Gaz and Shinazz: Rd 13, 2026 GameDay Preview!

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[00:01:01] Oh hey there, welcome to SharkCast Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world. My name is Sam Shnaz, the other end of this line is Gary Dover. We are known as Gaz and Shnaz, and this is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, Jason Hawes at Crips & Crips Real Estate. And we sometimes get our coffee from Mr Paisley's for those watching. It's still nice and warm from this morning. Gary, Joe and Will looking after me.

[00:01:29] How are you my friend? What's going on? Happy game day. I'm very good, yes. Game day, looking forward to it. I'll be down there nice and early this afternoon. My little fella's playing pre-game and half-time. Hopefully that's still on, but yeah, looking forward to getting back down to Ocean Protect Stadium and watching some footy. Obviously a pretty big game coming up for us tonight. So yeah, it's going to be fun. Yeah, huge game for the Sharkies. A lot to get through in a short amount of time. We thought we'd do a game day preview to get everyone fired up on the way to the game.

[00:01:56] I know a lot of people listen and sometimes watch on the way to the game, which is very flattering and awesome. So here's a game day one for you. Gary, we are... What are we doing? We're coming in after a bye. Yes. Beat the Bulldogs who you're close to a couple of weeks ago up at Magic Round. Yes. State of origin. Our boys doing really, really well, making us really proud. Blake Braley, elite. And Adam Finua, Blake, really good second stint.

[00:02:25] First stint was okay. Yeah. And Britt Nicker out there mixing up as well for Queensland. What'd you make of all that? Yeah, it was good to see those guys out there. Obviously, Blake, we've been harping on for a little while that we want to see him in that arena. So it was good to finally get him there. I sent him a few messages during the week just to say, you know, good stuff and proud of you and all that and had a good chat with him. But yeah, he played so well. And obviously, you know, there were some circumstances in the game that helped open it up a little bit more.

[00:02:51] But the decisions he was making and the plays he was running were the right ones. And, you know, under that sort of pressure of state of origin, it didn't look out of place, which is exactly what we thought he would do. And yeah, as you mentioned, Adam had a good second stint and obviously Brits out there representing Queensland as well. So, yeah, good to see those guys get the chance to, you know, prepare for a whole week in that sort of arena and get a guy like Tom Hazelton as well, who was in camp with the Blues.

[00:03:16] Like that's such a good experience for those guys to bring back to club level and looking forward to seeing what they do now back end of the year with that sort of confidence under their belt. Tommy was also there pregame and during the whole game. He was in the shed. So that's a lot different to just training with the guys. Yeah, like that's the highest level we're told for game prep. So, yeah, good experience for Tommy. Absolutely.

[00:03:46] And yeah, I thought all the guys did really well. I saw that Craig Fitzgibbon was very proud of the three debutants under his watch. Like that's a pretty good thing to put on your CV. I'm not suggesting that's what he's doing, but just if you look at it from a black and white point of view, Craig Fitzgibbon this year had three guys on debut in the origin. Yeah, absolutely. And it just goes to show, you know, like we've spoken about for feels like years on the show, how when Blake starts running and really gets into his game is going to be an origin player.

[00:04:15] And we've really seen that unlock over the last couple of years. So it's good to see him finally get that accolade and playing that Blues jersey. And yeah, he did us all proud. All right. So we're not going to sugarcoat it. It's overcast conditions here in Sydney in the south, especially currently we believe it's actually not raining. So it's it's a bit a bit hit and miss with the rain, but it is very overcast and there might be some more coming. We'll check that out. There's already talks of Sharknado 2 in the social media world.

[00:04:45] I want to say I reckon any time it rains at Shark Park now at Ocean Protect Stadium, people throw out the Sharknado reference. But I think you've got to be careful with it. I don't think it will be anywhere near that tonight. So hopefully it does stay dry. But either way, it's going to be a tough contest. Obviously, the Seagulls have turned their season around with Kieran Foran at the helm. So it's going to be a tough one either way. So this is our 102nd game against them. Historically, we don't go well, Gary.

[00:05:14] Like they're our worst team to play over the years. But I can tell you that under Craig Fitzgibbon, he's turned all that around. We've won six of seven against them since he came. We lost in 2023 at home. But overall in the Steve Rogers Cup Memorial traditional game, he's won six of seven. So that's awesome. That's in the past though. So that's a different story. We do have our mate Don Rogers performing tonight.

[00:05:43] We think it'll be on the field at this stage. If there's some sort of late change, look to your social media. They might put him somewhere undercover and stream it or whatever. But this stage, Don Rogers, he would have heard on the show yesterday. If you haven't, go listen. It's an amazing story. He'll be performing his new song, which is about his parents, including Steve, obviously. So very relevant to Sharks fans. I believe Matt is coming down as well for the Steve Rogers Cup. So the Rogers boys will be in the house.

[00:06:12] Extra incentive to win. But let's go to the team, Gary. And there's been change like all week with the team, with both teams to be fair. Late withdrawal last night is KL Iro. And that one was kind of in the works, kept very much on the down low. It's a cut on the knee, a knee infection, if you will, knee laceration. I'm led to believe it's not, you know, not going to keep him out for very long.

[00:06:42] And they gave him up until last night to kind of get it together and it didn't happen. So in his place comes Marwini Hiroti in his preferred position of center. And I don't, I don't hate that. Like I think he's a suitable cover to come on in. We have Nephi Peru making his debut for the Sharks, replacing Nico Hines was a calf strain. He's looking at one to three weeks at the moment. Hopefully it'll tighten up and be one week, but we'll see.

[00:07:12] We have, we have Britton Nicker out. I think, I think it's just being rested. I don't know of any injury there, Gary, but wait and see on that one. And Billy Burns comes in. So a great replacement. And that means your bench is going to be Colquhoun, Talakai, Tall Tom, Hohepa Peru, Oregon Gafusi, Jaden Beryl with Riley Jones named as the reserve at the moment.

[00:07:40] So there's a good chance you might get both Peru brothers on the field and also Hohepa. I don't know which one's the older, you might know, Gary, the Hohepa there for his brother's debut. Yeah, that'd be awesome if they get there on the field together. Obviously, you know, I've been at the club for a little while and Nephi's been biding his time at the Jets and won a comp there and obviously a really good halfback. So he's only 23, 24, joined us in about 2023, I think it was.

[00:08:08] So, you know, he was obviously in the Penrith system playing alongside guys like Katoa, Isaiah Katoa. And obviously, yeah, he's been a mainstay for the Jets for a long time now. And it'll be good to see him get his opportunity. If he can run out there alongside Pep, that's just even better. I like those two guys. I'll do anything for the team. And I'm really looking forward to seeing him get his chance tonight. Hopefully they just play a real simple game for him and just let him do his natural thing. And yeah, I think we'll be fine. I don't know if he'll be kicking goals.

[00:08:35] Maybe you've seen something in and around training. It might be him or Mark kicking goals with Nico out. But yeah, I'm confident in what Nephi can bring. And if he can run out there with his brother, just even better. How good's that? It'd be amazing. Yeah, to make your day blue and have your brother alongside is unreal. Yeah. And I do want to say that there's been like some slight negativity that I've seen on, particularly on social media. Obviously, that's where negativity hangs out about, you know, it should have been Rolly Pollard.

[00:09:07] And there's probably no bigger fan than Rolly Pollard than me and some of the people on this podcast. Yeah. And he's going to get his time and he's an awesome young player. But the coach sees Nephi above that as far as experience and fitting into the system. And he's gone with Nephi. And there's just been a bit of negativity, like a small amount of negativity about, you know, his defense and all this sort of stuff.

[00:09:36] Like we've got to let the guy go out there and play his game. And then we can critique his game perhaps after 80 minutes. But I've got nothing but love for the guy and I hope he rips it up and gets man of the match. And I hope he's, you know, if he plays well, then we probably win the game. So I just wanted to calm the farm a bit with people who probably haven't watched him that much, but they're basing their opinion on reading something and going, oh, yeah, right.

[00:10:04] And, you know, you read something and it gets in your mind. Nephi is a really good player, like particularly in attack. Like that's his strength. Like I'm not going to suggest to you he's the greatest defender in the world, but if everyone around him does his job, I'm confident he can do his job too. So we'll wait and see on that one. But I just wanted to send some love Nephi's way because we can't have like a fan base against the guy before he's touched the ball. Yeah, absolutely. And he's obviously been in and around the system for what? He's done four NRL preseasons with the Sharks.

[00:10:34] Like he knows the systems. He's training there every day. Like one comps at Newtown. Like he's not a bad player. He's obviously there to do a job and the coaching staff trust him to do that job tonight. Yeah, I trust him to do that job tonight. So yeah, looking forward to him getting his chance and hopefully he can, yeah, pull off a nice win at home. Manly are not without their own problems. So what do we got here? What do we got? So Kula is out with a concussion.

[00:11:05] Yes. Ola Kuat is out. I think he's being arrested or he looked pretty beaten up after that game for origin. They were listed as reserves to be fair, but they're not going to be playing, which is a bonus for us. And if I look at their team currently, it looks as named. So, and if I look at that team, it's a pretty quick back line. So you got to be careful about that. The halves are in form Luke Brooks and Jamal Fogarty.

[00:11:35] And the pack is, I would say competent at least. I mean, Paseca is a big unit. Got to watch that offload. But I think that our pack, if, if an old Blake can kind of fire early, I think our pack can dominate them. Yeah. But they're a good team. Like Fosball is a real thing. Don't believe it's not real. I think since he came in, what are they? Let me have a look here. Seven from eight, aren't they? Seven from eight. They haven't conceded over 18 points in all eight games.

[00:12:03] Like in each of their eight games on the forum, they haven't conceded over 18 points. And that's in preview. Where does that be defensively? Is that like one of the best defensive sides over the last seven? Yeah. I think, I think over those eight games, it'd be like top three or something at least. So, and they can obviously attack as well, racking up a lot of points. So it's not going to be an easy one. And it was never going to be easy no matter who was playing, even if Nico was playing and it was a full team. Yeah, that's right. I would, I would suggest we were going to be underdogs.

[00:12:30] I think there's something crazy in the betting system and we're not telling anyone to bet, but I think the way the bookings are looking at, we're still kind of a good shot, which is, which is good. Cause those guys kind of tend to know what's going on for whatever reason, but, but it's going to be a tough one. And I think that the rain kind of helps us a little bit, Gary, I think it'll slow the game down a little bit, even though we like the score points. I think this week's a good week to kind of get in the grind and kind of wrestle it out.

[00:12:54] So I think we're in for one of those, you know, shark park kind of gloomy classics where it could be, it could be low scoring. It could be a tight one and then, you know, Nefi Peru on debut gets the field goal or something to win the game. It could be, it could be, it could come down to one or two points potentially. Yeah, for sure. And I think, as you said, like that rain's going to slow it right down.

[00:13:17] We might get a bit of an old sharks gritty performance, you know, defense is obviously big for the, the Seagulls at the moment and the turnaround that they've had under foreign. So I think both teams are defensively going to have to be on their game. And as you said, they've got speed out wide and we've got a bit of speed back, obviously with Ronnie and those guys, Mar in his familiar position of centers. I'm not, you know, unhappy with that. So, you know, I think we've got speed across the park, they've got speed across the park, but it's going to come down to a bit of a gritty grind in the rain. And as we said, they're, they're really good defensive side, Manly at the moment.

[00:13:46] So we'll see what happens there, but yeah, it's, they're under a fair bit of pressure to start the year with an 0-3 start and they've really turned that around. So they'd be full of confidence and ready to rip in and they'd be coming here thinking that they're going to get us. So we need to be really on our game and I think we will be. And I think Nephi and the crew in the back there are going to have a good game in the wet, just hold the ball, get through our sets, kick to the corners, all that sort of stuff. You know, they, they seem to have a bit of attack in the air sometimes, Manly.

[00:14:13] So we've got to, you know, watch those kicks, especially in the wet, but I think we'll be all right. And I think as, as we said, it'll be a bit of a gritty defensive win tonight in the wet. I do think you're right though. The ball handling is very important. Whoever kind of wins that completion battle might go a long way to winning. Cam McInnes, 100 games for the Sharks, just the 80th player to do so since 1967, which is a great accolade. We do know he's leaving at the end of the year. So we want to send him out on a good note.

[00:14:41] And there's probably no better reason to win aside from two points than a winner for Cam, 100 games. Yeah, for sure. Like, McInnes is such a good leader, such an important leader at the club. And, you know, he obviously came up short with the 100 games last week, but he gets it this week. And I'm looking forward to seeing him run out there and rip in. Obviously, as you mentioned, he's off to the Super League next year. So he's going to be a big loss, not just in terms of, you know, preparation and leadership at the club, but he rips in every time he gets on the field and pulls on that jersey.

[00:15:09] So there's not many players like Cam McInnes, and he'll definitely be missed. So to see him run out for his 100 games. Has he made 100 games at his other clubs? I don't think he has. No, I think this is the most captives. Yeah. Yeah, at the Sharks. That's awesome for him. He's such a good dude. So yeah, hopefully he gets out there and does his job, which he always does. So looking forward to that. And just on the completion rate, we do have the second best at over 80% season wide. So I think that might surprise.

[00:15:38] Yeah, it might surprise a few people. We're definitely in it tonight. So hopefully we keep that going. Then we'll be okay. Yes. Yeah. So Cam, 100 games. He's 49th game is... Well, I don't know how they do as captain these days, because they're co-captains, right? I think it still counts. Yeah, it'd be interesting to see how they've notched those up. But he's such a good leader. He's the captain when he's on the field. You know what I mean?

[00:16:04] Like he's talking to the guys and rallying his troops and we need him to do all that and more tonight. Now, if Ronaldo scores a try against Manly tonight, he will equal ET as the most tries against Manly. And I can tell you that he only needs three tries to surpass Mitch Healy and become our 10th all-time points scorer. And that's pretty good. A for a winger and B for a winger who's only halfway through his career, you would think.

[00:16:33] Yeah, absolutely. He's three tries away. So it's 11 points, shall we say, from being the 10th highest points scorer. That's pretty cool. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, we've seen him cross for many tries at Shark Park. So hopefully there's a few more on tonight and he can get himself into that upper echelon of try scorers and point scorers and all that at the club. He's, you know, such an important piece of the puzzle.

[00:16:55] And we saw when he came back at Magic Round, just what he brings to the team, energy, all that sort of stuff that we were kind of lacking in a few of those games there. But it's been an up and down season for us. So hopefully we're on the up now and things start building. Got a pretty hard stretch coming up of games. And then the back half of the year is, you know, it's 10 games in a row before finals. So we're going to want to be in a nice position to possibly rest some guys at the back end of the year there. But, yeah, obviously a few changes for this side this week.

[00:17:25] But, yeah, I think we'll be good. And obviously, which we haven't spoken about yet, it's mental fitness round for the Sharks as well. So another good occasion to really get up and play for. Great. Tommy Herschel, find your feet. Amazing organization. He's an amazing man. I believe he'll be in the house tonight. So if you see him around, tell him hello and tell him that we sent you to say hello. He's a really good dude.

[00:17:48] The stuff he's doing for people of all ages, but specifically in schools, like both high and what do you call? Not high schools. Primary schools. Thank you. He's really, really making inroads there. Like it's the stuff that you see is fantastic. We did one during the week as a club with Nico and Brayden Welly.

[00:18:12] And there's two guys who could not care more about mental health than those two guys. Like they are right there. Yeah, they're right in the thick there. And I spoke to Brayden about it, about the experience. And he just said, Tommy's unbelievable. Like the things you hear and see in those classrooms, the transformation of kids when they walk in and when they walk out, you can physically see it. Yeah. So we can't, we can't spruik that out enough.

[00:18:39] I was hoping to get Tommy on this week, but it didn't work out, but we'll definitely have him, have him on the show at some point. Look, cause I just, I respect the hell out of him. I watch his videos and I just like tear up. It's just like, I can't stop watching his videos. It's amazing. So good. So yeah, very important initiative. Thanks for reminding me Gary about that. And yeah, we will give it another plug to our mate Donnie, who will be singing most likely on the field. That's the plan.

[00:19:03] I think if the rain holds off, that's where he'll be at 7.40 PM and you can watch Arlo Dover play a couple of halves of footy. Yeah. As well. Pre-game and he'll be out there. Hopefully, hopefully the weather holds off and he gets his chance cause he's pretty excited about it. So he came home, obviously Tommy doing his things in and around the schools. They were at a, my son's school the other day and he's raised home and told me all about Nico's signing his hat and all this sort of stuff.

[00:19:31] He's absolutely pumped to go and play tonight. So hopefully it's still on. Uh, what Jersey will Arlo be wearing? He plays for Cronulla Caring Bar. So Sharks Jersey black. Okay. Yeah. He's looking forward to it. His favorite player is Ronnie. So I saw the number five. Yeah. I saw a try that he was a try school the other day. Yeah. He's got a couple throughout his little season this year. He's going good. This is their first season back of tackle. So he's really enjoying that at the moment.

[00:20:00] He, he was a bit off the tag when they were doing that. He wanted to get into the rough and tumble of footy and he's, he's back doing it now with all his mates from school. So he's, uh, enjoying himself a lot. So a lot to see tonight at ocean project stadium. Get down there if you can. Yeah. It might be a wet one. Yeah. It might be a cold one, but that's what we do down there. Let's not, let's not hide from the story. We are the sharks. That's what happens down there. It's a historical thing. It's not going to change.

[00:20:25] So you might as well, uh, acclimatize, put on your hoodie, put on your rain jacket, come on down. And it's going to be a good one, man. Important game in our season, Gary. Important one. Like we win this. It really puts us on our way. If we lose it, it's a step back. And I won't tell you what's happening next week because we mentioned it enough throughout the week where you'll get sick of hearing the word, but it's coming around and that's, that's must win for lots of different reasons. But then that becomes really, really must win.

[00:20:54] So there'll be a lot of pressure on that one, but we want to get through this one against Manly. Uh, lots of reasons to do it, but mainly the two points above and beyond everything. I'll see you down there, my friend. It's a little four week block that rolls into what warriors and roosters before our last buy. So it's an important little period to get right. Yeah. So it's, it's Manly dragons, warriors, roosters, buy. And then after those two are, yeah. Then after the buy, I don't think it's very pretty either.

[00:21:24] So there's no real easy games to be honest. I mean, we might think next week might be, but you know, if Nico is not there, it's a big if, but say he's not back. And you know, this still is a bit of, you know, the dragons will come to that game thinking they can probably jag it somehow. But I mean, hopefully not. I can't imagine, but, but, uh, we'll get to that next week, but, uh, we'll see you down at the ground. Gary, I'll, I'll be sitting nice and close to you, rugging up, getting your warmth, the Dove warm. Sure.

[00:21:55] And look forward to it. So yeah. Uh, hopefully see a bunch of our listeners and viewers down at the ground and get there on time. If you can, to see, uh, our mate Donnie play. And you can see Albo play and just soak in the beautiful atmosphere. Hopefully not literally soak. Yeah. We will see down there. It's not going to rain. Will we? It might not even, it's not even raining right now. I don't think so. And we're doing this on day of, as we've mentioned, even though we're not, we're not trying to fool you.

[00:22:23] It's not like recording and then we're releasing it Friday. It's actually Friday today. So Gary, we'll talk to you another time on the show and I'll see you in a few hours. See you this afternoon. All right. Let's play the song to get out of here.

[00:22:57] I'm glad you didn't say anything. We're still recording and that great song that you heard is a Skenazi original. It reminds me that at five o'clock at zinc bar on Sunday, we're playing a band show. It's completely free. If you want to come down, um, zinc bars are wonderful establishment. I've had some great gigs there. I've had some less great gigs there, but what I can promise you is if you come down, we'll leave it all out on the stage for you. And you, it might be your cup of tea. It might not be a cup of tea, uh, but free gig.

[00:23:24] You can always walk out Sunday, five o'clock on Sunday. Beautiful. All right. Sorry to put you on the spot there, Gary. My editing skills and everything's a bit like, let's go back. Let's go back to Skenazi's kali.

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[00:24:17] Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Back in the Shire, turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a chance.