Rd 2: Catching Up With Kieran Over Coffee About Cronulla (17/3/25)

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[00:01:07] Welcome to SharkCast, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world. Kieran Fraser, this show is brought to you by Dice Logistics, the Royal Media Club in Port Hacking and Jason Hors at Crips & Crips Real Estate. We have our first win for the season, but you, my friend, are busy complaining about how your passport is not like the old days, where you would have stamps where you've been and you could look at it and the pages would be torn. Now it's all very fine and detailed. It's so annoying, mate.

[00:01:37] Like I remember when I was younger, like getting a passport and like trying to fill up all the pages with stickers and stamps and all that type of stuff. Or you'd go to like China or Bali and you get like these full page, like things that they would put into your passport. I've got this passport now in 2020. And the reason why I'm doing this is I'm flying to New Zealand today. I've just checked in five years, I've got one stamp in my whole passport. Like what a waste. A few people asked what you do for a living and I tried to explain it.

[00:02:03] Now, without revealing too much personal detail, do you want to tell our listeners and viewers what you do for a living because they're interested? Well, you cut out there a little bit, but I think you're asking what I do for a living. And so I specialize in helping American companies launch in Australia, New Zealand, Asia. I've been doing that now for just over 10 years and specializing at the moment in cybersecurity.

[00:02:29] So again, if anyone's got any cybersecurity issues, give me a yell and I won't be able to help you because I don't know anything, but I just sell it. But we're here to talk about the Sharks, the mighty Sharks. We have a win in the books. It's not going to be a winless year. In fact, I think it's going to be a pretty good year. Sharks win 36 points this world over the Cowboys in Townsville Saturday evening. Very warm and wet day up there.

[00:02:52] The team was as per with the late exclusion of tall Tom Hazleton, big, tall Tsukuhai Tsapua came in, did a good job in the middle for a bit. And what were your overall thoughts on the game, Kieran? I thought it was one of those games where it didn't really get out of second gear, but it was never something that was under threat.

[00:03:12] There was a time where the Cowboys kind of made a little bit of a run and Will Kennedy made that tackle with a few minutes to go before halftime, where it was, I think, 16 to 10 our way. And then, you know, Kennedy stops that try. So that was a huge, huge get for us for him to be able to stop that because again, I didn't think we would be able to stop it. If they scored them, maybe they could have put up a little bit of confidence and momentum. But the Cowboys just didn't look very good.

[00:03:39] And again, for our guys, you know, Fitz came out and said that five had COVID, six had influenza A. They've just flown back from Vegas. Now they go all the way up to Townsville. I was very worried about this game. So to get out of that game with injury free and to get the W is going to be good. But again, it's still a big turnaround in the next seven days for us to turn around and to get back to Shark Park for South. So it's going to be interesting to see how they handle those conditions. You know, two games with a lot of travel. But I'm really looking forward to getting past.

[00:04:07] I think it's around six and we just get into a bit of a normal, normal season, stop all this travel. Much as the coach doesn't want to focus on it. And he's right so far, like it hasn't really affected us. But as far as performance goes, it is obviously a factor. And we were aware that there was some illness issues throughout the week. We were obviously not allowed to say anything about it. I also was a bit concerned about how they would play on the night. But they came out with a lot of energy.

[00:04:35] And I think that's where they kind of got the dominant force happening in the opening 10-15. And great effort. I mean, I know we can't always judge the effort by what people thought online. And we probably never should. But there were a lot of complaints about how the attack looked clunky and how it wasn't a great performance. We should have scored a lot more. And they're not wrong. But when you go up to Townsville in round two and win 36-12, I think it's a pretty positive sign. Yeah.

[00:05:04] And I think one of the things for me was that the start of the game with the completion. So I think the Sharks completed 15 from 15 or something like that. And I think the Cowboys only had one error in their first, you know, a lot of sets as well, right? So one thing that kind of was worrying me going into that game was you saw the bounce back from some of those teams that had bad performances in round one. And then you also saw how some of those teams like the Broncos who had good performances in round one looked in round two.

[00:05:30] And so for us to sort of not try and throw the ball around at the start of the game and try and be a little bit silly, like they were so direct and just going straight through the front door of the Cowboys. And they literally were just like, we're going to go set for set with the Cowboys and we're going to just dominate them. And as the benches started to come along and all that type of stuff, you could see the Sharks were so further ahead than the Cowboys. And it's one of those things I keep going back to.

[00:05:55] Todd Payton went to the Cowboys the same time that he came to the Sharks and the Cowboys have won two finals games. We've only won one finals games, but everyone always gives the Cowboys a lot of props. This is all the Cowboys can do this. The Cowboys can do that. Nobody gives the Sharks that type of props. So for me, I was super glad that we looked very well coached. We look at it as a great unit. And again, we just played our game. We didn't try and throw the ball around too early. Didn't do anything silly. And we racked up 36 points really easily.

[00:06:21] So I think from that perspective, I think it was a great performance. And I don't think there's too many negatives you can take out of that. You mentioned Will Kennedy before, and we spent a lifetime on him last week in various episodes talking about his efforts and people were disagreeing and agreeing and that kind of thing. And again, this week, for some reason, he's still in a bit of a spotlight. I thought he was our best player probably for two weeks in a row. What did you make of Will Kennedy?

[00:06:49] He was the guy that I was thinking that we had to probably switch out just because, again, I was looking at our team, our roster and our salary cap. And I just sort of said, well, he's the really the only guy that's locked in long term and probably the only guy that we can make a bit of a change with and try and get that that next level that we need to find. Right. But I can't fault his efforts. I'm just looking at his stats now. You know, he had two try assists, two line break assists, two tackle breaks. He ran for 126 meters, 25 meters post contact.

[00:07:18] And that try that he saved was absolutely tremendous. So for me, I think it's one of Will's better games. And the last two weeks, it's been his defense that's impressed me. So, yeah. And I'm not here to say we can't get a better fullback in the long run. And I'm not here to defend him as such. I just get a little bit irky when people don't watch the game with clear eyes and go, oh, Will Kennedy is this. It's like you can't say anything negative about him over the last two weeks. He's been, if not our best player in our top three. And that's all I've got to say on Matt for the moment.

[00:07:49] You were mentioning about completion rates. We finished with 84% completions, 38 from 45. I mean, that's pretty good in round two in extreme heat and wet weather. And I also think that we kind of played our style of football that I was expecting us to play versus the Panthers, right? Where we had all these big bodies and we were just charging through the middle. And that's, again, probably less conducive to throwing a ball around and having more errors.

[00:08:15] So I think if you can start with the team that we've got, if we can hold the ball and have 84% completion rate, we're going to be really hard to stop. For sure. And there were a lot of other impressive things. 11 line breaks to two. We only missed 18 tackles, Kieran. Like if you miss 18 tackles and have 84% completion, you're going to win most games. And when you play the top two teams, you're going to be in and up to your eyeballs, which we saw last week against the Panthers. Again, where we completed well and didn't miss too many tackles.

[00:08:44] So far, it's only early days. So far, the signs are really, really good. Who impressed you last week against the Cowboys? The one guy that really kind of did a little bit for me was Nico. Watching Nico play and from that big game in Vegas, I kind of walked away from that saying, Trindle was doing too much kicking and Trindle was in bad positions when he was kicking. And it was really telegraphed some of the times where Tricky would get the ball on like a short side and just kind of have to shank it across his body.

[00:09:13] Whereas this week, Nico stepped up with the kicking. His general play kicking, I think he kicked for more meters than Trindle did. And I think that balance really helped. But also too, it was Nico's goal kicking. When he missed that first kick, I think we all kind of overjudged it a little bit and go, oh, his confidence might not be there because he missed that first kick. But then he nailed some kicks from the sidelines. And you could even see him turn around looking at the fans like kind of smiling and laughing because they would have been giving it to him too. So for me, that was great to see Nico step up and to nail some of those kicks in general play

[00:09:42] and on the goal kicking as well. The whole world shudders and shivers every time he does something remotely not correct and misses the first goal. And we haven't seen him kick this year, I don't think. And then we're all like, oh no, what's going to happen? But I have no doubt in my mind, Nico is a better kicker than Trindle. I'm not putting shade on Trindle. But Nico is our number one goal kicker. And whenever he's fit to do so, he should do it.

[00:10:09] And he absolutely got some bangers from the sideline. But it also goes to show that yes, we can't know what's going on in anyone's mind, let alone our halfbacks mind. And we shouldn't necessarily think it's going to be negative or that it's going to be, you know, not good for his rugby league if he makes an error, if he drops his bundle one or two times. Don't get me wrong. We've seen him do it in other games and it's kind of affected the game and the way it's going.

[00:10:38] But I mean, this year's a new year. It's a new, a new, fresh new beginning. And yeah, I thought Nico was pretty good. I thought Trindle was pretty good. People were sort of razzing him a bit online. He definitely wasn't perfect. But I thought with the exception of just a couple of errors in the game and you know, one of them was the Hamlin-Neweli error, which again, it's one error. I thought that overall as a team, we played really well. Yeah.

[00:11:04] And I don't want to keep overstating this, but like that's, that's a big travel week, right? To go up to the North Queensland, to have 11 of your players with sickness. And Fitzy never talks about this and he, he never makes excuses. So the fact that Fitzy kind of got his back up a little bit and was kind of like, Hey, this is actually what happened. We had 11 guys that we didn't get back to training until Monday and the squad flew out on Tuesday. Right? So again, these guys have flown halfway around the world,

[00:11:32] been in Sydney for a few days and then jumped on a plane to go to Townsville in extreme heat and all that type of stuff. And I get it was hot in Sydney too, but it's, it's an impressive start to the season and you don't want to be peaking too early. And yeah, you saw last year with the Raiders, the Raiders got off to a great start and then their season kind of went on a decline. The Raiders have got off to a great start again this year. Who knows how they're going to finish. Right? So it's about timing your run and to get the minutes in certain players. Like, so I liked that a guy like Tooks was able to get some minutes early on in the season.

[00:12:02] Right? So again, it's good to see a couple of these little things, but it's, you know, it's round two, we've got so much left of the season to go, but I do struggle to find any negatives out of that game. The only thing I'm still getting my head around is the Akko situation on the bench. I saw some chat online about people were saying that they were really happy with him coming on and his leg speed during the middle and a hot game and all that type of stuff. I just don't know how much value I see having three lock forwards because McInnes is a smaller body.

[00:12:32] Siffer is that nuggety frame and I want more minutes in Siffer. So how do we get that balance of having a monster like a Tooks or a Hazleton on the bench? And then also getting Akko in there because if there's not an injury in the backs or in the halves, I don't know how I feel about Akko taking up hit ups because again, he's not the biggest guy in the world. He's got no fear in him. He's going to do it. So it worked well against the Cowboys. I thought because our pack was just so dominant. Anyway, there was a lot of space in the middle and you're right. His leg speed was super quick.

[00:13:01] And I noticed this week what he was doing. He was getting really quick runs, quick play the balls. He was making probably eight or nine meters run and it was effective over a very short stint. So in games like that, I don't hate it, but I'm with you where I think I just want a larger body out there. If there's no real, you know, speculation over our back line. And we saw Nikko wasn't fully fit and he came out of the game, not fully fit. So we'll see what happens there.

[00:13:29] But I don't mind him on the bench when there's need for it as far as backup goes. But as far as him being a utility forward, I'm with you. I don't think it's necessarily his gig to have. And that leads me to a further question. Toby Rudolph is not far off. We have Jesse Colquhoun probably not far off. We have Braden Hamloeli fighting for his spot on the bench. 10 runs, 55 meters, 7 tackles, 1 error.

[00:13:59] What do you think happens to that bench when everyone's fully fit? So just on Akko, the one thing I just want to say is I would have liked to have seen him when the game was kind of put to bed. We had Blake Braley out there make 60 tackles in round one. We then even had making 40 tackles in round two. Like I thought that could have been a good chance for us to try Akko at number nine, just so we can give Blake a little bit of a spell and just see how he looks in that nine position. Because I think he only played there for a few minutes last year. And we've seen him play everywhere else.

[00:14:28] We've seen him play wing, center, fullback, 5'8", all that type of stuff. So I would have liked to have seen that on the bench just so we could get that look of if Braley does go down, do we go with Cam at nine? Do we go with Akko? So, but outside of that, I think, I think Hamill and Ueli, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with him and Toby. I think those two guys are competing for a spot in that 17. And I also think these guys are probably competing for a spot at the club at this point because they both come off contract next year. They can both talk to other clubs on November 1st.

[00:14:57] So I think that's going to be quite interesting to see how that fits. I haven't seen enough from Hamill and Ueli at this point to say, I'm going to keep him in the side. But then again, I haven't seen a lot from Toby to sort of say he's a, he walks straight in, right? So I don't have a problem if we put Toby in reserve grade and make him work his way back. But again, I think something's got to give there because it looks like for right or wrong, we're going to just stick with the, with Akko as that utility player. But I feel like we've got so much utility value in Sifar and McInnes.

[00:15:27] I just don't think that we need that. But then again, how do you split the minutes between all those guys? Because I want to see Sifar on the field more. I want to see Fanual Blake on the field a lot. Like it's, it's, we've got a deep squad and these are really tough challenges for Fitzy to work out. So I'm not too sure how I would play that. But personally, I probably wouldn't go with an out and out utility on the bench just because we have Sifar and McInnes who can cover so many different positions. What would you think about Hamill and Ueli's game on the weekend if he hadn't dropped that ball?

[00:15:54] Would you be like, it's the same as how you feel now, however you're feeling? Was that, did that impact you at all or? No, no, no, it didn't. And so look, for me, Hamill and Ueli's value to the squad is he's, for years, he's been our enforcer. And now we brought in Kifusi and we brought in Fanual Blake and all that type of stuff. I still see there is real value in what Hamill and Ueli can bring to us, especially on the defensive side of things, because he can really rattle blokes. I just thought with the ball, he looked a little bit clunky and slow.

[00:16:24] I don't know if he's still working off those injuries from last year and things like that. But I think you just said five runs, 55 meters. That's when Hamill and Ueli is at his best, you know, he's rocking and rolling with those hit ups. And, you know, he's a bit more of a destructive force than, you know, 55 meters worth of impact. So I think there's a role for him to play. But I also think, right, if you look at our front row, we have Kifusi, who's that kind of defensive wrestle, you know, slow the play the ball down guy. We've got Fanual Blake, who's that impact and punch.

[00:16:51] We have Hazleton, who's just that big body, that big size. It's working at how do we then get all these pieces moving in the same roles together, right? And I just don't think we've got that role defined for Hamill and Ueli just yet. I think when he's fit and firing, he's an international quality player. Like he plays for the Kiwis. He is tremendous. And if he's fully fit, he's like a new signing for us, right? And, you know, the Warriors went really hard for him to replace Fanual Blake.

[00:17:18] That shows you what the other people in the NRL think of Hamill and Ueli. And I think super highly of him too. Like I live and die on Hamill and Ueli Island. I just, I want to see a little bit more speed from him, I think. Yeah. Do you think it's a confidence thing maybe? Well, again, it's only his second game back in first grade in a very long time. And I don't know if it is a confidence thing because again, like, there would have to be some elements there of a little bit of self doubt, right? Like you've been out of the team for a while. You didn't finish the year in first grade last year.

[00:17:48] The club's gone out and bought two additional front rowers. And now you've gone from the starter to probably the at best third string, if not fourth string behind Toby in the rotation. And well, maybe even fifth when you factor in Hazleton's development too, right? So I don't know if mentally that's playing a part on him at all, but I just want to see him fit. I want to see him get some big minutes and I want to see him be that guy from like 2022 because this is the world thing, right? We got, we had that 2022 season and I get that's three years ago now.

[00:18:17] And you know, people age and you know, father time is undefeated. But the two front rowers that gave us that season in 2022, which is one of the most fun years that we've had at the football are both now fighting to be in our 17. So it shows good recruitment, good roster management, things like that. But I still think there's tremendous value in both Toby and Hamelin Ueli. If we can just define exactly what those roles are. Coach kind of hinted that there were people coming back, troops coming back. And I think he meant generally for the strength of the squad, which is great, of course.

[00:18:46] And you do have your choice for best that week. But I wonder if there was just anything in him saying, you know, he's obviously a fan of Toby because he re-signed him. I wonder if there's something there saying that Toby's going to come in after a weekend cup just to get fitness. And I mean, they're both in similar spots, Toby and Ueli, as you said, because they've both had a lot of injuries, time off, particularly off season. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see what happens there. I thought Big Tuku was decent.

[00:19:13] Like his stats are as good as Hamelin Willies and Kofusi's, if you're looking at stats. And I thought he was just really solid in the middle. You obviously wanted him to be a bit more destructive given the body that he's got and the way that he can play. But I thought overall it was a good progression one game in past where he was last time in his career, another NRL game on his belt. I thought he was pretty solid. The fact that we've re-signed him and we've re-signed Hazelton. So those two guys are now on the books.

[00:19:40] So I think next year Tukes will come off contract at the same time as Hamelin Ueli and with Toby, because they both got one year to run and we extended Tukes for another year. So that's going to give us a lot of flexibility in how do we actually work out the style of football that we want to play. And I think the benefit of having a guy like Tukes will be kind of in that middle part of the season when other teams are scratching for their depth, right? Whereas we've got like five, six, seven front rowers.

[00:20:06] Now it's going to be a huge juggling act, but it's very rare that you're going to get everybody fit. Like just now we've got Jesse Calhoun and we've got Toby out injured, right? Now in years gone by, we would have really felt that, right? So having a guy like Tukes step up, get that development into his game. And he's now been in the system for three years at the Sharks. He's looking better and better. And he's so huge. I can't believe how big that guy is in person. I just really want to see him get that time and those minutes in the legs.

[00:20:33] But again, it's a blessing that we don't have to throw him out there for huge minutes at the moment. And we can play the long game with him and develop him in the right way. Like we did with a guy like Cal Iro. Like Iro could have been at the West Tigers and played an extra 20, 30 first grade games in the past. But maybe his game wouldn't have developed the way that it has now because on the weekend, his attack looked phenomenal, right? So maybe something like Tukes will start to benefit from this slow sort of drip feeding that we've got.

[00:21:01] And the fact that we don't have to throw him into the deep end early. So again, I like what I see from him. I'm super stoked that we've re-signed him. I kind of thought when we re-signed him, we wouldn't be able to keep Hazo. But once again, Mooney is doing a tremendous job in keeping this roster together, which again takes me back to your conversation with Craig, where he was talking about when he looks at the player, like has this player reached their potential yet? Is this player got more in him? Like where do we, they currently sit. And I think Tukes is a classic example of that.

[00:21:29] On the flip side of the Hamlin, Uellis and Tobys. And again, Fitz even mentioned it during a week after I saw that he said, oh, I'm getting a lot of compliments about the depth of this roster. But that's because we made the call a couple of years ago that we were going to stick with a few of these guys. Yeah, I liked how he kind of threw that one in. That was in the press conference. He threw it in and it's not a jive. It's more just a, you know, hey, why don't you take us a bit more seriously when we make these calls? Because we're not doing it for fun. A lot of time and effort goes into making these calls. And it doesn't mean they're always right.

[00:21:58] Like just because I'm a Fitzgibbon guy doesn't mean that I think he's always right. But there's a trust there at the moment with me and what he decides. And that's another example of him being on the right track as far as his work ethic and what he thinks is the right way to do things with this club at the moment. Obviously keeping this team long term. Now, we had an ugly incident on Saturday night, Kieran. You're probably not aware of it because thankfully you're not on the platform as far as I know.

[00:22:27] But we had two shark casters going head to head on social media platform. And that was a young Josh going against a slightly more, and I say this just one time, mature Dan Nichols over Sam Stone Street. You know, Dan was very much, he invented Stone Street Island allegedly. And he was praising his games. He had a pretty good game. And young Josh jumped in and they were butting heads.

[00:22:54] Now, we're not here to dissect that battle, but we're here to talk about how you thought Stone Street went. I personally thought he had a decent game. Two tries, 200 meters. One missed tackle, which is pretty good. Five tackle busts. He was chased down twice where we thought, ah, let's try. A couple of other, like it was a kick defense issue. But, as we've said all along, Stone Street is going to be three steps forward, two steps back, or even one step back every game. Because he's young and growing.

[00:23:22] I don't even think he's played 10 games for us. What were your thoughts on Stone Street? Yeah, just as you're saying that in my head, I started doing the maths and I'm not at my laptop right now. So I don't know exactly how many games he's played. But I would guess he's probably played six or seven games. Yeah. And so like the expectation that we have on this kid, because, you know, I have seen it firsthand in the lower grades, what he has done. It's they're pretty lofty expectations. And again, like it's hard for a young fellow to come straight in and absolutely brain it.

[00:23:50] Like there's not many guys out there that come in like a Greg Inglis and just dominate from day one. And I listened to the pod that you did with Dan during the week. I don't know why I put myself through that misery. But to that point around Stone Street's development, like, you know, Dan is right. Like Stone Street will get bigger. He will get stronger. And like this is not his final form.

[00:24:11] And I think once we get into, you know, maybe two, three years down the line and, you know, he's got that body of a, you know, an arrow player who's played 40, 50, 60 games. He's going to be a really good first grader. You know, at the moment right now, he still looks like an excited, you know, young player that's in there trying to do everything, trying to help out where he can. And once he learns to control his energy and to put in the right spots, I think we're going to get a great, great outcome from him. I'm super bullish on his future.

[00:24:40] I wish we could announce his re-signing as soon as possible. But I disagree with you guys who were talking earlier in last week around Katoa because, again, Katoa brings a lot to this team. And if Katoa is fully fit, I'm taking Katoa every day in 2025. In 2026, I'm probably taking a Stone Street. But in 2025, I think if we get Katoa fit, he's so important to us and our team for what we do. But, you know, Sam's doing everything right.

[00:25:08] And I was a little bit surprised when I saw him get run down because I've seen Sam score 110-meter try at Shark Park from his own end goal. And I think he did it twice in that same game. And that's where he kind of blew me away as a prospect, right? So he's one of those guys where I think if we can be patient with him, if, again, we can develop him in the right way and we don't have to throw him into the Lions, other clubs will come at him. And they will try and sign him because, again, he's a big athletic guy. He does have a lot of speed on him. He's a great finisher. Like, he will be in demand from other clubs.

[00:25:39] So if we can keep him and we can develop him the right way like we did with Iro, I keep going back to that because for me, that was a master class in coaching. Like, Iro won New South Wales Cup Player of the Year and then he spent the next year all in reserve grade. And we didn't play him. And there was questions around SIFAR and X, Y, and Z. But Fitz was pretty bullish around these are the things that I need to see from Iro for me to trust him to pick in my 13. And Iro didn't chuck his toys out of the cot. He took up the feedback on board. He had offers to go elsewhere.

[00:26:08] I think he was pretty interested in particularly one of those offers from talking to some people. But again, he bit down the mouth guard. He did it the right way. And if we can get that with Sam, I think we've got a huge quality prospect for us on the wing. Because Stone Street's upside is a representative winger. Like, that's his ceiling. In a few years, he should be in that conversation for, you know, the Blues and all that type of stuff provided he develops his game in the right way. So, again, some of those carries he's very upright on.

[00:26:37] If we can fix some of that stuff, I think he'll be in a great spot. But... And to be fair to Josh, Josh was replying to a message that said something like Stoney was the best or one of the best in that team on Saturday. And Josh was just replying to that. He wasn't putting shade on Stone Street. He likes Stone Street. So, just... I just was having a bit of fun there. I can't agree that Sam was one of our best. I can't say that Sam was one of the top players in the team. Sam is going to potentially make rep teams.

[00:27:07] I mean, yeah, there's a lot of good wingers out there. But I hope he does for his sake and for our sake that that's how good he gets. Yeah. Well, again, you look at his size, you look at his speed, you look at his finishing, and the fact that the Sharks will consistently be in the next couple of years, assuming everything keeps going to plan, we should be a top four team. Like, there is no excuses for us to not be a top four team over the next couple of years with the roster that we have and the coaching and development that we have in our squad.

[00:27:35] So, if Sam can fix some of his defensive stuff and some of his stuff under the high ball, because the Cowboys absolutely peppered him. And I go back to last year where the Warriors won that game by just going at Sam. And, you know, they had down with Lesniak who's super experienced and Sean Johnson just going at a kid who at the time, that might have been his second or third game. It was super early on in his career, right? So, again, you can't hold that against him. That's going to happen as you're developing and learning.

[00:28:03] But if Sam can nail his defense and his diffusion of the high balls, then the sky's the limit. Now, we saw both of our centers have tremendous games for two weeks in a row. I think we've got one of the better center pairings in the comp. Completely underrated, which I'm cool with. And particularly, I thought Iro was outstanding. But Jesse is also having a really strong season. He's had a great couple of last seasons. And pretty much since Fitz took over,

[00:28:32] we've seen a new development in his game and just the way he plays. But I'm super happy with the centers at the moment, both in attack and defense. I think Jesse's one of the most underrated centers in the competition. Like defensively, he's so sound. His carries with the ball are just brutal. He's a phenomenal player and he sets his wingers up so well. I think Jesse's so underrated.

[00:28:55] But Iro's development from say this time last year even is, you know, worlds apart. Like he looks like a guy who's played 100 NRL first games, first grade games at this point when he's probably around that 25 mark or something like that. I'm just guessing because, you know, he really only came into the team, you know, midway through last season, last season, right? So to see Iro and where he's getting to, I think there's that two tries now for him for the season already.

[00:29:25] Whereas I don't know how many he got last year, but he just looks like such a threat. The way he glides with the ball, it is like Val Holmes-esque. So just figures crossed he can keep developing and keep, you know, taking that step up. But they can be underrated. That's fine because that means we're not losing them to rep games during the season. So that is a, it's a bit of a hindrance to us that we don't get some of the experience in the big games. But this is why I like us playing in Vegas.

[00:29:50] This is why I like guys getting a taste in origin because we just don't have a lot of big game experience in our squad. So the more opportunities that the club can get to put ourselves in those stages, I think the better guys like Iro will be because, you know, if you spend your career playing in front of 12,000 people at Shark Park and then you rock up to a game, there's 80,000 people, you know, in the final. You're going to be like, what the hell is this? Before we let you go, Kieran, we've got South Sydney this week, Saturday afternoon. Shark Park should be rocking, should be packed if you don't have your ticket.

[00:30:18] I would advise you get one very shortly. But South Sydney undefeated, two games where they haven't been amazing, but they've been very Wayne Bennett-like. Never give in, never give up. The young halfback is solid. It's not going to be a walkover, especially given the last two weeks we've had, but I'm happy we're coming home. I'm happy that we'll be on familiar turf. We're going to have a pretty regular week as far as training goes.

[00:30:46] It will still be a bit more low-key given their recovery and given the travel from the weekend, but at least they're back in their familiar surroundings. And I think we'll get them. I'm not really worried that we won't win, but I think it's going to be a tough battle against a Wayne Bennett-coached team. Yeah, I'm fully expecting a tough game here just because, again, like, South will front load their season because they know they've got to get off to a good start because, like, the year that they had last year and, you know, now bringing in Bennett and all that type of stuff,

[00:31:14] like, they're always going to be up for a big start to the year. I'm not as concerned as I was going to the Cowboys game. The Cowboys game really worried me just because of the travel aspect and the Vegas hangover and all that type of stuff. I'm a little bit of a concern about us coming back from, you know, the weather in North Queensland and all that type of stuff. But I think, you know, 1 through 17, we've got South covered. I don't know if they've got some of their players coming back, but, you know, they've got a few injuries out there and things like that.

[00:31:41] I don't think South are at our level and I think the Sharks should be able to handle them comfortably. But I'm just so excited to get back to Shark Park and I think a 3 o'clock kickoff is going to be so nice. Hopefully the weather is good and it's going to be great to be back there. We're going to wrap it up there, Kieran. Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate you. We'll see you down on Saturday at the beautiful ground of Shark Park. And thanks everyone for tuning in. Apologies. It's a bit of a different episode today, but we're doing the best we can as we always will.

[00:32:11] This is Shark House Pod. We'll have more episodes for you throughout the week. Stay tuned. You know where to follow us. You know where to like us. This has been Catching Up with Kieran over coffee about Cronulla. In case we didn't say it at the start, my name is Sam SharnaseoG2015. We will talk to you soon. We love this club and we love our listeners. Up, up, Cronulla. Let's go.

[00:32:44] In the black, white and blue. Up, up, Cronulla. Sharks, sharks, forever's the time to see. All the sharks are...

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[00:34:45] Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Back in the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming out with the truck.