Rd 18, 2024 Sharks vs Titans Post Game Review w/ Dan Nichols

[00:00:00] SharkCast! SharkCast! SharkCast! SharkCast! Fafina got the ball back in the shire. Tenu Portslides off because we're coming home with a trophy. Hey there, welcome to SharkCast, POTTER Podcast, dedicated to the greatest sporting club in

[00:00:35] the history of the world. Not so mighty tonight, not so great tonight, but this next episode you're going to hear is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Mediote Club in Port Hacking and Jason Hawes at Crips & Crips Real Estate. A little bit of admin for

[00:00:50] Juno the way the night has panned out, responsibilities, requirements, etc. It happened to be that Dan Nichols from Fins Up got in touch with me about doing a post-game show.

[00:01:03] I was able to jump on for a short time. What you're going to hear in a few seconds is the audio of that and it's just Dan and myself talking about the game that was.

[00:01:15] Got to try and bleep out a few little curse words that crept in on my behalf, not his. We're going to make that available for SharkCast tonight. That'll be the short shop review and back to business during the week. Lots of mail coming in.

[00:01:30] Keep it coming, sharkcastpottageemail.com. Keep it above the belt, it'll get right out. Can't wait to get into it. Big week ahead, lots to talk about. Tigers in a week's time. Must win. I'm not happy about tonight and you'll hear about that with Dan. I was sitting

[00:01:50] without my microphones just talking into a phone so the audio is not amazing but it's perfectly fine, you'll hear me talk, you'll understand me and I hope you guys understand that's what's going on tonight. Hope that's cool with everyone back into it as soon as we can.

[00:02:06] Stay strong. Up up. Hello everyone and thanks for joining us on this quickly, hastily thrown together post-match. You see the shake in the head? We've got two podcasting, I won't say legends, I'll say long suffering sharkfans together. Where are you right now, mate?

[00:02:26] Part of me wants to say about the drive of a bridge but I'm not going to be that dramatic. I'll give everyone a tip. Don't start a podcast about your favorite team. It only breaks your

[00:02:36] heart and fills your inbox. That's where all this gray hairs come from, you can see the head jumping out of my head. I'm 22 years old, man. We have nothing planned, we're just going to

[00:02:48] see where this goes. Anyone who comments, anyone who wants to jump on them, I don't know, we'll see where this goes. Mate, what are you feeling just after what we just saw? Everyone saw it?

[00:03:00] I don't want to be boring but the lesson is what we all know, those starts are killing us. We're off our game so much now that we can't come back and win the games we were doing earlier in

[00:03:09] the year. Just can't do it, man. I was working on the game and we had, was it six possessions in the opening 20 or something? Or sorry, opening 10? It was crazy and some of it was, I guess,

[00:03:23] unavoidable. Some of it was avoidable. The Taluk guy, Sin Bin, the Sixer Gans, the penalties, short dropouts, some of them genius. Don't do it every time. Go along. I just thought they

[00:03:35] kind of fell into this hole there and they couldn't get out. In second half, they almost got out and it would have kind of, I don't even think it would have glossed over everything, we just

[00:03:45] would have all of had a sigh of relief but it wasn't meant to be and they just can't keep doing it. Dan, I don't know, I know people are going to blame like staff and players and that

[00:03:56] kind of thing. I honestly think they're all in it together. What is happening with those 20 minutes? I don't get it. I'm at a loss. Well, mate, full disclosure, the reason you're here is because

[00:04:06] I'm like this and you always just, just a little bit temper me down because there were other people, I mean my housemate who would have just driven me off the actual edge but for the opening 20

[00:04:17] minutes full disclosure, I left work late. I was on the train. I logged in at Jinali and by the time I got to Miranda, we hadn't touched the ball once. Not once. We all said

[00:04:28] the start's absolutely key. Vossi made the joke, oh, at least we can't drop the ball for the first sec because we don't have it this time. It can make you miss kids away from penalty. From there,

[00:04:36] seven minutes later, we're six nil down and it's not game over of course but you're like, geez, here we go again. We saw Royce Hunt brought in to give that oomph in the front.

[00:04:47] Didn't touch the ball for eight minutes. Almost scored on what he's first or second touch. Drop the ball. I still haven't seen that by the way. I'm literally just catching up on the first 20

[00:04:54] now. Yeah, I came in and I saw it was 12 nil and Talca was just running onto the field and my thinking was what the hell? How are we still in this? About half time though, we should have

[00:05:04] been up by two tries. We just kept blowing tries. Just couldn't get it done. Yes, a good point Dan. I mean at half time, I was stoked because it was only 12 nil and if we're first to score any points at all, second half, I think we're on.

[00:05:19] They got the penalty goal but the Titans should have been up. A better team would have been up by 30 and that's no exaggeration. I just, I don't know man, I don't know. We just keep blowing

[00:05:32] those leads early. I know we're practicing not to do it. I've seen them at training. They're not dicking around. It's all hard work. They're working their butts off to get out of this.

[00:05:45] I think we will get out of it. That's the good news but what sort of damage we do along the way, maybe you say goodbye to top four. I don't know. I don't know if you keep, I mean we got Tigers

[00:05:55] next week. That's not a push over man. That's must win. Next week's must win. Absolutely. I'll get to the comments in a section. Sam can't stay forever so I'll go to those

[00:06:05] after he's back on the way. Look at half time, we're 12 nil down and I'm thinking the same. Oh good. To the Gold Coast Titans who are, you know, apart from the game where they blew the

[00:06:16] Warriors off the park two weeks ago, they're not a good football team. They're the sort of team you look at and think, oh cool, there's two points and we're celebrating not being more than

[00:06:24] 12 nil down half time. I think that shows all right now. Yes, absolutely. Like I was, so a colleague of mine said well, you almost won with having no reason to win that game. That's pretty good. And I went, that's not going to get us higher on the ladder.

[00:06:42] Like being like sticking around showing a bit of conviction towards the end of the game. The attack has gone downhill. I don't really know what's happened there. They've lost, I don't know if it's a confidence thing because some of the

[00:06:54] attack like the Hail Marys at the end look pretty good. They almost pulled it off. But I just feel like they're in this slump and they need to get out as soon as they can. I think you just got to keep turning up the training, turning up.

[00:07:08] It's a cliche. I know that's what I'm here for but there's no other way out. Like there's no other way out. You can say, sack this guy, sack that guy. It doesn't matter. It's a team effort in losing five out of six games. Team effort, Dan.

[00:07:24] I'll tell you there are a lot of comments that I'll again I'll get to in a minute. Thanks. Keep them coming. I'm going to read all of them. Good matter in different.

[00:07:31] There is a lot of calls for certain players to be dropped. We saw Toby Rudolph pay the price for a horrible game last week. Perfectly. I want to get your thoughts because it's very clear, very on record that Terry and I both said Fitzgibbons the way forward.

[00:07:45] So Fitz he's going to do the next Premiership. I'm waning. I'm waning big time. It's to the point where I looked at that team tonight and thought, okay, Atkinson on the wing. Again, no worries. I'm okay with that. Circumstantially.

[00:08:00] But you look at the way that K Liro is absolutely dotted out of the game in the attack in half. Maybe we saw why because he had a one on none and didn't pass the ball.

[00:08:09] So maybe that's why we knew that was coming. This crash play BS from Blake Brailey is just doing my head in and this Kratner three on two. Kennedy finally does an overlap. We hit a bloke running on the inside gets smashed loses the ball more often than not.

[00:08:22] They cannot be training for this, right? That's just got to be no, how to put this. I'm trying not to get censored by YouTube. Yeah, they're not training that way at all on Fitzgibbon. I mean, everyone who listens

[00:08:33] to my show knows I'm a big fan. I still am. I'm not waning because I look at the errors they're doing in those opening 20 minutes. What's he supposed to do? I don't know what he's supposed to do to change that.

[00:08:50] Why can't see for Talakai? Who's my man? Why doesn't he know how to tackle? That's not that's not on the coach. That's on him getting too aggressive. And I'm a huge fan of Talakai little things like that. Drop balls, six against.

[00:09:07] He's not telling me to do that. He's not coaching me to do that. He can't pick seven new guys every week as much as the fans want him to do that on the selections this week. You saw it, man. Tom Rodwell was next man up

[00:09:19] and he's not ready. So that's why Akka was on the wing. Didn't go particularly good, didn't go the way I thought it would. That's just lack of play depth, I guess, that they're kind of running out of troops there, which happens occasionally. But

[00:09:34] yeah, on the coach, I'm not waning just yet. I know you look at the general results and I can see why you would be. Five out of the last six, I get it. But I think him and Nico are

[00:09:46] here long term. So people probably need to get used to that. While you bring that up, there was a tweet during the week where said that he spoke to someone close to Nico Hines and Nico wanted out of Krinal.

[00:09:57] I just want to put that to bed right now. We had a laugh about it. Any bloke, I've done it before. I've tweeted someone close to and people jumped in the DMs. I don't know anyone. I don't know anything about anyone.

[00:10:08] So let's talk about Nico Hines. I want your room. I'm going to get as much out of you in the first 20 then. People that are waiting for the blow-up, wait about 11 minutes, you'll get it. I made a suggestion a couple weeks ago.

[00:10:23] I said to Terry, I would have sat him down after Ogin for two weeks. He decided to buy and said, A, he's got a car injury and told him to rest up. I see him come out and say,

[00:10:33] I can't wait to get into it. I miss on that but I need to get away from the spotlight. I understand this. Then he goes and puts a podcast out during the week.

[00:10:41] I don't want to bag him but it's getting very close to the point where at what point does he become his own worst enemy? If he's legitimately not the best of mind, two weeks would have done him

[00:10:54] the world a good. If people want to bag him, turn off your social media, put their papers away, who reads them anyways, turn your NRL 360s off. Don't watch rugby league outlaws. Do watch rugby league outlaws. Just block it out. Take two weeks up the coast with your

[00:11:07] family and don't worry about football. What do you think? I want to know Dan where he has said that he's not mentally okay to play football. There's people seeing him make errors and being out of form and they're going on,

[00:11:21] he's mentally shook. I haven't heard anything from anyone within the camp say that he's remotely mentally unable to perform his duties. He's just in a slump and he's not the Niko that we know and love. I think it's complete and get ready for the Shana's swear word

[00:11:40] bullshit that some kid puts out a tweet and you and I have to answer inbox after inbox, taking up my precious time and I say that lightly precious. I'm not precious about my time. And all of a sudden the whole world thinks he's not ready to play football,

[00:11:58] he wants out, he's not happy. There's never been a guy more suited to play at our club as far as off the field goes. He's perfectly happy. He's out of form, he needs to pick it up,

[00:12:10] he's our best player in theory, he's on the big bucks, he signed long term, he's the half back, he's the playmaker. Get it together bro. I believe he will. There's nothing wrong with him, he's just not playing well. It's that simple in my opinion

[00:12:24] only. That's him. I think the comments get back to last year where he said he was shook and stuff. I think a lot of it's been drawn in because he didn't have a good origin and I mean

[00:12:36] if you're a million dollar half back, I go back to what I said the other week. If you're a million dollar half back, you've chosen this life. It's like me and you. If we get people in the street,

[00:12:43] I have a guy in Miranda met me the other week said I love your stuff but my brother hates you. Okay, I put myself out there. I deserve that. If that was me, I probably wouldn't have said

[00:12:51] that my brother hates you a bit but that's on me. Nico's a million dollar half back who's gone. He's everywhere as he should be. Renato is my favorite player. I love the bloke, right?

[00:13:02] But Nico is probably the player that I want to do best because it helps us and I'm very selfish in that way. I don't know how you take the pressure off him other than saying, I'll try and touch the

[00:13:13] ball seven times a set which is impossible. Every time Nico touched the ball tonight, he looked lost. I know he scored a try but that was all from Renato and Kennedy and

[00:13:23] Atkinson. Nico had the least amount to do there and he scored the try, whatever. It's good for my super coach. Who cares? That's fantastic. I've seen people say you switched the six and the seven

[00:13:33] and everything's fixed. I've put him to fullback and put Kennedy to six which is just the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life. Yeah. What do you think? You just write it out

[00:13:43] with Nico? Yeah, yeah, you write it out. He's paid the big bucks. He's got the talent. People don't know this. The morning after he missed the field goal the other week and some bulldogs, guess where he was? Shark Park practicing his field goals. He cares. He cares

[00:13:58] about the club. It's up to him to turn it around on the field. I understand we're all frustrated. I'm frustrated. I've sworn three times in my podcast but if this is happening in two years

[00:14:12] time and he's not the guy for us and he signed a long-term deal, we need to look into it but a five-week slump or however many weeks you want to call it doesn't put a line through

[00:14:23] a bloke's career at a club. It's just, is it good enough? No, but like I don't know. People just seem so short-fused these days about everything and I get it. We want him to win. No one wants

[00:14:36] him to win more than me. I thought tonight he was pretty average. Absolutely. But I don't think he's mentally unwell to play rugby league and if he was, guess what? He wouldn't be playing.

[00:14:48] The club would not let him play and he would be the first one to go, hey I need a break. That's my opinion. That's cool. Thanks again for the comments guys. I'll get some of the five minutes yet.

[00:14:57] Shanazi just booked very quick. He's got things to do. I don't. I'm very lucky in that regard. Well, Kennedy mate, I thought he was tremendous tonight. I thought he's been one of our best

[00:15:05] the last few weeks but I don't think anyone can argue myself included that he's flying. Do we stick with him because I'm a well-known K-Dykes fan and if he's fit, he's my number one

[00:15:17] moving forward. He can't stay fit though so it's all hypothetical. Liam Eason is bang indoors. He's very, very young not ready yet. Couldn't play this week. At the end of the year though,

[00:15:28] was that a discussion or you're just nailed on its Kevin? Well, I don't understand what the problem is with Will. Like you just said he had a good game right? Yeah but overall I wouldn't have him in the top 13 halfbacks in the competition. Fullbacks in the competition.

[00:15:43] Really? Yeah, I can't like Kenny, I would swap for him. Trey Fuller who's a backup, I would swap for him. David Armstrong is a good kid but he'd probably be one being that he's played at three games and he's their third string,

[00:16:00] you know, the first to sharps it. I'd rather stick with Will and give Eason a chance to get ready in cup and let them have a bit of a shoot out for it. He's really good. This kid,

[00:16:09] I've seen him play cup, seen him play kids, seen him train. He's legit. He's just a bit small at the moment but he's legit not ready as you said. Well, I don't know Dan, I just,

[00:16:23] I'm not convinced the spine's our problem at the moment. I just, they're not going great but I feel like he's a team that just, like tonight I'm Rose Hunt's biggest fan. He didn't do it for me.

[00:16:36] He can't stop. He didn't do it for me. He's a guy who's chasing some bucks and chasing a contract down the line. I don't think he's just that though, like you just said. I think that the

[00:16:51] issue lies more than just, I don't know, I just think that as a team they've lost their mojo. I can't exactly tell you why. If the Haas were firing a bit better, yeah we'd be going a bit better

[00:17:02] too but I don't know even both centers tonight were a bit kind of scratchy. They had moments of brilliance, moments of not brilliance. I just think team-wide, you know my man, Britain's not heavily involved sometimes. I'm not a fan of T. Wilton on the bench. He's 80 minutes or

[00:17:18] he's nothing. I think those things that we need to look into and maybe it does come back to the coaching to my boy if it's given. Maybe it comes back to that, I'm not sure but

[00:17:27] I'm trying to avoid the freak out because we're still sitting in the top four. We've got winnable games coming home. I get the feeling down if they'd won the opening 20 minutes they would have won this game so I've probably been more dramatic on your podcast than I wanted

[00:17:42] to be but it's out there for everyone to see live but I kind of just think we need to win, you know we just need to win and get back on track because if you can fix up those disgusting

[00:17:55] 20 minutes the rest of it's not that bad. You're not chasing your tail, you're not doing hail merry stuff. You're doing more fun things like kicking into the corner and making your tackles that's what you're doing so there's problems but I kind of think they're fixable at this

[00:18:11] stage. Post Tigers we can talk again. Well mate if we lose to the Tigers I'm calling it out. Season's done and I don't think that's hyperbole. You can't lose to the Tigers and Titans. We've lost to the three bottom teams now, Paramatta, the Tigers and the Titans.

[00:18:27] Yeah it's a weird stat like it's a weird thing to then go to Melbourne with no players and win and all that sort of stuff. It's a strange year man. I don't know where we're going to end up

[00:18:37] to be perfectly honest. I'm hoping it'll be somewhere fun but it's a strange year and I don't know why it's become a strange year. If it's state of origin, if that's the reason we're going to go with then I'll stand by my thought every year on state of

[00:18:51] origin that it sucks and all you people that like it can go watch some other three game exhibition every year because it's not for me, it's not for my players. It's just the ridiculous

[00:19:02] concept that you all get so excited about. My state's better than yours. Cronola is favorites. I don't think they've won a game this year or maybe won. I think we beat the Bulldogs in

[00:19:10] round two. I take that back but as big favorites we got Hammond by Peneth, Paramatta, Begas. There was a game where we were favorites that I was like are you kidding me and we lost tonight. The Dolphins

[00:19:22] were huge favorites at home. I'm going to ask you the question because I don't know I'm not there. Is there an attitude problem? No I don't see it man and that's the dead set on us truth.

[00:19:33] There's no we're going to win this easy attitude. No way. I don't see it. I'm not there all the time by any means but we know people that are and it's nothing like that. I know it's easy to say

[00:19:47] that and people say that we get heaps of mail about it. Their mental attitude isn't right. We didn't take this team seriously. I don't even know if that exists in the RL man. I think

[00:19:58] it's a thing that the fans kind of want to believe. If you look at that ladder the teams are so tight from 1 to 17. South is still going to make the 8 potentially. There's no

[00:20:09] easy games and teams like the Sharks should know this after they get a light car and get flogged by one of the worst teams that ever existed. So if they took it easy in that game

[00:20:20] I couldn't tell you but I don't think since then they would have taken it easy. I know the coaching staff doesn't. They would be up them all the time. I personally don't think there

[00:20:29] is one. That's my answer. I don't think there is one and I see a little bit of them more than some other people do but yeah I don't think because if there is I don't

[00:20:37] know if I'd call it out directly but I would hint enough to let you guys know that there was an attitude problem. No that's probably mate. Thanks again for jumping on man. Like I said this

[00:20:45] was a piece to the organised. It was a pleasure. It was a pleasure. It was a pleasure to explore you ready. Yeah I'm pulling over. Sorry for my appearance. I don't normally look like this.

[00:20:53] Yeah mate no me neither. But mate thank you so much. Make sure you catch a shark. Cast I'll link it in after this but Shnazzy I will go to all the things. Thank you so much mate. I will catch you soon.