Rd 7 TeamList Tuesday/Interview with Mawene Hiroti

[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

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[00:01:06] 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 short, sharp team list slash interview episode is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, and Jason Halls at Crips & Crips Real Estate. My name is Sam Schnazzi, OG 2016. No, OG 2015 was there in 2016, supporting the club for a lot longer than that.

[00:01:32] This is our 11th season of podcasting. It's our pleasure and joy to do so. We release lots of episodes throughout the week for your enjoyment and entertainment. This is the team list Tuesday episode and we can tell you the Sharks are coming off a good win against Manly. Bit closer than what we would have liked, bit closer than what it should have been. But in hindsight, I thought a pretty good performance defensively and the attack clicked when it needed to.

[00:02:01] Still a lot of improvement to come, but this is where we're at, sitting in 9th place. And was talking to a journo today about the whole Galvin-West Tigers thing. And we both agreed it's such a great place to be in Sharkland right now where there really isn't any controversy or news. I know we're just one decision away from that happening, but at the moment, touch wood. Not jinxing anything. It's a really safe place to be as a fan because all you're worrying about is the wins and losses.

[00:02:28] And thankfully there was a win last week and I think another one around the corner against Newcastle. 4 o'clock on Sunday or thereabouts 4 o'clock up in Newcastle. If you haven't got a ticket, I'd get one pretty soon. It's going to be a sellout. And I can't wait to watch the team run around. Your team, Will Kennedy, man of the match last week, retains his spot at fullback. The wing is a Sam Stone Street and Ronaldo Molotalo.

[00:02:56] Jesse Ramian and the interview guest today, one of his first ever interviews I think, Marwini Herotti is on the show today. So do not go anywhere. We've got a really nice bit longer interview with him. Great to chat to. He holds his spot this week with Kyle Iroh not available. Braden Trindle, Nico Hines are the halves. Named in number 8 and likely to play at this stage, Adin Fanua Blake. Blake Braley and Oregon Kifusi.

[00:03:25] The back row is Britton, Nicarate Teague, Wilton and Captain Cam McInnes. The extended bench is Dan Atkinson, Sifatala Kai, Toby Rudolph and Tall Tom Hazleton. That means the rest of the bench is...

[00:03:51] So that is your Sharks team list for this week. Just repeating some key indicators here. The person I got to interview today, Marwini Herotti, stays in number 4. Kyle Iroh is still a week or two or more away. I saw him today. Certainly not ready to play this week. Fanua Blake has been named and I'm led to believe he's a decent chance of playing. They will not risk it if they don't need to. So do not worry about that.

[00:04:20] The bench is Atkinson, Talakai, Rudolph and Hazleton. And your 18th man is Tuku. The rest of the bench is Beryl, Hojepa, Burns and Viola. Coming up against a pretty desperate Newcastle team. They've rightfully so been shredded in the media and their attack is really under the spotlight. And I'm looking forward to seeing what our team can do against this Newcastle team. Defensively they're okay.

[00:04:49] They're probably a little bit more than okay. But attack wise there's not a lot happening at the moment. Doesn't mean it can't strike. But I've got a good feeling this week we're going to get them. We will have more episodes throughout the week analyzing the Newcastle game. And everything that's going on in Shark Nation. So don't go anywhere. Stick with Shark Cast Pod. We got you covered. That is your team for this week. Now, as I said, Fanua Blake, named to play, likely to play. But if he doesn't, what would you do? What's going to happen?

[00:05:18] Does Toby Rudolph or Tom Hazleton start and then Tuku come in? Is it as simple as that? We shall see. But at the moment, he is starting, Adam Fanua Blake. Send us your thoughts. Sharkcastpod at gmail.com. You can DM us on social media. If it's easier for you, you can go to sharkcast.com.au. There's a very simple process of sending us a message, a note, email. It's all the one thing. Or if you're feeling chatty, you can leave a voicemail on there.

[00:05:48] Please keep it to 30 seconds to a minute, tops. And please no cursing. By cursing, I mean swearing. Shark's on the road for the next while after Newcastle. We go to Lecquart. And then after that, we go to Suncorp Magic Round as the home team to play Parramatta. Then after that, we're off to Brookvale. And finally, we come home Saturday 17th of May to play The Storm at Woolaware.

[00:06:16] And I reckon you can pencil in a bit of a pre-meet up with Sharkcast. I'm thinking a local brewery somewhere. Stay tuned. Sharkcastpod. These things are always in pencil. But I'm very much looking forward to getting down to Shark Park, Shark Stadium for that game against the Storm. It's always a classic encounter. Hopefully, we're fit in firing a reader rock. Always a busy time in Shark Nation.

[00:06:44] And we love covering the Sharks for you guys and girls. Don't be strangers. Get in touch. Drop us a line. Leave us a review on your podcast provider or on YouTube. Leave us a review on the website, sharkcast.com.au. It's quite easy to do. We love to keep building this network of Sharks fans via the Sharkcast community. We're doing everything we can to really put ourselves out there so I hopefully can come along for the ride.

[00:07:13] Do not go anywhere because we have a very underrated and very deserving of your time player coming up. And that is Marwini Hiroti. I was really impressed with him. Switched on and knows his role within the club. Very sort of understated character but also one that, you know, walked with pride and confidence. And it was great to finally catch up with him, particularly off the back of a really good game last week. So hopefully he can do it again this week.

[00:07:41] Against, as he said, for a spoiler, he's opposing Dane Gagai. So he has history with Dane in a good sense. He used to play with him at Souths outside of him. And they were also roomies of the All-Stars game. You can hear all about that in the interview coming up very, very soon. So stick with us. We'll be back with more episodes before you know it. Sharkcast Pod. Up next is Marwini Hiroti. Sharkcast Pod here with Marwini Hiroti.

[00:08:10] Welcome to your first ever Sharkcast Pod interview. Great to meet you. You've been here for a while now. When did you sign with the Sharks? So I signed with the Sharks the end of 2019. So yeah, I was at South Sydney previous and then come here. You've been here, what, six seasons now. You sign year to year most times. You're now part of the furniture. You're our guy that we call in when we need you, man. And you're so rock solid. You're a man of the match in Perth, what, two years ago.

[00:08:39] You had an awesome game last week. Tell us what it's like to be a Cronel Shark. Special, obviously, to be a part of this club. And this group of boys are... We're all together and I feel like we're just a big family. And I don't know, just whoever comes into the team, we just get our job done. What's it like with such star-studded players? We can see them all around. There's Nico Hines. There's Oregon Kifusi. It's a great team, as you said. Are you learning from these guys?

[00:09:07] Are you teaching the younger guys? What's your role here? A bit of both. Obviously being a part of the system for a while now. I feel like I can help younger boys coming in, such as a kid like Michael Gabriel. He's coming in. He's been brought into the cup team as I've been into the grade. And he's been playing outstanding. And I feel like I'm still learning a lot off the older boys,

[00:09:35] like Nico, Jesse Ramian at the centre. And, yeah, I just feel like I can do a bit of both roles. Do you feel pretty content right now in your career at the Sharks? You're not exactly old, but they label you as a bit of a journeyman, either you've been at two clubs or whatever, because you tend to sign year by year sometimes. Are you feeling pretty content right now? It's always hard, as in to keep signing these one-year deals. But when I do, I'm obviously just locked in on doing that year well

[00:10:05] and trying to be more consistent. Last year I sort of had too many injuries that sort of just, I don't know, just had an up-and-down year. But I feel like this pre-season I had my best one and I felt like the boys told me that I had my best one and I didn't have any injuries throughout the pre-season. Now it's showing that I'm getting my crack and I'm just trying to do my job for the team. Tell us about Coach Fitzgibbon. He obviously is fond of you, keeping you around the place like he does.

[00:10:35] What's his role been like in your career? Good, obviously. I've only had a handful of coaches, but I feel like he's just brought in the whole group. No matter who comes in, everyone just feels welcome from day one. Obviously, it helps out, talks to the boys on what they need to work on and it's just me just being consistent and just having a crack, actually taking every opportunity by both hands. You play for the Jets when you're not playing for the Sharks.

[00:11:05] How's that been over the last few years? It's been good, especially last year. We won in the grand final. Yeah, I love playing for the Jets and every opportunity that I go back, I'm still having a crack and trying to play my best game for the Jets. What's it like for you in the weeks where you don't play football? You're sort of 18th man, you might be 19th man, you don't fly back or whatever. What's that like? Is it frustrating? Is it just part of the job?

[00:11:32] It's a little frustrating when you don't get to play any game, but you've still got a job to do. You never know, you could be caught into the game last minute, as has happened for me once. You've still got to prepare the team like they're going into a battle and just helping out whoever and wherever you can. What's your favourite position to play? I like centre, but wherever I get a crack.

[00:11:59] But then I've been playing fullback a bit more. I'm sort of liking that also and get to roam around, do my own thing. In pre-season, what's it like? Say, example, pre-season just gone. Does Fitzy say, I'm going to get you to train in a certain position or do you just float around or how does that work? I'll normally fold into my centre position, but then if I get an injury or someone's got a niggle, I'll just fill in that spot or whatever.

[00:12:28] So if a fullback goes down, I'll just pop in fullback or wing. So, yeah, just got a nice centre. Give us a bit about your background. Where did you grow up? So I grew up in New Zealand. Cool place, New Plymouth in Taranaki region. And, yeah, just love my... Growing up, just my family, just young kids, just running around loving footy every sport that pops up, just jump straight into it. When did you move to Australia?

[00:12:58] I moved in to Australia... When was it? 20... Maybe end of 2013? Okay. 2014. For football? Yeah, so South brought me over for Howard Matts. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because my brother was over here previous, the year before, and then they got me a trial in the school holidays and then, yeah, they followed me over the following year. How was that experience for you? I'm guessing you came on your own, although your brother was here?

[00:13:27] Yeah, so my brother was here and then, yeah, just come over for the trial, went back home, and then they called me up saying, we want you for the next following year for Howard Matts and then, yeah, whole family forever. Okay. So my parents, once I had known I was coming over, the whole family just ended up moving over and just started a new life over here. Is your family still here? Yeah, so my parents are still here. My whole family's still here. Wow. Yeah. That's awesome. We all had kids,

[00:13:56] so there's no point for them going back home. You're a family man. We see that on Instagram. What's it like being a footballer with a young family? I love it. Yeah? It's the best thing ever. Yeah. I don't know. It's hard to describe. It's just, once you have that first one, it's just, yeah, you just fall in love. Before we let you go, Marwini, there's two things we ask people we have just met. One, I'm not sure if you'll be able to answer this or not, October 2, 2016, grand final night, Cronulla, Melbourne. Do you remember watching that game?

[00:14:25] I think I missed that year in the grand finals. You missed that? The last three years I was at the grand finals. Have you watched it back? As Fitzhine made you watch it? Highlights of Andrew Fafita scoring that try, as everyone knows, even him showing it off. Him telling me I was the one that won it. All right. We'll let you off the hook for that one. Tell us about music and Marwini, Roddy. What do you like? What do you listen to? Artists, genre, whatever you like. I like R&B,

[00:14:54] country song music coming out is getting popular, and everything, whatever. So, I'm assuming, although we haven't got a team list, you're playing this week against Newcastle. Do you know who you'd be coming up against? The player? Gay Guy. Dan Gay Guy. Okay. He's a veteran. I'm at South. Oh, right. Yeah. So, okay, cool. That'll be spicy then. Yeah, so it should be good. And I was just in camp with him for the Maldives. Yeah. So, here's my roomie. Oh, nice.

[00:15:24] That's awesome. I'll be getting a good little battle. You know he likes an offload. Yeah, he likes it. He's a bit erratic. He does a lot of things. So, I'll try and contain him. Before we let you go, let's talk about the All-Stars experience, because I forgot about that. What a great achievement for you. How was that? How did you find out? Who told you? So, the club were coming up to me like, have you heard? Have you heard? I said, nah, I haven't heard anything. And then we had a trial here against the Warriors. Yeah.

[00:15:52] And Larry called me that morning and told me I was going into camp. So, yeah, it was exciting, but I also had a game to prepare that day. Did you have any idea? Like, were people whispering? Did you have any inkling you were going to, any idea that you were going to get chosen? Yeah, it was floating around in the clubs, and I think you're going in. But I just wasn't confirmed. So, I didn't want to get my hopes up. Once he called, I was like,

[00:16:22] oh yeah, I got pretty excited. How was the week? It was good. It's been a while since I've been in the Maori culture. Obviously, since being moved over here. Back home, yeah. It just felt like back home. All the boys just got around, just felt comfortable and it was good. That's awesome, man. Hey, thanks for your time. Great to meet you. Good luck this week. We hope that we see you more. On the podcast, we followed your career

[00:16:51] from south to here, the early days. You're such a reliable player, man. And great to meet you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for meeting. 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 Caring Bar 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,

[00:17:16] the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate.