Rd 27, 2026 Fitzgibbon Presser plus Your Mail and Latest News

[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 could go old school and call them on 029523 9300. And to all you people back in the Shire, turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy.

[00:00:55] Welcome to SharkCast, part of a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. My name is Sam Chinazzi, OG 2015. 12 seasons of having fun, podcasting about the greatest club in the history of the world.

[00:01:22] And this is a short, sharp coach press conference episode for you all to enjoy. Encourage you to go watch the vision of it on sharks.com.au and associated social medias. I know a lot of you like to just hear the audio side of things and we're going to run the full press conference. It goes for about 10 minutes. It's really good. There's a lot of chat about last week and about the last four weeks.

[00:01:48] There's chat about the fellas on debut, potentially what happens next week. We do reveal that Michael Gabriel was suspended last week. I reported he was injured and he definitely was injured, but he was also suspended. There's talk about the monitor situation, the computer monitor, the whole thing. So pretty good presser, the reunions and that kind of thing that's going on. So hope you enjoy it. Bit of a awareness, not really an apology, but an awareness.

[00:02:15] There probably won't be too many more episodes this week from me before the post game live show because just things are a bit cray cray. So unfortunately, bit limited this week on what I can give to you all, but you know, there's more coming and some real special things as well. So just stick with us and we will be going live all being well post game. So that will probably be the next episode.

[00:02:44] If we can do something before then, we will. But if we can't, this is why. We will be in the movie location for week one of the finals. We know we will have a home final, which is awesome. We are waiting to see who it will be. It will most likely be against the Cowboys, but not confirmed. If it's the Cowboys, that is the probably only chance you'll get to see the game at Ocean Protect Stadium. it's not a guarantee all the intel and mail that i'm getting is that it's actually a bit of a

[00:03:12] struggle to get it across the line but it's certainly not an impossibility at the same time because the crowd they'll get for example at the allianz stadium might be five to ten thousand more maybe than what we'll get at ocean protect stadium so wait and see on that one who knows what's going to happen but who knows what you prefer i'd love to hear what you prefer so drop me a line and we'll get to all the mail and that kind of thing there is a bit of mail which i will

[00:03:39] have a look at right now actually as i'd say this episode's brought to you by dyson logistics the royal media club and port hacking and jason whores at crips and crips real estate steven was in touch steven said what a disaster the last four weeks have been four weeks ago there was hope we would finish top four good chance of winning the whole thing that has vanished after some absolutely disgraceful football how can things go so badly couple of injuries and we've lost the plot from

[00:04:06] what i saw of the coach today he's at his wits end with this lot para haven't played a good 80 minutes all year and we come out and we've come out and deliver that and make it look like they're the ones shooting for a top four spot the only shining light is we only have to put up with this for another two weeks what a disgrace that's from steven he's said the s word a couple of times which i'm not going to throw in but i respect you saying it there's not much to say there steven it has been

[00:04:30] pretty bad no sugar coating from me i don't exactly know why i mean trindle's a big loss raymond's a big loss but that's not why you're missing a bunch of tackles and that kind of thing so i've got no idea to be honest i've got some theories and and some blame here or there but it's not individuals necessarily it's a collective and just got to be better man and i'm sorry that uh you've had to go through all this like all of us our good friend mark horn has been in touch said as

[00:04:59] much as it's the 10 year reunion day i'd still be resting players not all and i would debut both the riley's bring in toby bhu and hojepa we are fifth and that's it the storm are going to come out swinging in a big way and i'll be tipping them to win the 10 year reunion party unfortunately should not be a part of the finals preparation have a different energy and motivation going in the debuts and the

[00:05:25] last games at home most likely for bhu katoa sifa etc that's from mark it's a great point actually could be the last home game of the year you know it's a chance good chance it will be and we'll never see some of these guys ever again on the field playing for us so very good point from mark thanks so much for that definitely strange timing because i'm sure that we all thought including the staff administration and the people putting everything together that we'd be competing for top four and

[00:05:53] above and it'd be a rocking atmosphere etc so it's going to be a strange old night i'm hoping it'll be a great one john said thanks for the pod it's fantastic so thank you very much very disappointed last week versus the eels but onwards and upwards i always worry when a club doesn't bring in anyone new we always need new people making their way and proving themselves with additional 60 roster spots introduced the next two years clubs love to work harder to find develop manufacturing new talent

[00:06:22] with the three signings for 27 being new to the nrol we're on the right path whether it cancels out seven to eight departures we'll have to wait and see that's from john thanks john yeah some good points there very interesting to see what happens next year and what kind of lineup we'll have because there are a lot of guys leaving dan was in touch and said loving the banter with kieran and all things woolies trolleys hand sanitizer favorite chinese restaurant and chinese dish keep it coming and he said

[00:06:51] thanks for keeping the pods coming regardless of how the team performs don't know what us sharkies fans would do without you so that is super amazingly kind thank you so much dan uh yeah win lose or draw i'm here for you guys and girls and i'm here to do it for lots of reasons and mostly it's fun makes me feel better even though sometimes it's a negative vibe or whatever uh it's it's totally my pleasure so thank

[00:07:17] you dan for the kind words and yes kieran is becoming a bit of a superstar isn't he it may not be for everyone the episodes on monday slash tuesday but uh certainly a lot of people are loving it i can see that i will say this it's very natural banter that's kieran and i that's how we usually just talk we can go from really extreme serious things to really light-hearted things in a matter of a minute we have a lot in common and i've said it a million times but that's how the episode started is we would

[00:07:45] hang out down at mr paisley's and just talk shoot the breeze and i one day i said to him this is the episode right here reference to seinfeld and he kind of thought i was joking and then i think the season came around and we started it and it's been a lot of fun ever since so appreciate you dan for the kind words and it's definitely not formulated to be today we're going to talk about chinese food he just sort of comes up with it or i'll come up with something in the moment and we definitely don't

[00:08:14] meet about what we're going to talk about and that kind of thing we just let it flow so a lot of fun for me and he's a good dude and he's been a good dude in my life the last three or four years however long we've been hanging out so thanks dan appreciate you hope you're doing well evan was in touch and he wanted to let me know about the yarrowora tigers which i don't know if we've talked about on the show yet but i was very aware of what happened but appreciate uh evan with the reminder winning 14-12

[00:08:40] in what was probably chad's last ever game 10 years on from the greatest ever up up thank you evan hope you're good is he called it quits i mean he'd be smart to going out in the high but not sure if he's called it quits yet uh thanks to harry with the kind words about the pod and he might bump into us on saturday which should be cool steven was in touch different steven unfortunately we now at the end of the year exactly what we've had all year you can only afford to lose eight games

[00:09:09] through 27 rounds to make the top four we managed to lose four or half of those in the first eight rounds then you're really up against it we had some moments but the evidence does not support us winning four games in a row against the best teams come final time i'll be cheering on the boys but the reality is we've been making up the numbers all year fits there's a lot of work ahead and hard decisions to fix whatever issues have led to this no one will be happier if i'm dead wrong and we lift the shield love the pod that's from steve what a legend thank you so much really well said

[00:09:36] i'm with you i'd love to be proven wrong and let's go do it but it's gonna be a tough one that's for sure lucas was in touch and said today feels like a closing doors moment on what seemed like a promising year i feel like fitz might have got exposed the last couple weeks with selections hoping things happen internally to fire up the boys i still feel like we have a chance with trindle's back also been missing ramian i've been critical of him in the past but didn't realize we'd miss him to the extent we seem

[00:10:05] to so that's from lucas thanks so much paul said finals just around the corner let's hope the real sharks stand up a note of interest how unfair the nrol competition is sometimes melbourne played the first game of the round on a thursday night and the sharks played the last game of the round sunday night how is that fair what's your thoughts oh he's referring to last week yeah my thoughts are that's not fair i've been very critical of the nrol in the way they do the draw i know they go to a lot

[00:10:34] of detail but i don't know how you get those things wrong i don't know how you can favor one team to the other and never been a fan of that kind of thing you've got to get the turnarounds even and fair both to the team individually and to the team they're playing when they match up so the nrol do a lot of great stuff i'm not a huge detractor from them as a corporation i quite like a lot of things

[00:10:59] they do but the draw is weird i'm not a fan of it thanks for being in touch our friend stats wrote to us hope you've recovered from the game last week i haven't yet listening to your post-match pod those questioning the katoa forward pass are two things to the letter of the law katoa should have been penalized and i would suggest it was classed as an accidental forward pass like most occasions

[00:11:24] where he was off balance the decision was correct had the referee correct incorrectly allowed it the bunker would have called it back as katoa touched the ball after having last come from outside of the field of play not making contact with the field of play before touching the ball again too often our fans want to look at the refereeing officials when rot is far closer to home so just on that the forward pass thing i wasn't aware that it was illegal outside of the inside of the field

[00:11:52] of play that is definitely i agree with you that is correct as in that it would have been called back our most devastating bench player talakai was not immediately subbed on the moment the yields went down to 10 men i think you mean 11 or 12 putting siffer on there would have been a great example of eyes up coaching i'm scared for saturday take care that's from stats over in the wa look i've never been there doing the bench thing i don't know what it's like i don't know what

[00:12:19] scenarios you face it's more than what we probably just think of in the heat of the moment it would have been good having siffer on there playing eyes up footy real name steven a lot of stevens followers now on saturday our friend tim at the shark cage has organized a fun little gathering and it's going to be at the hairy man brewery which is about 15 20 minute walk from the stadium so put in north

[00:12:45] umberland road carrying bar in your app and it'll get you there hairy man brewery shark cage shark cast a whole bunch of sharks people are going to be gathering there from 4 p.m now as a heads up have to be completely transparent sam skenazzi myself sam skenazzi i won't be in the house a little bit later on it could be 5 5 36 we're going to work that out but going to try and get other

[00:13:10] shark casters who you listen to to the event however pre-game drinks and again drinks is a light word you don't have to drink they have food there they have soft drinks water whatever you like but from 4 p.m tim and the shark cage crew are going to be hanging out at the hairy man brewery catch up with fellow supporters enjoy a few pre-game drinks some food and then walk together as one to ocean protect

[00:13:39] stadium ahead of the kickoff and if you are not going to that event you can meet up with the shark cage crew they'll be located left of the post in front of the monte porter stand so pretty easy to find look for all the signs and the banter but yeah very low key but tim has been kind enough to attach us to a bunch of these events throughout the year and vice versa and that's what's happening around 27

[00:14:04] hairy man brewery games at 7 35 p.m so plenty of time just to hang out and it's a lovely location it's super chill and i encourage you to do it and make sure you tell everyone that shark cast sent you i encourage you to get there from 4 p.m hang out you can talk with lots of people about sharks very friendly everyone's inclusive and just wanted to spread that for my man tim in the shark cage

[00:14:28] round 27 hairy man brewery from 4 p.m i'm gonna go to the fitzy presser now been talking too long up up um fits will start with some nice moments when i shoot this week uh telling the three guys that they'll be making their eril debuts what was that like yeah it was awesome we had um had a celebration we sort of um they had no idea at the time and then we um we had them up the front

[00:14:56] as if we were just about to interview them and flip their shark numbers up behind them on the screen and um the celebration was pretty cool actually yeah they're the moments that um bring light to the job and the joys of rugby league and um yeah looking forward to the jersey presentation this morning actually so they had no idea but something that you had in your mind for a while yeah we had yeah um obviously circumstantially you never know um they've been super close for a period of time now

[00:15:21] um performing strongly and um you know other than mickey was suspended the week before last so but uh they've been playing yeah they're just they're players for the sharks that we're looking at anyway so um to have an opportunity to give them a game yeah it's um it's thrilling yeah michael in particular you've mentioned a few times this season like that he's been so close and you're like you're obviously a big fan of his um yeah he's a prospect but uh yeah roley jones has

[00:15:46] probably been close like really close roley sat on the bench like i'm probably five or six times this year um and and roley pollard's having his first full season with the jet so um he's been he's been enormous roley pollard so um they've all been really close to be honest and um you know michael's probably a bit more uh well known i guess with if in terms of um people waiting for an opportunity for him but um yeah roley jones has been super close as well so um it's great all

[00:16:16] three get a chance at one time yeah the flip side i guess resting the other guys how difficult was it to make that call did you go yeah no that was really difficult because there was a host of different reasons um obviously we haven't had a bye in 10 weeks um so some guys need need it um other guys a bit sick um yeah there were circumstances for all to be perfectly honest um and it felt it just felt right for that week and then ultimately too that the jets are playing an elimination semi-final and

[00:16:45] we really want them to do well so next week when they walk in the door everyone's here for a very deliberate reason so we had to we had to take a few of those jets boys out of the side but not too many to leave them a strong strong outfit as well i think the 2016 boys are dropping in today yeah how important is that to get those guys around um this time of year oh it's awesome like just a celebration for the first team to ever win a premiership for the sharks you know it took 50 years and

[00:17:08] um you know we see a number of those guys around a lot like gal and luke lewis and and wade and and andrew for feeder and those guys are always around um however there's a number of players in the team that aren't so it'd be really good to see those guys come in and um i'm sure they're super excited for next couple of days and and celebrating their premiership victory and um i think there's there's about 40 or 50 other old boys coming and uh the 96 reserve grade team won the premiership too so i'm sure

[00:17:38] those boys are getting together so it's pretty cool and um it's a nice nod to the history of the club yeah obviously it's a chance to celebrate those guys like you say but do you hope that maybe there's some insight they can glean for the boys in terms of this time of year in the business yeah we'll spend some time chatting them um get the players to get around them and they that players the players tend to know most of the guys anyway so um yeah there's a uh there's always lessons in in what a team's done um previous to you it's obviously it's a decade ago now but um yeah there's still some

[00:18:08] um there's always a snippet somewhere i think your wording up to the game the other day was that the boys been playing uptight for a little bit have you seen anything this week that's made you think maybe they are loosening up a little bit uh yeah well it's obviously yeah excitement shifts when you've got three debutants that's one thing um we're playing melbourne who are um playing really well at the moment so we'll have a hands full but we're excited for for an opportunity and yeah it's a it's been a been a sort of up and down little period last month you know we lost a couple

[00:18:36] then we won one then we went backwards last week so um yeah the tension of that is you know what's ahead you know we're sort of um been known for a couple weeks of playing semi-finals and yeah that's an achievement for us too like we you know you're playing uptight but it's also we deserve credit there from you know internally we're real pleased that we've made it again so super excited about something down the track sometimes take your eyes off what's directly in front of you and that's been a real challenge for us to not get too far ahead and and trying to take it week to week

[00:19:05] but we haven't been doing that and i think that's created a tension there how is managing that tension this week when you know your comments on sunday were about hanging out for semi-final 40 and not really respecting what's in front of you but then you've got these great job shots at everything so that's the lesson the last week in the last few weeks that we've got to take and um yeah get out there and perform and you know play like sharks instead of playing not to lose so there's um yeah that's that's the energy this week and to be fair to the players we uh we cut that off

[00:19:33] pretty quickly after the other night as you have to and then um but it's exciting we're excited like it's old boys day that there's the 10-year reunion and three debutantes so um there's a there's an excitement now yeah you don't always uh mention that kind of stuff publicly like in the post-match pressers like you like i feel like you're quite reserved by saying that on sunday you know yeah did you get the response that you wanted from boys oh we've been talking about internally like it's

[00:19:59] again our performance levels haven't been consistent like they were you know some a whole so there's a lot goes into a season and you're not going to get up and stay up a whole season so you do have ebbs and flows but we're also the levels of performance that we we value and weren't there so what was that reason for well i think it's actually quite obvious in the way we're we're playing so um i don't think what i said was a secret to anyone that was watching the game or or our team so they're pretty aware of

[00:20:27] that again we've we've been together for a long time so i know each other pretty well there and um now it's about yeah getting the excitement for this weekend and um and getting out there and playing like sharks yeah how's moini her up to you with that um ribbon drickness uh we wouldn't have been able to play him this week so um he's got some damage in there what happens um going forward not sure yet it's on their their strange injuries the rib ones it's um some of them heal really quickly and you can move and get mobile quickly and then some take a little bit longer so there's

[00:20:57] no time for them in there i know that the focus is on the debutants and this week but is there maybe a chance for one of those boys in the centers to hold that spot at a really important time of year if he doesn't pull up there's a big yeah no that's possible for sure that's another reason and having a look at those kids and um we've got siffa there he's played he's actually played in semi-finals in the centers and i don't know if um gee i thought we put brit there to start with because we didn't want to change the middle rotation but i thought siffa was probably our best

[00:21:23] player out there the other day in the centers so there's another option there but um i'll worry about that next week at the moment i'm just excited to watch those boys have a crack actually yeah are michael and ryan kind of guys that would be excited about that opportunity you think oh they're just excited about this one yeah like that's the i don't think they're jumping too far ahead at all and they understand the mechanics of um how a team works and um you know the amount of reps those other players have spent together they've spent years together standing next to each other in

[00:21:50] defense and um you know defense is the most important thing and you know mar and siffa have been there for years but these boys are um they're exciting and they've got something about them so anything's possible for sure how's brayton trindle tracking this week yeah good really good um i'll look at yeah he'll be right next week yeah so um we uh i don't declare that just yet you still got to get through plenty of training next week and and all that but if all things going well

[00:22:18] and he gets through training then yeah we're looking at we're looking at getting him back that's so positive he's been such a good place yeah it has yeah him and um he's had a you know even nicko got hurt and him and nephi played well together and then him and nicko probably had their strongest combination year i think together and um you can see what an influential player is when we don't have him so he's uh he's yeah he's he's definitely a uh yeah he's a good player

[00:22:45] yeah i do yeah no i do yeah he just um balance of um the balance of the team and controlling for has is that stuff takes a long time to get and i i think for himself this is probably the best year he's had of yeah he's always had the moments you know he's always had the ability to pick a team apart but now he knows how to control the game with his kicking game and he's defended better this year so yeah with that in mind about you know talking about how strong the combination's been this year

[00:23:13] does that make it easier in a way that if he does come back next week getting you know didn't have say like a regular season he'd actually be able to get some minutes like you've got that confidence yeah i do yeah it hasn't been that long like i said what was it it's been three weeks or something like that so um he's uh let's just say he's been put through the ring to make sure he's ready yeah yeah he's reminding me all the time do you want to seek any clarification from the nrol

[00:23:37] this week about your frustrations about penalties on sunday night no he can't get it back no so um we got the obviously the the main decision that um was bizarre on the day was they've come out and said they got that wrong so what i don't know much else you can do about that what sort of stuff the boy's been putting tricking through to test that shoulder out oh yeah well obviously not yeah with respect to his shoulder a lot of a lot of rehab work and that can be tedious in itself it's hard

[00:24:04] work and whatever but he's um he's run a lot yeah and what about adam that i think was a he sprained and came back on yeah he's okay no it's fine yeah nothing he'll be um he'll be okay to go tomorrow night for sure i just asked about the moment we saw him in the box with you obviously yeah um again we don't often see that with you in the box but maybe more this season than we ever have um just your reflection on that well i was pretty sure the monitor wasn't gonna eat me

[00:24:31] back so it's a it was a safe safe reaction but no no what i knew what i just saw i knew what was gonna happen and told me he was gonna get suspended so that's probably that's where it spilled over and wasn't long after um decisions and then that decision where we're coming back into the game and i thought you know we're probably looking like we could turn around and then as soon as the tommy tackle had happened i looked at that and thought oh that's something so that's where the reaction

[00:24:55] come from but yeah no it happens just yeah we're we're not emotionless we put on a good face most of the time sometimes it spills over and um but i i think it's possible i overreacted yeah shark cast 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 carring bar region and has his eye all across the shire lifelong sharks fan and supporter of this podcast if you're looking to

[00:25:25] 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 jason hawes crips and crips real estate

[00:25:44] sharkies sharkies back in the shire tell your points lights off because we're coming home with a trophy