PostGame Review: Sharks vs Bulldogs at Magic Round 2026

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[00:01:05] Hey there, welcome to SharkCast, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. This is a post-game, post-day review of what happened at Suncorp Stadium last night. We've got a magical performance at Magic Round Sharks, winning 38-16 over the Bulldogs. Really great performance by the whole team. Great first half, decent second half, and I'll talk about why I think it was decent shortly.

[00:01:32] This review episode is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club and Port Hacking, and Jason Hawes of Cripps and Cripps Real Estate. Now, a bit of admin, I did let people know throughout the week that I wasn't probably going to be able to do a post-game live show as we do almost every week and have done for a long time now. The reason was I was playing a musical gig, if you will, at the Brass Monkey in Cronulla with our mate Dylan Wright.

[00:01:58] We watched the game backstage, but I literally was on stage within five to ten minutes of full time. So it just didn't work out that way. We had a few sort of aspirations of streaming live and that kind of thing and doing a few videos, but it wasn't the time or place. So great result for the team. I had a lot of fun playing with Dylan. Really appreciate him having me along. Thanks to everyone that came along who listened to the show to check us both out. I'm not sure about him, but more him of course than me.

[00:02:26] But I got home after a great night and I watched the game last night and was so happy with what I saw. I should say I re-watched the game. We had the game on live, but I watched it in depth from an analytical point of view when I got home, and it was a great way to cap off a great night. So Sharks win 38 to 16. Doggies weren't very good, but that is neither here nor there. The Sharks were really terrific.

[00:02:55] I love the way they played with direct football and energy to them. We'll get to why that energy might be there in a second as well. But overall, it's a really direct performance. Not too much lateral in attack, except for when they needed to of course. And really happy with performance. It doesn't wash over things that have happened in the past games this year where it hasn't gone right, but last night was certainly a really good step forward.

[00:03:22] As Fittie said in the press conference, it's kind of a shame there's a bye week coming up because we're not sure what it'll mean for the Manly game after that, which is a huge game Friday night at Ocean Project Stadium. But we know what we know from last night, and that was a really great performance. So we saw that, we saw that, Hohebapuru start at hooker. And he also nabbed a try early on too.

[00:03:50] But great performance from the whole team. And I thought that playing Hohebapuru to start was a great move by the coach. And Beryl came on, of course, and we'll get into all that. But essentially your team was 1-13 with Puru coming in for Beryl. And the bench was Beryl, Talakai, Burns, Hazleton with Hiroti and ULA not being used.

[00:04:20] So just a bit of a recap on how it went down. I've got a few screens here, so if I kind of go all cross-eyed and everything, just bear with me. 5th minute, Trindle try. Will Kennedy contesting a Nico Hines bomb like he was David Peachy. Nico Hines with a goal, 6-0. Ronaldo's on the right. Sam Stonestreet's on the left. 10th minute, Ronaldo down the right edge. Try. Nico reverses the play to Trindle to Ronaldo.

[00:04:50] Connor Tracy gets Ronaldo high, and it turns into an 8-point try attempt. So Nico has the two kicks. One from the sideline, he misses. Biggest one from in front. Nico 2 from 3, 12-0. Half of 10 minutes, happy days. 16th minute, Will Kennedy try. Absolutely brilliant. Beautiful. Some help from Trindle, but essentially a solo try for Will Kennedy. 18-0. 24th minute, however, dummy half try.

[00:05:19] Just strength and some pretty bad defense. And I really just love the determination of this guy. Nico gets the goal, 4 out of 5. 24-0 up after 24 minutes. And it's revealed Hohepa Puru is only 23 years of age. So that astounded me. I didn't realize he was so young. So that's a really great sign. He's got a long way to go in his career. 30th minute, Preston for the Bulldogs gets a try. 24-6 through Britton and through Nico.

[00:05:50] 33rd minute though, Nico gets a solo try. Really great. High energy, direct running. 30-6. With Nico getting 5 from 6 at this point, we go to the break. 30 points to 6. 46th minute, Nico gets a penalty goal. 32-6 up. 6 from 7 from Nico. 59th minute, Steve Cripen with a long range try down our left. From what I could make out, Iro had a pretty bad read and Stone Street followed him.

[00:06:20] So it's 32-12. Colquhoun is on report for neck pressure. And then a minute later, Will Kennedy, or a couple minutes later, Will Kennedy has a try save. Really nice try save. We're chipping away at them in the second half. And then Nico Hines with a beautiful small kick. Ronaldo jumps up. He's sort of more in the central part of the field than the edge. Nico, 7 out of 8. 38 points to 12.

[00:06:47] 77th minute, Cherry beats. Ramien with speed. Pure speed from Brotson Cherry. And 38-16 will be the final score. One minute to go. Hohebapuru and Stone Street save a try on Lockheed Galvin. And it's just inspiring given there's a minute to go and they're up by 22 points, whatever it is. So really great signs from the team as a whole as I knocked my guitar over.

[00:07:16] And that was the rundown. So what I liked about this performance was playing as a team, but then individually excelling in many positions. So let's look at some of the team info first. Completed at 95%. That's really, really good. 95%.

[00:07:43] We had more offloads, more runs. A lot of the stats are actually pretty close, which is interesting given the scoreline. We actually missed more tackles than the Bulldogs. We finally won a penalty count. Yay! We won 5-1, the penalty count. First time since August. They won the set restarts 5-3. Not many errors for us, like under 10 errors.

[00:08:09] And we actually won a challenge as well. So all in all, a pretty good performance as a team. Now individual players, like I thought almost everyone had a really strong game. Will Kennedy was close to the best. He did have a few errors, but he made up for that with his running and some of his defense and creativity. Ran for under 100 meters. Line break. Try.

[00:08:40] Sam Stone Street. Pretty good game. Pretty good game from Sam Stone Street. Ran for 120 meters. Couple of tackle busts. Just the one error. Pretty good under the high ball as well. Really attacked the ball. So I like that. The return of Jesse Ramian was really good. He played very direct and you could see that from the start. And when he plays direct and hard, it's a good thing. So good return for Jesse. About 120 meters.

[00:09:09] Iro was around the same. He had a couple of misses. One costly, but I thought overall a strong game. But the man at the moment was Ronaldo Multalo. Ronaldo Multalo was just exceptional. Two tries. 150 meters. Five tackle busts. And just amongst everything. He was just so energetic. He was yahooing and cheering on everything.

[00:09:40] And he is one of the missing ingredients from this team. And he's back, thank goodness. Looked like he got through it okay. And just a really terrific, close to man of the match performance, I would think. Trindle had two try assists. He kicked really well. Scored the first try with the help of Will Kennedy. And a good game from Trindle. I thought Nico Himes was really exceptional. Nico with a solo try. Kicked seven of eight.

[00:10:11] Ran for about 50 meters. Two try assists as well as Trindle's two try assists. So kicked a bit as well for about 300 meters. So a great game from Nico. Captain Fenua Blake. This came out of the blue a little bit. Everyone sort of thought Teague might get the captaincy or someone else. But Adam Fenua Blake ran out as captain. And had a captain's performance. Some big minutes. Especially the first stint. I think it might have been a 50 minute stint. 120 meters.

[00:10:39] Some tackle busts of course. 34 tackles. So great knock from him. Heppu is really great, creative. Very calm, casual. But knew what to do. And there was one moment. I think it was the first half where he did a kick from dummy half. And got a set restart. Or a tackle restart. And it was just also slow motion for him.

[00:11:08] So I really like Hoheba's performance. And I hope he gets more of a shot. As a utility or hooker when needed. Toby Rudolph. Really strong game. Over 100 meters. No missed tackles. 25 made. Some tough physical work from Toby. So both middles did really good there. Britton Nikara. A lot of tackles. Some misses. Run meters pretty down. But in a game like this.

[00:11:36] He had a good team performance. But we want a bit more out of him. But Teague Wilton. About 80 meters. Very tough physical runs. Like what Teague did out there. He was amongst it. Close to the other man of the match was Jesse Colquhoun. Who made 130 meters. Who made 130 meters. 35 tackles. No misses. Some pretty big minutes from Colquhoun. And he's just ready to go. He looks like he's made for the next 10 years. Wind him up. Let him go.

[00:12:07] And super happy for him given the injuries he's had in the past. And Jesse Colquhoun. A really important part of this team. And people are starting to catch on to that. You know both Sharks fans. And people outside of our world. Starting to catch on to what a talent Jesse Colquhoun is. Sorry about this angle. Just sort of looking at another screen. Jaden Beryl. Very solid. Really happy for him to get that chance. And he doesn't let you down. It doesn't run much. But he just passes tackles.

[00:12:37] And does those pretty well. So happy for him to be there. I thought it was the right choice. With him coming on as a replacement. And the team had done a lot of damage. And Beryl came on and kind of just made it all just as solid. Talakai didn't get much of a go out there. I think there was one error early on in his stint. But yeah. It didn't get much of a go Talakai. So I wouldn't mind seeing him get some more minutes. Billy Burns was great. Physical. Did what he had to do.

[00:13:07] And Hazelson I thought. Even though his stats are not amazing. I thought he was the big body out there for us. And really doing some damage. When he can get the quick play of the balls. It's even better. So that was the guys' performances. Unfortunately for Hiroti and ULA didn't get out in the field. I did think that our best were probably Kennedy, Hines and Colquhoun. But a lot of mentions to other players.

[00:13:36] As I've already just gone through. So very good. Very good performance. Very happy with that. Bulldogs are a bit of a mess, aren't they? I mean, that's not our problem. We're not here to do dog casts. But you know, they've got problems in their spine. They've got problems with their defense. But the thing about the Sharks' performance. And I hinted I was going to talk about it. Was the second half. And I've already seen a lot of complaints about. Oh, they dropped off in the second half. I think they lost the second half score.

[00:14:05] But they didn't lose the performance. They were the better team the whole game. Second half, they just kept chopping away. There was never any hint of a comeback from the Bulldogs. They scored two tries to our one, I think it was. But the Sharks didn't stop playing. They didn't stop completing. They weren't making errors. They were just going about their business. They weren't really over playing anything.

[00:14:33] And I don't have a problem with that because it was still a big score line. There was no hint of danger. And they got through their reps, 95% completion. And I didn't have a problem with that second half at all. Like, would I have liked to have gone on and scored 60 or whatever? Sure. But that was a decent second half. Not as good as the first half. But there was nothing wrong with that second half, especially given the lead they had. And that's just my opinion. But that's the one I'm going away with.

[00:15:00] Because I just was really impressed with that. Even the last minute, as I said, a trisaber with 30 seconds to go or whatever from two guys in Stone Street and Puru. Terrific. So, attitude was good. There might be a bit of change coming up with Origin. Like, Blake Braley may play. Fenua Blake may play. I think that might be the limit. People are putting Nicker in there. I don't think he'll be there.

[00:15:27] But we might see a team like this once or twice in the next month or two. So, it's good to know they can get the job done. Big occasion. Magic round. Decent crowd, obviously. Early game, but still a big crowd. A lot of Sharks fans up there. And I heard from a lot of them, too. Having a great time. So, great to get the win on the big stage. Super happy for everyone. And a really well-earned victory. You know, there wasn't much out of there I didn't like.

[00:15:56] There was kind of... I don't have any complaints. I mean, I'd love to hear from you guys and girls. Sharkastpod at gmail.com. At Sharkastpod on the socials. Sharkast.com.au. If you want to leave us a message or a voicemail. And appreciate that people might say they took the foot off the second half. I don't think they did. They just kind of went about their business. And it never looked in danger at all. So, very happy with the performance. Very happy with the performance. Thought the coaching staff did a good job as well with the Bulldogs.

[00:16:27] Targeted a few things. And particularly the lineup they put out there for the Sharks. Like with Puru and Beryl swapping as the main one. And really work well. Really work well. And we've got the week off now. So, we don't usually roll into buyers with the win. So, that's good on a lot of levels. They will still be doing training next week. I'm sure they'll get some time off as well. But it's not going to be a bulk of the time. They'll be back trying to perfect things because they've got Manly coming up. And that's going to be a tough game.

[00:16:57] Manly in just under two weeks at Ocean Protect Stadium. If you want to get a ticket for that one, I'd get one sooner rather than later. It's 8 o'clock kickoff on a Friday. It'll probably sell out with Manly being in form. They'll have some fans traveling. We're in some form Friday night. I'd get your ticket now while you can. I've got to mention the jerseys. They look fantastic. I mean, I know everyone who watches this show knows that I was plugging the retro jersey for the club as requested.

[00:17:26] And happy to do so. And that was a success. They sold out of the first batch. And the second batch is probably doing really well too. I have to admit, I was even more pleasantly surprised at how it looked good on TV and on the players. Because when I'm wearing it, that's kind of cool. When they're wearing it, it's unbelievable. So well done to everyone involved with that.

[00:17:52] There's already a lot of requests going out for that to be our main jersey moving forward for the next while. I'm a hoops guy. That's just who I am. But I have no problem with that jersey. It's really beautiful. And they play well in it. It makes them attack like Preston and Duxy and Beachy and all those guys. So I don't know. Maybe that could be our away jersey and the hoops is our home jersey. I don't know. But it looked good.

[00:18:20] And congrats to everyone who was involved in bringing that back. Because very feel-good kind of story. I'm not sure if they're playing in it again. I heard a whisper that they might be playing in it later in the year. But don't quote me on that just yet. I can follow that up. But I feel like they were talking about one more game in it this year. So see how that pans out. That kind of thing can change a bit over time. But I'm pretty sure at one point there was going to be a home game in it. So I'd love to hear about your experience at Magic Round. Drop me a line.

[00:18:48] As I said before, the ways to get in touch. We'll read them out and have a chat. And we'll still be doing shows during the bye week and leading up to Manly. So it's going to come around quick. Shark's dropped the seventh place on the ladder. That's without the bye added for next week. So they'll keep going up, you'd think. Now that is two byes, so it is a bit, you know, it is a bit of an interesting way of looking at the ladder. Because two byes when they're added. But whatever.

[00:19:18] That's what we're doing. And we're rising. Manly's going to be really tough. But we can do it at home for sure. So that's all I've got right now. Post game, post day, match review. Haven't done them on release for a while. For a couple of years now. So I've been blessed to do the live post game shows for a while now. So apologies to anyone who didn't get the message. We weren't doing it. Got a few messages going, where the hell are you? I'm like, well, I'm backstage at a gig. But we're pretty reliable. We're around.

[00:19:47] So we thought we'd do this right now. And we'll put it out on audio podcast. Of course, this is what it may be. I'm actually filming it as well. If I get the guts, I'll put it up on YouTube. We'll see. Maybe I won't get the guts. Not a lot of bells and whistles here today. Sharks win 38-16. Super happy about that. And we needed it as fans, as a club, players, coaches. I think everyone needed it. And to do it so thoroughly, pretty good all-around performance,

[00:20:17] going into a bye, that's important stuff. We'll talk to you soon. And don't forget to support us any way you can, whether that is subscribing or liking or sharing or just telling your friends and family and colleagues and workmates, colleagues and workmates, everyone, about SharkCast. That'd be awesome. Appreciate you all. Talk to you soon. Up up, let's go. SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent

[00:20:47] in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. He's an expert in the Karimba region and has his eye all across the shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410-417-450. That's 0410-417-450. Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate.

[00:21:19] SharkCast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. He's an expert in the Karimba region and has his eye all across the shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410-417-450. That's 0410-417-450.

[00:21:49] Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Sharkies! Sharkies! Back in the shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a chance.