Post Game Review: Rd 3 vs Souths, 2025

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[00:01:06] Hey there, welcome to SharkCast Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. This short, sharp review of the game at Shark Stadium against South Sydney in Round 3 is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking. And Jason Hawes at Crips & Crips Real Estate. My name is Sam Chinezzi, OG2015, supporting the team for a lot longer than that.

[00:01:30] Podcasting in our 11th season. And we are coming off a very recent, as in just happened, 27-12 win over South Sydney at Sharks Stadium. It was an aggressive start to the match with the Sharks, hungry in defence. And in the third minute, Niko scored a try from a close set-up from Trindle. Niko missed from the right touch, 4-0.

[00:01:59] In the ninth minute, Niko had a try assist with a brilliant, beautiful run to the line to Britton Nikkera. And Niko got the goal, 10-0 after 10 minutes. 14th minute, our first error was actually from a promising backline move, a forward pass. 15th minute, Ronaldo saves a try on the new Rabido Ravalawa. 21st minute, a absolutely brilliant try to Kale Iroh.

[00:02:28] 105 metre try, Ronaldo with the in-goal escape off the one-hand pick-up, no less. Kennedy to Kale with a brilliant try. 14-0, Niko gets the goal, 16-0. There was a 100 metre set-up to follow that. They went 100 metres. Stone Street with a brilliant effort in the corner from a Niko pass, but it was no try.

[00:02:55] 24th minute, Trindle with his first 40-20. That's right, first of two. 27th minute, no try to Siffer. 30th minute, Kennedy try from a wild Stone Street pass from a kick. Kennedy then gets it, sets it up. Ronaldo to Iroh. Chased down by the fullback Gray, but then gets the pass to Niko to Will Kennedy. An amazing try, 20-0.

[00:03:24] Niko misses from the sideline. 32nd minute, Trindle's second 40-20. 20-0 at half-time, it should be more. 46th minute, Trindle try from a great Blake Braley pass. Niko gets the goal from a touchline, 26-0 in the 48th minute. Probably the worst moment of the game. Braden Hamlin-Willy with a knee injury. Watch this space, wait and see. We hope to goodness he's okay.

[00:03:53] 70th minute, Cody with a kick. And Whiten scores, 26-6. 75th minute, a quick tap from a penalty. Humphrey scores for South, 26-12 with a Trindle. Field goal, little cheeky one. On the bell, 27-12, Sharks win. Now, absolutely brilliant first half. Let's not deny the team the accolades of that first half, because I know that a bunch of you, including myself, are going to be critical of that second half.

[00:04:21] But first half, phenomenal. Aggressive in defense. Adventurous in attack, because they were allowed to be. The forwards for the Sharks were going nuts. The South's defense couldn't handle it, and it meant that we got to throw the ball around a little bit. And most of it stuck, and it was great to see. Most importantly, they played with a high energy on a warm day at Shark Park.

[00:04:48] We've spoken about the world tour they've done endlessly. I know you're getting sick and tired of it. I'm getting sick and tired of saying it. But they went to Las Vegas. They went to North Queensland. They were back home on a warm afternoon, 3 o'clock kickoff. To play with that high energy and up-tempo pace is what got them across the line. And I hope they play with that all year round, because it's a lot of fun to watch. It's physical. The defense was jarring.

[00:05:16] So it was a great all-round effort, I thought, by the team itself. Looking at the stats, we had 56% possession. We completed at 73%, so 33 or 45. But keep in mind, that first half we were high up in the 85 to 90% range. Six line breaks to three. Double the offloads for the Sharks as well. About 800 more run meters.

[00:05:46] And we missed just 20 tackles. So again, all good signs for the Sharks. Did make 12 errors, but they were playing a pretty expensive brand of rugby league. We got two set restarts as well. Penalties were 6-5 to the Sharks. So, first half, unbelievable. Cannot deny that.

[00:06:11] And accolades, praise, memorable game for anyone who was in attendance. If you watched that one, you remember that first half for a long time. The opposition wasn't terrific. We were. We were terrific, fantastic, unbelievable in that first half. Second half, and we've seen it's a bit of a trait in the NRL already this season. And we know years gone by. The team dominating did not keep their foot down.

[00:06:40] Now, I know I'm going to get a lot of mail about this throughout the week. And I encourage it, bring it on. And Nico said it in the coverage on Fox at full time. I think the coach is going to be a bit unhappy with that second half. So, plenty to work on. And we keep saying that there is plenty to work on. But the signs are pretty good. And they had a number of tries disallowed in both halves. Particularly the second half as well.

[00:07:10] So, it was almost a bigger win. It just wasn't. Player wise, let's look at what we saw out there. I thought a lot of guys really stood out including the back five. Will Kennedy. Will Kennedy. Now, this guy had a really strong game. That's three weeks in a row I think he's been near our best. He scored a try.

[00:07:39] He ran for 150 meters. And he had one line break assist. But he set up a lot of things that led to tries. So, his stats may not read that. But he was very busy. Stone Street ran for over 100 meters. I thought he was really good. He had some errors again. But that's what you're going to get with a young kid. He caught some high balls pretty good. He dropped one. But I thought that he looked even more comfortable this week. So, it's a work in progress with Stone Street.

[00:08:08] But I thought he was pretty good. Jesse Ramian was strong as per 100 meters. And 13 tackles, no misses. But we need to get to his center partner, Kyle Leroy. Now, keep in mind, he was involved in two long range tries. But he did run, technically, statistically. He ran for nearly 250 meters. And that's a great effort. Scored a try. And it was just a dominant performance from Kyle Leroy. Ronaldo Molotalo.

[00:08:38] Another great game from him. Ran for 160 meters. He had two try assists. The most try assists for the game this week. In our team and in the game, Ronaldo Molotalo. So, a very creative game from Molotalo. Looked busy. Looked hungry. And really loved his game. I've loved his game this year. With the exception of a couple of moments in Vegas, he's had a really strong start to the year. As has Braden Trindle. Two 40-20s. Get out of here. Try assists. Line break assist. Line break. Score to try.

[00:09:08] Kicked for 300 meters. And got a field goal. And generally, just really creative and defensively sound as well. Nico Hines had probably his best game of the year. And he had a try assist. Two line break assists. Ran for 50 meters. 16 tackles. 16 tackles. No misses. 170 kick meters. Got some nice goals. And I thought he looked really good.

[00:09:37] And he was under an injury cloud all week. So, played the whole game. And that's a good sign. I thought the halves were great today. Fanua Blake. Very strong game. As you'd expect. 20 runs. 170 meters. He had that one hiccup where he got up and wanted to kill the other guy. And gave away a penalty in attack. I'm sure the coach will talk to him about that. Blake Braley had a solid game. A try assist. Line break assist.

[00:10:07] 30 tackles. So, nothing crazy there, thankfully. He ran three times. It was cut down quite short there. So, at least he's trying. Line engagements as well. Eric Gifusi had a pretty standard game for Oregon. Stats aren't amazing, but he was a very solid performer. Ran for about 65 meters. Made 16 tackles. Britton Nickerow looked fantastic. He had that great try. And did what he had to do out there. Teague Wilton, very aggressive in defense.

[00:10:37] He made 38 tackles, which was the most for us. And he was menacing out there, Teague Wilton. Cam McKinnis, strong captain's run. 111 meters. And looked really good with his runs too. They were energetic and up the middle. And I like what Cam's doing out there. Dan Atkinson had a busy role in the second half. He replaced Blake Braley as well, who got a bit of a rest early on, which was great.

[00:11:06] Talakai ran for 100 meters. There was a possible injury there, but I think he played on after that. So, hopefully he'll be okay. Now, Braden Hammond-Welley was looking good. I know that there's doubters out there, but he was looking good out there. He ran nine times for 80 meters. Made 13 tackles, no misses. And he generally had, I thought, a pretty strong game. However, there is a pretty serious cloud hanging over that knee of his.

[00:11:35] And we just hope that, for his sake, for the club's sake, we hope that it's not as serious as it looks. And we hope he's back next week, because I thought it was a good return to form for Braden Hammond-Welley. Tsukuhai-Papua really impressed again for the second week in a row for me. He ran for 100 meters, eight tackles, no misses. There was one error, I think, in there. But, again, he's a work in progress. Every minute he's out there is great for him and great for us.

[00:12:05] So, I know I'm speaking very positively about the individual efforts, but I genuinely thought they were all really strong. To a man, they were all really good. I mean, there were moments, you know. I could pick out some from Stone Street. I could pick out some from probably a few other guys, but there's no point. Like, there was a comprehensive win. Now, second half, yes, that matters. We need to fix that up. Definitely matters.

[00:12:35] I'm not here to tell you it doesn't matter. But how much weight are you going to put on that performance with the second half? Because the first half was ridiculous. The efforts, the razzle-dazzle, the grinding defense, everything about it was near perfect. And came off and put in the effort, success comes.

[00:13:00] Second half, I mean, they got a little bit too adventurous probably, and they took their foot off at the same time. So, there is things to fix up. A few defensive misreads towards the end. It was nothing alarming for me. And it's something they can work on and learn from. And it sounds like they will be doing that. Because they're playing the Bulldogs next week.

[00:13:27] And the Bulldogs, at the moment, are a much better team, both health-wise and just, you know, successfully a better team at the moment than South Sydney. Although, health-wise, I should say the dog's going to miss a few guys next week. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is, next week are going to have to be better than what they were this week in the second half. If they play that in the first half, they can beat anyone, any era, any time.

[00:13:53] But second half, obviously needs to be improved on. That is for sure. So, Sharks win 27-12. Pretty successful day for the club. They won all three grades. Sold out crowd. Rocket and rolling. And we move on to the dogs. And hopefully we can do that with a healthy squad. This is Shark House Pod. Have a lot of fun talking about the Sharks with you guys and girls.

[00:14:23] Keep the communications coming in to us because we love to hear from you. And you'll be hearing from us a lot from here on out. It's just how it's going to be. So, make sure you subscribe to all the places we need you to be subscribed at. Make sure you're following us at all the places we need you to follow. And we'll have a lot more analysis on this game throughout the week. So, stick with us. This is Shark House Pod. Another win to the good guys. Up up Cronulla. Let's go.

[00:16:36] SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire. Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. He's an expert in the Karimbao region and has his eye all across the Shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450.

[00:17:06] Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate.