PostGame Livestream: Rd 7 Knights v Sharks with Dan Nichols (Fins Up!) and Listeners

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

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[00:01:06] Hey there, welcome, welcome, welcome to SharkCastPod. My name is Sam from Nazian OG from 2015. And this is SharkCastPod and we are brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking and Jason Hawes at Crips and Crips Real Estate. I'm coming to you from a secret, not so secret location in Newcastle. Newcastle, Newcastle. And just a heads up, I may get kicked out of here at some point.

[00:01:34] And I'm going to talk at a calm, low level like this so the hotel guests not get annoyed that I'm going to tell them how terrible their team is. On the other end of this line at the moment we have Dan Nichols and we're going to bring him in to chat in just a second but just a few house rules. I know someone will be smart in the comments and tell me exactly what happened because I don't plan on sleeping tonight because I've got to watch WrestleMania.

[00:02:01] All I know is one thing and I'm not even going to say it in case someone else hasn't watched it. I've only seen the first match. That's my spoiler. You're not here to hear about this. You're here to talk about the amazing Sharks win. Well, pretty good at all at least from my point of view. Dan Nichols, can you hear me loud and clear? I can. You can hear me. Yes, sir. Dan Nichols is from the Fins Up podcast. He is from Rugby League Outlaws and a whole bunch of other things including writing for Zero Tackle.

[00:02:27] And Dan, I will let you know that I was in the third row on the 20 metre line sort of behind the Sharks bench. And that was my viewing experience and I haven't watched any replays. I haven't really seen too many replays of highlights or anything. So, I'm just going off what I saw. I've got a few stats in front of me. But this is where you'll come in because I'm imagining you watch it on the TV. Sharks win 34-14. I believe the last score was a pretty comprehensive win in most regards.

[00:02:57] And I've got to say, first off, a healthy amount of Sharks fans in the stadium. I also want to tell everyone what a great stadium Newcastle is. And that's something that we can aspire to. But we're here to talk about the Sharks win. And Dan, let me just start with initial thoughts. How did you view the victory this afternoon in Newcastle? At the time, I was like a little bit uninspired. I think the way we fell off late left a bad taste in my mouth.

[00:03:27] Then I sort of went back and watched the highlights again when you said this might happen tonight. And not for one single second did I feel like the Sharks were in any trouble of losing that game. That's a pretty good result. I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I was so negative at the time because I've gone back and re-watched some stuff. That's a pretty complete performance. I know we had some things late that you always want to get rid of. But the best time to concede tries is when you're up by 30 points. Yeah, and it's something they need to work on.

[00:03:57] And I'm just going to be a massive head swell now and say I did get a few moments with the coach after the game. And he wasn't overly thrilled. So he'll say what he has to say in the press conference and the press during the week. But just so you guys and girls know, I made the utter dire mistake of saying pretty happy with that. And he went, nope. And he went to a few other comments. But as a fan, I thought it was pretty good. As you said, I didn't think it was at any stage in doubt, including, to be honest, before kickoff.

[00:04:28] And overall, I was happy with the performance 1 through to 17. Doesn't mean there's not things to work on. Doesn't mean there's things we can't critique, including even though it's a 20-point win, Dan. They didn't really reach the highest scores that we've seen in the NRL this year. They didn't go to the 40s, the 50s, etc. Now, I don't really mind about that. It's still a 20-point buffer. But you would have thought in the second half they might have kicked on a little bit more.

[00:04:57] They did concede a few tries towards the end. I've got to tell you, it was pretty hot out there at the stadium. And that continues to be a theme in the first six, seven weeks of the Sharks season. But let me ask you this, Dan. Who impressed you out there? There was a lot of guys that I think did some good stuff. But who were your sort of favorite players out there today that did their thing? I thought Blake Braley was absolutely magnificent.

[00:05:26] He controlled it so early on. Went for runs, kept getting six agains. I think a few times the last few weeks he sort of ran and got caught at dummy half. And you're like, oh, there was nothing there. Today he went. And he went hard. That was really good to see. I thought Nico Hines was blistering in the first half. Been pretty good in the second half. Game was done. So no hatred there. I thought the bench forwards were really good. I didn't feel like there was that drop off.

[00:05:52] And I think Oregon Confuci's starting 15 minutes today was probably the best I've seen him play other than the Roosters game a couple of years ago where I thought he was the best player on the field. I just have to check who I put as my one point. So definitely I had three Braley, two Nico. And then one, I'm just going to buy a bit of time here because I can't remember who I put. I've got to tell you what. Yeah, go ahead. Will Kennedy. Will Kennedy, yeah. Of course. Yeah, he was. He was. I thought it was a great team effort.

[00:06:22] I thought Nico Hines, again, just watching, you know, you guys and girls and that's not amazing. But I watched the game and I thought Nico Hines was our best. And that may change when I watch it again. But I thought Nico Hines was our best. I thought all the guys you mentioned were really strong. And just, yeah, the opening effort by the props in particular, H got a try, which was kind of funny.

[00:06:48] And I got to see from sitting so close to the field, which I don't normally do, just the brotherhood's really, it's a real thing. They've got a real bond out there with the entire team. And, you know, I was pointing out to my young son that, you know, that guy and that guy are cousins. You know, those guys are best friends. Those guys hang out. Like it's starting to gel on the field. I thought today was another step towards where we want to be.

[00:07:18] I thought the attack was good again. I mean, their shapes look so much better than Newcastle's. It's hard to sort of compare because Newcastle's attack is just not good. Like statistically, historically, like you just look at it and it's not good. And today they broke us apart with some second phase play, some offloads and that kind of thing. But I thought that our defense as a shape and structure was way better. And not everything came off. A couple of bomb tries, a couple of disallowed tries.

[00:07:45] So they probably should have reached the 40 point mark in all reality. They didn't. But yeah, I thought again, yeah, I mean, just looking at the back five, I pulled up some stats, Dan. And you got, if just as far as meters go only, you got Kennedy, 170. Stone Street, 170. Ramien, 150. Hiradi, again, Hiradi, 152.

[00:08:12] Ranallo was quite down, but I didn't think he was bad or anything. And then the forwards, Fenua Blake, 150. Kofusi and Nika are both close to 100. Wilton, 100. And Talika, Rudolph and Hazleton all in the sort of mid-80s. So a lot of good meterage there. And yeah, just thought they connected well as a team today, Dan. I know there was a few defensive things in the last, what, 15 minutes? But I can kind of tolerate that when you're winning by 20 points in the end.

[00:08:43] It's the definition of garbage time. You don't want to see it because it makes the score. And you look back at it and you think, look, 50 was there for the taking. Let's be honest. When Toby went over, I thought he'd scored. And Tilly got up and said he didn't. But if they scored then, I think Cronulla put the foot on their throat. I think we're talking 46, 50. But I mean, whatever. It doesn't matter. Ultimately, a win's a win. It's funny you mentioned the brotherhood, though, because that Penrith thing we've all made fun of, it's now become the Tigers thing where they all run from everywhere and jump on each other.

[00:09:13] Cronulla picked that up. And it's not as annoying when it's your team. And I think that's obviously making a bit of fun. But every time there was a knock on, everyone was in. When Stone Street dropped that ball, everyone was in. And we've seen in not so much previous weeks, but definitely in previous years, the heads go down. Newcastle, in the second half, they had an opportunity and they knocked the ball on. I think it was when Gagai knocked the ball up, actually, and should have run the length. Their heads went down and they conceded the next set.

[00:09:42] So that's real good body language. And that was from, obviously, watching our Channel 9. I thought one of the great moments was just after halftime, your man Stone Street went up and flicked the ball back. And Ramien, from what I could tell, just dropped it cold. Like, you know, classic bomb try. And the next set, he gets an intercept, runs away. Stoney to score.

[00:10:10] I thought that was really telling in their mentality today. They just, they were never going to lose that game. But also, you know, Jesse Ramien made up for a bomb try within the space of one set. That was really, I thought, remarkable. Yeah, 100%. And I've taken a, like, I put the phone down during Sharks games because last year I found myself, when something negative happens, you want to yell or you want to tweet or something. And the instinct was, oh, Ramien blew a try.

[00:10:39] And then I was like, okay, but now we've got the blueprint. Stone Street flew above Marju and Ramien on another time scores. Ramien takes the intercept. Beautifully read, by the way. Ponga had an absolute shocker. But Ramien saw that coming from Wilder. Turn and saw he had 50 metres to run against Bradman Best. Look and stay in Stone Street, who's like a 21-year-old on the outside, and goes, you do it. And Stone Street ran in untouched. It was perfect. Like, it was the exact, oh, I made a mistake. I made up for it. Here's the try we should have scored.

[00:11:07] That's exactly what you want to see as a reaction when there's an error. That's something the coach will be happy with. I am sure that if you asked him about that, he'd be super happy. Hey, Dan, I want to point out that if people want to jump on the show, I've left a link in the comments. I think it only appears in the Facebook and YouTube comments. I don't think it's in Instagram. But we do have someone waiting, and they will jump on with us shortly. But just if anyone wants to jump on, you don't have to put your face on there. You're welcome to. You don't have to.

[00:11:36] Don't feel like you have to call in either, but you're more than welcome to, and we'll get to everyone who jumps in. And we'll get to Steve in just a short time. So hang on, Steve, please. Awesome to see you waiting there for us. Nathan says, I think we have to rename Kennedy all-point security because he's safe as houses. Yeah, man. Like being at ground level, Dan, and seeing those bombs go all the way up, and then seeing in real time and like 10 metres away from me, the big hombre is running it. You know, for both teams, running at the fullbacks.

[00:12:06] It's a tough job. And at the moment, Kennedy is one of the better fullbacks. I maintain even when he's at his worst, he's the best fullback in the competition under the high ball. You can't say that about Tavrovic and Ponga. That's his big thing. He's always done that the last few years. And then you see the attack and the defence today. And I have a theory that when Fletcher Sharp scored that first try, Kennedy didn't even try and tackle him because they told him not to. And I'm going to stand by that, whether that's true or not.

[00:12:35] Yeah, I mean, yeah, he wasn't perfect today like he was the other week, but still a very strong game. And I'm super happy with just how he's going. And yeah, it seems like I'm sure on your show you get it too, Dan, but just I feel like I'm constantly defending Will Kennedy. And even our friend on X, Michael brought it up when I wrote something like I'm not his biggest fan. And he was like, what? It's like, I'm not. It's just I really like him. I really like the way he plays.

[00:13:03] And I'm sick of feeling guilty about it for whatever reason. But again, he had a really strong game and he was in your top three. He's probably in my top three when I get around to it. But Tony says, happy with 20 point win away, but should have been 40. What's going on with the dud fifth tackle options? I realized it's a tactic, but let's be more adventurous. So let's talk about that, Dan, before we get Steve on. Fifth tackle running to get tackled on the 95 meter line or whatever.

[00:13:32] Are you cool with this? You're not cool with this? Because I am okay with it sometimes and sometimes I'm not. Contextually, yes. But today I thought they got it wrong three or four times. Like I know exactly where Tony's come from. I tweeted the same thing. I think in reply to something he said, there were times where we had some momentum. Like, you know, the minute before halftime, you're up by 20. Run ball to the corner, whatever. Or, you know, with the game wrapped up at the end. But there were chances there where, you know, Trindle would run and get tackled when there

[00:14:02] are three blokes standing there. Okay, throw one more out. You know, maybe Walton makes a break. Maybe there's something goes on. Or he's five minutes closer to the sideline and gets tackled. Who cares? I don't like when they play negative because they were doing it a bit. And then we got expansive and we scored in the next set. Like, Haradi just walked over. It was like, well, why didn't we do that five minutes ago? We could be in 50 points up by now. So, yeah, I hate the negative football. I think it costs against Canberra. A bit different today when you're up by 20.

[00:14:31] It's very easy just to run the ball into the corner. But in that first half, I thought we had all the momentum. And Trindle took a tackle. I think Wilton did a hit up. I think Nicker might have done a hit up. I was like, can they count to six? Or is this a tactic? What's going on? So, yeah. It's got to be a tactic. It has to be a tactic. I don't mind them not giving away seven tackles. But it's not like we got AJ Brimson kicking here. We got two specialist halves. So, back your – and I love Brimson. I'm just saying. Back your half. Yeah, yeah.

[00:15:01] And, yeah, we're going to throw to Steve. But just quietly, I think you're getting a bit nervous about Marwini holding the spot over your boy who's back in a week or two. Look, no chance. But Haradi's been fantastic. So good. We'll get to him. We'll get to him. Let's bring in our friend Steve. Steve, you guys. How you going, gents? Can you hear me? Yes, sir. How are you? Very well, very well. First time I've been on when we've actually had a win. Oh, excellent. Excellent.

[00:15:30] How did you see the game? What were your thoughts, Steve? I was quite happy. We – and what I said a couple of weeks ago, Sam, it's standing up. We're a dry weather team. Dry weather, top of the ground. And we play really well. Today, still a little bit clunky, but we got the job done. You know, I don't like how we drop off at the end of the game, even though we've got a good lead. I'm one of these people who got your foot on someone's throat. You crush their throat.

[00:15:58] You don't give them a sympathy try or anything like that. But overall, it was a good game. And Kofusi performed a lot better. But he does this once every six weeks. He throws that performance in. We think he's turned the corner. Right. And then next week, we'll get 10, you know, post-contact meters, five hit-ups. But today, he was the foil we wanted for AFB. That's what we want every week, you know.

[00:16:25] And that try of AFB, when it went from – what was it? It went Kofusi, Brayley, McInnes, or McInnes-Brayley, then on to AFB. That's perfect. That's his job. And to do those card-ups, it worked. Today was a lot better. Yeah, I know you've all said about that fifth tackle option. I can see as well where they've got a fullback, maybe like Pong, where they don't want to give him any space. So it depends who you're playing.

[00:16:54] You know, you've got to pick your teams who you're playing, and you play to your strengths, and you take away their strengths, you know. And that's why putting the bombs up to Marzu is not the greatest under the bomb. But you don't also – you prefer him to take that, then instead kick the other option, and he's doing a hit-up. And those hit-ups, he makes 10, 12, 15 metres, and he gets them on the front foot. So you're always trying – and we made a lot of ground out of our backfield today. And Ronaldo, I mean – they were niggling Ronaldo.

[00:17:24] You could tell. And that gets him off his game. Whatever was going on, it was sucking him in. And that's when someone needs to stand up and say, hey, let's calm down. Calm down, Ronaldo. We're in front. Don't do anything. It's going to explode. But I think the Dan Atkinson scenario, that's got to end. That's got to end. Those minutes –

[00:17:50] Okay, so on that, because I was, yeah, not paying attention to TV screens and that kind of thing, I obviously noticed him out there. Can you – Dan first, can you tell me about Dan Atkinson's day, pros, cons, what he did, et cetera? He was on late, like early in the second half for about two minutes. And then he was sitting down looking angry on the bench. So I don't know what happened there. And then he went back on with about 10 minutes to go.

[00:18:20] I actually checked the stats. I think it was on 14 minutes whenever I looked. And he'd done the four hit-ups. They were a good four hit-ups. But Hohebapuru doing four hit-ups is what you want. Or Huge Toots taking four hit-ups. I get why they're doing it. It's just in case. But I'm with Steve. I think it should have ended six weeks ago, to be honest.

[00:18:41] I saw some of the Jets game and seeing Tuku play in that league, which I know, Dan, you're heart and soul in Newtown. I love Newtown too. But to see him play in that lower league kind of didn't break my heart, but it kind of made me a bit sad for a minute. I was like, oh, yeah, okay, you're playing for Newtown. And Newtown's awesome. We love Newtown. But I think that there's a spot on that bench for him. And I think Hohebapuru's getting real close too.

[00:19:09] And shout out to Dan, a different Dan who I met. He's a regular listener. I met him today in the crowd. And we were talking about Hohebapuru and how he gets onto the bench. And then there's other guys like Colquhoun coming back. And Max Bradbury played his first cup game today for the first time in a couple of years. Like he'd been out injured. There's a lot of strength coming through for that bench. I mean, Max is a while off. But the Atkinson thing, I mean, again, I should have asked the coach today.

[00:19:38] It wasn't really appropriate when I had my time with him. But we need to get to the bottom of why he's there. Because if we know why he's there, then maybe we can all sleep a bit better at night. Steve, who were your, say, top three guys out there today? Top three, AFB. I think he did his job. He went forward. That's what we expect. I was impressed by Will.

[00:20:06] And you know, not the shoot, but he's telling me I'm wrong. And actually, Blake Braley. Braley put that kick in. He's done that now the last couple of weeks. He tried the 40-20 last week. He had a lot of, he got out of dummy half a lot more this week as well, which he hadn't been doing. So I think he's starting to come on as well. Maybe he's starting to understand AFB.

[00:20:33] And I think that's just taken the players a while. But yeah, so I would have gone AFB. I would have gone Blake. And I would have gone Will. So here, man, left to say comment saying his kick for Kennedy was just brilliant. To see, I figured it'd easily be the hooker for the Blues. And no one would complain. He was really good today. One of his best games in a while. And yeah, the running, the creativity was really great. Obviously, it's something we want to see more of every week.

[00:21:01] But when we say it, and everyone says it, when Blake runs and when he's involved, they usually win. And it's partly because of his effort. And I mean, I wasn't, I didn't think anyone out there really played too bad. Again, I need to watch the game back. But I thought it was a really good team effort. Just looking at some stats here. And the players. I mean, I thought Teague Wilton was heavily involved. He was very heavily marked. He was buried a few times. And he got back up.

[00:21:30] I thought it was a very physical game from both teams. Dan, I'm not sure about Toby Rudolph's ankle or toe again. He didn't finish the game. And he was walking around afterwards without a shoe on. So not quite sure what's going on there. Talk to me, Steve, about Ronaldo Maltelli. He said that he was targeted, et cetera. I saw one penalty that he got where they were niggling him. Did you think that affected his game today?

[00:21:59] Well, his metres were down. His hit-ups didn't seem as, he didn't seem running as hard. Maybe he was carrying, I don't know. He was obviously in a verbal battle with Tyson Gamble, who does that every week. And so he was probably meeting, he was talking to probably, well, it was someone who was on par with probably how he sledges. So, but yeah, he was just off. I don't know. His yardages were definitely down. I think he, I looked at the NRL stats.

[00:22:26] I think he only did 60 metres, 60 or 70, which is low for Ronaldo. But, you know, his game overall, there was no, we had no, we didn't have a player out there who played badly. And that's always a good thing. You know, that's when you have that, it's normally, you normally win. You know, everyone does their job. So he did his job. He was just down, I thought on, and his previous weeks. But remember, his previous weeks have been extremely good. I mean, he's been coming out of that backfield and he's been the leading that backfield runs.

[00:22:56] So maybe we're just having a down week, you know, and that can happen. We don't know. He could have been ill, but we don't know. You know, the club never says. Yeah. During the week, I did an episode with Gary Dover and I was getting a bit cheeky saying how, compared to the West Tiger situation of the past week, how stoked I am that it's, A, it's not us and B, we're far from that. Everyone's really happy and wants to be here.

[00:23:24] And I was reminded of that today sitting amongst Newcastle fans. And again, there was a good representation of Sharks fans. I was about to say huge, which is a bit over the top, but there was definitely a number, a number of like probably a thousand at least Sharks fans there. And I was around a lot of Newcastle fans and they were not happy. And it was all above board, all the criticism. I was quite impressed with actually their behavior and language, et cetera.

[00:23:52] But they're not a happy club. And it's the coach. It's the players. And it was all stuff that I agreed with. Like they're all pretty good judges. And I was sitting there just a bit smug going, that guy, that guy likes that guy. Like we all get along. It's great. And that can change. Like I've said, that can change. That's been us. So it's not a gloat. It's more just, I'm really happy with where the club is on the field right now. And performance wise, there's heaps of things that can do better.

[00:24:20] But just that kind of, I think we're in that good space where we're a top four team. We've got to get there first. And then when we get there, we've got to do something special. But I just think we're at the moment so far above a lot of other clubs. We should all sort of be a bit grateful for that. We've got some comments here. Ghastly says, not a fan of Trindle's decision making. Anyone got an opinion on that, Steve or Dan? Dan? I'll let you go on that one, Dan.

[00:24:50] Yeah. If there's a bad decision, Trindle will find it. Put it that way. There were some real bad reads today. Last week, there were two intercepts. It should have been two tries. Yeah. You know, when they're giving out attribute points on NRL the next game, I don't particularly think Trindle's will be very high. No. Okay. Nathan says, Talakai is our most dangerous player. We look so much more threatening when he's out there. Do you believe he needs more time? I think, I definitely think he needs more time.

[00:25:19] I don't know how you want to do it, how you make it happen, but I'm a huge admirer of what he does. And you can just see it in those runs. And I think it's, it's a bit like, I don't know if it's a fair comparison, but it's a bit like the running backs in America. Like you want to use them when they're, when they're ready to go. And this guy is just at the moment, I don't know if he's picking or not, but he's at a really good spot in his career. And I just want to use him a lot. You know, I don't want to like wear him out, but I think he definitely needs more time.

[00:25:49] Um, Dan, do you, do you think Talakai? I mean, I think, I think you would probably say if I could speak for you and then you can correct me. You think he's a benchy, but he needs more time. Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, I just checked 20, 21 minutes today. He and Cam, you know, 45 and 35, whichever way you want to go. I don't particularly mind or 30, 50 for Cam, 30 for Talakai. I think it's perfect.

[00:26:19] He was so damaging today when he came on as he was last week. And the week that he wasn't there, you're like, oh, we could really use Talakai. That's the biggest rap. You can give a guy coming off the bench. I don't know. There seems to be Atkinson plays 10 minutes and then the next guy plays 20, 25. And then the two main guys, I suppose you can say on the bench, have a bit, a bit more of an impact. I don't know whether it's a fitness thing, I wouldn't say so. He played 80 minutes at center for two years. So I can't explain it, but yeah,

[00:26:48] I definitely want to see some more minutes because I think when Talakai is running for 120, he's 120 or more impactful than a lot of other players because there's so many post-contact. And how many times did he play the ball quickly and Braley was gone before he noticed it? That's a huge attacking weapon. Yeah, he's brutal. He's one of my favorite sharks and I love the way he plays. And yeah, like I said before, just in that running, I'm thinking of,

[00:27:18] unfortunately close to my heart for many reasons, Adrian Peterson. You use him, use him, use him. He's no good. Okay, don't use him. But I don't want to use him up too quick. I'm just saying, I think at the moment, he just reminds me of a guy that's unstoppable. And that's what I was harking back to Tuku as well. I think Tuku can get into that kind of mold, but he's going to need time. And maybe that's cup time. I don't know. That's another story. But Buckwit says the team still needs to go for the full 80. They seem to clock off towards the end. They definitely did.

[00:27:50] I guess just a matter of how, obviously we all want them to be really ruthless, but just a matter of how willing we are to let this go. Like Steve, are you comfortable with the scoreline and the two tries at the end? Are you okay with that? Or do you think it represents something else? I'm never okay with it. I've been supporting the club since the seventies and we've done it since the seventies. I would be sitting at a grand and we'd be up 36 nil or 35 nil, whatever it was. And it'd always be a late try.

[00:28:19] It's something that I think the only time we didn't do it was in 2016 when we won it. But we do it every time. And today it annoys me because I just think, have they just hung off for that couple of minutes? Have they just gone, okay, the game's won. And you see other clubs who don't do it, you know? It just bugs me because we've always done it. It's constant.

[00:28:47] I remember being a kid seeing it and it would frustrate me then. I'm in my fifties now and it still frustrates me, but we don't change. And it's just us. But the thing is, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to tear you apart, Steve, but I think that like, I agree with what you're like. I'm sure what you're saying is true, but also we can't sort of compare this team to the team from 1977 or whatever. Like, obviously I get what you're saying. You historically have seen this.

[00:29:16] I don't have a problem with it until it becomes a problem. And that's probably very lazy of me to think that way. But I obviously know that against a better team, if you leave a gap and you let them in, then maybe they'll catch up. Whereas today there were no chance. But I guess it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a work in progress. It's round seven. We're building. Okay. A couple of wins down a row. We, you know, we've traveled a lot. We've spoken about that.

[00:29:49] So I think it's a wait and see on that one, but obviously, yeah, we need to improve it. Brett says, I'm curious if you guys think Braley's been told to hold back and just pass when he runs, he runs well. It's decent kicking game too. I mean, I've asked about this and I get the impression that he's not told that. I think it's more, maybe he's just, I don't know.

[00:30:17] Maybe he trusts a lot in his halves and he thinks that maybe it's his job to shovel the halves. And then every now and then he does his thing and it, it pays off. I mean, again, being a headswell, I saw him after the game and I said, dude, try this. And he was like, yep. And he said something like I should have had another one with Toby, I think, or something. But my point, what my point is I was congratulating him on just stepping out of his shell and being as good as we know he can be. And I get the feeling it's more of a him thing than a coach thing. I haven't.

[00:30:45] When I spoke to Fitzy on the show in February, I think I spoke about it with him and they're big believers in him. So I don't think they're trying to hold him back, but then, you know, how many chefs in the kitchen do you want at one time? I don't know. I don't know how all that stuff works, but I don't think it's a, a coach holding them back, Brett, so to speak. Um, we have more comments here, which is awesome.

[00:31:15] Uh, ghastly says, Haradi putting pressure on Ramien to hold his form. That's some wild stuff that that's, um, I think in all, in all reality, ghastly 10, it's, it's more, he's just putting his hat in the ring to say next man up. But I don't think he's ever going to be starting over Jesse or over Kale, but man,

[00:31:45] let's talk about Marwini. Uh, Dan, talk to me about Marwini. Cause I, I've wrapped him a lot in the last few weeks. He's been fantastic. I mean, if there's one play anymore, it was Kaleiro. He's the only bloke that scored against the Bulldogs in the past like four weeks. He coming out of his own end, there's no one else like him in the competition and people finally realize him, you know, how good he is. And when he went down, I was like, Oh geez, that's going to hurt. Haradi's stuck in and like, what of it? You know, like he's,

[00:32:16] he walks into six or seven other teams in the competition right now and in multiple positions. They're never going to drop Ram in. And, and Iro is a top five center. No one can convince me otherwise. So Haradi's very, very, we've got to be content with his current role. He drops back to Newtown. He doesn't drop his head. He runs for 300 meters. He's got trisys playing at fullback, takes all the big hit ups. He's a perfect club man. And I mean, when we signed him, I was like, if this guy plays more than five games, we're in trouble. Now, if he plays 10,

[00:32:46] 15, so, so what, you know, you can drop players at the end of the year and say, Oh, you're looking a bit tired. Geez, Ronnie, you were a bit distracted today. How about a week? You know, get your head in order. I wouldn't do that, but I'm saying you could put Haradi there. He scored in every game he's played for Cronulla. You can't ask much more. Defensively too. Very, very good. Mark's one of the best centers in the game today and kept him very quiet. Yeah. I'm just, I just become a really big fan of his and have no problem saying it. Steve,

[00:33:15] what did you think of my winning before you, before you said goodnight to you, so to speak? I would say he's gone fantastic. I mean, he stepped up for Kyle Lero. He's, he's even, his run meters are good. As Dan said, he scored a try in every game. That left center position, actually, if you look at it this year, that left center position, we don't traditionally score tries. Ronaldo was scoring them out on the wing. Ronaldo has scored only one try this year. The left center position, Haradi scored three. And I think Iro had scored four or five before he got injured.

[00:33:45] So that's the center positions come up with seven or eight tries where traditionally it's not been a try scoring position because Talakai would be setting up Ronaldo. Then Iro's come in and Iro had, I think he scored five tries in 20 odd appearances last year. So all of a sudden that left center has now become a strike position. And we're scoring a lot of tries in that position. And Haradi's come in and every game, try, try, try. I mean, how do we keep him at the end of the year? I mean,

[00:34:12] I don't blame him if some club offers him more because we're not going to be able to, because he's our backup and he might be a club man who's quite willing to stay because I can see him. And this is what I say to people in your jets team. And then I'll drop off. Same with Billy Burns. You can't just have all kids who are 2021. Now you need a couple of older guys who have played first grade so they can go back and actually coach at the same time.

[00:34:40] So this is what it takes to make first grade. Look at me and here I am and give you that experience. And then they can step up and they step back. And those other younger players see that. Yeah, it's a great point. And we spoke about it with Marwini on the show last week and he, I asked him that and he said, yeah, I'm sort of, I guess still learning, but also coaching the younger fellows. And showing them the ropes. And I don't know if he sticks around or not. I think he could get an offer,

[00:35:07] but I guess if the offer is in the ballpark of the sharks, it's more about where is he going to be happier? Now it wouldn't be too hard for a club to offer him two years rather than one. And I sort of got the vibe from him. Like anyone, they prefer security over the one year deals, but, you know, it's a great system. He's in and our back five do get injured. So he's, yeah,

[00:35:35] he's really stepped up. I mean, Dan, I was with you on the hill at Cogger of all places watching, I think it was a home derby. It was the Chad field goal, extra time debacle. And I said debacle because it was one of the worst games ever saw. And Marwini was, remember he did the big run and we thought he thought he was going to win the game. And then he almost lost the game in the space of like a minute. And we were just like, what, what's up with Marwini? Um,

[00:36:05] we sure he's ready for first grade here. And I was pretty critical of him at the time. And, but he's proven that was years ago. He's proven us wrong. And, and, well, you know, he's, he's grown and he's matured. He's become a really good first grader. So we'll see what happens on that, on that and, and the depth, but you make some great points, Steve, about the depth too, like guys like Burns and just that, that kind of 26 year old and, and beyond who have played, you know, 40, 50 in our all games.

[00:36:34] They're very valuable when they're called upon. So, Steve, thanks for calling. Appreciate you. Appreciate your support of the show. I'm glad we got the win, the win for you, uh, and, uh, be in touch next time we're on. We'd love to, love to have a chat and we'll see if anyone else wants to call in. Um, but yeah, have, have a great week till we talk to you again. Cheers. We roll onto next week against, uh, the Tigers at Leichhardt. Beauty. Bring it on. Have a good night guys. Cheers. Cheers. Thanks, Steve. See you, man.

[00:37:05] All right. If you want to be like Steve, you can, uh, hit the link on a couple of the sites there. It's a stream yard link. You can jump on, uh, no pressure to do so, but we'd love to talk to you. Dan, uh, hand, hand man says he thought McKinney was a bit off today. He could have done more, uh, with the Mars, you sharp try. Um, um, from what I saw, he, I thought he was decent. I mean, maybe that I'm sure, I'm sure hand man is correct.

[00:37:34] There was some missed tackles and that kind of thing. Uh, what did you make of McKinnis today? Yeah, so I do. It's fine. I can't remember these. I can't remember him standing by the last try. I don't know how much attention I was paying to be honest. No, I thought McKinnis was good early. He was solid. And then, um, I was expecting him to come in. So maybe he didn't, um, yeah, I don't know. I'm just looking at the stats. I don't remember much of McKinnis today. It wasn't a game that was lights out by any stretch. I don't think he was bad. 58 minutes. See,

[00:38:04] if you told me he played 40, I would have completely believed that. 96. I remember he wrapped up the ball pretty good in defense in the middle. Like there was a lot of great three man tackles. And I mean, the Newcastle packs handy. Like they're, they're sort of awkward shaped pack. Like they've, and, and Margie as well, very strong and Bradman best in the flesh. He's a very hard runner. So, I mean, I thought we did contain them pretty well. Generally there was that drop off towards the end, but, um, yeah, I mean,

[00:38:34] we'll have to watch that back on McKinnis. Uh, Danny Lee says, you're the guy from the sharks victory song video. I sure am my friend. I'm very blessed. I was blessed to be in there for the second time in my life. Second time in my life. And I was saying to Dan before, it took me decades and decades and decades to get in there and have a sing. Yet other people, including my young son, you know, he's barely, barely become a fan in the last few years. And, um,

[00:39:03] he's in there taking selfies with Nico and that kind of stuff. So it's a good club. We got, they're very friendly, uh, but I certainly am blessed. So I appreciate, uh, the people that got me in there. It's hard, man. It's not, but I just don't let anyone in. Unfortunately, I wish they did. Okay. I hope that came across too as, uh, not being a head spot, being very appreciative. Ghastly says, uh,

[00:39:29] swap Siffers minutes for Atkinson's giving 15 minutes more. Uh, Ash said it's 10 years since Sharknado. Whoa. Yeah. That, yeah. I know, you know, so I'm, that's awesome. Uh, 2015, wasn't it? That's crazy. It's time flies, Ash. Yeah, that was, um,

[00:40:00] that was one of the weirder experiences of my life. My life for sure. Yeah, I was there. I mean, it's a bit like, I feel like it's become like the first sharks home game in 1967 where people were there. And then you ask someone who was there and they were like, Oh, there was only about 900 people. Um, yeah, I was, I was there and, um, there were obviously a few thousand people at the game. Um, the story I love to tell Dan is, uh, I was working, uh, my day job and,

[00:40:30] and so across, across the bridge, across the big bridge and coming home to watch the game. And I was going to pick up my dad and my dad is, um, I mean, certainly older now, but he was older than anyway, 10 years ago. But, uh, if that makes sense, you know what I'm trying to say. And, um, my colleague Wally, who some of you guys know was at the game already. Cause he was working on the, on the game and it was like four o'clock or four 30. And then it was already cycle, cyclone conditions. And he rang me and he goes,

[00:41:00] dude, do not take your dad there. It's, it's chaos. You don't want, you know, an older man. And, you know, I was like, I'll have a chat with him, whatever. Go pick him up. I'm like, Hey, it's pretty hectic out here. And, you know, we've been advised that maybe, you know, I'll stay home with you or whatever. And he's like, no, no, let's go to the game. Okay. Go to the game. And so luckily we do sit towards the back of the upper Andrew Reddinghausen, but, um, it was,

[00:41:30] yeah, it was chaos. Like it was, it was bad, man. I don't know. I don't know how they sort of got away with it, especially down at shark park where you think there's a few loose wires and a few loose, you know, posts, whatever here or there. Um, it was fun in a lot of ways. You know, you saw the people out there with the scuba diving gear and that kind of stuff. I think one of our listeners, um, Lewis was one of those, the guys in the, in the scuba gear. Um, were you there Dan? No, I was in Grafton. I remember watching it and thinking,

[00:42:00] even if I was in Cronulla, I've done games similar. Like I, yeah, yeah. That, that Parramatta game, you get a beer and you drink it and you look up and look down at it. It'd be full again. Yes. Yes. I've done my time, but that specific one, no. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. Um, yeah, it was one of those games where if you were able to put the ball along the ground under the posts, you knew that you're going to score because the fullback would drop it or fumble it and someone would just dive on it. It was one, like certainly wasn't a classic. No,

[00:42:29] I have a theory though, Sam. you say it was great. Cause we won. If we'd lost, you would have been annoyed. I think if, I think if we'd lost for me, it would be more folklore than what it is. Like it is, it is an amazing game and I don't talk about it enough. And every year someone like Ash says, Hey, and I'm like, Oh yeah, it was amazing. But at the time it was remarkable. And, and yeah, I remember our friend, uh, Scott Maxworthy, who used to work at the sharks.

[00:42:59] He had these t-shirts made up for the people that went and it said, I, I survived the, well, I can't, I've got it at home. I survived the, the shark. I was at Chuck. Yeah. It's, um, it was cool. I hope you're well, Ash. Hope you've had a good Easter as well. She said, Haradi is playing good as well. Um, Nathan says, how do you feel about Tee Wilton? And you don't have to have a last question, Nathan. You can ask him as you want. Uh,

[00:43:28] how do I feel? How do we feel about Tee Wilton? I think he's playing great. Bolter for New South Wales. I think he's playing good. I don't really think for me, Tee goes out of form. I know he probably has better games than, than others, but he's very solid. He's a very solid. I mean, he plays the way he looks. You look at him and go, Whoa, you're a solid looking dude. That's how he plays. And I thought he was pretty good today.

[00:43:59] And I don't know about New South Wales. I don't know what their depth is like, Dan, you probably would be more better to answer that one, but I w I don't think he'd be out of place. He's played or captain. I think the blues under 19s or under 18s. And he certainly fits that kind of style of footy. Do you think he would find a spot in there, Dan? Not this year. Hudson Young's the best left center or left sided back row in the game. Might be right. I don't even remember now that I say that out loud. Angus Crichton, Liam Martin,

[00:44:29] probably going to have a bit to say with it. I love Tee Wilton. I think he's been fantastic. He's become a hit man in defense, which is what we saw for Newtown a lot. He's sort of taken that on today. That penalty was absolute BS, mate. Great shout. If you start penalty, I know there was one a couple of years ago and I blew up where I think it was Talon May or Tango ran out and head butted him. Today was just a complete, they just ran into each other and one bloke fell over the other didn't. If Wilton goes down and Gamble stays up, we probably get the, it was ridiculous,

[00:44:59] but Tee Wilton's playing very, very good. I said a couple of years ago, I think he'll be in the origin squad in the future. I see nothing to say that he won't be, won't be this year, but if he gets pulled up to the squad on a week where we have the buy going into origin. Yeah. I would, I would not be shocked at all. BJK says, Nico, good to see Nico having a really positive game today. Yeah. I thought he was awesome. Just while I remember Dan, I need to jump over to this page. Yeah. There's a bit happening on the,

[00:45:31] on the Insta shout out to my friend, Kim who's watching and lots and lots of cool people are watching. Hey, Charlotte at Mr. Paisley's. I know she's watching. Chad says our halves need to shut down games at the end. It's a young halves combo, but need to seal the deal. So do you think that was a thing today, Dan? Why they didn't go on with it? The halves didn't shut it out. The games. Not so much today. Definitely against Canberra.

[00:46:00] I think that was pretty obvious last week to a degree. I think Trindle obviously would want those passes back. I didn't really feel that today. I felt like Bradley had a good hold on the game. And I think, I think the options at the end probably could have been better. So you're not wrong by any stretch. I just, I just felt that Margie was going to break those tackles and no one was going to stop him. That's how I've convinced myself, but yeah. Yes. In theory, you're exactly right. They do.

[00:46:31] Um, hello to everyone on the Insta. I have been neglecting you guys and girls, but hello, hello, hello. Uh, our buddy Nathan's on there. Alex, Alex says late to the party. Fantastic to see Blake put a little attacking grubber in early in the tackle count for a try. Love Blake. Wish he'd have the confidence to do the same in tight games. Yeah, it's a great point. We spoke about that before Alex. So, uh, once we're done here, you can go download the whole video. We're going to check it up on podcast feed as well later on. So, uh,

[00:47:00] you can hear what we have to say about Blake, but yeah, we agree with you completely. Uh, Kapowi said, so good, bro. People complaining about switching off and not putting them to the sword. I think we played really smart. Didn't over do ourselves and got the job done comfortably. Yeah. I mean, I got no problem with that. Kapowi. I mean, that would make sense. I think we'd all prefer they didn't concede those sort of last couple of tries. I think I don't have it in front of me,

[00:47:27] but I'm pretty sure they've conceded the last try and you know, a lot of games this year already. Uh, Kapowi also says, great day with three great wins today. Toby possibly out next week. It could be Colquhoun time. Baby could be, um, we'll wait and see on Toby. It didn't look too good. It didn't look like a year long kind of thing or anything, but he just looked a bit uncomfortable on his foot. You didn't say flag today. Did you say?

[00:47:58] No, I'll go back and watch that, but I didn't see it, but they, they won apparently, which is great. They did. They were up by heaps and they were down by heaps. And then they scored two tries in the last three minutes to, to win. And we literally went a hundred meters with a minute to go and scored on the bell and won. So pretty, pretty, uh, pretty fun. That does sound like fun. That sounds like I'm, well, it can't have me at Monday night. I think it's Monday night. It's going to be WrestleMania. WrestleMania. There's that meme going around about, um,

[00:48:26] about watching so much rest. You know, it's like a Simpsons one. It's like, it lists everything you need to watch in WrestleMania week. You're not, you're not sleeping, but I will get to, I will get to flag, which is, uh, that's exciting. Um, NS says, Nico is my favorite today for the music section. Finiscad, Coppertone, Ammonia, Drugs, Fove, Dogs, The Best People. I'm sensing NS is an Australian nineties music person.

[00:48:56] And yeah, absolutely. We are. Uh, yeah. I mean, Coppertone by Finiscad is one of, I don't want to call them a one hit wonder because it sounds so negative, but just such a great song. Like it's like, I used to see them quite a lot and I wasn't a huge fan, but they'd play that song. You'd be like, what the hell is this song? This song is unbelievable. And of course we all know Ammonia and the Fove's. If you don't know them, kind of a quirky Melbourne indie rock band. And they're still going.

[00:49:26] They're coming out. They're playing soon. Thank you. And that's for some music on here. We like a bit of 1% rock and roll. Uh, Gasly said, Nico starting to ramp up more. As long as it doesn't get picked. I can't complain. I thought he was really good today. Dan, Nico was evident early on. And we've spoken about it when he gets the ball in his hand. Um, he's on and he had the ball in his hand a lot. And I kind of, like his year so far.

[00:49:56] What are your thoughts on Nico? Yeah. Nico has been tremendous. He's definitely not getting picked for origin, but he's been very good. I don't think he's overplayed his hand too, which is something we probably accused him of a bit late back in last year. Again, when you're copping 50 messages a day about to get involved, I don't blame him for overplaying his hand. I think he might be playing a little bit of second fiddle to Braden Trindle, which I don't know. I think it's something that kind of suits him. So I like, I like the way he's playing today though. You look at the stats and go,

[00:50:26] we don't even have three tries to see us. And you know, he controlled the game, but he's kicking game so much better today. I don't know what he's done the last two weeks. Maybe that extra week, because in the morning, he's been fantastic. He's defensively has been tremendous. Yeah. I don't think Nico could have done much more today, to be honest. It was funny after the game. So I was sort of sitting towards where all the Cronulla fans were, like the away bay. I was sort of a couple of bays near them. And so after the game, a whole bunch went over.

[00:50:55] It was really nice to see the club advise the players, you know, I'm not saying players didn't want it, but the club sort of, you know, said go over there and do your thing. And they all sort of went over there one by one and different groups of them went over and signed some stuff, took some photos. And then Nico, he wasn't the last one, but he sort of Nico came over on his own. He had probably had some interviews to do or whatever. And he came over. Just, you give this raw, like you're in a Taylor Swift concert or something. It's like, Oh, here comes Nico. And he just, the guy has so much on his plate.

[00:51:25] It's hilarious. And, and, you know, I'm not saying that's wrong. Like he's one of our highest played players and he's the man. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm not, I'm not even suggesting it's a problem. I just, it was just funny. Like everyone's going nuts for everyone. And then Nico walks over and it's just elevated. And it was really good to see it. Like it's, yeah, it's been a while since we had a guy like that, I think. And it's fun. And it brings in the fans of fans of all ages, Dan. It was so good. Like, you know, parents, grandparents, uncles,

[00:51:53] like it was just a lot of people with their families and, uh, full credit to the Knights fans where I was at the very least, they're all pretty okay with sharks, people around. And have you been to their stadium recently, Dan? I haven't. It's that and Townsville are the only two in the NRL I haven't done. Yeah. I haven't been for at least, I don't know, man, like, like a while. I mean, for a while I'll say, I couldn't put a number on it, but it's, I just had forgotten that it's,

[00:52:24] it may not be world-class, but it's very, very good. And I know I'm comparing it with our ground and that's with respect, always going to be better, but it's actually sneaky good. Like it's sneaky. Maybe it is sneaky world-class. Like I was just a bit surprised. Like even from you walk in and there's, um, an area for the kids and, and, and face painting and pass the ball and get your photo taken with the cut out.

[00:52:54] And it's just a meeting Greek kind of area for, uh, people who you're meeting at the game. There was, there was a, uh, who was there? Jack Hetherington was there doing sort of some stuff as well. And, um, and then when you walk up in the concourse and, you know, you're not lining up too much for drinks or food and, and the actual viewing area of the ground from what I could tell, I, I sort of walked around sort of half of the ground and it was pretty good. It was pretty good.

[00:53:23] It was sort of just better than what I remember. So shout out to them. And I think it's something that our club needs to aspire to as far as just making people feel welcome with the facilities. Cause it was, it was pretty noticeable. It's fantastic. It looks good on TV. Yeah. And they love their footy, man. They, they're hurting. I'll tell you that. I don't really care, but they're hurting. Uh,

[00:53:51] sorry to cut you off is ridiculous. Cause they were hiding the night. And for 20, whatever it was, 24, 26,000 to turn up. That's humongous. Like shout outs. And you can, like you said, I don't care that they're bad. I don't care that any team are bad other than ours, but it's, it was good to see. And I hope they come good. Not that good, but hopefully they've got some tries. Uh, Kim says, been a few weeks, uh, which prop combination should play together more? I'd love to see telecline AFB, especially when we're attacking on the line.

[00:54:21] Tall time with to poor would be a handful as well. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's good stuff. Kim. I would like to see both of those combos out there. Um, I, I mean, I don't know if I can better that Dan, have you got any thoughts on that? What's up on the screen from Kim? I find that since Toby and Tom have been there, our bench has just been knowing people when it was one or the other earlier in the season, it was, you know, 50, 50. So they're probably the two when they, they both came on today. We didn't,

[00:54:51] we didn't lose anything. So that's, I hope Toby's okay. Cause he has been pretty good. And Tom, I think has changed the game since he's come back, but yeah, I want to see more talent by definitely. However he fits in, let's make it happen. Uh, Dean says thoughts on changing the walkout music to Pantera walk. Now, now I'm going to just tell you, I'm, I don't know if I know the song. I know Pantera, obviously, and I know the style. Um, I'll need to go check that out and I will do my best to do that.

[00:55:21] Um, but I got a feeling Pantera might scared, you know, a bit, but I could just be, I could be completely wrong. You don't remember the Robert M days, mate? RVD ECW. Oh, is that, is it that? That's it. We respect walk. It wouldn't fly, but it's a great song. I know it. Okay. I know it, Dean. And of course, like everything else in my life, I think professional wrestling for knowing it. Dean, thanks for being in touch. Hope you're good, man. Uh, Nathan says, as Sharks fans,

[00:55:50] we know when Klein is the referee. I want to talk about this. Uh, it feels like we're playing against two teams. Um, I hope I'm not going to get anyone. I'm not in trouble here, but I'm just having a chat with the late, late night shark cast, you know, Ashley Klein walked off the field and he went up the sheds where the sharks were based. So the, the, the nights for some reason, they have two runouts, but for the start of the NRL, they run out the one place,

[00:56:18] but when they warm up and after the game, the sharks went up a different tunnel, actually Klein went up that tunnel. Now that's not scandalous. Ashley Klein was taking selfies with fans and high-fiving. That's cool. With sharks fans. And the Newcastle fans were like, this is a bit rich. Um, I, I don't know if it's cool, Dan, is it cool? Are they allowed to take selfies? Are they, are they allowed to be people? Yeah. Yes.

[00:56:48] As long as they're not taking photos at halftime with like Nico Hines or Calvin Palmer. I think it's okay. That's a good point. I do. Regarding this, without getting on a tangent, cause I could talk for an hour on this. I think Klein's a good referee. I think the two scandalous areas, scandalous moments today came from the video thing, the T Wilton and the, the, um, Schiller, the high shot, which busted her already open. So you're not going to get any arguments from me. There was a sin.

[00:57:17] But I think when you don't, when, when you don't notice a ref, I think they're doing the best. And I think Klein referees origin near perfectly. I think week to week, he's a nitpicker. If you showed me five kind games that he's done for Cronulla, if we get, if we lose a penalty game three times, he's had a bad game three times. That's the way I look at it because I'm a Sharks fan. When I'm watching games normally, that Gerard Sutton the other night annoyed me and I didn't have any skin in that game. I think it was Penrith.

[00:57:46] So who cares what they were going to lose? He's awful. I think Adam G is the best referee. When I see Klein, I think you can't get away with anything. And I think Newcastle gave away about six or seven, six against there deservedly. And they were awful. So Newcastle fans are going to say that he refereed them out of the game, which is absolute BS. They got outplayed. So I get, I get the joke in this, but with the referees, I try and back them a lot because I think a lot of, you know,

[00:58:16] the robos of this world go out and blame the referees, even when they win. It's like, oh yeah, good win, but the ref screwed us four times. No, you just got outplayed, blah, blah, blah. I think Klein was okay today. There was one or two where, you know, whatever, 50-50s or 50-50s. But I don't think if you're arguing today, I think whoever was in the bunker has a lot to answer for them. Yeah, for sure. And people who listen to the show regularly know that I'm not a ref basher. I think they have an incredibly hard job.

[00:58:43] I think their job is made harder by all the things they have to go through during a game. But I was a little surprised to see him taking selfies. Now, it should be pointed out that our fans said, hey, come over here. Hey, hey, like, come get a photo with me. And he did. But I just, if I've seen that before, I can't recall it. Maybe that was it. I don't know if I'd recalled saying that. It's not a big deal. I just thought it was. The optics are not. It was definitely, it was worth it for me to see it,

[00:59:11] to hear the Newcastle fans get a bit put out by it. Because they weren't even serious about it, but they were still annoyed. And I can understand that. If that was my deal, I'd be like, what the hell are you doing? Sharks win. Sharks win. Yeah, I keep going back to that Ramian moment. Dan Ware, he really blew that try. And we're ahead by, I think by 10 at that point. Maybe 12. We're ahead by 12.

[00:59:40] But just to turn it around with that sneaky, I think it was an intercept, and then give it to Stone Street and run. That really impressed me. What did you think of your boy Stone Street today? I thought he was good. Of course he had that knock on, and I get 10 messages every time he loses the ball. So that's just. Oh, I was trying to find your number. I was like, where is he? Yeah, that's what you do, mate. Every time I say someone's good, they go out of their way to not be, and vice versa. So I just don't say anything anymore. No, I thought he was tremendous.

[01:00:07] I thought he had a huge mismatch in the air against Greg Margeau today, and we did work that out. And we should have had a try, let's be honest. Rameen just stone cold dropped it. Looking on the replay, Stone Street was over the line when he caught it, so he could have just fallen over and scored. But whatever. His running game has improved tenfold to the start of the season. He was getting smashed in every time, and he was making no pause to contact. Now he's running like Ronaldo. Like, I just, he's going to make mistakes. People, people are too quick to say, oh, your boy Stone Street dropped the ball.

[01:00:37] Okay, he scored two tries, 150 meters, you know. He's rushing in. Ronaldo rushes in. Kyle Felt rushes in. Brian Tottenham rushes in. That's what wingers do. They're not there to defend. They're there to make decisions. It's frustrating. It's going to happen. Yeah, I thought the first try today that we conceded, like he rushed in, but last week he rushed in and the cover was there. So, I think it's just something that he's allowed to do if he thinks he can shut it down. And he's a pretty quick dude. So,

[01:01:06] sometimes he'll shut it down, sometimes he won't. Yeah, mate, if you've got a three on two, you've got to make a decision. Unfortunately, he made the wrong one, but he stands his ground, he gets mowed over anyway. So, it doesn't really change. I mean, I thought he was very good today and he's just, he scored two tries like four times now. And there's been an opportunity to score a hat trick in every single one of those. I just think he's a guy who scores a thousand tries and never gets a hatty.

[01:01:35] Will Kennedy contract situation for you. Okay, let's play fantasy contract. Tuesday morning, Will Kennedy's manager calls up Darren Mooney and says, let's get the deal done. We want two years and 50K more a year than what he's on now. Are you signing it? I say one year with a mutual option, which we all know means club option. But if he signs a two year deal on Tuesday, mate,

[01:02:05] I am not upset by that at all. I think he's been fantastic. Okay. Cade Dykes did not play today because of a concussion. Protocol. Is that right? Yep. Yep. Correct. Foul to HA. Okay. So he should be back next week, hopefully. Yeah. But I mean, I love Cade Dykes and I'm on record saying, I thought he should have been our fullback at five, eight, blah, blah, blah. But it's got to play three games in a row first. So.

[01:02:36] I think he's got to play 10 in a row unless it's emergency, to be honest, but. No, you're right. I was being facetious, but you're absolutely right. He needs 10 games to prove himself. And if he gets called up, you know, if Kennedy gets injured and I hope that doesn't happen, I think a Roddy place to all back. Yeah, definitely. Definitely a chance there. Just over the instance. everyone that's joined. Oh, Kapowie. There's a,

[01:03:06] uh, Kapowie's dropped a, okay, Kapowie. You've just made my list. You just made the list. Kapowie's dropped a wrestling spoiler in for me. And I'd skim past it. It's going to float out of my brain. So it's okay. No wrestling spoilers, please guys. Alex says, I don't understand the fifth tackle option. I think we've spoken about that. He says, a shy boy living in Glebe. I'm bursting out of my skin for the Leichhardt game. Next week,

[01:03:35] I'll be attending with mostly Tiger supporters. Uh, I pray for Galvin's return to the drama purposes. Oh, be careful what you pray for Alex. Oh, Galvin. Okay. Yeah. I think that we just want to, yeah, I think the drama is this week. And what happens, I don't think he'll be back in one week, right? It shouldn't be not unless something dramatic. I don't even think he'll be a tiger next week. Yeah. Right. Yeah. There was a thing today.

[01:04:04] I didn't read it too closely, but the management were claiming bullying officially. So that's not going to end well. shout out to our friends at sharks zone. And who else is on here? Bronwyn's here. Andy is there. Jacqueline's there. Hello to everyone. Kobe's there. Andy says, do a podcast on one hit wonders like Coppertone. I'll start the nominations. Blue line medic making the novella rich up up. Well,

[01:04:34] maybe it's a summer thing. Andy, if you remind me around summer, possibly, but I don't really know how many of our listeners want to hear that. I'd have fun with it. You'd have fun with it. So never say never. Kapowie. You're killing me. Stop it. Kapowie. No wrestling. That's okay. You might not have seen the start of the show. So I did make up a kind of funny thing here. I know someone's just going to jump in now and say, whatever, Hulk Hogan's returned.

[01:05:05] Dan, we played Tigers next week at a Leichhardt. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow yet against the Eels, West Tigers Eels. But how are you feeling about all that game? Feeling good. But last year, like I didn't go real well. So hopefully going with a bit of a, a different attitude. I think last year, Terry and I mistakenly said, it's only the Tigers. The Tigers came out and absolutely whacked us with a best player on the field.

[01:05:33] Our gastro and threw up halfway through the game. It's one year. Look back on last year and think that cannot happen again. I think the Tigers do. Paramount at a moment. I think, I think Moses will be good, but not great. I'm hoping he's not great by, magic round either. Cause he's a very good player. I don't think he's going to make much of a difference because their forward pack's terrible. I think the Tigers have a forward pack that can worry us. That, that poly blow and Terrell May are absolute killers.

[01:06:02] I love watching them play football. And I never thought I'd say that about the Tigers. Jerome Lewis has done nothing yet for the Tigers. He's made a career about beating Cronulla without Cleary at Shark Park. I'm worried to play the Tigers at Leichhardt. If he's going to Campbelltown, we beat him. If it's Allianz, we beat him. Leichhardt Oval just hate going there. It's such a horrible place. Not the place, but it's just a horrible night. Yeah. Horrible. Tough. Tough. Tough win there.

[01:06:31] So is that our next two opponents? Is that correct or not? No, Manly's in between maybe. No, I don't know. Is that our next two opponents? Yeah, Manly, Brookvale, then Magic Round. Oh, okay. It's a week in between. Okay, cool. We'll be good for Sharks fans to watch the game tomorrow because, yeah, next, we're going to play those two teams in the next three weeks. So it'd be good for us to study how they go. I don't have this officially, Dan, but I do know that, and I said this, I know I'm repeating myself for those who've listened intently, but they will take it personally,

[01:07:01] the Sharks about what happened at Leichhardt last year. And, and they'll be reminded of it. And it'll be a thing. They probably won't talk about in the press at all. Someone like me may ask, but I'm telling you internally that it'll be up on the whiteboard, you know, the date from last year and, you know, they'll probably go through video and the whole thing, because what I've learned about Fitzgibbon is he's one to remember things.

[01:07:27] And he doesn't have that persona on the outer. And he'll probably get the poos with someone like me talking about that anyway, but I'm telling you, if they lose at Leichhardt, it'll have nothing to do with taking the team lightly. That's for sure. And I think that's a positive thing. Nathan asks, is everything all right with Ramian? He seems a bit off this year. I thought the last two games, he's been a lot better. He had the couple of,

[01:07:56] I think it was in both losses where he was pretty down on form, which is unusual for a guy like that. Cause he's just been rock solid or more for the last couple of years. But what do you make of Ramian this year, Dan? It's the ultimate up or down player. Depends which mood you get him in. I thought today he was pretty good last week. He was very good. The Bulldogs, he was the worst player in the park. He was just, you would, if he got Simbin, you play with 12, you're better off. The mood he was in. I don't know. I,

[01:08:26] I don't know if it's anything special this year. Cause there's been Ramian games where if there's two decisions, he makes the bad one every time. Yet the next week he'll, you'll score two tries and you'll. Better like a Tony stags or something. So yeah, I just think you got to ride that, that Ramian right. That Ramian wave, unfortunately. Yeah. I mean, I think those two games this year were two of his, you know, lesser games in a number of years.

[01:08:55] Cause under Fitzgibbon, there was a lot of improvement and particularly in years two and three, I want to say. So, you know, it was, I don't know. Cause you're like, well, what's going on here? This is not what we're used to, but we've had two good games now since then. So I want to give him the better for the doubt. Hamman says, do you think AFB's nigger will be a problem eventually? Now, did something happen today that I'm not aware of? No, I don't think so. I know he was very heavily strapped,

[01:09:24] but he looked like he was unhindered. If that's a word. Yeah. But there was no sort of like penalties against him or. No, he's pretty, pretty flawless to be honest. Yeah. No, he didn't run for 200 meters, but he didn't need to. So the injury looked all right. The injury looked all right. Um, yeah, maybe if you, yeah, they did say precaution, but they always say precaution. But then when he was named to play, you got a thing that precaution.

[01:09:56] Oh, hang on. Hamman's correcting us. I'll take the blame for this. The groin from last week. Apologies. Apologies. Apologies. Yeah, that's all. Sorry. I was talking about nigglers in like, you know, he gave away some penalties and that kind of stuff. Oh, it'll be a problem. Eventually. I don't see why it would be. I mean, I don't think they'd play him. I know they wouldn't play him if it was a problem now. So I know he's an older athlete and that kind of thing,

[01:10:26] but a very funny incident. And again, I'm just saying this because we're all friends. Right. And I'm going to say about something that happened funny this afternoon. I was, yeah, if you wait to the episode, I was lucky enough to go into the sheds afterwards. And it's a rarity and gets pretty crowded in there just because they're sort of smaller places that you're in. And all these men are really huge. And at the corner of my eye, I turned around and something was sort of heading in my direction.

[01:10:56] And it was like a garment of some sort, I think like a pair of shorts or I don't know. It was something kind of smelly. And I looked over and AFB was throwing it at me. I was like, Oh, this is not an enemy I want. He was, he was throwing it to like someone behind me, like, you know, the gear steward, whoever it was, someone was picking up all the gear and he just went doink. And it happened just sort of go past my toupee. And I looked at him and he looked at me and then he smiled and went, no, no. And I went,

[01:11:25] it's okay. You're AFB. What am I going to do? My fault, sir. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're all good, brother. We're all good. I thought he was pretty good today. I was a bit worried leading into the game. I was waiting for the, I was waiting for the news that he wasn't going to play, even though everything we'd seen and heard was, was truthful and positive. Like from day one of during the week, they were like, no, he's going to be all right. I was just waiting for that negative news. It didn't come. And then when I saw him out there, as you said,

[01:11:55] he was pretty heavily strapped, but he's pretty free and man, he's, he's pretty good. So I don't think so. Hey man, I think we're good. I think we're good. Thanks NS for the praise. I'm not going to chuck that one up. Wesley says, we keep leaking late tries. It needs to be addressed. Yeah, definitely. And we've spoken a bit about that. Wesley, how do you fix it, Dan? How do you stop conceding the last try? For example, I think that's every game this year,

[01:12:25] potentially they've conceded the last try. How do you stop that? It's hard to mentally, like I know athletes say they're at a hundred percent switched on all the time. It's not possible. Greg Mars, you was going to break that line in his head. No, I'm stopping him. And unfortunately, chronologist just didn't stop him. It's super frustrating. And at the time I was really down on it. I've come around a bit that if that's all you're complaining about, it's a good complaint to have. Like if we win the grand final 40 to 10,

[01:12:53] yet we can see the last few tries, who cares? I know that's a ridiculous attitude, but. No, I think that's, I think that's kind of like what I said before. It's like, I don't have a problem with it till it's a problem. Yeah. But I mean, we've seen teams run us down or, you know, 20 point wins have become, geez, we held on and won by a try. You're right. A hundred percent. If we are 30 points up and we can see the last try every week, sign me up. I couldn't care less,

[01:13:23] but just the way they ran through it. Like that last try was annoying. It was good for super coach because it got Fletcher sharp, but in Greg Margeau actually. So it was really good. That's probably why I'm not as annoyed as I would be, but you know, that's the house game where we, we had them and it should have been 60 and ill and we, we fell off late. That annoyed me more maybe because we were at home, but yeah, I don't want to do that against a team that can score quickly like a dolphins or something. If that was the dolphins, they can score 20 points in no time. So you probably,

[01:13:53] probably getting a lot more annoyance from me here, but yeah, it's not good. Yeah. So Wesley's point is what we touched on the start of the show. It's it won't cut against the better opponents and you're a hundred percent. Right. It definitely won't. And yeah, I think that is one of the things that would annoy the coach. I find this year, Dan, that we're, when we're conceding a lot of the tries we've conceded and we haven't conceded that many, but when we do, the only real problem ones,

[01:14:23] problematic ones are where I think it was the last try today where it goes through a number of sets of hands. Look at the Canberra game. Of course they go through sets of hands, offloads, second phase football. And we tend to kind of just not defend those. Well, have you seen that what I'm saying? Yeah, definitely. First of all is Wesley Rick from porn stars. What a, what a look he's got there. Most people won't get that, but it doesn't matter. Yeah. No, that, that Canberra thing that'll haunt me because we should have shut that

[01:14:52] down three times. I felt that today. We had three opportunities to shut it down and just didn't take it. It's hard. You can't say they're unfit because they're not. The travel schedule has been good. The last five minutes, Newcastle at home, you know, all week they've been told they suck. That's got to sit in your head. You want it more in the last five minutes. I just go back. You can't be on for 80 minutes. And if the bad five minutes is going to be last five, if you're up by 30, that's good. But yeah, it's, it's not something you want to see.

[01:15:21] And I'm hoping that because last year, don't forget we won nine in a row or whatever it was. And then just turned to grief for a couple of weeks. So maybe, maybe it's a slow build this time. We, we, we do the, we win by a little bit for a while and then we start winning by a lot. So not overly worried, but it's not something, it's not something you want to say. Yeah. I maintain that with the team they have with their top 17, even top 18 or 19, they can compete with anyone on their day. So, you know,

[01:15:50] I look at the Canterbury loss. Well, let's back up. I look at the Penrith loss. Should have won. And everyone has said that. So we can all agree. They should have won. That means they weren't good enough on the day, but they went very close. Five more minutes, probably get them. If you look at Canterbury, second half, out enthused, you look at the Bulldogs this year, they're a different team. And we lost.

[01:16:21] Canberra should have won. Did everything, but not good enough. Those losses to me are not, and not alarm bells. The probably the worst thing is the Canberra thing, because that's, you know, it's one tackle, make the tackle man, but it's a one moment in an 80 minute game. So I'm not overly alarmed with where we're at right now. I think that their squad is good enough to make a run. I think in origin, we'll make a run.

[01:16:49] We'll check up something from hand man about that. And Wes, Wesley says, apologies. I missed the start of the show. No, no, I advertised nine o'clock and we got on at nine 50. So it's all on me. You can go back and listen to the show on the videos when we post them, when we upload them. And of course it'll be a podcast as well on your audio platforms. Hand man says, do you think any sharks are in contention for origin at the moment? I'll throw to you, Dan first. What do you think about this? No,

[01:17:18] which is a good thing. I'm very selfish. I don't anyone play in origin. Kim McInnes is the one who will get mentioned as a bench spot. Deservedly. So Nico, Hines has been marked. He's not playing origin. Anthony, Blake's Kiwi. Kay Lira is a Kiwi. Ronaldo is a Kiwi. And to, um, Britton Nicker is a Kiwi. So four of our biggest players are ineligible for origin, which straight flat chat. Not going to lie to you. I don't care about right now on the night. I will, but I don't care.

[01:17:48] I can't see anyone in that team. Ramian gets mentioned, but he's probably six or seventh. None of the bench forwards will get close. Talakai has played origin, but he's a different, different player now than he was when he gets picked. Trindle will get mentioned for Queensland, but Tom Dearden and Ken Munster are way ahead of him. I think we're going to be, other than Ken McInnes getting called in as cover. I think we're going to get a really good run through origin. Agree completely. Uh,

[01:18:17] is the hooker any chance of being like the 18th, 19th man or whatever? Yeah. If, if Reese Robson gets injured, then there's a discussion. Absolutely. And I think he'll, there's a, there's one game where we got the buy before. I wouldn't be shocked to see Braley and Wilton get called in. And I wouldn't be shocked to see Triddle get called into Queensland. It doesn't mean they'll play, but they'll be in or there about, but we'll be on the buy. So it won't matter. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm looking forward to us going on a run there because like you,

[01:18:45] I'm not really invested personally in the three game exhibition. I love watching it. Not going to miss it, but I'm not personally invested. So I, I really want us to go on a run then and before and after, of course, but I think it's, you see teams make their run, man, and it's very valuable when you get to the finals. I'm just going to jump over here. Dan. Okay. We're good.

[01:19:15] Now. Lockhart next week. And then, then where are we going? Where do you think? Is it Manly? And then power? Yeah. And then, yeah, magic round. Okay. How are you feeling about the next month? Cause then we got the storm at home after that. I'm going to check this while you talk, Dan, tell me about the, tell me about the teams we're about to play. I want to check something. I feel better about them than playing the storm. That's for sure. The Tigers is a 50, 50 game of Leichhardt.

[01:19:44] Their forward pack can really worry us. I think we're a better team than them. Manly, if they get turbo back, they can do anything on any given day, but I'm not, not worried about Manly. Their middle is not good. Parramatta are another team that don't worry me. They're atrocious, but how many times in the past few years have we played a team like Parramatta that, Oh, Mitch Moses has a game of his life. Cause he wants to play origin in three weeks. So you cannot do what I did last year and say, Oh, we'll beat the Tigers by 40.

[01:20:13] I think it's the only game we lost in the first 10 rounds to last year. It wasn't, it wasn't good. Just to, just to hold up. We have Tigers next week, power out the week after magic round and then Manly and then the storms. And then, you know, we'd go on and on and on. Actually, you know what? Then it's roosters away and at Gosford and then the by. So it's actually a nice little window here. So just to repeat and apologies. We got it wrong before West Tigers at like art Sunday, four o'clock.

[01:20:43] Then magic round with the first game, six o'clock on the Friday. And we have a few days, a week and a few days after that, we go to Brookie. Then we come home for the storm, which would be massive because it wouldn't have been a home for a while. And then we have roosters in Gosford, then the by. So I don't actually hate that at all. I mean, yeah. We got a bit lucky with the draw the last few weeks. Cause I, I know we had a really long turnaround for Perth and Manly didn't.

[01:21:13] So maybe that came into it, but even so like I, I want Moses to play lights out footy tomorrow because that's his, his game out of the way. He's his origin. He's going to get picked. Then next week he can play really bad. Cause magic round, you don't know what to expect up there. I was there when that, that big fella, that park footballer talked, tossed the Vitalikai part. I'll never forget that night. It was horrible, but yeah, next few weeks, mate, there's definitely three wins there, but yeah, got to get, got to get them first. I suppose. Yeah.

[01:21:42] Happy to go one week at a time. We'll focus on the West Tigers throughout the week. Before we get going down, do you want to spruik yourself and tell everyone what you do? Yeah. First of all, apologies. I can't get my computer working. I'm not shy. I promise. I'd, my face would be everywhere if it could be, but fins up podcast. Terry's in Vanuatu this week, I believe. So we'll do something. Get that out. He gets around. It's just never at home. He and Vossi, the pair of them, but maybe it's a me thing. Maybe they want to get away from me. I mean, you're in Newcastle now. Regularly. Yeah. Well, let's go into a clip show tomorrow, mate. I might send you a text tomorrow.

[01:22:12] Again, I don't think I'm going to have a laptop, but I'll work something out. I then check zero tackle. I got lots of stuff. I copped a bit of grief last week in the Facebook. Never. I'm saying I was very negative. The last eight articles I've written about sharks are all very positive. So please check that out. I won't say, I won't try and censor you. Say what you like. I bring it on and love it. But yeah, zero tackle. If you can rugby league outlaws and fins up podcasts. Why were they saying you're negative? Oh, someone said last week that real fans shouldn't complain.

[01:22:42] And I was like, people paying 800 bucks. I don't want to get into it, but like you got the right to complain. Just don't tag players. Anyone here who's listening, who wants to tag players, do not do that. It's horrible. Just, just tweet it. No one reads it anyways. It's forgotten in three minutes. The ultimate tough move. I'm going to tag a player. Oh, I couldn't think of anything worse. I remember a couple of years ago when I, I made a smarter comment about Jason Bakuya and I spelt the name wrong and he still tagged me and told me to beat it. I'm like, brother,

[01:23:10] I actively tried to avoid you and I just laughed because they lost the nines final. But anyways, don't tag players. Whoa. You said something negative about Jason Bakuya? I said, it was funny that the Warriors lost the nines finals. Oh, when he was a warrior. Yeah. And I said, no title for you, Jason Bakuya and misspelled Jason and Bakuya. It's a tough one. Throw that wine. And I mean, whatever, like it's, it's his right. And I was, I was being a smart ass. I was very open for that. But if I tagged him, then yes,

[01:23:40] I would have, would have copped that on the chin. You leave Jason Bakuya a lot. Even when he was at the Warriors, I loved him. He's just, I love Jason Bakuya too. It was a smart ass comment. I meant nothing by it. Yeah. Tagging players is a, is a low, a low way to go. we want to hear from you throughout the week. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the game today. You can get us at our email address, sharkustpod at gmail.com.

[01:24:09] You can get us on DMs. We've got a website, sharkust.com.au. And you can very simply leave us a note there and we'll get to it for sure. You can leave a voicemail on there as well, which is kind of fun. And you can hear yourself on the show. Dan, any, any more thoughts on the game players situations before we let you go? You head off into the night. I'm feeling very good right now. Two wins on the bounce is very good. I'm saying good a lot. It's great to be two wins on the bounce.

[01:24:36] I think the fact that we're all sitting here complaining about Coppin last try when we won by 20 something points, they're very good spot to be my friends. And mate, it's always a pleasure to see you get out of Newcastle before it's too late. I hear it's horrible up there. That's a joke. I actually really like Newcastle, but it's a good time to be a sharks fan, man. And just quietly, how good are those new town jets flying? They're flying high. That's for sure. They're flying high. And yeah, I saw a second half of that in the flesh. I'm looking forward to watching that back as well.

[01:25:07] When I stopped wrestling in two weeks time, but I was going to say, yeah, on the being a fan at the moment and not complaining too much, or not having too much to complain about, I should say, I agree with you. And you've heard me say that on the show heaps of times. And someone on the YouTube actually pulled me up and said, our stadium's a big problem. And apologies to the person. I haven't got it open right now, but, and I replied, yeah, that's, I'm not saying there's no problems and I'm not saying, you know,

[01:25:36] let us say we have problems, but I'm saying on the field, we're a consistent top four team. And this year, hopefully we are again. And I just, I really liked just what they're doing at the moment and it's not going to be perfect. It probably never will be, but today I got to watch some good attacking football, pretty strong defensive team for 65 minutes. And we're all sort of focusing on the one thing, late tries, and we should focus on it. Like you shouldn't be doing that in games,

[01:26:05] especially as some of our listeners pointed out in the bigger games against better teams. So completely agree with you on that, but it is also, I think we forget the position we're in because we've been in this position for three years or now four years almost. And remember Dan, when we didn't make the eight with, with bomber. I certainly do. It was horrible. We blew it. We should have made the eight. We didn't. Well, we, we didn't. And it's nothing to do with bomber. My point,

[01:26:32] my point is it was end of world stuff for your podcast and my podcast, end of world. Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was the only time we missed finals in 10 years, but at the time, it was end of the world, but now I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not saying that it wasn't that I'm not saying that it wasn't. In the moment though, it was horrible. Yeah, absolutely. Actually, I'll say it wasn't end of world stuff, but the point is look at how far we've come and consistently.

[01:27:01] Now we all want to keep going. We've got more to do. Absolutely. I'm not happy just finishing in the top four, then bowing out. No way. But I guess I just, I just really like where we're at. It's my, my, my, my head, my heading. And, um, I know there's always going to be people that expect more and want more. And I'm, I'm all for that. Absolutely. But I don't know. I just walk out of the stadium tonight and I was like 20 point win in Newcastle.

[01:27:32] It's very black and white, very black and white. I get that, but it's also a pretty good headline. 40 point win. Right now. There's only three teams better than us. You know, Canberra, Canterbury, and the storm last year. Cronulla made all the prelims, made three grand finals across all grades. Women's included Penrith. They're the only team I would swap with last year. I know we only won the one grand final being the jets, but, um, you know, the dogs got us in flags. So maybe them too,

[01:28:02] but you look at that jets team and they should walk the title this year. They, they don't because they're new town. That's not what they do. And of course, any injuries or original C players go up flags, very good. The women's team, you know, I think the fourth favorites, I think Betty have us three, but I've got us behind the Titans. Um, you know, again, again, you can always find something negative. And I'm very, I do that because it's what I'm in my mind. It's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to put it this way.

[01:28:30] I wrote a couple of months, weeks ago, and he started me now, so I'm saying, I apologize. Um, I wrote the 10 worst contracts in NRL history and did 30,000 hits. I did the 10 best and did three and a half thousand hits. No one cares about the positive stuff. There's a reason. Sure. People say negative, but also if we were sitting here going, geez, we were good today. Oh, cool. Well, that's a 10 second podcast. See you later. Yeah. You're always going to break down. And the second we're sitting here, other than that manly 40 nil grand final game against the storm,

[01:28:58] there's been no perfect game in rugby league that I can remember. You win a grand final to Neil. That's perfect. Otherwise you've got stuff to sit here and talk about. Absolutely. And I am happy to critique till, till, you know, the end of time. And I'm, I'm part of that. And I know in some circles, you know, shark has seen as like the kind of head in the clouds kind of guys or whatever, but here to critique here, to talk about the last tribe being conceded,

[01:29:28] but also, as we pointed out, pretty good performance across the park. We've got a fullback. We've got a fullback. Who's just doing really, really well. And, you know, today he missed a couple of last tackles and we can focus on that. But what I saw from the fullback today was just this brave dude jumping up, getting balls, and then looking to create. He's always looking to create. I'm starting to notice that, notice about Will Kennedy now in his game. He's always looking to create.

[01:29:57] And that's why you might get a spilt ball here or there. He showed some reserve today in not throwing the stupid passes that he sometimes can, but across the park, guys like Harodi coming in and playing like superstars. And then Iro's going to come back and he's, he is a superstar. We saw Nico Hines, the most maligned rugby league player in, 15, 20 years. Who knows how long? He had a great game. And, and we need to talk about that. And,

[01:30:27] you know, we don't care about New South Wales, him being picked. He's our guy. And, you know, it's not so much blind faith, like go back him, you know, go Nico, like you're the best. It's like today, dude, you had a great game, you know, be proud of that, move on, get better. But I just thought across the park today, they were pretty good. And, uh, the vibe in the club is really good. As it should be successful clubs. And it's only around seven. I get that lot to do. If we lose it in like art,

[01:30:56] it will be end of world stuff. And we'll talk about that. So, um, yeah, I don't know. I'm just, it's getting late and no one slept and there'll be no sleeping tonight. Cause main news on and that kind of stuff, but, uh, having fun again, lower volume here because I'm in a boardroom or something, a business center. It's quite bizarre. And, uh, I don't want to wake up the, uh, the nearby guests, but then, uh, we might, might call it a night. I hate saying goodbye. I hate saying goodbye to you.

[01:31:26] I could say goodbye to our listeners, but it's a fun time. We could, and we have, and it's awesome. Thanks so much for your time, Dan. You're always there to help me out. And you're a great fella to, you know, to talk footy with. And you just, uh, you know, I know you get a lot of, a lot of crap online. Some of it you asked for some of it. You don't, but, um, um, you know, as, as I say, every time you're on,

[01:32:00] I really appreciate it. It's always fun sitting on here. And thanks for all the questions too. I've seen a lot of names that message me on Twitter too. So it's, it's real good to support, support everyone. And yeah, things are pretty darn good at the moment. Mate, you go enjoy WrestleMania. I got an NXT double main event to watch. Uh, sorry to people who don't know what that is. I forgot about, uh, I forgot about that. Mate, we're both going to be fully gray by the end of this weekend in a good way. Mate, if I get the gray, I'm fully gray. Message me once you've seen

[01:32:29] today's stuff so we can discuss. I'm not saying anything. I think whoever the gentleman was, it was, yeah, told me something, a little something about something, but I've already forgotten, which is good. Good. Um, we do appreciate everyone being in touch and tonight and throughout the week and, you know, speaking for Dan as well on his show, like it's, it's a really, um, fun community in the, in the sharks land. And there were a whole bunch of people here today. And I met some of our listeners, which is awesome. And just some, you know,

[01:32:57] I met some strangers who love the black, white and blue. And, uh, we've got a pretty good fan base and I am proud to be part of it. So thanks for listening. A bit of a different show tonight, be quieter, a bit more subdued. And we'll be back with more shows before you know it, planning stuff already. And we got like art next week as well. So that'll be a lot of fun. Dan, have a great week. Enjoy all of your talking about footy stuff. Cause I know it's your favorite thing to do is talk about footy stuff.

[01:33:27] What much like myself and we will catch everyone on the flip side. If you want to get us in this audio podcast, it should be up, uh, at some point, maybe in three weeks after I've watched NXT. No, it'll be up soon. Shaka spot signing off. Dan, thanks again for your time. Appreciate you. Bless you, mate. Thank you very much. All right. Up, up. And for the audio people listening only, we're going to play the song. I don't have the text to do it right now. It'll sound not very good. Just sing along with me at home. Up, up. Hey, let's go. Do, do, do, do, do,

[01:33:57] do, do, do, do, do, do. Up, up, Granada. The boys in the black, white and blue. Up, up, Granada. Name of the sharks bit you. Sharks, sharks, forever.

[01:34:27] How's the time to see? The sharks.

[01:35:39] SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate. He's an expert in the Karimbaugh region and has his eye all across the shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast, if you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450.

[01:36:09] Jason Hawes, Crips and Crips Real Estate. That's 0410 417 450.