Rd 1, 2026 NRLW PostGame Review - Cronulla vs Newcastle

[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 RMYC Port Hacking, proud sponsors of this podcast and big supporters of the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. Check out their website rmycph.com.au

[00:00:26] They've got a Facebook page, or you can go old school and call them on 0295239300 Hey there, welcome to SharkCast, part of a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world. The mighty Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. This is a post-game review of the NRLW Round 1 game, Sharks against the Newcastle Knights.

[00:00:52] I'm down here at Ocean Protect Stadium and the siren has just gone and it's a pretty disappointing result. The Knights defeated the Sharks 18 points to 4. Decent crowd, they let the crowd go wherever they want pretty much in the stadium, so it looked a lot more populated than it has in the past. And a very lively crowd, as we predicted throughout the week. A younger, more female-orientated crowd and very vocal.

[00:01:20] But disappointing that the team performed that way tonight. I mean, the effort was there, no doubting that. But the errors and the discipline and just the overall execution was way off. It looked way more like a trial match than a Round 1 NRLW clash. And they're going to have to pick up the pieces pretty quick because the Broncos are coming down in one week exactly.

[00:01:47] There was some injury concerns tonight, particularly Stephanie Faulkner, young, talented, middle and sometimes edge, but middle player for us. She'd only just got on the field. I think she did one hit up and came off with a pretty serious looking ankle injury. So we'll see what happens there. Just wanted to point out this show is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, and Jason Hawes at Crips & Crips Real Estate. We get our coffee from Mr. Paisley's, of course.

[00:02:12] Just looking at some of the numbers from our friends at foxsports.com.au. And the Sharks finished with 41% possession. They completed at 59%, 16 to 27. So that's something they need to work on straight away. The Knights had three more line breaks than the Sharks. They ran for about 400 more metres. The penalties were 9-4 to Newcastle.

[00:02:38] So a little bit of the NRL team kicking into the NRLW side of things. 9-4. Almost twice the amount of errors. 14 errors for the Sharks. Barely played in the opposition 20 compared to the Knights. And it has to be said that particularly in the first half, the defence for Cronulla was pretty good. They did a good job defending the line time and time again.

[00:03:03] And even overall conceding three or so tries was not the most disastrous thing, given the amount of possession that the Knights had, especially in the opposition 20. So very disappointing way to start the year. I thought they'd come out with a bit more spark and fire. A great try to random buyers down our left set up by Georgia Hannaway. A scrum move play, I guess you'd say, from the scrum at least. And a beautiful run by random buyers.

[00:03:33] We weren't sure if she'd get there, but she did. And she had a pretty good game overall. For someone who is an edge forward defending in the centres, I thought she'd good. I was watching her closely. So I don't want to see necessarily random play there week in, week out. And hopefully, I believe, Penetani-Growe back sooner rather than later. So it could be as soon as the Broncos game next week. But overall, yeah, disappointing game for the Sharks. Just looking at some of the players.

[00:04:03] I mean, our superstar fullback, Jada Taylor, was all heart, but there were a few errors in there as well. So she's got some things to work on, to be fair. I thought both wingers were solid enough and safe enough as well, which was good to see. Both centres in Byers and Biddle ran for 100 metres each. I thought that Anessa Biddle looked like she was playing with some injuries to her legs. She got going and she found the sin bin, and she still was a presence out there.

[00:04:32] But just watching her off the ball, she looked like she was struggling a little bit. So we'll see what happens there moving forward. But to be fair, she looked like that at the start of the game. So she did well to get through it. I thought Hannaway had some nice touches, but I felt like Kiriratu was the more dominant half. And I think in a game like tonight where it's not going your way, you need to share that around a little bit. So I would expect Hannaway to get more involved next week.

[00:04:58] We did see the new player, Higgins Ashby, come on probably around the, I guess the 50 minute mark. I'd have to double check that. But played some hooker, replacing Dodd, who had a great game. And then she replaced Hannaway and played a bit of half. So she looks tough for a smaller body. She looks very tough. And it might take some time to get used to the rugby league again, coming from Union. But I thought she'd be pretty good.

[00:05:28] Forward pack, probably not where they need to be tonight. And some errors, not a lot of great go forward. And we expect more. And we spoke about the props all week. We expect more from those two in Johnston and Johnston Green. So I'd look to them to improve in the coming weeks. Again, a shout out to Quincy Dodd. She topped the tackle count and was very good around the ruck. Back row, probably not as dominant as what we need either.

[00:05:56] I thought the forward pack in general got out muscled by the Knights. The Knights were pretty good. They stuck to their plan and they were pretty good. They were pretty consistent, executed well. And we do send our respect to Steph Faulkner, who had that serious looking injury. Hopefully it's not as serious as what it looked. But I thought George, who came on from the bench, did a good job. And Jedica Tufuil was also heavily involved when on the field. But I think overall the coach is going to have some good things to look at. When I say good, like a lot of things to look at in the film

[00:06:26] and get some things sorted. It's fixable. That's the good news. It's very fixable. It's round one. And it just looks like a bit of a trial match more than round one NRLW clash. And that's what's disappointing about it all. So plenty to work on there. The Broncos are coming into town next week. I cannot recommend enough coming down to Ocean Protect Stadium. It is going to be school holidays next week. So the kids can stay up a bit later. So if you do feel like coming down for that one, I can't recommend it enough. It's very family friendly.

[00:06:56] A lot of space to move around. Pick your own seats pretty much. The crowd gets into it. It's a lot of fun. There was a coffee van. There was some food vans open. The Sharks merch stand was open. And they're giving away posters. There was things for everyone. So definitely if you can come down next week, I'm sure the club would encourage that and your support. But a bit of admin actually. This is NRLW.

[00:07:21] But on the NRL side of things, I did get a message from the merch king, Adam Barnes. And he did want me to tell everyone that the Sharks merch fan is going to be at Brisbane on Saturday night for the big NRL clash. And they're going to be at the North Plaza fan zone, Caxton Street and Suncorp from 4.30pm. And Barnes, he will be there along with John and Daniel. But Barnes will be there.

[00:07:47] So tell him that Shark Car sent you and he'll probably give you a high five. Back to NRLW, of course, and not the way we planned things. Certainly we were pretty hyped up during the week. And it's a bit deflating now, actually, given what we saw. But I'm also not without confidence they can turn it around. And last year they had a slow start as well. Newcastle were a decent team. I mean, Kira did for them was sensational. And as a team, it played a lot better than what we did. We have to just admit that.

[00:08:15] And we'll move on to the Broncos next week. So that's what's going on. You're going to hear a lot more about the NRLW throughout the season here on Shark Cast. And a few other things in the works planning wise for NRLW. So stay tuned to our channels and we'll tell you more about that as it eventuates. Sharks lose 18 points to four in the opening match of the NRLW season. You can watch all the other teams play throughout the weekend.

[00:08:43] That's about all we've got down here at Ocean Protect Stadium for you all. Hope you enjoyed the opening game, having it back. Obviously, it wasn't a very enjoyable game to watch, but hopefully you got the spirit of things. And sometimes the bigger picture is as important as the result. Though tonight the result was very important and we didn't get it done, unfortunately. We move on to next week. Broncos at Ocean Protect Stadium in our Royal Dub next Thursday night. Until then, we'll talk to you all real soon. There'll be some more Shark Cast episodes coming for you. So stay tuned. Up, up.

[00:09:14] 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 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 & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450.

[00:09:44] Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Sharkies! Sharkies! Back in the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy. Go!