Flagship Episode w/ Sam Shinazzi and Loosh (Post Credits Show Podcast from Melbourne) 12/9/24

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[00:00:34] SharkCast, SharkCast, SharkCast

[00:00:42] Back in the Shire, tell your port slideshow because we're coming over to the trophy.

[00:01:05] Hey there, welcome to SharkCast Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club

[00:01:11] in the history of the entire universe. And that universe this week is going to Melbourne.

[00:01:17] This show is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, The Royal Mote Yacht Club in Port Hacking and

[00:01:21] Jason Horza, Crips & Crips Real Estate. I am Sam Shanazzi, OG 2015, supporting a lot

[00:01:28] longer than that. 10th season of doing this, having the best time ever, I want to say.

[00:01:34] And that's a really great thing because I've had a great time the whole 10 years

[00:01:37] to say that right now is a lot of fun. So on the other end of this podcast is

[00:01:42] a very special human being. He is the star of, or one of and the brains behind a very,

[00:01:52] very cool podcast. They do videos, they do a lot of stuff. The post credit show.

[00:01:58] He is the biggest Melbourne based sharks fan as he knows I've got to put an

[00:02:06] asterisk next to it for all the other listeners and viewers but he knows who he is.

[00:02:10] And please welcome everyone to SharkCastPod, our good friend for the first time ever I want to say

[00:02:17] Lush Shagoma man. Mate, I am fantastic. How are you? I'm good. I'm pumped. Ready to go.

[00:02:23] Yeah, absolutely stoked. What a big weekend. Yeah, look, did not think that we'd be having

[00:02:28] a second game in Melbourne. That's for sure this week, this year. The first one was

[00:02:33] such a big game for us down here and having the opportunity to have a second one is exciting.

[00:02:39] I only typically get to see the sharks twice a year because I'll always travel up for that

[00:02:42] one members ticket that I get. So getting a third one in and hopefully a fourth one in

[00:02:47] a couple of weeks time. The main reason you're on the episode tonight is to give us a

[00:02:53] experience from someone who lives in Melbourne. And we've got many listeners and viewers and

[00:02:59] fans of the team who live in Melbourne, but you're our person tonight for the job to

[00:03:04] get across what that means. We're going to talk a bunch about that. We're going to do

[00:03:08] a semi regular episode anyway, so keep on listening to Lush and I talking all things

[00:03:14] Krillin Sharks. Let's start out with you, my man. Now I am of the belief that you

[00:03:19] grew up in the Southern Shire. I did grow up in Sydney. I spent a lot of my time in the

[00:03:25] Southern Shire, but I actually lived most of my teenage years in the New Town Jets area.

[00:03:36] Big fan of the Jets got to pop down to Henson Park a couple of weeks ago and see them play,

[00:03:42] but also always been a bit of a sharks fan. My old man played many, many years ago

[00:03:48] in some junior competition or something. At least he likes to tell me, but you know,

[00:03:53] dads tell stories, don't they Sam? They do.

[00:03:57] But yeah, look, I inherited my obsession with the Krillin Sharks from him and I would dare say at

[00:04:03] this point in life probably overtaken his obsession and turned it into something more of a

[00:04:09] bit of a cult thing down here. Yes, yes. And the only reason I mentioned that I thought you

[00:04:15] were from here because I saw some of your posts when you're up here and you were hanging out

[00:04:17] in Bundina. Yeah, yeah. So the reason why I spent a lot of time down there is that I actually had a

[00:04:23] great aunt and uncle when I was growing up who lived over on the other side of the ferry,

[00:04:29] the Bundina ferry that you can catch from just behind Cronola Station. And I used to take

[00:04:33] that ferry all the time and I've got some really fond memories of sitting in their lounge

[00:04:37] room over in Bundina looking out over the ocean because they had a beachside out and watching

[00:04:42] that ferry go by and playing chess with my uncle and then me going, hold on, hold on, hold on,

[00:04:47] uncle. The ferry's coming and I'd grab the binoculars and look out at the ferry and

[00:04:50] watch it go by and it was just yeah, there were some really fond memories of there,

[00:04:54] of spending some time down there. So I love the area. How long have you been in Melbourne?

[00:05:02] 18 years now? 18. 18, yeah, yeah. I'm actually a fair bit older than I look but we don't tell

[00:05:09] anyone the real number. I can't relate to that so don't worry. Let's get into it. What's it like

[00:05:17] being a league down there? I'm sure each year it gets better with coverage and awareness,

[00:05:23] especially given the success of their team. What's it like being a Sharks fan down there?

[00:05:29] Well, first things first, the first thing I want to say is I have never been anywhere

[00:05:32] else in the country to a football match and been drinking an oat milk latte and eating

[00:05:37] a sushi roll, except for Amy Park. It's the most quintessential Melbourne experience I've

[00:05:45] ever had in my life. So that plus obviously the incredible weather. I heard Riccio on your podcast

[00:05:54] earlier today going it's Melbourne, it's always 13 degrees. He's actually wrong. It's not always

[00:05:58] 13 degrees. There's actually a sign at the airport when you arrive that says welcome to Melbourne

[00:06:02] if you don't like the weather come back in 20 minutes. So that's a bit of the Melbourne experience

[00:06:08] as far as the weather goes but look probably the biggest thing that we notice down here as

[00:06:12] Sharks fans is that there's actually not a lot of NRL coverage. There's a lot of Melbourne

[00:06:18] Storm coverage and that's pretty much it. Once the Melbourne Storm kind of,

[00:06:23] you know, when that weekly game is over and they've stopped playing you kind of

[00:06:27] don't hear much more from it. Thank God for things like KO and Fox Sports and Channel 9

[00:06:32] occasionally having stuff on the digital channels because if you didn't have that,

[00:06:37] if we were going back to the 90s where, you know, Friday night football, Saturday night football

[00:06:42] Sunday afternoon football then we'd probably get nothing down here in Melbourne.

[00:06:46] Has it improved as the years gone on or not? Look very slightly but again because it's a

[00:06:53] one team town it's very much, you know, the focus is on Melbourne Storm. I think what has improved

[00:07:00] and I work in a customer facing role. I do, I have a really fun job where I get to have a lot of

[00:07:07] banter with customers. The one thing that I will say is that when state of origin happened down here

[00:07:12] earlier this year, the entire city just kind of like flipped on its head and it was like,

[00:07:17] oh my God, there's footy fans here. There were people all over the CBD wearing their blue and

[00:07:24] their maroon jerseys and like there was a lot of footy talk and like people were coming into my

[00:07:29] venue and I was able to have some banter with them. You're like, I had a father and son who came in.

[00:07:33] The father was I think a Queenslander. The son was New South Wales so obviously as a New

[00:07:37] South Welshman I'm like, yeah buggy you Queensland. And then I turned around to him and asked,

[00:07:41] who do you go for in club land? And they're both like St George. I'm like, yeah, right,

[00:07:44] get out both of you. So, you know, like you kind of have an ally for a moment and then you realise

[00:07:51] that they're Saints fans and you've got to feel sorry for them really don't you?

[00:07:54] No, no you don't. Now you're part of, you're an admin guy, you're a leader of at least one

[00:08:02] group in a vertical was I'm aware of on the Facebook. It's what's it called? It's called

[00:08:08] Victorian Kronele Shark supporters. Yes. It is a group of people who are all verified as living

[00:08:14] in Victoria who support Kronele Sharks. Obviously the last thing we want is those dirty storm fans

[00:08:19] coming in. There's about 140 of us now. When we when we when the group first started started off,

[00:08:28] I think it was about eight or nine years ago, there was about 12. And it's just growing

[00:08:32] exponentially. And I think like obviously during COVID a lot of people moved around the country and

[00:08:37] you know, weirdly enough, some people moved down here during COVID. I don't know why they did that

[00:08:41] because you know, land of the long white lockdown. But it just just grown over the last couple of

[00:08:49] years to the point where you know, during in round 10, when we had our big pregame meet,

[00:08:55] we had a bunch of people who came down out of the woodworks who we had never ever seen before

[00:09:00] in Melbourne. And it turns out a lot of them were Melbourne based people, Victorian based people.

[00:09:04] So it was just really exciting to continue to grow that group and to see that group starting to

[00:09:09] expand and to see people wanting to catch up outside of the one or two Melbourne storm games

[00:09:14] that we have down here each year and wanting to actually create like, oh, let's let's let's

[00:09:18] go to the pub, let's go to the Ross town, let's you know, go find one of the only pubs

[00:09:22] in the state that'll show rugby league. You know, it's great. I've got my own little

[00:09:26] community down here. You know, some of us catch up at my house. I've got this beautiful big lounge

[00:09:30] room that overlooks the Dandenong Rangers, big balcony and now catch up for a few Bruce keys and

[00:09:37] watch the sharks game. And if we win the TV survives, if we don't need to find a replacement

[00:09:41] because usually remotes go flying. But you know, it is what it is. And I know that

[00:09:45] a bunch of you are really tight. Like you've gone through life experiences like good and bad.

[00:09:51] And I hear from certain listeners who listen to this show who are in their group and it's one of the

[00:09:57] tighter communities. It definitely is. And we've had a really rough year on an emotional level,

[00:10:03] on a community level. We have we've had a couple of really key members of our community who

[00:10:09] passed away this year within a couple of months of each other, one of which was Adam

[00:10:13] who started this group all these years ago. Another one, Jess, who was infamous for,

[00:10:21] well, let's just say she really didn't like Ashley Klein. Yes. Yes, some more of this.

[00:10:28] So like they both passed away and you know, we had a bit of I guess you could call it a drum

[00:10:34] circle at our like a little tight gathering that we had just before the round 10 game.

[00:10:39] And you know, raised a drink to those two who we really I think when when Talakai scored that last

[00:10:47] try that put us over the top of the storm in that game. The prevailing thought was it was Tim who

[00:10:54] threw the offload and it was Jess who was cheering him home. So it was really it was really quite

[00:10:58] emotional and the sharks were great as well like we we reached out to the memberships team

[00:11:02] there and Dino up there who really looked after Jess and Adam's family and invited them

[00:11:07] into the locker room and got to sing the team song together, which was it was just fantastic.

[00:11:12] And it was really good to feel the love from our team, but the team that we as a community are so

[00:11:17] invested in down here as much as we can be from from a completely different state. So you know,

[00:11:22] hats off to Dino and the crew up there for doing that. It was it was incredible.

[00:11:26] Absolutely. And I remember how tough a time it was for you guys and girls. And I

[00:11:31] I remember look not in the moment in all I'm not making light of it in the moment when

[00:11:36] telechrist scored, but I remember feeling afterwards seeing everyone talk about it in the group

[00:11:43] and remembering what it actually meant aside from the two points and everything else for you guys.

[00:11:49] Yeah. Aside from the fact that it's a rare win in your hometown, the personal connection you had

[00:11:55] was you know, you couldn't script it better. So that was great. That was the best reason

[00:12:01] that we won for you guys. There was a group of us who like we were all sitting in the

[00:12:06] the away bay and that that try when when when telechai, you know, ball down over the line,

[00:12:13] everyone went up, storm supporters went down. Like we were all we were just in tears. It kind

[00:12:19] of felt like our grand final because the way the year was playing out, we knew we were

[00:12:24] finals bound at that point. Yeah, like yeah, we've just beaten Melbourne in Melbourne.

[00:12:28] We are finals bound. It doesn't matter what happens from here on in. We're going to

[00:12:30] make the finals. Yeah, and that's the kind of faith that we had. So it felt like the one

[00:12:36] game we got to see down here. It was our grand final, which is so crazy to think because

[00:12:40] this weekend listening to a couple of your episodes earlier this week,

[00:12:44] again, it's a grand final for us, you know, like we have to play this game like a grand

[00:12:49] final. So yeah, it was it was just such a great experience. I was going to say,

[00:12:53] yeah, if anyone listening who is in Melbourne or in the surrounding in Victoria, they should

[00:12:59] hit you up on there. Yeah, definitely. Come join us. Other people who are coming down for the

[00:13:04] game, they're in touch with me. I'm going to pass on where you're going to be, but you might as well

[00:13:09] just tell everyone now where you're going to be. We're going to be having some pre-drinks at a

[00:13:13] cute little outdoor bar called Pink Lemonade, which is right next to Richmond Station. The

[00:13:19] great thing about Pink Lemonade is they have Brookvale Union on tap, which I absolutely love.

[00:13:23] And they've also got they've got food, they've got drinks, they've got a great like outdoor deck,

[00:13:29] there's music, all that kind of stuff. And they are quite literally a six minute walk away from Amy

[00:13:33] Park. Okay. So yeah, fantastic, fantastic place to meet up. Really easy to get to we're going

[00:13:40] to be there from one o'clock and then at about four o'clock at about sorry three,

[00:13:44] three 15 we're gonna all wander over as a group and hopefully get the get the win.

[00:13:50] All right. So we do have a lot of people going down to watch the game. So that's where you need

[00:13:54] to be the Pink Lemonade from one o'clock. Well, breaking news, I don't know if you know this Sam,

[00:14:00] but the members bay is sold out. Epic. Yeah. I think there's gonna be a lot of people there.

[00:14:06] I wouldn't be surprised if the game is pretty close to sold out already. It might be and I

[00:14:11] think that there will be a fair representation considering it's their home ground. I think

[00:14:16] that I think that if the boys can perform to a certain level throughout the game, you know,

[00:14:21] we're going to be heard, which is, which is awesome. Yeah, definitely. You have seen us lose a bit

[00:14:27] down there. Let's not sugarcoat that. Yes. But you mentioned it just before around 10.

[00:14:35] Niko goes down 24 hours before. There's a lot of confusion as to what's going to happen.

[00:14:41] But as we heard in the episode from this morning, Dave Ricchio inside man told us exactly what went

[00:14:47] down and the coach had it. You know, the coach was like, now we got this. We know what happened

[00:14:52] with the positional play when the team line up was announced an hour before when you're at the

[00:14:58] game, you look at your phone, that's the lineup. Whoa, that's a bit intense. What was your feeling

[00:15:03] then? Was it was it all hopes gone or was it like, well, let's see what happens. Pure panic.

[00:15:08] Yeah. Like literally all of us, all of these, these big burly blokes standing around with our

[00:15:15] little girly drinks in our hand. Oh crap, Niko's out. Oh no, Niko's out. And it was like conflicting

[00:15:21] stories. I think the first thing I did was I got on a message you actually. I'm like, hey,

[00:15:25] if you heard his Niko out and you're like, oh, I don't think so. Yeah, that's right.

[00:15:29] And then like five minutes later, we broke that Niko was out. I'm like, oh no. We were,

[00:15:35] we were like, all right. Well, we've copped a few floggings. So I guess brace yourself boys,

[00:15:41] have a few more drinks. Terrifying. The idea of going in there without the big man was just

[00:15:50] four. Yeah. I mean, we all felt that way. Not all through the ground, but we all felt

[00:15:54] that way. Could you believe what you were seeing as it transpired? The grit, the determination

[00:16:00] about big forward scoring tries and then, you know what happened at the end, but just

[00:16:04] the way we're hanging in there. What were you feeling, man?

[00:16:07] It just felt so like, I think the words going around all afternoon, all evening. And as soon

[00:16:13] as the game finished was like, man, this feels like it's 2016 all over again.

[00:16:18] Like it just, it was kind of blowing us all away. Like we hadn't seen our team,

[00:16:22] you know, we know the story. We know the rhetoric that was going around, oh,

[00:16:28] Cronalsharks, they can't beat a team in the top eight. Well, here we are going against one of

[00:16:32] the two competition heavyweights and we've just scalped them in Melbourne without a million

[00:16:38] dollar player. Like it was just pure disbelief that we were able to actually get it over the

[00:16:44] line. And it just, yeah, it was, it was just such an incredible feeling. There was a lot of

[00:16:48] tears. The team came over and you know, did the high fives and all that kind of stuff

[00:16:52] and spent a fair bit of time with us over there in the, in the away bay. And it was, it was just,

[00:16:57] like I said, it felt like something special was happening this year. And obviously the year,

[00:17:03] you know, turned out a little bit different to what we all hoped. But, you know, after,

[00:17:07] you know, the performance that we just saw on Sunday afternoon against the Eagles, you know,

[00:17:13] we don't generically typically have a very good record at Brookie. But, you know,

[00:17:19] we went there and once again, as Dave and you were talking about earlier today, once again,

[00:17:24] we've gone to someone else's home ground and kicked their teeth in. So it was fantastic.

[00:17:30] Could you believe what you were seeing from Dan Atkinson?

[00:17:32] Man, like it was a revelation. Like I think we'd all heard about Dan Atkinson. We'd all

[00:17:37] heard about the, this fringe player who's coming up from the jets, you know, like

[00:17:41] obviously, you know, we have a couple of different podcasts in Sharkland and,

[00:17:46] and the other guys at the, the fins up were, you know, talking quite a bit about, you know,

[00:17:52] who this kid is as he's coming up. But, you know, like all of a sudden here he is,

[00:17:57] he's in the middle of the park. He's, he's half my age, Sam. And he's driving this team

[00:18:02] around this park like an absolute pro with, with the elite Cam McInnes on one side. And with

[00:18:13] just the mind blowing performance from Blake, from Blake Brailey, who, just a quick shout out

[00:18:19] there for Susie, your future husband. She'll love that. It just confused us. It confounded us. And

[00:18:25] it was, we didn't see it coming, which is why it was so good because we weren't the only ones

[00:18:31] who didn't see it coming. Clearly the storm didn't see it coming as well. You know, and to

[00:18:34] see us take that same style of play and to do that two or three times this year, by time

[00:18:40] we did it the third time, it became clear that teams had figured out what we were doing

[00:18:43] and they shut it down pretty quickly. But we still got the win. Yeah, it was just,

[00:18:47] it was something different. It was something unique. And the one thing I will say is that

[00:18:50] we all kind of stepped away from that game and went meant that was a brave bold move

[00:18:55] from an extraordinary coach. Yeah. I've said it a number of times that it is one of the

[00:19:01] best coaching, one of the best coached games I've seen in any sport I've followed forever.

[00:19:06] Like there's a few that stick out for me, but that one, I mean, I don't know if he had too many

[00:19:11] choices given it was 24 hours before, but to still do that and then to do it so thoroughly.

[00:19:19] I mean, the storm got back into it towards the end, went to the field goal. We went away

[00:19:23] with the try at the end, but that was a tight game. The coach probably still doesn't get

[00:19:28] enough credit for that, dare I say for a whole bunch of other stuff. Look, I would say there's

[00:19:33] a big, big fan, big, big fan of Fizzi. I've had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times.

[00:19:39] I got to have lunch with him when they were down here in Melbourne last year. I'm a big fan of his.

[00:19:45] I think the culture that he's bred into this team, the culture that he's really developed

[00:19:49] into this team and the way he's developing these young guys into men and really kind of

[00:19:54] impressing on them how important community and family and your fan base are. I just

[00:20:00] right coach, right time. Yeah. And I say this quite a lot. It's no disrespect to past coaches because

[00:20:06] they've all had that in mind. Like a guy like Bomber Morris, like he wouldn't meet a sweeter guy

[00:20:11] who does so much in the same way that Fizzi does it, but Fizzi just brought something

[00:20:16] different to the story and from day one, it was evident in the way the guys carried

[00:20:23] themselves and it's only gotten stronger and with more kids coming through you see it

[00:20:29] a lot more clearly. And that stuff starts to matter three years in when you go to Melbourne

[00:20:36] and your backs against the wall and people are saying you can't do it. Well, guess what?

[00:20:41] You and I and a whole bunch of thousands more believers and they know that,

[00:20:45] but really at their core, they're doing it for themselves because it's a brotherhood and

[00:20:50] sounds corny, sounds cliche, it probably is, but that's the truth. Like I haven't seen a happier

[00:20:55] bunch you can throw in 2016 and I'm not putting shade on anyone. This crew

[00:21:02] genuinely love each other to a man and it's, and I'm not saying that it's a perfect relationship

[00:21:08] for everyone, but they make it work in a way that I probably haven't seen before with this club

[00:21:14] in my time at least. I think that you see that in performances. I think you see it

[00:21:19] when we're playing the roosters at Magic Ground and it's 30 all and we've got to get

[00:21:22] on the try and we won 36 30. Like stuff like that doesn't just happen

[00:21:28] so much winning in all these places in the state, doing things we don't usually do at Brookvale.

[00:21:34] Like it's not a fluke. It's it starts with a coach, the players are heavily involved.

[00:21:40] That's the result. So you know, crazy things like Nico Hines hasn't even played 100 games yet,

[00:21:46] but he's still at this level on and off the field. A large part is Nico, but the way he's

[00:21:52] being guided by the coach can't be underestimated. It's the same with all these other players and

[00:21:58] the coach said it. He said, these guys are going to hit 100 games soon and then we'll see

[00:22:02] where we can go and that we're at that level now. They're all starting to get that 100 game

[00:22:06] mark. So I'm with you a huge fan of the coach and it's a good time to be a shark.

[00:22:12] Ricky and I today we're talking off air. We were talking about how and you can relate to this,

[00:22:19] how the younger generation, and I can't believe I'm old enough to say that,

[00:22:22] the younger generation have it so much easier than other generations, old generations of sharks fans.

[00:22:30] Yeah. Look, for me, my earliest memories as a shark fan are the old John Lang days.

[00:22:36] As great as he was when I was in when I was at Shark Park for that Warriors game

[00:22:40] a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to have a really good chat with Peachy,

[00:22:45] which, you know, I don't know a lot of people don't get that opportunity, but what an absolute

[00:22:49] champion that bloke was. And I said to him, man, I'm like, no, that late 90s team that you,

[00:22:55] Andrew Eddingshouse, Matt Rogers, that is the greatest sporting team in the history of the

[00:23:01] world to never win a premiership. Like they were just incredible. It was so good.

[00:23:06] Yeah. You know, like throughout the Super League era, obviously we had the Super League

[00:23:10] Grand Final against the Broncos completely blows my mind that such a legendary team full of actual,

[00:23:16] not just club legends, but rugby league legends in that team never got it over the line. It took

[00:23:22] another, you know, 17, 18 years before we finally got our first, before we finally got our

[00:23:27] first win and all of the drama and all of the heartbreak and the heartache that we had to

[00:23:33] go through in those earlier, in the late 20, 20, 10s. And my God, there were times there where we

[00:23:41] didn't know if we would have a football club next next year. Yeah. Like every time we play

[00:23:46] St George, there's that famous photo that goes around of Cronulla sharks, unmerged,

[00:23:51] only just, you know, we were that close, you know, and obviously going to the precinct

[00:23:57] a couple of weeks ago and seeing what they've done in the last 12 months in that precinct

[00:24:01] and going, holy crap, man, this is they are building something special in this area of town.

[00:24:07] So tell us what you thought. So you hadn't been in town for a while. Tell us what you thought.

[00:24:10] Yeah, look, I hadn't, I hadn't been to Shark Park for, I actually didn't make it up last year,

[00:24:14] which probably the first year in about 10 years that I haven't made the annual trip up.

[00:24:18] So the last time I came up would have been Bulldogs, Bulldogs game two years ago,

[00:24:25] like three weeks before the end of the regular season. And it was a very, very close win.

[00:24:31] It was just a win. And we kind of, you know, it was, I don't know if you remember the game,

[00:24:35] but it was the one where everyone kind of walked away and went, yeah, look, we won that, but

[00:24:39] yeah, man, that was not good. So obviously, you know, two years since I've been up there and,

[00:24:45] you know, watching the games on television and you kind of, you kind of see, I still call it

[00:24:48] television, see how old I am. And you see, you see like the stadium, like the shopping

[00:24:54] center behind being built and you start to see some of the buildup of the area and

[00:24:59] like the apartments behind the ET stand or like all that kind of stuff. It's slowly going up and

[00:25:05] then you kind of get there, you stand in the middle of it and you look around and it's like,

[00:25:08] this is incredible. Like going to a shark store that's in what is essentially a shopping center

[00:25:13] and there's this massive shark, but it's crazy. Like I had so much money to spend.

[00:25:17] I walked in and I bought this beautiful golden hat with the shark's logo on it and

[00:25:21] bought a squash ball with a Cranola shark's logo on it for my dog.

[00:25:24] And it's very quickly become his favorite ball. But yeah, like I'm just so impressed and obviously

[00:25:31] the news that came out today about the sharks going into partnership with the,

[00:25:36] what do they call the restaurant now? It's not King Juan anymore.

[00:25:39] Golden Bay.

[00:25:40] Golden Bay, yeah. Amazing. Yeah.

[00:25:43] Standing in the football stadium and standing in Shark Park and looking over that side

[00:25:49] and seeing all of the people along the window there who are eating dinner with the big windows

[00:25:55] open and they're cheering is that I'm just like, this is incredible. It's just such an experience.

[00:26:00] And it kind of like, I haven't been to a legion stadium over in Vegas yet,

[00:26:04] but I've got friends who have worked over there and they've said to me,

[00:26:09] you know, the experience is kind of like you go in there and there's,

[00:26:12] it's a shopping center in there. There's restaurants all around the whole thing,

[00:26:15] you know, like it's this massive vibe. And then going to Shark Park, I'm like,

[00:26:19] I see what they're trying to build now. It's never going to be a legion stadium.

[00:26:23] No.

[00:26:23] But it can be a mini-allegion stadium, right? Like it's got that kind of vibe, right?

[00:26:30] I tell you what really surprised me, a toilet block is gone.

[00:26:33] That's for the best.

[00:26:35] Yeah. Yeah. Thank God.

[00:26:38] I was going to say, Lush, I don't think of allegion stadium when I think of our beautiful

[00:26:44] Shark Park, but I'm glad that you do.

[00:26:48] The tech man, it's right up there.

[00:26:50] You're right about the store. Like I was there today buying some,

[00:26:53] some gifts for my kid's birthday and it wasn't lost on me. And I've been there,

[00:26:58] I don't know, like four or five times and it wasn't lost on me that this is pretty cool.

[00:27:02] Like I'm in a super store about the Sharks and I was talking to Ash and a few people

[00:27:07] behind the counter and they had the game on and it was just, you know,

[00:27:11] you could just live in there, right? Like it's just a great place and commercially it's awesome.

[00:27:15] And then you walk around the corner and I didn't know until everyone knew about the fact that they

[00:27:20] bought into the Chinese restaurant, which is a great investment because it's very popular.

[00:27:25] I now feel better going there because I've been there probably seven or eight times since it

[00:27:30] opened and I feel better giving my money to the Sharks via them. So that's a great move.

[00:27:36] But you're right. Like it's a work in progress. The league club is still to come obviously. We'll

[00:27:41] see what happens there but I would imagine here for you who haven't been around much

[00:27:47] to see that you would have, yeah, you would have been pretty stoked.

[00:27:51] It was exciting. It was exciting to walk around. It was exciting to walk from the Sharks store

[00:27:55] down towards the main street entrance but taking a right down towards the food court,

[00:28:00] which takes you around to the Chinese restaurant and being inside the restaurant,

[00:28:05] being able to see the stadium while the sprinklers were on at nine o'clock in the morning,

[00:28:10] the day of the game. It was like, yeah, get me in there. So yeah, it was incredible.

[00:28:16] It was a really great experience to see what we've developed there and I know

[00:28:20] that a lot of the listeners that you've got here have probably spent a hell of a lot more

[00:28:24] time there than what I have but take it from someone who doesn't get to go there very often.

[00:28:28] It still feels very special to our Sharks fans who are interstate. It still has this spiritual

[00:28:35] feeling to it almost. It's like, this is home. Yeah, that's an amazing point. That is an amazing

[00:28:40] point. I personally, hand in my heart can tell you I never take it for granted. I'm not suggesting

[00:28:46] others do but I could also see your point of view and going, man, I've got to get

[00:28:53] him more often. If only I could. Yada, yada, yada. So I'm glad you still feel that way about it when

[00:28:58] you go there. That's really good news. They're still doing something right. That's good.

[00:29:03] It very genuinely make me start to consider if it's time to pack up and move back to Sydney.

[00:29:07] Not going to lie. Interesting. All right. We can talk about that. Just off the record,

[00:29:12] off subject, I should say, are you going to Allegiant Stadium in the next six to seven months?

[00:29:18] I'm really, really planning to. I'm really hoping to. Yeah. Look, I was definitely one of the people

[00:29:25] that ticked yes when the email came through. Yes, I'd be pretty keen to do it. I probably,

[00:29:32] yeah, look, I definitely love to. Cool. What an incredible experience that's going to be.

[00:29:38] Yeah. Yeah. I think that there are a lot of people that would like to do it as well. And

[00:29:47] my only hope is that those people get to do it if they can. So the question is, is

[00:29:51] SharkCast going to do it? SharkCast are doing it. We're going to do some shows and we're going

[00:29:56] to have some fun. So if you're over there, you're welcome to grab a mic. Let's very quickly and

[00:30:03] we'll get back to it later on. Tell everyone about your podcast, the post credits podcast.

[00:30:09] Everything pop culture. So everything nerd culture, pop culture. So we're talking things

[00:30:13] like Disney, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Netflix, wrestling of course, WWE in particular.

[00:30:24] Yeah. We talk about everything that's going on in pop culture. We have like a pop culture weekly

[00:30:30] episode where we talk about the news of the week, everything that's going on in pop culture land.

[00:30:35] We love it. We love talking about pop culture. We love nerding out. I've got all of these

[00:30:39] weird little, you know, I'm a bit of an Iron Man nerd. So

[00:30:43] Now tell me about who you do the show with. So my best mate, Locky, who is an absolute

[00:30:49] SharkCast nutcase as well, which is unreal. And I got another guy who we've just bought on a

[00:30:54] couple of weeks ago who is a bit more Gen Z leaning. His name's Brody. It's a lot of fun.

[00:31:01] So if you want to give us a follow or a like or even a watch, we are on YouTube. We're

[00:31:06] on Spotify. We're on Apple podcasts. We're on Instagram, all the social media stuff. So it's

[00:31:12] at the post credit show. You'll know what's us because our logo is a little cartoon popcorn bucket.

[00:31:18] So for all of our listeners, I need to double down on that to Shark's fans doing a pop culture

[00:31:25] podcast. Enough said, right? Like and subscribe. We love it.

[00:31:30] Loosh big game coming up. You know it. When did you realize this was going to happen?

[00:31:34] I don't mean officially. When did you get an inkling that this was going to be a thing?

[00:31:38] I think it's been about four weeks now where we're like, okay, cool, lockdown fourth spot.

[00:31:43] And a couple of results went our way in the last two rounds, obviously. That that Warriors game

[00:31:49] was was a cause for concern for us because we're like, we really, we don't want to go to

[00:31:54] Penrith. We absolutely do not want to go to Penrith. I would rather play in Melbourne than play

[00:31:58] in Penrith. Is it fair to say that once Melbourne locked it in, you were hoping we

[00:32:03] were coming forth? Yes. Okay.

[00:32:06] Gotcha. Yep. Look, there was a there was a time there where, you know, is it going to be us versus

[00:32:12] the roosters? If so happy with that. Don't care whether or not it's probably not going to be at

[00:32:17] Shark Park might have been at Shark Park. That age old conversation might have been struck up again.

[00:32:21] That's an interesting conversation. And I'm gonna leave it right there.

[00:32:26] But yeah, look, no, definitely, definitely about four weeks ago, we were kind of sitting

[00:32:29] there looking at the table going, Oh, man, I just I feel better about going to Melbourne

[00:32:36] than I do about going to Penrith. I'd be okay if it was the roosters. Yeah. But I mean,

[00:32:41] I want to see this, I want to see us play against come to Melbourne. Yeah, we know we've done it

[00:32:44] in Melbourne. This is the thing, right? I reckon we're going to be in their head a little bit

[00:32:48] because they know that we are one of the only teams, one of the only surviving teams for the

[00:32:52] rest of the year that have actually beaten them down here. That's going to be in their head.

[00:32:56] They're going to be thinking about that when they're when they prep them for their game. Yeah.

[00:32:58] Yeah, I think that they're going to try and wrestle the heck out of us through that classic

[00:33:03] Melbourne thing. They don't need to they can play brilliant footballs within our year. But I

[00:33:08] think it's going to be a bit of a bit of a trench warfare kind of vibe. And we've got to

[00:33:13] hope that our guys can keep the ball in play and keep that energy up and we'll rack up some

[00:33:17] points. But super excited for you guys and girls down in Melbourne. It's it's awesome.

[00:33:22] I did promise you that I was going to come down to the next Melbourne game. That promise

[00:33:26] is broken. It's not happening, but there's always next year. So I'm here for you instead.

[00:33:32] Yes. Yes. You're on the show. You're our number one Melbourne based fan with an asterisk next

[00:33:38] to it only just to not offend everyone else. There's no asterisks and they all know it.

[00:33:44] Not a lot of news floating around Sharkland as far as, you know, contracts and that kind of

[00:33:50] thing go. There is some lower grade action which is awesome. The both the New South Wales

[00:33:56] Cup and the flag are alive and they're playing on Saturday. I believe is that right? Saturday

[00:34:01] Sunday. I think it might be you can look it up at Leicart, which is great. NRLW is at midday

[00:34:07] on Saturday. So when you're at the pub at the pink lemonade, do they have the Fox Sports on?

[00:34:16] They do. We've all we've all got phones and most of us have got KO.

[00:34:20] So NRLW midday against the Broncos tough game, but we need to bounce back after last week's

[00:34:25] loss to the Roosters. It was a shocking loss in all manners of the word and I get the feeling

[00:34:31] that they're going to do that and it's going to be a tough one. Brisbane are pretty good,

[00:34:35] but I think the Sharks are going to bounce back well, Matt. So midday Saturday.

[00:34:40] We're going to get to some mail shortly. I did get a heads up though from

[00:34:44] a long time listener, great friend of ours, Mark. And he said that he watched NRL360 tonight

[00:34:52] and he said in the first segment, so the main segment, the breakdown of the four games was this.

[00:34:59] He said five to seven minutes of the Panthers V Roosters, three minutes of the storm,

[00:35:05] no minutes on the Sharks, not a single mention, five to seven minutes, the Cowboys vs Knights,

[00:35:11] three minutes of Tigers in the Spoon, not a single mention of Cronulla at all. And now I haven't seen

[00:35:18] the show and I have close ties to the show so I'm not going to go too hard on that, but I will say

[00:35:22] Mark is a man of his word and I believe that's what happened. Now that kind of shows where some

[00:35:30] of the media are at and I guess the general NRL fan base, just the whole kind of district,

[00:35:37] not even disrespect, it's just like not even paying too much attention to what we're doing.

[00:35:42] That works in our favor. All this stuff, I know it's annoying as fans, it's offensive as fans,

[00:35:49] it all works in our favor. What are your thoughts? Don't talk about us because if you're

[00:35:53] not talking about us, you're not putting pressure on Nico. Forget about us, we're not here,

[00:35:59] let us just go out and do our job, get in there, get our heads into the game, play the

[00:36:05] way we play, play our game, don't play to Melbourne style, don't let them bash us down,

[00:36:09] don't let them hold us down, get that speed going. Forget about us, we're not there.

[00:36:13] This is just the Melbourne Storm show. Yeah, great point and I think the more we

[00:36:18] flew on the radar the better. As you said, less pressure on individual players and as a collective.

[00:36:24] The coverage on Nico last week was just doing my head in, in all media, it wasn't just one,

[00:36:29] but I know he doesn't sit around watching the TV, but I also can't really imagine what

[00:36:35] that's like to have that kind of weight and expectation. Really, he just wants to come back

[00:36:40] from an eight week absence and just do his best for the team. It's just a different kind of pressure

[00:36:45] and I know he gets paid a lot of money and all that kind of thing, but also it's quite fascinating

[00:36:50] this spotlight on him and you know, the general person will tell me and they do tell me,

[00:36:55] well, he can't live up to the hype, he can't win your finals game, he can't win

[00:36:58] your title. It's like, well, that's not completely true. He hasn't done it yet.

[00:37:03] Doesn't mean he can't do it. If you're winning a Dali-M by record points,

[00:37:07] I'm going to back you in at some point to have a really great complete final series. So

[00:37:12] I will say this, this is the first year that I've experienced in my 10 years of covering them

[00:37:18] feeling back from the players that they actually know they're being disrespected and it actually

[00:37:24] is being used in a positive way and that's, that's good. That's good.

[00:37:31] Yeah. No, that's great. That's the thing for us. We don't really care about the hype.

[00:37:36] We don't really care about the media coverage. All the media coverage I need comes from Sharkcast,

[00:37:42] from the Kranol Sharks mailing list because that's where I get the information about

[00:37:46] my team from, the people who know my team inside out. No disrespect to the media,

[00:37:53] no disrespect to the people who work in it and the former legends,

[00:37:56] the former players who are now legends who are involved with the media, but like underestimate us

[00:38:01] at your peril. We'll see you in three weeks and four weeks down at the grand final. Yeah.

[00:38:05] I hope so. We'll be talking about us there. I hope so.

[00:38:08] Lush, let's get on a bit of mail because we've got a bit to get through and then we'll

[00:38:12] get back to the awesome storm Sharks first week finals game, but a few things going around here

[00:38:19] on the YouTube. So we're pretty new to YouTube. Lush, I know you're all over it.

[00:38:24] I'm sort of new to it. I sound like an old man saying that.

[00:38:28] After nine years of podcasting the 10th year, we put it on YouTube. So if everyone wants to

[00:38:33] subscribe, all that stuff helps. Our regular viewer, I don't know the person's name, but they

[00:38:40] called Ozzie all the way, said great interviews with questions other than the norm last week

[00:38:45] when we interviewed Tall Tom, Britton, Cione and Kale. So thank you very much for that comment.

[00:38:51] Jacob has written to us and said, seeing Britt and Teg run hard lines wide with support pushing up

[00:38:57] and rattling edges. It seems moving our attacking lines onto the soft edges was a master stroke

[00:39:03] in coaching. Jacob is taking credit for that because he wrote to us prior to that happening

[00:39:09] and told us to do it. He said, if you could pass on my details of the coaching staff,

[00:39:13] I'd gladly relocate to help the boys do a generational defining Premiership run

[00:39:18] to rival Penrith in the years to come. Up, up, that's from Jacob. Appreciate you, Jacob, listening.

[00:39:23] Thank you for being the genius that you are. Blake says great win. I've been critical of this team,

[00:39:30] but that was a great win heading into the finals. Talakai is brilliant in yardage runs from

[00:39:35] center, but an absolute traffic cone in defense. If Ramian doesn't play, I guess it has to

[00:39:42] be Atkinson. So let's talk about that for a second. Jesse's under an injury cloud. We know

[00:39:47] this to be factual. He's been named to play. He'll be given up until I would imagine

[00:39:55] captain's run to get it right. If he wasn't to play, who would you be picking?

[00:40:00] It's a really hard decision because like you've obviously got Talakai who has played in the

[00:40:05] centers before, but he does tend to be a bit of a turnstile at times. Obviously against

[00:40:12] the Melbourne Storm, you want to have the best defensive players on the field. Obviously the

[00:40:17] best attacking players as well, but the best defensive players on the field because they

[00:40:21] are going to be pushing on our line all game. They're going to be doing everything they can

[00:40:25] and they're going to be exploiting every single weakness that they know that we have. And it's

[00:40:30] kind of documented that Talakai is a little bit weaker in defense, but at the same time,

[00:40:35] the man is an absolute wrecking ball. I keep him coming off the bench and I put Atko

[00:40:41] in there because I think that impact from Talakai off the bench, it's just too important.

[00:40:46] Oh, he's in the 17. It's just so you would go Atko at center. This is why I'm not coach.

[00:40:51] I would write to Peter Vlandy and say, I've been watching this thing called NFL and they have

[00:40:57] two different sets of positions. They've got the offense and the defense. That's what I'd

[00:41:02] be saying to him. Yeah, I don't know man. Like I guess you've got to weigh up what you

[00:41:07] need most. We had Rikio on record as a spoiler saying that he would go Talakai for the yardage

[00:41:12] meters. I have seen like everyone, Siffer B run around like he's defense is fine. He just can't

[00:41:20] move as quick as the other guys laterally. So when I say he's defense is fine, he can tackle.

[00:41:25] Yeah, it's a tough one dude. I believe defense wins matches though. So I would pick whoever

[00:41:31] the best defensive center is and still keep Talakai in the 17. I think you could start with

[00:41:37] Talakai and then bring on Atkinson into the center and kind of rotate him. And I don't know.

[00:41:42] I have faith in the coach, thankfully. So this is from Dean. Dean's really into sort of comparing

[00:41:49] old players to current players. Okay, so you want to play this game with me? He says,

[00:41:54] who would you pick out of Brett Carney versus Will Kennedy?

[00:42:00] See, I'm concerned about recency bias. I think for the style of football, like if I'm picking this

[00:42:08] player for this team this year, it has to be Kennedy. Yeah, I agree. Brett Carney was

[00:42:16] a really good player who played above his weight, above his height and could play,

[00:42:22] I think he might have come into the grade as a half, I think. But ended up at full back,

[00:42:28] especially in 08 and had a great year. So great memories of him, but I would go Will

[00:42:33] Kennedy with all respect. Now you'll see the sort of, I think age that Dean might have come

[00:42:38] into watching footy because he also asked this one, which I think is a no brainer,

[00:42:43] but let's have a listen to your thoughts. Ben Pomoroy versus Jesse Ramian.

[00:42:48] Jesse. Ben cops an interesting sort of review from people over the years. He was a lot better than

[00:42:55] I think people give him credit for, but I don't think he was ever elite and I don't think,

[00:43:03] I think the negatives were still there in a lot of his game, played a lot of games for us,

[00:43:09] played his heart out, some real highlight reels, but I'm going Jesse as well.

[00:43:14] I think with Ben, he did a job. But with Ramian, he's not just doing a job.

[00:43:19] He's owning his job. Yeah. Like he's in there and he's an impact player.

[00:43:24] He's getting better every year too. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:27] This one's pretty cool. This one might be off season episode. Brett, the nod,

[00:43:33] Kamali versus Nico Hines.

[00:43:37] Ooh, I like that. Yeah. I like that. Yeah.

[00:43:41] I don't know. Are we picking one of these two? That's what he wants. Yeah.

[00:43:45] Geez. That's a really, really hard one because I don't think we're,

[00:43:49] I don't think we've seen the best version of Nico Hines yet. And I think that's the

[00:43:53] reason why it's such a hard one because are we talking about the Nico Hines that won the

[00:43:57] Daly M player of the year? Are we talking about Nico Hines in three years time?

[00:44:02] Oh, you know what Brett Kamali are we talking about? Like it's,

[00:44:05] oh geez. That's a really hard question to answer. You don't have to answer.

[00:44:08] I'll give you another one. I think that one's a coin flip for me

[00:44:12] at the moment. And it depends. Yeah. If Dean's asking if it's, yeah, being coached by Craig

[00:44:18] Pidskibbon in 2024, you know what I mean? So yeah, yeah. Missy Telepapa versus Sionicatoa.

[00:44:28] Oh, go do this. Gonna have both. Yeah, that's fine. I think that, I think in this case only,

[00:44:36] so I'm not putting shade on anyone, but in this case history is being a bit kinder to Missy

[00:44:42] than perhaps the reality of Missy. I think Missy played his heart out. He was a lot of fun.

[00:44:50] He would do anything for the team. I feel like Sionic has more skill.

[00:44:54] Yeah, I think I agree with that. I think, I think Catoa does have the potential to

[00:45:02] be one of those landmark players in shark's history. I think he's on track for that, right?

[00:45:08] Like he's one of our top tri-scorers this year. Yeah.

[00:45:11] Oh, I think he's like almost top five in club history. He's getting there.

[00:45:16] Was it Ronaldo that's also going really, really like?

[00:45:19] He's just above him and he's about to beat Steve Rogers' tries. Yeah.

[00:45:25] I saw that on the weekend. I'm like, oh man, I reckon Ronaldo in the next three to four years,

[00:45:31] Ronaldo is gonna be eclipsing ET for those, for the top tri-scorer club history.

[00:45:37] Interesting. That's from Dean. I think he might have a few more to come or maybe

[00:45:41] I've missed a few, but Dean's really into the, I like it. We like it. So thanks for that,

[00:45:45] Dean. Appreciate it. Veteran listener of the show, RCB. A 16 and eight regular season,

[00:45:52] start of the season, you take that. He's happy with that. He's pleased with how we played.

[00:45:57] He's pleased with how he went against Manly. This year has been two games better than last year

[00:46:03] and it also feels better than that, which I agree with. There's been moments when we

[00:46:07] faltered, but overall a good regular season. Trindle and Brailey have made real strides this year,

[00:46:13] so has Iro, Wilton, Nicarag. They're all better than last year. Has it's another good season?

[00:46:19] Only one player has been objectively disappointing and that was Ueli and mostly due to injury.

[00:46:25] All to play for over the next couple of weeks. We have to get to week three,

[00:46:29] but obviously week one of the finals has to happen first. Got to go down and try and

[00:46:37] can't do is have the 2022 thing happen where it seemed the first loss was too devastating and then

[00:46:43] we got bundled out. Gives us some praise for the post game reviews, which thank you very much.

[00:46:50] He says Ronaldo and Stone Street are the future for him. Katoa is a good finisher.

[00:46:56] He said Brailey is now the key to Cronulla's game. If he has a great game, we can go a long

[00:47:02] way, especially in Melbourne. We've been here before. It can be done. Outside is in Melbourne.

[00:47:10] It can be done. So I think RCB is starting to believe, Lush, which was when he's believing.

[00:47:17] We're all believing. So thank you very much for that. He's man. He's such a deep thinker.

[00:47:22] I love it. Neil says all the critics all year have been doubting us. Most of them don't

[00:47:29] mention us. They say we can't be the top eight team. The fact the team hasn't won a semi-final

[00:47:36] under Fitzgibbon gives me great confidence. I'm not being sarcastic. The players have had enough

[00:47:41] of this narrative. I'm getting 2016 goosebumps thinking about it. We can beat anyone. We are

[00:47:49] one game away from the prelim. He then says thank you for the podcast. It's an enjoyable part

[00:47:55] of my life. Well, I appreciate that, Neil. We all do. We love doing it and we're glad that you like

[00:48:01] it as well. Here's one for you, Lush. P.S., our Aussie wrestlers are killing it. We'd love to see

[00:48:07] James Graham in the ring with Grayson Waller. Also great hype with Bronson Reed up up. That's

[00:48:12] from Neil. Any news on James Graham and Grayson Waller? I heard something a while ago, but I

[00:48:17] haven't kept up with it. So I'm not too sure about James Graham and Grayson Waller.

[00:48:22] I know that one of the local wrestlers here that Grayson used to wrestle with called him out this

[00:48:28] week and Grayson did a video today throwing it back at him. Go, man, why don't you just go wrestle some

[00:48:33] XNRL flog while I go and make money over in the WWE? So I thought that was fantastic. I think,

[00:48:39] man, Grayson's promo work is elite. I absolutely love how without even trying,

[00:48:49] he's just got that wooden spoon and he's just stirring the crap out of people. It's just, I love it.

[00:48:55] I live for it. Surely it's leading to something. It's got to be. It's got to be. I don't think

[00:49:00] James Graham should really be wrestling even though some people out there think it's not

[00:49:06] a real sport. I don't know if given the way that we know that he's suffered some things in

[00:49:11] his life through football, I don't know if he should be getting into the squared circle. But

[00:49:19] Marlon has been in touch. He says, I love this era's playing group. We're not as renowned as 2016.

[00:49:29] I feel we're probably less of a chance than 2016 but I believe it works out to be even more

[00:49:36] special if we can pull it off and have a good crack as the shark's identity has always been

[00:49:40] the underdog. That's very true. I feel a foreshadowing moment when watching back at the end

[00:49:45] of the Panther Storm 2021 prelim and you can see Nico and Dan Harkinson in the background.

[00:49:52] Yeah, that's they were both at Melbourne. There you go. That's from Marlon. That's a great point

[00:49:55] that he says that we're all starting to believe that it could be something special this year,

[00:50:01] if not this year next year. But he's right. Like even our most renowned player this year,

[00:50:07] no one really rates. So it's kind of kind of a good story of the underdog. I mean,

[00:50:11] that would be just the sweetest. I don't know if revenge is the right word, but just

[00:50:16] for us just to go, hey, look at our number seven. Look what he did this this season.

[00:50:22] Thank you to Shane who wrote in with some ideas for some things away from the podcast.

[00:50:30] Appreciate that, Shane. And he also has some nice things to say about the potty. So

[00:50:34] he listens in the man cave or in the car. That's from Shane. So thank you very much,

[00:50:38] Shane. Appreciate you. Jamie has been in touch. I believe Jamie has moved from England

[00:50:46] to the Gold Coast like this week. I think I'm reading this right. Oh, wow.

[00:50:51] He's just discovered the Sharks NRL team are going to be on the Gold Coast this weekend

[00:50:56] and he's going to see a Sharky's team play. I think for the first time I could be wrong.

[00:51:00] He can let us know. But he said, I'll probably speak to every Sharks fan in the ground

[00:51:05] out of sheer excitement. So hopefully there's a good contingent of NRL dub fans up there.

[00:51:10] He says, I think the men will go close in Victoria. I've got to find a TV somewhere

[00:51:14] where they're playing it as someone who's been following rugby league in South England for over

[00:51:18] 20 years. It's mind blowing how much NRL there is. Not a great amount of game comment for you.

[00:51:25] Sorry, but I had to share with the Sharks pot as I am a shark in Dreamland. So I think he's

[00:51:29] here. I think Jamie's here and he's like, wow, everywhere I look there's rugby league on the

[00:51:35] Gold Coast. And now the Sharks women's team is going up. Yes. So Jamie, we'll have to catch up

[00:51:40] with you at some point. I mean, if you're on the Gold Coast, we're clearly going to be playing

[00:51:46] finals games in week two, hopefully week three, hopefully not week two, but week three. So

[00:51:52] the Gold Coast and Sydney is not too far away. So you might want to think about that. No

[00:51:57] pressure. Now, so Smitty said I've won the footy tipping comp at my pub and he also won the battle

[00:52:04] of the beaches. Let's win this thing up up. Hopefully he, hopefully he had a good prize

[00:52:11] there. Want to give a shout out to Sione Katoa who did not write to us, but he started

[00:52:17] following us on the Instagram, which is awesome. Wade says, as far as NRL W goes,

[00:52:23] I'd like to see the spine of Emma at fullback, Preston at half back and Hannah at five eight.

[00:52:30] That's interesting. Emma at fullback. I mean she played there a lot last year. Steve's been in

[00:52:36] touch with some great messages, which I need to reply to him about I'm such a bad replyer

[00:52:43] and I apologize. He did say this. I don't have a question. I have a statement. We're going

[00:52:47] to Melbourne and we're going to win. Thank you for the podcast. Thank you for the co-hosts.

[00:52:51] Love the podcast. Keep up the amazing work and he also happened to listen to a podcast called

[00:52:58] Life's a Mitch, which I, Sam Shinazi was a guest on and you can find that in our feed from a couple

[00:53:06] of weeks ago and it's basically Mitch and I talking about podcasting life and some sharks

[00:53:12] as well. So I'm glad you got into that Steve. Steve's in Brisbane. Hope you're doing well.

[00:53:16] Rich says, I've got a few questions. Has there been a better debut season? I think he means

[00:53:21] complete season for a sharks player than tall Tom. What are your thoughts on that?

[00:53:26] I am a big fan of tall Tom Hazelton. What can you say after this season? Like he's one of our,

[00:53:33] he's in our top five tri-scorers this year if I read that correctly, which is just crazy.

[00:53:39] Like what a legend. But when you're comparing debut seasons, I think we've got two in there

[00:53:45] this season being Kailiro as well. Like the both of them have just been incredible revelations

[00:53:52] this season. Like I think Kailiro is potentially up for daily M rookie of the year if I'm not

[00:54:00] mistaken. Hopefully. I don't know how that works sometimes with having played a game previously

[00:54:05] but hopefully because you give it a shake. That's for sure.

[00:54:09] Iro and Hazelton have just been incredible this year. Like I love watching Tom get out there.

[00:54:13] I love watching him bust the line. I love watching him, like the energy on the field when he's on

[00:54:20] the field, it just lifts, you know? Especially when he's close to the line, when he's running

[00:54:24] at that line, it's like, oh my God, he's going to go over again. He's going to go over again.

[00:54:27] When he does, it's just like, you just can't believe it. It's just so much joy

[00:54:32] watching him play. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's not always the case when you have a guy who's that

[00:54:39] big, who's also that good and that talented and that skillful. Like he had a try this last week

[00:54:46] and it's not rare but it's also not necessarily every player who's that tall and that big.

[00:54:53] They're going to be that good. Like sometimes they're clumsy. Sometimes they just don't have

[00:54:57] the hands but he's got a lot of good attributes and again, you're talking about a guy who's pretty

[00:55:03] young for a footballer in that position. So he's got some growing to do, probably not body wise,

[00:55:09] but he's got growing to do as a footballer and I think he's only going to get better.

[00:55:14] Rhys says, how do you think our junior development is progressing in comparison

[00:55:17] to other clubs like the dogs and Penrith? That's a good question. I mean, we're in

[00:55:24] the finals for flag. There's some really, really good flag players coming along man. Like guys like

[00:55:30] Raleigh Pollard. There's a giant guy there called Felix who he's probably bigger than Tom Asleton.

[00:55:36] He's like 18. There's Dylan Coutts, who's a back rower who's really talented, who's

[00:55:43] training with the NREL squad. It's hard to sort of say they're doing as well as

[00:55:48] the other mob with all their facilities and that kind of thing. I think we're a little bit

[00:55:52] behind the ball there just because we are, but I think we're one of the better catchment areas.

[00:55:58] Yeah. Look, my biggest concern is what happens if the Jets do actually come back into the

[00:56:04] top league in the next two or three years with a merger somewhere or there's new rumors and a new

[00:56:11] word going around that they might be looking at another Queensland team that might involve the

[00:56:15] Jets? What happens to us then? I mean, we could go full time again or we would probably

[00:56:21] more likely align with someone else. So, Luci, let me ask you a question that we get to usually at

[00:56:27] the end of the show, but I'm going to ask this one now. Where does your, and if I know this,

[00:56:32] I apologize, where does your heart lie when it comes to music? What genre? What are you thinking?

[00:56:37] So having grown up in Sydney, I actually started after coming out of high school,

[00:56:43] I actually went to JMC Academy and did a bachelor's degree in entertainment business

[00:56:47] management with an event management and contracts law major. So not very talented myself,

[00:56:54] but knew how to make money for people who are talented as a manager in A&R, all that kind of

[00:57:01] stuff. So when Sony BMG was based just behind Oxford Street, I actually interned there as an A&R

[00:57:07] assistant, which was sort of fun. That would have been 2002-ish or thereabouts. I kind of

[00:57:15] very quickly moved out of working with mainstream music and started working in the Sydney Progressive

[00:57:21] Rock scene. Okay. I love my Progressive Rock. I don't know if you ever heard of a band called

[00:57:26] Breaking Orbit in Sydney in the early to mid-2000s. I know the name, yeah. They were exceptional

[00:57:33] and I was their manager. So I used to tour around with them and used to work with bands

[00:57:37] like Dead Letters Circus and Carnival and Mammoth and Ezekiel Ox and all those kinds of things.

[00:57:45] So I love my Progressive Rock, man. I'm a big fan of Prog Rock. So right now,

[00:57:49] I'm actually back listening to a bit of Carnival. Not uncommon to hear Carnival on the work

[00:57:55] playlist while people are coming in to visit. In 02-03, Sony had a strong interest in

[00:58:04] releasing my debut album. It didn't get across the line, but I had several, shall we say, meetings

[00:58:13] in that establishment. So you might have got a coffee or something.

[00:58:20] But the reason I asked is because Rich says a bit of a music question,

[00:58:26] I'm a massive power metal guy. Are there any chart cast pod crew that love power metal?

[00:58:31] And have you heard of or listened to a band called, I think it's called, pronounced Sabaton.

[00:58:38] S-A-B-A-T-O-N Sabaton. He sent a link. They're a pretty scary looking dude on the cover.

[00:58:44] I haven't heard of them, Rich, but I'll check them out because I like all genres of music.

[00:58:48] As far as the chart cast pod hosts, the only guy who'd probably be into this maybe would be

[00:58:55] Josh Bolling. So I'll pass this on to him. But we appreciate that. We love all sort of musical

[00:59:01] tips. So thank you very much for that. Shout out to our friend Fraser, who's written some nice responses

[00:59:07] to some of our socials. John was in touch. I miss John's message, Lush, because you know when

[00:59:16] you go to Instagram on your messages and it's got the messages and there's a few different

[00:59:20] folders, then it's got like requests right at the end requested. And usually it's like

[00:59:25] a Russian girl who's not even Russian or a girl. She's a butt and she gets...

[00:59:28] So for some reason, John's message was in man. I felt really bad. So I replied to him. But

[00:59:34] he said I'm a lifelong Shark fan and now they have the family involved. My nine and seven-year-old

[00:59:39] girls won't let us miss a game at home. It appears the majority of clubs have centers of

[00:59:44] excellence interested in your thoughts on whether we're disadvantaged by not having one.

[00:59:51] What are your thoughts from a fitness level and future recruiting? I see it similar to

[00:59:55] working in an office. You can put a computer in any building and get the job done,

[01:00:00] but the employee is happier if they work at a nice professional building. That's from John.

[01:00:05] Yeah, that kind of relates back to what we're talking about with junior development.

[01:00:08] He also says I love the show and it's a highlight of the week. So that's awesome.

[01:00:15] Thanks, John. What are your thoughts on that, Lush? Go to you first.

[01:00:19] It's definitely concerning. At times you kind of get the sense that we have the potential to

[01:00:26] really fall behind, but I think a lot of that also comes down to how we're coached and the quality

[01:00:30] of our coaching staff and the kind of work that's being put in behind the scenes to keep

[01:00:35] the team at the same level as your panthers or your roosters or your storm. Do you know what

[01:00:40] I mean? Yeah. It's definitely something I noticed walking around Shark Park before the game.

[01:00:46] I was down in the precinct at 9 o'clock in the morning for that Warriors game

[01:00:50] before heading back for a nap because I'm old now. But it's definitely something that I noticed

[01:00:56] looking at the facilities and thinking, yeah, I bet you the panthers have got something a bit

[01:01:00] bigger. I mean, I'm there on a weekly, bi-weekly basis at media and we see them train a lot.

[01:01:08] I'll say A, they're really, as I've said, they're a happy crew together as people,

[01:01:12] but they seem happy with what they've got. Now, everyone wants something more. We get that.

[01:01:18] That's a human trait. So I'm sure if they could have better facilities, they would embrace that.

[01:01:25] I know the club is working hard to raise the funds to do that. There's still some great hope

[01:01:29] that that'll happen in the next while. I'm not saying next year, but in the

[01:01:33] five, 10 years, they're hoping that something will happen. I think that

[01:01:37] it's also about who you work with. So John's point was great about the office, but if the

[01:01:44] office is kind of shabby but full of great people, I think it's less of a problem. Their gym set up is

[01:01:51] I don't know anything about that kind of stuff. So I'm not going to say it's basic or anything.

[01:01:54] Like they've got everything they need. They get the job done. I think for the moment, it's fine.

[01:01:59] Like I think they get by and I'm sure they're always improving things. But I do think for a

[01:02:05] team like this, if you whatever you want to call it, I think it's a bit of a kind of

[01:02:10] bit of a laugh calling a place a center of excellence. To be honest, that doesn't really

[01:02:14] get us. Like, come on man. Look at the West Tigers. Their one is unbelievable. It's probably

[01:02:19] the best one in the comp. True. A they got the spelling wrong on the Premiership or whatever

[01:02:24] it was and B they got the wooden spoon. So I mean it's hard to kind of

[01:02:30] sometimes justify that. Now I'm not saying in five years time they're not going to

[01:02:33] powerhouse. They might be. I don't know but it's a great question from John and

[01:02:38] I think at the moment things are fine. Could they be better? They could always be better.

[01:02:42] This next one is from

[01:02:45] Shuck Frenzy. Enjoy listening to yourself and Josh Bowling wondering your thoughts on Dylan Walker

[01:02:52] versus Cam McInnis. Dylan is more of a faster ball player but maybe less of a workhorse.

[01:02:58] Also without bias, would you rather Ramion or Staggs who are both strong centers?

[01:03:06] We'll get a lot of these comparison questions, Loosh, which I'm all for. So Dylan Walker versus

[01:03:12] Cam McInnis. I mean I'm going Cam every day of the week. Dylan Walker is a better player

[01:03:18] than we probably want to give him credit for and he's certainly matured nicely at the Warriors

[01:03:23] on the field but I'm going Cam McInnis every day of the week. I agree. If Captain Karate

[01:03:32] is not bleeding on the field then it's not a Sharks game. I've seen him walking around

[01:03:38] the Shire and he's bleeding. Does he take the shot all the time or is it just when he's playing?

[01:03:44] Yeah, it's back in when he's socializing when he's having coffees and that kind of stuff.

[01:03:49] Ramion versus Katonis Staggs. Look, I think Jesse is a lot more consistent than Katonis Staggs.

[01:03:55] Katonis Staggs is a great player, no doubt about it. I would not say no to having him in the team.

[01:04:00] If I had to pick one over the other at the moment I would take Ramion because I feel like even though

[01:04:05] Katonis can do the kicks and chases he can score you a great try. He's pretty physically tough.

[01:04:11] I feel like Jesse has more variety to his game so even though it is a little bit of bias

[01:04:16] I'm probably going Ramion as well. Yeah, I agree with that one as well.

[01:04:22] Of the two of them, one of them is playing finals this year.

[01:04:26] Yeah, I mean I'd love to see a Staggs play it and I know it's a cliche but Staggs played

[01:04:31] a Melbourne. Like he'd be lights out every week you'd think. Here we go. This is from someone

[01:04:36] else, a different person again giving us some comparisons. This one I can't answer. I don't

[01:04:45] play three times loglet of Royce Hunt due to genetics. I mean he's a beast. I don't know how to answer that.

[01:04:53] Also wondering what your thoughts are. Here we go. Chris Beattie versus Toby Rudolph.

[01:04:59] Oh, that one's a harder one. Toby Rudolph in the last eight weeks for sure. Toby Rudolph

[01:05:08] earlier in the season probably not so much. Toby's been incredible the last few weeks.

[01:05:16] He has been probably the most improved over the last few weeks although I think if I was looking at

[01:05:21] the most improved across the entire season, I would have to say Oregon Cthusi. That's not the

[01:05:26] question. God damn it. It's all very nice. I'm going to say Toby. I'm going to say Toby

[01:05:31] just because what he's done in the last few weeks and his ability to lift at the right time

[01:05:39] and to learn the lessons that he's learned plus the character. I think and this is the thing,

[01:05:46] I think Toby brings so much more to the team than just his ball playing abilities.

[01:05:52] I think like I get the sense that he's kind of like the heart and soul part of the heart

[01:05:57] of the team, the character, the attitude, the workman like the workhorse nature of him.

[01:06:04] I feel like he's more of a shark right now. I'm going Chris Beattie.

[01:06:10] Queensland prop, general badass, not the most skillful player I've ever seen. A guy you can

[01:06:16] rely on week in week out. Different era, different game. That's why these comparisons

[01:06:21] are a little hard but that's okay. You went Toby, I went the other way. Toby's still

[01:06:24] getting some love. Matt Biggestoff versus Tigue Wilton. Oh God, I don't even know. I don't know

[01:06:31] enough about you. You know why you don't know enough about him? Because he had and again,

[01:06:38] all respect. He had half a great season in 2002. Yeah, right. Wow. Okay. And a lights out game

[01:06:46] in week two of the finals against Dragons like a really memorable game. Very honest,

[01:06:51] Toila, mainly second row I want to say. He might have played middle. Tigue has every attribute

[01:06:59] known to rugby league greatness. He hasn't reached that yet but he has those attributes

[01:07:04] and I'm taking Tigue. I'm going to take your lead on that one. Last one is interesting as well.

[01:07:11] Matt Hilda versus Blake Brailey. Oh good Lord. See, I'm okay. I am very firmly on

[01:07:18] Blake Island. You're on with us, okay? It's getting crowded over here man.

[01:07:22] I'm pitch intense on Blake. Like I'm there man. I think that he's just exceptional. The speed

[01:07:28] that he's playing with at the moment is just next level. I personally haven't seen that from

[01:07:36] a dummy half in the black, white and blue for a very long time. I'm definitely Blake Island.

[01:07:44] Yeah, me too. Matt Hilda was a great honest player. Played a lot of years for us.

[01:07:50] May have gone to the Knights. I mean don't correct me on that because I'm just saying May but

[01:07:55] Old Waltzing huh? Yeah. Yeah. That platform. Let's look on this horrible platform. Not going

[01:08:02] to say what it is. I think we all know what one is. No, it'd be silly.

[01:08:10] Hilda has written to us. Hilda is a ledge. I believe I met him and his son. I want to say earlier

[01:08:16] this year. Finally got a round two listening to the Lifeson Mitch episode you were on.

[01:08:22] I just kept coming back to it. I wanted to say it was really enjoyable. Listen,

[01:08:27] so thank you very much. He said Saturday can't come soon enough. A huge 80 minutes in coming.

[01:08:34] I think he must support Atlanta Falcons because he's writing to me complaining about

[01:08:39] cousins. That won't mean much to you but for anyone listening, I don't know what that means.

[01:08:43] Oh no, hold on. Hold on. Goldberg. Yeah, that's Atlanta reference. There you go. Beautiful.

[01:08:52] Well done. Didn't he play the Falcons for a while? Yeah, absolutely. It's a great reference.

[01:08:57] I know NFL. You sound like Gunther. What about that?

[01:09:03] Susie wrote to us. Susie writes to us a bit. Mama Shark is what we call her. That's what we call

[01:09:08] her. Okay, she's in Melbourne. She actually asked me to give you guys a shout out and I already

[01:09:13] went, well, I've already done it. So I think she was happy with that. She was just so happy

[01:09:25] teams. A bit of a graphic for us. The Sharks have won six of nine against the top eight this year

[01:09:33] and that is the third best, equal second best actually Cowboys have won 70 percent. Manly

[01:09:39] and Krunala have won almost 67 percent. So that's yeah, we know man. That's great. Thank you

[01:09:47] for letting me know and that's really cool. Jay says the bench concerns be playing

[01:09:53] playing against the storm. Jay wants a big bench. He wants the four big whoppers. It's not that I

[01:09:59] don't think Dan is great, but being on that bench I'd rather see a Hamlin Welley or a Tuku or even

[01:10:06] a Billy Burns. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I don't think we're, if things are going

[01:10:11] the way they look like they're going, I don't think we have to worry about her being on

[01:10:13] the bench, do we? Maybe not. Well, I don't know. We're not sure. I reckon if you've

[01:10:20] got to play him, you've got to bring him along. Like he's been such a solid part of the success

[01:10:27] of this team for well over half the season. Like you've got to bring him with you. I hear what

[01:10:32] he said. I hear what you're saying, but I just, I don't know. I don't know that I would bring

[01:10:38] Tuku down. I don't know whether or not he's ready for the Melbourne Storm in this format.

[01:10:44] Yeah. I mean, you were there. You saw him score a try. Yeah, but it's the Melbourne

[01:10:49] Storm in the finals. It's a different beast altogether, isn't it? Jay says we've got to

[01:10:54] play like our lives depend on it to get the week off and have one foot in the GF, but also for

[01:11:01] the club and the supporters to wipe the bad name off their record of not winning a semi-final.

[01:11:06] Just to go all out, worry about injury suspensions with a two week layoff, just win

[01:11:11] and get there. Jay's pretty pumped up. So hopefully they can do that for UGA and for

[01:11:16] all of us. Kira's been in touch. Kira says, I'm happy, a fantastic win by my sharks.

[01:11:25] We are underdogs and nobody expects us to win. I love this. I feel like we're going to ambush them.

[01:11:32] I'm confident and ready for Saturday afternoon. Kira is of the belief that Melbourne are not

[01:11:37] a daytime team and she's made a few reference here, but I don't know if I can go along with

[01:11:42] that, but I like your confidence. You say that Nico is going to unleash and Talakai is

[01:11:47] going to tear him apart. Britain's energy up front will lead the rest of them to victory.

[01:11:53] One of your friends is going to be in a corporate box. So that'll be good.

[01:11:58] Oh, hang on. So I think Kira's flying down. Is that what she's saying?

[01:12:03] Okay. If you're flying down there, Kira, then you need to listen

[01:12:06] to what we said before about going to the pink lemonade pub bar. So go there at around 12 or

[01:12:15] one o'clock and find this man, Lush. He will be easy to find. Thank you for being in touch. Really

[01:12:21] appreciate it. All right. Now Brent says I don't mind being wrong about the sharks.

[01:12:29] Yeah, Brent was off us for a little bit. Now he's back. He's not convinced we can beat the

[01:12:35] storm, but he hopes he can be proved wrong yet again. He's loving Britain, Nicar. He still wants

[01:12:41] Sam Stone Street and the team Brent's a big stone street guy and he gives some love to

[01:12:46] other guys as well. Let's win up up. Thanks Brent. Appreciate you being in touch.

[01:12:52] Steve has been in touch and said the season of the regular part is finally over and we start

[01:12:58] the finals. Everyone's written us off against the storm. I haven't. We beat them there already.

[01:13:03] You can beat them again. Play fast like we did against the Titans and Dragons and we can hurt

[01:13:10] them. Another person saying Stone Street to start. That's what Steve says. Have I heard any news on

[01:13:16] Tom or Jesse? I believe Tom is going to be fine and Jesse is, wait and see. Can we beat the

[01:13:23] storm? Well, you've already said we can, Steve. Do you think we can being realistic? So yes,

[01:13:28] I think being realistic, we can beat them. I've been doing podcasts about it telling you why

[01:13:33] Loosh has also been doing the same. We can definitely do it. We're going to talk about it

[01:13:39] before we leave about how and why it's going to happen. But yes, we can do it. Thanks Steve for

[01:13:44] being in touch. Paul was in touch about Chris Butler who refereed the Warriors game which

[01:13:50] you're at Loosh. Apparently he didn't referee last week. He just wanted to point that out.

[01:13:56] I can officially say that's the mail. Thank you for doing the mail with me Loosh. Really appreciate

[01:14:00] it. Let's talk about the big game. The team has been named. Your team is Will Cannadis,

[01:14:07] Yoneketewa, Jesse Rami and Cal Ero, Renola Maltalo, Braden Trindle, Nico Hines, Rudolph

[01:14:13] Brailleck, Fussi's back, Nicker, Wilton, McInnes. That is a very strong, if not the

[01:14:20] strongest 13 we have out there. The bench is Atkinson, Williams, Hunt and Talakai. The extended

[01:14:28] bench is Hamlin, Welly, Chris Vaila, Berrell, Stone Street and Tall Tom. So Tall Tom will come

[01:14:34] into some serious consideration to move into that pack but we'll see how the week pans out.

[01:14:40] It's a very strong team named. I as Steve I think was asking before one of the guys asked

[01:14:45] before how do we beat them? It's a blueprint for what we did in round 10 with different staff. So

[01:14:51] Nico is going to be there, extra kicker, extra attacking options. It's all about ball control.

[01:14:57] It's about the we're in finals time. It's I'm a huge fan of not saying it's a new competition

[01:15:03] but it's different. It's more serious and you have to up the ante and you have to play

[01:15:10] like your life. It's depending on it because it actually is and you got to hold that ball

[01:15:14] completely set, kick, chase, do all that boring stuff. You got to do it for 80 minutes if not longer

[01:15:19] sometimes unfortunately and against Melbourne man we know what we're in for. That's the good

[01:15:26] thing. The good thing is we know what's coming. The hard thing is how to stop it and I think that

[01:15:31] in a lot of ways that's almost an advantage for us. We know how good they are. We know

[01:15:36] that the spine is going to absolutely do their best to dominate us. Defensively

[01:15:45] lush about why the Melbourne fans are so nuts. I've heard all these stories about them just

[01:15:51] being nuts. I have been down there for a game but not recently and I experienced it but

[01:15:58] all over here is they're just insane. Look, I've been to a lot of different

[01:16:05] NRL matches all around Australia. Amy Park is probably the most hostile ground

[01:16:13] that I think I've ever been to and it never used to be. I will tell you that once we beat the

[01:16:20] Melbourne Storm in a Grand Final they went from, oh yeah, the Sharks are our second favorite team

[01:16:26] to screw those guys and it just like it just changed. It really, really changed.

[01:16:34] Do you think that's it?

[01:16:35] It's, I do. I really do and I think there's not many teams in the league that are able

[01:16:41] to pull a rabbit out of the hat against the storm the way we can and I think a lot of their fans

[01:16:46] know that. I think we worry their fans. I think we're probably one of the only teams.

[01:16:51] I think if they have a look at the teams in the top eight, we're one of the only teams

[01:16:55] that they look at and go, oh jeez, we don't know what we're getting with these guys.

[01:16:59] They could turn up and they could absolutely give us a walloping which we have done before.

[01:17:04] They could turn up and it could be a tight one and they could win it in Golden Point

[01:17:08] or they could just not turn up and we could put 40 on them. I think it's the,

[01:17:15] which Cronulla Sharks are we going to get this time round that really makes,

[01:17:20] that really unnerves them and because of that.

[01:17:22] I know the Grand Final really cemented the fixture becoming a real classic even in NRL

[01:17:29] terms in the last 20 years. It's one of the good fixtures. It always rates.

[01:17:33] There's always a storyline and yeah, the Grand Final is the reason, but we have to

[01:17:38] thank guys like Gallon to their credit. You Smiths, you Will Chambers just for all the theater

[01:17:45] like the Cam Smith, Sinbining, Chambers and Gallon going out at every game.

[01:17:54] So you know what's interesting about you saying that is today on

[01:17:57] SCN Radio in Sydney, so you have Melbourne as the Sydney one, which is very league heavy.

[01:18:03] Cam Smith has a show with, it might be down in camp, he's got to show with someone.

[01:18:08] And a Sharks fan wrote in and they read it out and he said,

[01:18:12] yeah I'm looking forward to the game this week.

[01:18:14] And the fan said thank you to Cam for the two greatest days of my life.

[01:18:19] And they read it out in order and he said the second best day of my life

[01:18:23] was the Grand Final win. And he went, oh well you're welcome. And then he said,

[01:18:28] what's your best day of your life? He said, the best day of my life is when you got Sinbid.

[01:18:33] So he reversed your two best days.

[01:18:38] One of my favorite Cam Smithisms was at the end of the Grand Final, we've beaten them,

[01:18:44] we've won our maiden premiership and Cam Smith comes out and goes man,

[01:18:47] if that game went for one more minute we would have gotten them and we're all sitting there

[01:18:50] and we go man it's an eight minute game, not an 81 minute game.

[01:18:53] Yeah the speech was actually applauded by most people but I was there going,

[01:18:59] yeah you're trying to be nice but you're kind of rubbing me the wrong way.

[01:19:02] I'm a fan of him, I think he's, I thought he was amazing as a player,

[01:19:06] I think he's a great analyst but a few of those guys brought is really unique and I'm

[01:19:13] glad that we're part of that and this just continues, it's just another great,

[01:19:17] you know in the storybook it's going to be another great chapter and

[01:19:21] there's been just some great games between the two teams and the 08 prelim which was just

[01:19:27] a horror show and there's been some bright, you know there's been three or four games you've

[01:19:33] seen down there which have been really good and you're right it flips, you know like last year

[01:19:39] we lost 54 out of 10 it was just like this is awful, this is, and I'm not even anywhere near

[01:19:45] where you are at the ground this is painful to watch.

[01:19:49] I think you and I had actually just started talking not long before that game actually,

[01:19:54] I'd been listening for a while but I think I'm like yeah send this guy a message see if he replies

[01:19:58] and he did, I remember messaging you that night, there were a few words that we can't say on

[01:20:08] this podcast but I remember saying something on the lines of I have never wanted to walk out

[01:20:15] of a game more in my life and I actually did kind of walk out but I stood at the top of the stairs

[01:20:22] so I could still like peer around the corner and see if we finally scored and then we did at the end

[01:20:27] and I'm like all right cool that's over and then I bug it off out of the stadium as quickly as I

[01:20:32] can so as to sell the fact that I walked out I was that peed off, oh man what a horror show.

[01:20:39] We spoke about on the show but that was an infamous

[01:20:42] shark cast pod moment where three of us went to the local establishment and it was Josh myself

[01:20:49] in Kieran and I chose the wrong place to go, we went to a place and we watched it and we got whipped

[01:20:54] and it was not much fun at all in any kind of scheme of the word and then my phone was just

[01:21:01] like I don't always have my phone out, I'm not always a phone guy since sometimes I'm not,

[01:21:06] my phone was in front of me and my phone just kept lighting up from like you know the 10th minute

[01:21:11] onwards and it was yeah there was some mates saying you know you guys suck whatever to the majority

[01:21:17] of things coming through was the with the sharkarspod at gmail.com and it was just going

[01:21:21] and the boys are like what's up with your phone and I was like oh I'll show you and I didn't

[01:21:27] show anyone, I didn't show them anything too private but it was like this is what happens on a bad day

[01:21:33] and they're like wow and I even thought that was a spectacular day for the inbox.

[01:21:37] Yeah don't kidding but yeah part of our great history with the storm and I'm actually

[01:21:44] sounds kind of weird but I'm actually really thankful that we have that now look it's actually

[01:21:48] a thing and for me it's not like a hatred thing like I don't hate them, I actually respect the

[01:21:53] hell out of them, I think Craig Bellamy is a genius, people know I have an absolute fondness

[01:22:00] for Cooper Cronk so I've got a lot of respect for those guys, I mean I kind of wish we were playing

[01:22:06] a injury ravaged roosters down the road that wasn't meant to be right so I just think that

[01:22:15] it's something that you know I mean I imagine at some point maybe the rava will stop I don't know

[01:22:20] maybe it'll go on forever I've got no idea but I imagine when you and I are older than what

[01:22:24] we are now we'll look back and go man that was a hell of a run.

[01:22:27] Look Melbourne Storm are just an exceptional team I don't, they're a dynasty and they've done it so

[01:22:35] well I mean imagine your backup fullback being Ryan Papenhausen holy crap like that's just

[01:22:42] insanity and then Fahalogo being your backup to him. No kidding it's just going to be another

[01:22:47] chapter of an epic rivalry and I think it's probably one of the great rivalries in the

[01:22:53] league at the moment because everyone is like there are some really great matches this weekend

[01:22:58] obviously but this is one that everyone is very excited about across the board because

[01:23:04] anything can happen with this game. Yeah I know where I work at Fox like the ratings for Storm

[01:23:09] Sharks games usually are through the roof and I you know you can't you can't tell me that

[01:23:15] Melbourne and Cronk have the biggest fan base in the comp we all know that neither team does

[01:23:19] but there's something about the matchup where people tune in to see what's going to happen.

[01:23:25] It's really telling that for the first time in my life my boss down here is a Melbourne Storm fan

[01:23:34] that's telling as to the the growth of the fan base down here because you know working in

[01:23:40] the industries I work in for the longest time every boss every person I've ever worked with

[01:23:44] has been like AFL fans but this weekend the NRL has a really unique opportunity to own Melbourne

[01:23:53] because there is not for the first time for a very long time there is not a single AFL game

[01:24:01] in Victoria this weekend. Yeah right. It is all about the NRL and people are talking about it

[01:24:07] like I got colleagues at work who don't really watch footy but they're now picking teams

[01:24:13] I had a young one of the young guys walk up to me today go I think I'm going to go for the

[01:24:17] Paramount of Eels I'm like yeah I thought you're a bit of a loser. Can you are you able to tell

[01:24:22] everyone what you do for a living like you told me before? Yeah so I work in an entertainment

[01:24:27] venue where people come and give me lots of money to throw axes. Go on elaborate.

[01:24:33] So basically it's like a bar venue where people come in and you know they pay

[01:24:40] X amount of money and we show them how to safely throw axes and we teach them how to throw axes at

[01:24:44] targets and they just do that for an hour and then once they've done that they come up to the bar

[01:24:48] and we give them all manner of libation. That's pretty unique. It's fun. Yeah man I get to throw

[01:24:55] axes at work for a living like and that is my actual living you know not not throwing axes

[01:25:00] because I cut wood but throwing axes because that's what we do we throw axes like it's that

[01:25:06] kind of environment where you can really throw a bit of throw fling a bit of dong if you will

[01:25:11] you know so yeah it's good times. I think it's the first time anyone this podcast ever said

[01:25:17] throw a bit of dong. On that note so Lush let's tell everyone where you're going to be

[01:25:23] you're going to be the Pink Lemonade which is where? Pink Lemonade right next to Richmond

[01:25:27] station okay one o'clock in the afternoon we will be drinking we will be singing our

[01:25:33] merry hearts out and we will be preparing for absolute battle and by battle I mean the walk from

[01:25:39] the bar to the stadium and then there'll be a game at the end of the battle because there's

[01:25:43] going to be a lot of Melbourne Storm supporters around and they love to you know make that walk

[01:25:48] interesting. Well I mean you can only give as good as you get right and we do give it a lot

[01:25:55] awesome. On the note of giving it um it was really great being at the Warriors game

[01:25:58] Adnan Fanuil Blake comes out to say hello to the fans I took it on myself on behalf of the

[01:26:03] Cronola Sharks fans to welcome him home. And how did the big man take that? Kind of eyeballed me a

[01:26:08] little bit I took a step back and then all of the New Zealand Warriors fans are like oh out in

[01:26:13] straight sits cosy and I'm like yeah but at least we're there you guys will be in Bali so enjoy

[01:26:20] What was it like being eyeballed or eyeballed with the big fella?

[01:26:27] Terrifying. He's a beast and I cannot wait to see him unleashed in the black white and blue

[01:26:32] he is going to do some damage and break some ribs. Excellent pink lemonade one o'clock Saturday then

[01:26:40] game after I've had people being touched with me so I will reply to those people but for people

[01:26:47] listening this is where you're going to be pink lemonade one o'clock Saturday in your colours

[01:26:52] cannot wait make sure you listen to Lush on the post credits podcast he's on the youtube

[01:26:58] that's Spotify the apple whatever you're on he's probably on so give him a subscribe and a like

[01:27:04] and before we go so general warning to all Sharks listeners you can stop listening now

[01:27:11] we're just going to spend only a couple of minutes because it is 4 30 in the morning now

[01:27:15] we're going to spend a couple of minutes on the squared circle which you and I have talked about

[01:27:20] on your show there you go people can go listen to me on your show from a while back we talked

[01:27:24] was it about what was it about WrestleMania and I can't remember what it was about was it

[01:27:27] WrestleMania I can't remember I think it was just what was it about ah yeah maybe

[01:27:33] it was like general you know what's going on in WWE right now yeah on your podcast you do

[01:27:39] cover WWE a little bit from time to time when it's topical yep let's talk about

[01:27:46] favorites who who's you do you have an all-time favorite guy or girl all-time favorite for me

[01:27:51] was the Stinger so I was an old school WCW fan grew up watching Monday Nitro loved the NWO

[01:27:58] that's got Hall Kevin Nash he who now shall not be named

[01:28:05] yeah isn't that disappointing brother it's not disappointing so your sting guy did watch his

[01:28:11] retirement match oh boy but like here's the thing I was I was such a mark for stink you remember

[01:28:16] remember when he did that full crow thing and they had that that's my favorite thing really

[01:28:21] that that poem that when a man's heart is full of deceit it burns up dies and a dark

[01:28:28] shadow casts over his soul you know like I knew that thing off by heart when I was 15 years old

[01:28:33] and like you know oh my god we need to take our son to counseling and I'm sitting in the

[01:28:37] counselor's office writing that poem on pieces of paper because I was that obsessed with it

[01:28:41] the counselor's reading it going oh my god he's a psychopath yeah so you know like because you're

[01:28:47] my pop culture go to now are they remaking the crow they have remade the crow um don't

[01:28:53] is it out it is out is it fresh how long has it been out for uh a couple of weeks now

[01:28:58] it was like three weeks ago at K-Mail who's who's the crew who's the guy

[01:29:03] the old scars guard same guy who played anyway the clown yeah and when when they announced that I

[01:29:10] was just like oh my god that sounds all right that is perfect yeah um so I haven't personally

[01:29:16] gone and seen it I have a lot of friends who have gone and seen it I've spoken to a few

[01:29:20] critics who have gone and seen it and in general just don't wait for it to come on

[01:29:25] streaming right I know we're training on different topics here it doesn't matter because

[01:29:28] the sharks fans have stopped listening now it's just the popular culture people listening

[01:29:32] have you seen the Blake Lively film I haven't if if you mean the billion dollar movie that

[01:29:39] Blake Lively is in yes I have they're pulling Wolverine yes I've seen that no I don't mean

[01:29:44] that one the reason I asked you about Blake Lively is because I I just happened to I had

[01:29:49] you know a day off and I thought I'm gonna go to the movies and I went and saw her in a film I

[01:29:55] honestly kind of I think it's called this is where we end or something like that

[01:29:59] which sounds really really naive of me because I'm about to say it was unbelievable

[01:30:04] it was so good there's a lot of controversy about it because they did this promo about it

[01:30:09] and she was selling it as a romance but really it's a bit darker than all that it's really

[01:30:13] good if you it's just a real it's a drama it's a drama it's a straight drama there's no real twists

[01:30:19] and turns really can't recommend that enough okay love I'm gonna put it on my list loved it loved it

[01:30:26] loved it people are here for the black white and blue you and I here for the black white and blue

[01:30:30] people watching the video can see your sign Jersey behind you man I'm so excited that they're

[01:30:37] coming to town for you and your friends and I'm so pumped for you guys I hope that you

[01:30:41] guys get them across the line hopefully some people listening to this come up to you and go

[01:30:45] hey I heard you on the show let's have a drink and you know give everyone a high five for me

[01:30:51] give everyone a hug tell them I'll be there next year yeah let's get that win man we need that win

[01:30:55] we'll see we might see you up here before the years the years over huh I wouldn't miss a grand

[01:31:00] final for the life of you beautiful beautiful all right thanks so much for your time brother

[01:31:05] appreciate it definitely have you back on the show I just wanted to get a Melbourne perspective

[01:31:08] which you have more than adequately told us about so thank you so much for that sushi and

[01:31:15] the stadium I still can't get over that look I'd probably go both things not at once so maybe

[01:31:22] next year that'll be a thing remind me to remind me even yeah the milk after a few lagers that might

[01:31:31] not be good but the sushi I'm here for absolutely all right loose thanks man it's been a pleasure

[01:31:37] being a ball we're back with more sharkast pod before you know it I'd suggest and don't forget to

[01:31:43] follow loose the post credits show we're out of here thanks everyone who's gone the long haul

[01:31:50] appreciate if you listen on the potty you might have had a slightly edited version but still a

[01:31:54] lot of fun up up ground we're going to Melbourne and we're gonna win cannot wait for it

[01:31:59] talk to you all soon let's go