. It could have been the most boring last 10 minutes, but still we win. Yeah. I, I don't know if there's another game. It's a good answer. I don't know if there's another game we leave,

[00:55:55] have at Shark Park that we don't think that's the greatest game ever. Oh, amazing. Yeah. And I think that's, after you, Sam. It's funny you say that because I think is Tamalolo his big milestone this week or was it last week? I can't remember. I think this week he becomes the most cap cowboy. Yeah. So there's a lot of Tamalolo highlights and they had this like weird kind of behind the post,

[00:56:21] but on the field camera view of him scoring the try to take it to golden point. And I was like, oh, and I kept replaying it going, where did we get it wrong? Who did what? And I was, I was still, so it's a great answer because it still hurts very much. Yeah. So I hadn't thought about that. I'm sure everyone's got to, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Let us know what you think. I just went to 99 just because of the situation and who it was and probably what it would have meant. Cause maybe, maybe we do win that year, you know, but yeah, your answer is pretty good.

[00:56:51] It's a good answer. I'm just disappointed. There's so many games we all change because there's been a lot of heartbreak. A lot of great times too though, but it's a great question. Thank you so much, Sean. Wade, says, ah, this is topical. Wade says, I've been waiting for the heritage Jersey. So this is here. If you're, if you're watching, not listening, I was eight years old when I got my first ever sharks Jersey and it was this in Oh one. Can't wait to see it. So there you go. Wade, if you're watching,

[00:57:21] you can see it. If you're listening, uh, jump on the socials and there'll be a video up there of me dancing around my lounge room or something in it. Uh, but yeah, it's go, go get it. It's a great Jersey. Uh, Jay says, not sharks related, but NRL related. The dogs dip in form. Shouldn't be a surprise. If people look at the stats late. And there's a point to this, uh, late last season, they had won five of their remaining 13 games, including two finals losses. Uh, this season, they're three from eight.

[00:57:50] So the end of last season's run, it's eight wins from 21 games, not even a 40% win ratio. We really are not in a bad spot. Cornell are compared to other teams from last year's final series. That's pretty good point from Jay. Yeah, it's a great point. Um, the only problem is, is other teams in pretty good positions who were in the, in the top eight last year as well. So I think this goes to the, the,

[00:58:18] the issue that we talked about earlier is that it's a tight competition. And who's to say, you know, who's to say the bulldogs won't turn it around, but more importantly, you know, teams like the storm, for instance. So I think I totally agree with, you know, the season's not over for the sharks as much as the doom and gloom in recent weeks, um, other sharks fans have been overtaken with. Um, it's just that there's still a pretty tough road ahead. John says, really happy with the win.

[00:58:48] The key for me now is overall consistency. Good to enjoy the wind. We have to be able to put the sword through some other teams. That's our formula. Let's stick with it. So he wants to see us win a few in a row. And we all do. I think if we can, you know, somehow be it's South and then Canterbury going to the bar. I think everyone would be pretty happy. Like that's three, three wins and a, or whatever it is. And, uh, and a buy that'll get us nice and high on the ladder. So one game at a time for me personally, but yes, I agree. We need to keep putting them together.

[00:59:20] Steven says, great win. Two things stood out for me. Nico Hines really stood up. He owned the big moments, kick well under pressure, which he hasn't been doing, especially early. And the team had faith and weren't rattled. I thought the Tigers front row had the better of us early, but the team didn't get rattled. Shrugged it off and went to work without interchange, really impacting this week. Important team win. Love the pod up, up. So I, I like that from Steven, some Nico praise,

[00:59:48] but also keep into your systems and not because they were, you know, when the Tigers went ahead, what were you thinking, Cam? Were you a little bit worried? Uh, I think I was sort of a little bit worried at how easy those tries were, but the, um, but I was sort of more concerned about what we were about to see, which is what we're all concerned about is there was going to be another shootout. Yes. And yes. So that was probably more concern or as much of a concern as just the, the ease at which they scored.

[01:00:18] I mean, I mean, I know that we scored one as well, but you can't be, I mean, it's so frustrating to have to consider try for scrum. Um, I know that we're vulnerable, like everyone's vulnerable. And those moments, but, um, to see that happen is, um, yeah, incredibly frustrating. Uh, J four has been in touch. He's a newer listener of ours, but he's awesome. And he follows the jets really closely. So he's asking why we're, I don't think we,

[01:00:47] but we in general in the public are so set on Colquhoun playing lock. He said, he only played lock because we had too many forwards and no lock when McInnes did his ACL. Before that, Jesse was only ever a prop. He then talks about our friends, rugby league project, listing him as 17 games at lock, four of those in cup, the rest, when McInnes was injured compared to 23 in the front row and cup and 23 in the front row from the bench in first grade.

[01:01:18] Now he's saying if McInnes is gone and he's not gone yet, but if he's gone and AFB is left alone out there in the middle, we always say we need better props. He thinks Colquhoun is an amazing player, big body and much more nimble than our other bench forwards. So we, we've already discussed that J four, but we agree with you. We think it could definitely be a thing, but then he says, we also say we need another set of hands, someone to touch the ball before Trindle and Hines,

[01:01:47] do a third option there. And that is how HEPA Puru. He literally only plays lock for new town and does a really good job. So J four thinks that, um, aside from Colquhoun playing prop, he wants to see how HEPA get a go. He had a bit of a go last year. Didn't let us down. I've got a feeling of get more of a go this year as well. How you find space, how you find time. That's the age old question, but it's good to have him there. No, he's in the wings.

[01:02:16] He's very good footballer. Oh, and I think you will see more of him. but yeah, we just, the problem here, Sam is that he, he's one of those players where, like, I would just love to see him starting a few games. Like it's hard to know and make an assessment of, of how important he could be to the sharks in coming years. Until we've seen him play a string of, a string of games where he's playing a lot of minutes,

[01:02:44] because we all know that he's got great potential. We know he's been great for the jets, but we're just not going to know with him playing five or 10 minutes off the bench occasionally for the sharks. And I just, yeah, I know that. We shouldn't complain about this because we've been very blessed with not having the sort of injuries that require these guys to come up and play full games where, because that's happened for other clubs. But yeah,

[01:03:13] he's one of these guys that I just, I really want to see a lot more game time just to know what we've got. And yeah, again, he's another one of these players that I'm anxious about losing before we really know how important he's going to be to us. Cause someone's just going to come in and, you know, again, you can't blame a guy who's going to continually sitting on a six man bench moving to another club and being able to start. Yeah, it's quite fascinating that side of it, you know,

[01:03:43] who would be after him, what they'd offer. It's similar to the Mawini-Hiradi situation. Like we saw the Titans come in and offer him a little bit more money, longer deal. And it's hard to turn that down as a, as a, as a person, you know, in any situation. And that's a guy who's shown that he can do it in first grade at a certain level. So you'd think Hoheba's next in line with that kind of decision. I have compared him a lot to the role of Joseph Paulo in 2016,

[01:04:13] but what I've noticed from Joseph Paulo is that he's on the bench a lot and he gets a lot of game time. Whereas Hoheba's sometimes not even on our bench. So I just think they're very similar players, but also I think Captain America coming to us had already had a lot of experience in first grade. He was a bit of a veteran as well. So that's where the comparison ends. Sean says happy with that performance and also sends some praise for the pod, which is awesome. And I think that might be all the mail for this week, Cam, which is awesome.

[01:04:42] Thanks to everyone. I've got to stop saying awesome. Thanks to everyone who's been in touch. A lot of comments on social media and that kind of thing as well. And I really appreciate everyone who's just, I guess, engaging and commenting and helping us out with everything. So I appreciate that very much. Cam, what's going to happen at Homebush this week, 5.30 against South? Are we going to win? Yeah, I think we can.

[01:05:12] What the score will be in our pathway to victory, I'm not 100% sure. And it might be something that's a bit unexpected, but yeah, I don't know. I mean, historically I'm always, it's been a while since I've ever felt like going into a game against South's comfortable. And even when South's are going terribly, they seem to make a close game of it. Was it last year? There was that horrible game up in Central Coast last year.

[01:05:43] Yeah. Yeah. I think that, yeah, I don't know. I mean, they're a different side than they have been the last couple of years, but Sam, we've got to turn up against these teams. We can't be, we can't be playing a depleted Tigers every week. And so as fun as last week was, I mean, unless the guys can turn around and put in a strong performance this week, then, you know, what's the point of lapping the less experienced teams.

[01:06:09] So I think there's a pathway to win that game where we don't give Luttrell as many opportunities, but it's going to come down to this sort of gritty defense. I think, unfortunately, I don't know if we're necessarily can outscore them, but yeah, we've got to limit their opportunities. We definitely can defend better than them. I know that for a fact. So completely agree with you about the attack. One of our listeners raised it in the mail and I'm,

[01:06:39] I'm a little concerned with the Matt Dufty off the bench. I've got to tell you, because that guy for all of his errors and everything else, he's lightning quick, still at his age of probably close to 30. And if they're bringing him on as some sort of roving middle, which you think they would, I wouldn't have thought they'd do a swap for swap and fullback. That could be a problem, you know? So maybe we do have the smaller bodies in the pack this week. Maybe it's that same mindset as last week. Uh, I,

[01:07:08] I'm not losing sleep over the Dufty thing, but I think it's very interesting that he's named in 14. Like there's a plan there for sure. So if they're not quite cracking our edges, which we hope they weren't, maybe there's a way to crack us in the middle. So yeah, need to be on top of that. I know they will be, but I mean, for example, I think he's played three games this year, Cam. He's averaging, I know it's an average of three games, but he's averaging like 290 meter meters. And he won't necessarily do that.

[01:07:37] Hopefully coming off the bench. My point is he's super quick, super quick. Yeah. Yeah. And you sort of think about the scenarios where he's going to be a threat. And again, it's like Luttrell. You, you try to shut down the moments before it comes to that. And you sort of imagine the him coming off the bench, playing in the middle. The thing that's going to be, that's going to open him up is going to be offloads and broken play and shutting that down as quickly and as well as we can is, is going to be really critical. And I think,

[01:08:06] I think for the most part, we've been a lot better. I don't know what the official stats show, but I feel like we've been better at containing offloads this year. Yeah. In the last couple. So, you know, maybe that's something that we've got to be, got to be mindful of. Yeah. We'll be doing a preview episode, Cam, and we'll get into the nuts and bolts of that. I can tell you Southstone offload that much though. So that's kind of good. It doesn't mean they won't, but I think they're very much near the bottom of as far as most offloads per game.

[01:08:35] I think as far as us conceding them, we're about halfway. We're definitely not at the bottom. It's not like a dire situation. It's more what they do with it. I think from try scoring situations, we tend to concede from on offload, which is a bit of a pattern, but they're not like conceding 20 a game kind of thing. So there's pros and cons there. How's your week looking, Cam? Everything cool? Everything cool in the land of Cam web? Yeah, pretty, pretty good. Enjoying the cooler weather.

[01:09:04] It's really kind of cooling off a little bit now. So yeah, looking forward to enjoying that. It was a really good time of the year. I like this. I like this weather. Yeah. Get the guitar out a bit, noodle a bit. Yeah. A bit of, a bit of music, a bit of gardening, a bit of outdoor walking around and that sort of stuff. I was lucky enough to see the Deftones and Interpol last weekend, who were on last Saturday night, pretty amazing show,

[01:09:31] big visuals out at the venue there at Homebush. So that was a lot of fun. We've talked about Mogwai coming up as part of Vivid Festival as well. And so, yeah, a few, a few things, yeah, a few things going on. Is Interpol like good, a good support for Deftones? Are they in that same kind of world? A little bit different. That sort of surprised me a little bit that they were the, were the main support.

[01:10:01] I quite like Interpol, particularly that first record, Turn On The Bright Lights. So it was great to see them, but it was, it was really noteworthy, their reception in that crowd. Like there's a Deftones crowd. So pretty much anyone could have been in that primary support spot. Now what does that mean? Does that mean supportive or not supportive, so to speak? Just interested, but when Interpol kicked off, like,

[01:10:30] you know, it was through the roof, like the crowd went from being, You mean when the Deftones kicked off? Yeah, when the Deftones kicked off. Gotcha. Yeah. Interpol were pretty well, well received. And I guess, you know, they're a pretty big band. Yeah. I wouldn't have ordinarily thought that they were, there was a big crossover between the band's audiences, but, but no, they were great. But yeah, you know, it's, it was a Deftones crowd. That was the, that's, that's for sure.

[01:11:00] And how, how is your son Hudson at concerts? Does he get into it? Is he air drumming? Is he banging his head? Is he motionless? What's he doing? I can't be sure to be honest. Well, I can tell you that he was into it. He loved them, but he really wanted to be on the floor. We were sitting kind of towards the, the, the back of that general admissions area. And I'm sure that if I'd given him a boost up over the railing down into the, into the pit, he would have been down there without a moment's hesitation.

[01:11:29] So yeah, he's getting to that stage where he's getting a, you know, he's growing up, he's getting to be a bigger body. And so he can mix it with those, with those, with everyone else in there. So as I'm getting older and less able to cope with it, he's kind of getting into it. Yeah. I haven't seen him in for a while in the flesh. So I imagine, yeah, cause in my head, he's a little bit smaller, but obviously that's, he's not so much anymore. Yeah. Gotcha. All right. Thanks for your time,

[01:11:59] Cam. I know you're a busy fella chasing mosquitoes. Good to talk to you, Sam. And good to be on, on the, on the, on the podcast. Always a good time of the year when we're full of hope for the sharks. And I don't know if you caught the episode I did with, I think it was Josh, maybe two or three weeks ago. And I was upstairs in my house and yeah, this giant man, it was like,

[01:12:28] I don't see those in my house. Somehow I got through and he was a big boy. I had to get rid of that guy. I couldn't leave him hanging around, but is that, is that rare for a mosquito just to appear and it's like the size of a tennis ball or whatever? Yeah. Mossies are pretty good at finding their way inside houses. The good news, Sam, for the, for the entomological component of this podcast, sometimes the bigger the mosquitoes, the less concerned they are. So we do have some really big mosquitoes,

[01:12:57] one type of big mosquito in the average sort of Sydney backyard. And it's kind of like the good mosquito because it doesn't bite. It's big. It looks ominous. It makes a lot of noise, but the good news is it doesn't bite. Um, so, uh, but trying to convince someone to carefully relocate a mosquito outdoors. I know I'm sort of fighting against them. That's a tough job. I don't know. I don't know how many people are watching. There is a video of it, of me on camera.

[01:13:24] And I went from like focusing on Josh to like this for the last 20 minutes. And so I made sure I didn't lose sight of it. And, uh, anyway, yeah, that that's just a reminder that we need you around more cam to take care of these situations for us. Me and novices who think we're about to say goodbye to the world because of this mosquito. So I'm here for you, Sam and all you listeners. I appreciate it. All right, Cam, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks to everyone else for tuning in.

[01:13:53] Don't forget to go buy your new retro Jersey. Go to sharks.com.au. If you're interstate, if you're out of town, if you're in the Shire, anywhere in the Shire, I should point out, make sure you head down to Bay central. If you can, obviously, if you can't call them up or, or, or go online and buy it, but really nice Jersey. I've been in this now for an hour or so. It's really comfy. Uh, it is, uh, um, I am endorsing this. It's not, I didn't actually, I'm just being honest.

[01:14:23] The club gave it to me and it's really nice though. Like if I bought this, I'd be pretty happy. And I know that if the club goes and buys it, if you guys go and buy it, the club will be happy as well. So excuse my words. I've only had one coffee today. Uh, they're going to wear this at magic round. It's going to be awesome. So you got a week and a bit to get kitted out for that. But before that, we've got a big game against South Sydney. Go wear it to the Souths game. That'll freak out all the homebush people. Whoa. What year is this? What are we doing? Cam talk to you soon, my friend up,

[01:14:52] up Cronulla to everyone else. Let's go. Shark cast 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 Caringbara region and has his eye all across the Shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate.

[01:15:18] Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips and Crips Real Estate.