Sharks vs Roosters Preview with Aaron 'Wally' Wallace - Rd 16, 2026

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[00:00:55] Alright, hey there, welcome to SharkCast Potter Podcast, dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. As you can see watching this video, or if you're listening on the audio side of things, which is a whole bunch of you, we have the head rooster himself. Oh!

[00:01:24] That one's a bit sick. You've choked the chicken, Snatch, you need to do it again. There we go. There we go. Mr. Aaron Wallace, he is the head rooster himself. He's also known as being in DAZN, and he's a good mate of mine. Walter, football, Aaron Wally Wallace. Wally, how are you my friend? What's going on? Nice, thank you for having me back. It's a little bit cold down here at the foot of the mountains at this time of year, but looking forward to some more good games this weekend.

[00:01:50] Yeah, starting tonight as we record, not sure when people will hear this, but we have the Dastardly Dragons up in Newey, and we're going to finish with the Roosters against the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. So your team against mine at Allianz Stadium. Now, we believe it's the first time our teams will play at the new fangled Allianz, and you and I have both been there, and it's an incredible stadium. Now, we're not going to hurt you heavy on the stadium.

[00:02:21] Okay, okay. Let's stick to the one side of the stadium, but tell us about Alex. I can get our catchment on the phone for you if you'd like to talk about this. We love Alex Shark Cast Pod. We love Alex. We love Alex. We love Alex. But how, as someone who grew up literally at the old SFS, like your stories are endless about the SFS, and I've heard all of them multiple times. How do you feel about the new one? You cool? It's brilliant. It's brilliant. It's really good.

[00:02:51] I think it's not that much different to the old SFS, to be honest, but everything that's like is similar is a bit better. I think in terms of the way that the way you walk in and you can walk around the concourse, you can basically see the field from anywhere that you walk around the concourse. There's a lot of bars and food places and whatnot, and I really don't think there is a bad seat in the house, to be honest. I've sat behind the posts. I've sat in the chook pen. I've been up the top in like the members area and whatnot.

[00:03:19] So, yeah, everywhere I've been, just a great view, and it's easy to get to now. You've got the light rail now that just basically drops you outside. You walk up to the ground, and yeah, I really can't complain about anything. I don't think I've been to a better ground in Australia. People say they like Suncorp. Suncorp's good, but Suncorp still, most of it is an old grandstand that they sort of built onto, so it has problems because of that, and the way that the seats and the stairs and that work, that you have to walk in front of people and whatnot,

[00:03:45] which I don't think is great, to be honest, but it's nearly always a good atmosphere up there. But just in terms of, yeah, a viewing, getting in and out of the ground, the viewing, and then all the facilities around it, I think, yeah, Allianz is the best rugby league ground in Australia, in my opinion anyway. I do think Combank gives it a run for the money. It's slightly more boutique, but very similar vibe as far as the modern just facilities and the vibe and the kind of,

[00:04:13] not steep, but the kind of newfangled way of having the seats go up rather than kind of a traditional kind of stadium. So yeah, you don't want the flat bowl anymore. Yeah, you want that sort of, where you feel like you're on top of the ground, and you're right, Combank's very similar. So that Combank might actually even be a bit steeper. I think, especially at the end of the ground, the stairs are quite steep. But yeah, just the way you sort of walk in and the ground's down in the bowl. And as soon as you walk in, you can see the ground. And yeah, it's just a really, it's fun to go to, I think.

[00:04:42] It's, yeah, sort of. It is fun. That's a good word for it. Like I imagine if you're a little kid going there or a big kid like you and I, but if you're a little kid, you see the lights and your name up on the thing going around and the big screen. The screen is pretty amazing in itself. Like they do all that really well. Lights down, score to trial. I love all that sort of thing. Yeah, no, it's definitely, it's definitely in a, the very modern rugby league experience, I think is fair to say. But yeah, it's a, as you say, every time I go there, it feels like you have a good time.

[00:05:12] It's fun. It's a good vibe to be in. Now, speaking of great stadiums around the world, I have, I can confirm, I don't think you've seen it yet. Well, the Sharks have released the Leagues Club video. So the Leagues Club's opening sometime in spring and they've released the first video and it looks really good. Looks like state of the art, nice Leagues Club. So I'm sure you'll be having a burger and a cider in there one time before a game. You said no Chinese restaurant going back in, Schneezy, the Leagues Club?

[00:05:42] There might be a Chinese restaurant within the proximity. The precinct, okay. The precinct, yeah. We'll TBC on that, but it looks really good. So for everyone listening, go check it out on all the channels you suspect it might be on. Sharks, Roosters, oh, I've got to hit the thing, at Allianz Stadium. Roosters is scoring lots of tries in this podcast, as I like it. Every time that the rooster goes off, that's a try, so it's good.

[00:06:10] It's actually the same sound effects that Fox Sports use. That's the exact same one right there, the delayed sound. So I've hit record, and then the link hasn't come in for about three seconds. And he goes, that's how we do it at Fox Sports. There's someone there waiting for him to score, and they hit the button. Anyway, this is our 107th game, Aaron. And you've been in it probably, what, 60 of them yourself. You guys have won a bunch more than the Sharks, historically speaking. But recently it's pretty even.

[00:06:40] And we know that in round six, you won the game that you shouldn't have won. We were leading 22-6 over in Perth. And the Sharkies just gave it up, baby. What are your memories of that game? I was filthy at halftime and was telling a probably friend of the show, Dean Rob, that we were hopeless and this was ridiculous and what was going on with the team. But the second half was great. They had a bit of a run there, I think, when they were sort of trailing at halftime and then came home strong in the second half.

[00:07:06] And that was one of those games where the, when the Roosters attack works, it's very, very good. But when it doesn't work, it's very, very bad. And they sort of did a bit of both in that game. But it was a surprising win, especially what the score was early in the game. Yeah. And since then, the Sharks have been a lot better, thankfully. We've now won four in a row, going for five. Missing half our spine while they were missing the great Blake Braley and Nico Hines. They may be back this week.

[00:07:34] Now, I might to believe that the company you and I work for, the department you and I work for, and correct me if I'm wrong, we're responsible for the Nico Hines is not as good in the Sharks than he is out of the Sharks or whatever the hell the stat was. Was that us? I don't know if we were responsible, but we got asked the question of what the Sharks record was with and without Nico Hines, yes, since 2024. And it's one of those things that, yes, their record without him is better. But when you go through and look at the teams that they played when he's been missing,

[00:08:04] like a lot of them being low on the table and whatnot. And it's only 12 games or something. It's, there's been a few players like that, like ridiculously good players. I remember looking up years ago, like there was times when like, yeah, this team wins more games and this guy doesn't play. It's one of these things. And it's a good stat and it's a good number and it's a good headline. But a lot of the time, it's like the one I found for State of Origin during the week that when the New South Wales hooker plays 80 minutes, they haven't won a game in 2020. It's none from seven.

[00:08:32] But one of those games, the hooker played 78 minutes, but it doesn't matter. He didn't play 80 minutes. So sometimes you can make a number. You can get a headline out of a number that when you look, it's like, well. Why don't we go more topical on that theme and reinforce the fact that you can win a comp by losing a game by 49 points, but you can't win a comp by losing by 50. That's right. If you concede 49, you're fine. But as soon as you concede 50, sorry, you can't win anymore. Amazing.

[00:09:02] Amazing. I love that one. Lights fans love it too, can I tell you? I'm sure they do. They just got there. I think, was that the Sharkies who beat them by 50? Was that it? That year? It might've been, yeah. Might've been. I don't really remember it. Yeah, it was definitely, it was 49 something. And yeah, well, they can still win the cop. Only 49. Now we got some great battles this weekend. We're not sure the final lineups, but if we assume what's already there right now

[00:09:32] and they don't tinker too much, we should at least see the two superstar heavyweight fullbacks in the game, James Tedesco versus Will Kennedy. Why are you laughing? Yeah, Kennedy's, I guess he's just a great player. He's pretty great. Well, what about that charge down? That's the most ridiculous thing I think I've ever seen on a rugby league field that charge down last week when he, the ball disappeared. So what the hell happened to the ball? And somehow he caught it. If he, if he can start pulling off magical things like that, maybe he will be remembered

[00:10:00] as one of the great fullbacks of all time, but he's been in pretty good form. He has. I mean, we've, we've done a lot of historical, uh, shall we say takes on sharks fullbacks, my friends and I on the show. And he's right up there with other well-known players. In fact, he's probably, if you look at all the attributes in the way that you might do it at work while he it's the peach in him.

[00:10:25] If you look at just like take Ben Barber out because it was two seasons or whatever, even one. Yeah. You know, if you look at the historical side of it, uh, for, for a guy who's done so much, he certainly, um, receives a lot of crap from, uh, particularly from sharks fans. However, he's coming up against the great James Tedesco. I can tell you that, uh, I got to interview will Kennedy this week and I asked him about that, of course. And he said, they do practice it. That's obviously never happened in practice.

[00:10:55] But then he also told me a story about how Fitz he wants him to lead with his head. So it won't be a knock on. And he's not quite doing that. I said to him, Fitzy will tell me this story is true. And he laughs. And he said, well, yes, but also no, it's not completely how I, I don't want him to get concussed. I don't want him to believe it. But, but yeah, a guy who does a lot of work behind the scenes to pull off things like that

[00:11:24] against James Tedesco, who I can't believe people are talking about. He may be let go for game three of origin. That seems insane to me. I don't know that he was on his own and not having a great game the other night. I don't think. And there's been a little bit of talk that maybe Nathan Cleary doesn't bring out the best in Teddy or Teddy doesn't bring out the best in Nathan Cleary. I don't know. Like you pick a squad at the start of the year, the start of the origin series.

[00:11:53] You think it's a bit strange to start dropping blokes that, I don't know. Would Dylan Edwards do a better job? I don't know. He might. He might not. A different job. Teddy's form's been great all year. It's probably fair to say that his two origin games haven't been superb. I think that's fair enough to say. Maybe his age is showing a little bit. Maybe it has got a little bit too fast for him, but they didn't think that before game one. Whether they think it before game three or not, I'm not sure.

[00:12:20] To be honest, I'm very happy for New South Wales to pick Dylan Edwards. I think that's a great idea. Give Teddy a risk for game three. I'd be very happy with that. Are we all forgetting that he actually won game one for New South Wales? Well, yeah. He didn't have that good a game before that, but how many has those moments that he still has that bit of brilliance in him that he can make that break in around the ruck. He can throw a great pass out to the winger. He's very good taking high balls. Yeah.

[00:12:49] It's as I say, he's not on his own in saying that there's a lot of New South Wales players that didn't play great the other night. And there was probably a few players that weren't allowed to play great because of some of the, shall we say, questionable decisions from the coaching staff. We'll put it that way. Yeah. Coaching staff, who you and I are both very fond of as human beings. Yeah. Yeah. Lurie's a great guy, but it's, I mean, he didn't have a great origin career.

[00:13:14] He's first go around and maybe not having a great origin career this year, but he's only 80 minutes away from winning the series. Let's be honest. So it's like both teams are 80 minutes away from winning the series. So I mean, they could get thrashed. They could win. Everyone might be saying, Lurie Daly, what a genius. He's manufactured a decider win up at Suncorp. Let's keep him on for another three years. Who knows?

[00:13:35] It was interesting that all the debate and the criticism came after he won game one, like in between game one and game two, it was all about Lurie's not very good and Lurie this. And it's like, well, he just won the game. Like. Yeah. It's a funny thing. They've got to, there's a lot of the 10 day camps. There's a lot of airtime to fill and it gets filled in some strange ways at times.

[00:14:03] But yeah, I, I don't think anybody in the new South Wales team or coaching staff will be happy with what went down on Wednesday because it wasn't their finest hour. That's for sure. Now, a lot of people know what you do at Fox sports. The zone, et cetera. Uh, and one of those things is you, or one of your main things is you deal with, uh, with the media.

[00:14:25] So you're kind of like our rep to talk to the media and they have questions for you and other people fill that role as well from day to day, but it's your, you oversee it. When, when is the, I know we always joke about this, but officially, as far as you remember, when is the earliest you've ever had a state of origin question in the season? So whether it's like November or in the year of like when, cause we used to, it used to be like, you know, March or whatever, but it's, it keeps going back. Right. It can get earlier and earlier. Yeah.

[00:14:54] There's sometimes there's been things about like the likely squad in November. I think of the, the year before there's always, it always builds up. You get, there's a few questions that I always laugh at when I get the first time. One of my favorites was always what's wrong with the dragons. I used to always get that event. What's wrong with the dragons? That always come earlier and earlier in the year. Yeah. I remember asking the, the journalist who did it, and I won't say who he was, but he basically, his response was that it sends dragons fans mad and they get lots of clicks on it.

[00:15:23] And that's why they do it every year. So they used to be what's wrong with the dragons and, and origins the same. It's just, it drives people mad. If they say like, they're going to pick this guy, not pick this guy. Why should they pick this guy? Right. We are. We've tried to manipulate it in previous. I think we nearly got Pat Richards picked one year. Yeah. We started putting his name for it. And Mitch Orbison, I think was nearly, we nearly got Mitch Orbison picked as well. You just got to get people's names in the media sometimes.

[00:15:49] And once they start talking about them, it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, but we didn't succeed on either of those occasions. We should point out that Pat Richards one was done years after his peak. Yes, definitely. That was when he came, when he came, when he came back, wasn't it? He come back from England. Yeah. It was like, you said, well, I needed a winger. And it was like, look at Pat Richards stats. He's really good. For about a week. It was circulated. It was in the running. I believe potentially the coach at the time who we won't name. You can do the math.

[00:16:19] I believe he actually said it in the media at that point as well. Yeah. As a, as a, as a, as a speccy. It was definitely here. Mitch Orbison was the same. They were that they needed a utility and Mitch Orbison was in good form. And we put forward his stats a few times and yeah, there was definitely a couple of shows and articles around our Mitch Orbison's in the running. Now, now correct me if I'm wrong, Walter, was there not a similar rumor within NRL this year? Was it to do with the Roosters? What am I thinking of?

[00:16:49] Maybe you may have started. Maybe the coach and the, uh, he's maybe a coach and his son joining the club. That was it. Yeah. May have originated with me saying that a lot of people are saying it creates a feedback loop, but then all of a sudden it's actually happening. Amazing. Didn't quite get there with that one either. Unfortunately, the power of the zone. How good. Anyway, we go back to Teddy versus Kennedy.

[00:17:16] And am I correct in saying most of your guys backed up after game, uh, one? Yeah, I think they, well, I think we, they all did. I'm pretty sure. So I'm hoping that whether Robson gets a rest because he played 80 minutes and he doesn't normally do, he might be one of the ones. Um, yeah, I just, we've looking at the position on the ladder and our form in recent times. I think we've only had one of our last four, one of our last three, something like that.

[00:17:44] Uh, I've got thumped by the dolphins last week without all of our players. Um, yeah, it's not a game. I don't think they ever take a game lightly, but this is a game that you lose this. I think we've got Broncos next week up in Brisbane. All of a sudden you could be in a slump and be sort of out of the eight and then fight having to fight a way back in. And so I think that if they're fit, it's, uh, they'll be hoping to get everybody on the field for this one because it's nowhere near must win at this time of the year.

[00:18:13] But especially with the team, the sharks are like the same sort of place on the table. You don't want to be giving games away to those teams and then having to call them back a bit later. So yeah, hopefully everyone can back up, but yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Reece Robson gets a rest and maybe one of the, maybe Lindsay Collins or something, but hopefully, yeah, the majority of the guys will back up.

[00:18:35] Uh, so we have Blake Braley and Nico Hines on an extended bench and we'll find out probably more our Friday, potentially Saturday captains run as to whether they'll be in the team or not. It'll be pretty obvious with the cutting of the players. So watch this space on that. But in the meantime, we've had the Puru brothers come in Walter. They were at the, are in the Penrith system and Nephi has been at Cronon for about four years.

[00:19:03] So Hep has been here, I think for two now, he went to Canberra via us and they're really handy backups. No one's suggesting they're recreating rugby league or they're going to be all time greats, but they're very handy backups so far. And we also have Jaden Beryl, who's a veteran of Queensland cup and now New South Wales cup. He's played a few games for us. He's also a backup hooker. Uh, but have you seen the Puru's at all? What do you, what do you make of them? Is Nephi the halfback? Yes. I think he's one big part.

[00:19:31] I noticed the first game I was actually doing, uh, our assist capture where we do the, uh, supports and decoys and line engagements as the extra stats, uh, for the VB hard earned index. In case anybody's wondering why we're doing those ones live, but Nephi, he absolutely loves a support play. I remember the first game I did like his first, the first few touches that the sharks had when they're on the attack. Nephi was always like, as a good halfback should do, he's pushing through the line, trying to run support plays. We definitely wanted to be involved in the game.

[00:20:00] So yeah, that led to his first try, which wasn't a support play technically. Yeah, no, definitely. That's a, so yeah, definitely saw he was, he was busy. He wanted to get his hands on the ball. I just kept the thing I did. I noticed straight away as well. This guy loves running a support play. He was just over and over and over again. He was pushing through the line. So definitely, uh, very fast, I think very quick, quick footed. And, um, yeah, obviously doing a good job for the sharks because they're in a bit of a bit of a, not a fault.

[00:20:29] What's the opposite of a form slump? I don't even know. Some red hot form maybe. Red hot form. You have a streak. Yeah. The twin brother, Hoheppa, he's, he's traditionally a back rower, but really handy, uh, ball skills. And they put him at hooker for half a game. And then he sort of goes back to back row. He's been really good as well. And it's, they've been lucky. Not so much lucky, but they've had a good recruitment this year where they can just have these guys come in. Billy Burns comes in for one of the back rowers.

[00:20:58] Usually he's been outstanding. So a pretty good squad of guys all around. Like a lot of these guys, they're going to play much footy because, you know, thankfully there's not too many injuries in our team. But, um, yeah, that the backups have been really good is what I've noticed when, when I, when, when half your spine's out, well, you sort of start thinking about losses more than wins, but they've won four in a row. So that's, that's kind of a good outcome. And your depth is, your depth definitely, it's crucial to being successful.

[00:21:28] I think for any team, if you don't, if you only have one, if you have one player out in the play that you're bringing in, isn't up to it. It makes a huge difference to the team. And once you start getting among players that I'm sure the players themselves know that maybe I'm only a New South Wales cup player, that when you, if you start getting those players into first grade and you look at how successful Penriff have been. And every couple talk about this next man up mentality, but that's fine.

[00:21:53] But your next man up has to be capable of performing that role to a level that's at NRL level. And I think that Penriff, especially, yeah, that their guys that have come in to replace their, their excellent players have been brilliant. And Melbourne have done it for years as well, that they've had these guys that, that their depth players are, are at a level that obviously you're still going to feel when you're good, your best players are out. But if you've got players coming in that are at that level, that probably would be playing first grade at a lot of other clubs.

[00:22:22] And I think that it's definitely a help for, well, you need it. You can't win the comp without that depth. Yeah. And I've noted that it probably hasn't been this good since our premiership season when they did have guys who like a young Kurt Capewell, and there was a Mitch Brown and there was new Brown. And there was just guys like that, Joseph Paulo, like guys who were either fringe first graders or out and out first graders, not bound to get into the team. And they come in for three or four games.

[00:22:51] One in particular at Penrith, they won a really important game without the origin players and they get the job done. And I think since then we've been a bit up and down with that kind of thing. You might have one or two guys, but this year, last year and this year really fits. He's done a great job with the recruitment. So super happy with those guys coming through. Obviously you want your main guys there, but if they can't be there, these guys are doing a good job.

[00:23:14] Now, can I just get you to talk about Wong and White for me please? Just so I get the grab at least. I did ask the Roosters have got a historical jersey coming out. It's like a 1975 jersey, I think, with there's no sponsor on the back and you can get a player number on. And one of the first questions I sent to the Roosters social teams was if I buy two Wongs, do I get a white for free?

[00:23:42] I didn't get any response, unfortunately, but I'm very sad that nobody's made a white and wong sign yet. I can't believe no one. I can't believe no one has. Very upsetting for me. There isn't a white and wong sign, but our friend AJ from the Fox Sports Lab, he's a massive rooster. He absolutely loves Nafahu White. He does. His form this year has been pretty good. His post-contact men is usually ridiculous.

[00:24:12] Teams can't put him on the ground. You watch when he runs and I'm sure the Sharks will be trying on the weekend, but there's so many times he will run and they just they cannot put him on the ground. So he's getting that quick play the ball and then you're getting the follow through off the back of him. And see why Wong I wasn't his biggest fan to be honest in the previous seasons that I thought he had a few problems with his defense and with his hands. But again, he's been miles better this year. I think I think he's just got just resigned.

[00:24:40] I think a contract extension his good forms earned him that and he said he's a really good hole runner. I think on the edge. He likes to hit the hole and when he does his defense is good. Like he's very tackles very hard puts a lot of big hits on guys. He just had some problems with his decision making. I think but he's only young so that sort of the more you play the better you get at that and I think that's been much improved from him this year. He does have a great physicality that I've noticed. He's a big boy.

[00:25:08] He's kind of similar to Tupanua. I think when Tupanua was at the Roosters, he's still doing it at the Bulldogs. Yeah, they've got that really good leg speed and yeah, they just when they hit the line, they had that little bit of a step, a little bit of a lane either way to sort of put them half in the gaps and just the power from their legs to bust through. But yeah, he I might I might have to wind back some of my criticisms of CY because he's he's been very good this year. You know, it would make it up is if you made the sign.

[00:25:37] A white and wong sign. Yeah. Why don't you just make it and give it to like one of your mates in the chook pen? I think my sign making days are long over Schnaz. That was a lot a long time ago since I last made a sign. And I don't know when I don't even know what the last one would be, but it was probably in the early 2000s, I would think would be my last sign. Now, when I'm at work tonight, I'm going to I've made myself a little note.

[00:26:01] I'm going to look up the bio off topic because you were talking about physicality of current coach of the Bulldogs, Cam Saralo, former player for Sharks, Knights, Penrith. And I want to see if we've got the accurate height of Cam Saralo because I saw him this morning in the flesh for the first time, probably since he was a Sharks player. And he must be six foot six or something.

[00:26:30] Have you seen him in the flesh? We have 194 centimeters in the database. What's that come to? Google that for me. Oh, I don't know. It was nearly two meters. So it's tall. Okay. Then it's accurate. Because six, four, six, five. Yeah. Something like that. Because he was at my local cafe and he walked out and I was like, what the hell? Like you have to like, you'd like to sort of kneel down to get out of the front door. It's one of these. So you get that funny illusion with footballers when they're all on the field together and you think, oh, that guy's not that big.

[00:27:00] And then, so I think we've discussed before, Dom Young is the one that Dom Young is enormous. Yeah. When you stand next to him, you're like, look at the size of this guy. He's absolutely massive. You can't. Yeah. No, I get all that. But I hadn't seen Cam in the flesh. Yeah. Since he was a Sharks player, which is a long time ago, we're talking like 05 or whatever. But, and cause I was quite fond of him as a player and obviously I see him on TV a lot these days and everything.

[00:27:25] But to see him in this morning, I was like, oh my God, like I'm not even going to go close to like razzing you about your press conferences or whatever. Eat me alive. Anyway, it's not dog cast. We're here to talk about Sharks and the Roosters. Now tell me about some of these young people like the, uh, the old rogue trader himself. Not my joke. Uh, Rex Baffenswaite. I think he's come through the, uh, Roosters Academy.

[00:27:52] I think there's a few of the players in the first grade sword now have come through the Academy sites. I think they try to sign these guys when they're 16 and 17 from all over the place and bring him in and run them through. And he might be there. Again, I need to get our catchment on the phone cause he'll know the exact number, but yeah, there's like a, a handful of guys now that have come through the Roosters Academy that they set up a few years ago. And he's one of them. Um, thought he was okay against the dolphins. He, um, yeah, scored a try. Seemed to be pretty quick.

[00:28:20] I think, uh, it was a shame. I was Katie Ramsey made the big long run, but, uh, you know, Basingthwaite was good. He's the, uh, the longest single barreled surname in the history of the premiership. Basingthwaite. 16, 16 letters. Yeah. So there's been some longer, uh, double barreled names, but I got a job for you. I'd love to know what the second longest one is. Well, there's two Basingthwaite says he's great uncle. I think was the other one. Uh, third. I've closed the query.

[00:28:49] So I can't tell you the answer, but he's that kind of, that kind of blows my mind as long as it is. And I'm looking at right now it's long, but I'm like, okay, that's surprising. 16 letters. Yeah. It's a, there's been a few, uh, a few of the ladies in the, uh, NRLW with double barreled surnames. There's been some very long double barreled surnames in the NRLW and a few, I think we're, I think JWH is the longest surname for the NRL. Rhea Hargreaves.

[00:29:13] I'm pretty sure is the, the most characters for a surname, but I'm not sure who the second longest single barreled name is. Your mate on the wing, Marky Marks got to go close just looking at him here. Yeah. He's up, he's up there, but he wasn't second. Yeah. He was, uh, I can't, I'm just trying to envisage the list of what I ran it. That's okay. Cause I, cause I thought he would be up there, but then I was like, Oh, well, Bassingthwaite, that's a, there's a lot of letters in that name. I'm going to have a look.

[00:29:37] I do have a more pressing question that we were just, we just sort of brushed over the Roosters Academy. Does, um, does, um, does Al, Al, Al Katzman have a good seat there to watch the Roosters Academy go through their training processes? I think he goes to lots of their games. He's always, you always get score updates on the flag and the ball and the, you just want to make sure he's comfortable. That's all. Al's a good man.

[00:30:03] I think it, Al comes across as a bit shirty on social media sometimes, I think, but he's a really nice guy. He's always been really nice to me. Um, you know what? He likes to go and sit in a nice, comfortable seat at a good stadium, but I, I can't hold that against him because I like it too. I don't, I mean, it's hills are great and like out the other weekend, like it looked tops and you get there and it's packed out and you, this is awesome.

[00:30:30] But you still, you can't see, you can't see half of the ground. I'm just going to suggest to you, Aaron, that if I put you in the upper Andrew Eddinghausen in a seat, you probably wouldn't have too many complaints. You know, that's all I'm saying. As I've been at the, uh, shark park when the rain's been hitting the window of the country box. So it's definitely howling off a Botany Bay there. I understand why sharks fans love their home ground.

[00:30:56] Every team's going to love the home ground, but there's a, there's better stadiums in the competition. There are. There really are. Yeah. I'm on our side. I like our turner who, you know, gives so much to his club. You got to respect that sort of thing. Now sharks at Allianz against the Chookies 6, 15 PM Sunday. How do you feel about a late Sunday game, Walter? And do you have any gossip on the TV deal for us?

[00:31:23] Uh, unfortunately no gossip, but we'll get our fingers crossed that we, uh, be good for DAZN and KO and Fox Sports to keep being the broadcaster, but haven't heard any concrete news. But obviously it's a, a key priority for everybody. I think to be chasing the rights, um, rugby legs, one of the biggest sports in the country. So obviously if you're on a sports, uh, station, you want the biggest sports. And as you know, everyone in the lab, uh, really wants to keep working on rugby league stuff, doing all the graphics and whatnot.

[00:31:52] Everyone has a great time. Um, I mean, if the news is true and you, you never know, but if the news is true that, that DAZN have gone for every game and we're going to get out of origin and a grand final, uh, live simulcast. I, uh, I do do our roster. So it would be very easy for me to put myself on doing the games and doing orange games and doing the grand final. So maybe I can do one of each and then that can be my retirement present to myself and I could do that in the next broadcast deal.

[00:32:22] But yeah, hopefully the news is right and we can keep trying to entertain everybody with, with what we do and keep getting to watch footy for our, uh, keep watching rugby league for our gainful employment. And I'd be very happy if that happens. Um, one of the stories is that yes, Sunday night could be a permanent fixture rather than a Monday. So I think that Monday's hard with the turnaround to Thursday that they worry about. And they've got to worry about these turnarounds from Monday to Thursday, Monday to Friday, Sunday night.

[00:32:51] I imagine Sunday night, the bears would get a lot of Sunday night games. I would think in terms of because then it's Sunday afternoon after that over there. Um, and then maybe wherever team 20 eventually comes in that. I think there's, there's talk that maybe they want another Bronco, another Brisbane team. I can understand that in terms of ratings wise, because obviously when Queensland teams play, you get much bigger ratings up in Queensland.

[00:33:16] Um, I would, I'd really like to see another New Zealand team because then you get that extra option of all the, one of the New Zealand teams can play 6 PM Friday. Yeah. Because then you basically do that every week. So then you don't have to have 6 PM Friday games in Sydney. Yeah. It's been tough ends. And then you have the, the perf team to play the late game Sunday night. Most. I don't, I don't mind the, the late Sunday. It's not too late, the six o'clock kickoff. So it's not as hard to get home from and whatnot, but it's a, I mean, most people like day games.

[00:33:45] I think everybody'd love every game to be in the day. But if you, if you want to have every game on in its own time slot, so you don't have to pick and choose which game you're watching. I think you've got to push. So it maybe aren't quite as fan friendly as some of the others, but six o'clock Friday, uh, Sunday is not too bad. And hopefully with some good weather, it'd be a nice big crowd. Do you reckon the Perth option, would they go for any later games? So for example, could we be watching a game at like 10 o'clock in Sydney or do you think it's too late?

[00:34:14] Um, I don't know. I think it, yeah, it's good. I think it would definitely be maybe on the cards, especially if there's, I've always thought that you could do, like, if you have NRL Saturday and then you go Saturday night in Perth, so you have a 10 o'clock, you could roll straight into the super league at midnight over there. So you have this constant run of games that could go through. So yeah, as I say, I'm not, I'm not privy to any of that information, but I think that if it works for the teams and it, and it works viewership wise, I don't think anyone really cares when the games are on at all.

[00:34:44] I think it's just about, do we get other ratings good? And, uh, yeah, if it, if it works for the teams, I mean, maybe a 12 o'clock Saturday could be another, a gore as well for warriors. He can play that extra game like two o'clock there, which is 12 o'clock here. So you can have four games on the Saturday or as a show, you could do the three, five, seven, nine type thing for the, the late game. I guess the other thing about that is that it isn't good for, if you've got little kids want to watch the game, you kick it off at nine. It's not ideal. Yeah.

[00:35:13] Well, it doesn't seem to stop state of origin. So, you know, it kicks off at eight o'clock, doesn't it? That's the, it does, but it goes through till 10. Yeah. It's a, you know, put it this way. Chester went to bed and New South Wales were winning and he woke up on that loss. So. Oh no. It's like our former colleague, uh, Terry quick. He always used to tell me that the, uh, the 2013 grand final that mainly won whatever the halftime school. That was it. Yeah. We won that. And it was, uh, whatever. Yeah.

[00:35:44] Amazing. Uh, a fella who comes on the show sometimes he, he was telling me that, um, he, you know, he was watching the Warriors Sharks game on the weekend with these, these kid and the Warriors had the ball with a minute to go setting up for field goal, the whole thing. And he really had to go to the loo. So he went to the loo thinking they were going to win the game and that was it. And then while he's in the loo, his, his son yells out Kennedy.

[00:36:12] And then it's like, you know, zipping up, washing his hands, comes out. He goes, what happened? And he's, and the kid goes, it was like the greatest play of all time. He just saw the field goal. So it's funny when you have to like not watch for whatever reason. And then what you can miss is actually pretty scary when you think about it. I'll tell you what you can miss that I didn't know was you can't rewind nine. Now. Did you know that it doesn't rewind? So I did. So I can't remember what I was doing in origin. I think it went to make a cup of tea or something. He came back and said, I'll just rewind and see what happened. So you can't rewind.

[00:36:42] And one of our colleagues, well, you can't do anything. I need to start again. No, it's like one of our, one of our colleagues at work told me when I was asking, he said, it's called a nine now, not nine replay. That's a good point. I couldn't, I was like, look, and I thought I was doing something wrong. And apparently it was the standard that you can't rewind nine. And now I was, I mean, you and I are pretty biased about the coverage versus coverage, but that is not ideal.

[00:37:11] When you've got a streaming site and everything else, it's like, it should be kind of one of the things, right? Yeah. I still, maybe I could be doing something wrong. I don't know, but I couldn't figure out how to rewind two minutes to watch what had just happened. So actually, no, no, I know what it was. It was when Victor Radley did the high tackle. And I was trying to say who the guy was that he hit to write down his report that Victor Radley was on report. He was Trent Liero, but I just said, I'll just skip back and watch it again. Just to double check. And I couldn't skip back. Wow.

[00:37:38] It was a, I was ruining my decision to watch at the computer and not in the lounge room. Cause Melissa was watching something on the ABC. So. Gotcha. Well, I mean, to be fair, the national broadcaster almost missed a try. So, you know, everyone's at fault here. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to our colleague, Andrew Voss, who were both biased as loving his commentary and a hell of a guy. His calling of origin.

[00:38:05] And to be fair, our mate, Warren Smith, who's been a bit unwell back soon, hopefully both of them. Like, that's why we need to get these rights. Well, I'll just say it with my zone hat on. It lifts, it lifts everything. Like the call with Ennis and, and Vossi in particular. Absolutely brilliant. Yeah. Obviously we're going to be biased cause we work with these guys and we like them and whatnot. And commentary is not easy.

[00:38:31] And any, any game you commentate that the losing team is going to think that you as a commentator hate that team. I think we've talked about this before. Yeah. That yeah. The commentators can't win. And I mean, we used to work with Matt Thompson. Matt Thompson was a nice guy to me and the games I worked with him and whatnot. Absolutely.

[00:38:46] But I think the biggest problem for anyone at Channel 9 is you replacing Ray Warren and everybody has this, only remembering Ray Warren at his peak rather than Ray Warren as maybe he defined a little bit towards the end of his career, but it's still going up again. It's like whoever commentates Formula 1 now, like it's not Murray Walker. And there'll be people who will have no idea who Murray Walker is. Murray Walker was Formula 1. He was the, the voice of Formula 1. And anyone that comes after somebody like that. Yeah.

[00:39:14] I mean, when Vossi and Woz go, it's going to be tough for whoever replaces there. I know Jake Jukes, we're doing a good job commentary. Yeah. You see people hate, hate Jake Jukes just because they're not used to listening to him. Oh, I'm not having, just to cut you off. I'm not having a shot at Matty. I'm just saying in general, like the nine, the nine coverage versus our coverage. Yeah. I mean, we prefer our coverage for sure. Yeah. We, we like our commentators. We think they do a good job.

[00:39:41] We know our graphics are way better just because of the people that are putting the graphics to air that we know they have to be better. Um, it's, it's one of those things that people sort of, I'll be happy if get rid of nine. I mean, that's people might lose their jobs and whatnot. So nobody's going to be happy about it, but it's, uh, it's, and we're not, you and I are not asking for that either. We're just asking for the right to do it. So, well, it'd be awesome. Be awesome to do it ourself for sure. I would absolutely love to do that, but it's a, it's a thing too.

[00:40:09] Like I used to have, when you'd see mistakes on air, you'd always laugh about it and get all these stuff that out. What an idiot and whatnot. Now we're doing the graphics. Like you never say anything about it. No, no, we've all been there. We've, uh, yeah, even the, I mean, I'm far from our best graphics operator. I will put my hand up and say that there's several of the guys are way better than me, but even the, I mean, I'm far from our best graphics operator. Even our best guys have, uh, put some, uh, horrible mistakes to air.

[00:40:34] And I can tell everybody out there that when you see mistakes and laugh about it, that nobody feels worse about it than the person that made the mistake. Let me tell you. So they're very easy mistakes to make. So, um, anyway, that's just one. The one that wasn't a mistake was when our colleague Lincoln put Joe and Helen root on a Fox sports in the cricket. Well, you're talking about long coverage. Joe roots parents. And it wasn't picked up when the topic segment was bad, but when it went to air, there was quite a few laughs.

[00:41:05] Good work. Graphic of the graphic of the year, 2025. It was 16 hour days, Walter. So, so, you know, you're allowed to kind of have a little bit of laughter in our men. All right. Roosters sharks, six 15 at Allianz. You can watch it exclusively on said Foxtel KO and the zone. I'm not sure why we keep mentioning all three, but until we told otherwise, that's what we'll do. And what's your prediction? Well, chooks by how many?

[00:41:35] The lab predictor says roosters by one. So let's go with that. By one. By one. Yeah. That's what it can't, can't make up its mind. That's a bit hairy by one. Okay, cool. Well, good luck to you that with that. Uh, we got the buy after this. So we're really hoping we can be a, a big win going into the buy. And historically recently playing the Roosters going into a buy has not turned out well for the sharks. I'm thinking central coast.

[00:42:04] I think I'm thinking Perth. So, uh, but the central coast was the big one last year. We're playing your baby kids. It was like, yep. We're, and we're winning every game by 20. And then we got the buy. And I think the players turned up in their board shorts and their sun cream and whatever. And they lost. That was the, that was the game. I was in Bathurst doing the Panthers game out there and refused to watch the Roosters game. Cause I knew we were going to lose. And then, uh, one of the guys that works on the graphics came in with K on his phone. It's like, ah, look at this. And the Roosters are winning. And I'm like, what?

[00:42:34] Yeah. Backy boys. I wasn't. Yeah. They were hopefully a repeat this week. So. All right. You never know. You never know. And what's your thoughts on the Weezer album before we go? Okay. I haven't heard the whole album yet. It's coming out soon, but the new single, uh, we might as well be strangers. I think was, uh, top of the old 40 charts for a week or two. It's a, it's very, very old school Weezer. If there's any, uh, old school Weezer fans, I think there is a few that I know of that listen to a. I'm sure cast.

[00:43:03] If you're, uh, you want to, uh, have a listen that we might as well be strangers. It's a, it's very old school Weezer and looking forward to the album. If the album all sounds like that, it's going to be a bit of a nostalgia trip. So, uh, should be good. I'm looking forward to the 30 year Pinkerton album tour, which hasn't been announced or even probably contemplated, but I'm just going to put it into existence and hope for the best. Just like Mitchell Olberson playing origin snaz. You've got to, uh, fake it till you make it. So hopefully we'll get that as well.

[00:43:32] I'll flick past himself, Patty Richards for origin and Weezer 30 year Pinkerton start to finish. I have seen it to be fair and I did see the Pinkerton tour. So I shouldn't really get too greedy, but it would be fun. Be fun to go with you to that. That'd be fun. You and I hanging out watching them do Pinkerton emoting for 29 minutes or however long that album goes for. What a great album. Oh my God. Oh my God. All right. Well, thanks for your time. Appreciate you. Uh, do you want to plug anything?

[00:44:00] Have you got like anything you can plug like a page on the Fox sports or something or no, I don't have any, uh, plugging. You can listen to me on a SEN on a Thursday mornings. Yeah. I do my, uh, segment with Vossi. I do a few stats and whatnot. So you can tune into that. And, uh, yeah, I think I've, we've seen a shark cast listener is also reading dungeon crawler car, which was first exclusively mentioned on a shark cast is the first ever

[00:44:27] rugby league podcast to feature a lit RPG novel. It's, uh, the latest book is just out for dungeon crawler car. The whole series is a smash hit. So if you're a bit of a nerd jump on dungeon crawler car. I promise that you will like it. Yeah. I don't know what you just said, but I encourage everyone else to do it. Um, are you, are you on the same day as the doctor Dave Riccio? The doctor. I think he's on every day, isn't he? Is he? Every time I, every time I've ever heard Vossi Riccio, sometimes he's before me. Sometimes he's after me. So yeah.

[00:44:57] Have you got any, uh, good Riccio stories you can tell us that won't get anyone into trouble? Cause you've known Riccio for a lot longer than I have. I sent you the picture of the guy I found doing Facebook reels that look like team. I mean, Ricky. There's a guy doing science reels. I think on Tik Tok and I say on Facebook and he's, he's not a dead ringer for Ricky, but it could be his older, uh, rather than that's had a hard life for sure. Uh, Dave's a good one. I've worked with Dave for a long time.

[00:45:26] There's a, there's some funny journalist stories. Maybe when I do retire one day, I can write a book on funny journalist stories. Maybe three or four people might read. So be fun to do. All right. Thank you, Tom. Well, good luck on Sunday. And I will no doubt talk to you before that. Everyone else. That's been Wally from a DAZN from Fox sports, from KO from the lab. More importantly, uh, big, big rooster fan. I'm not going to hit the things. My buttons go now and a good mate of mine.

[00:45:56] So we'll talk to wall. No doubt maybe in the finals. Well, Michael for round three in the finals. It's been a bit of a thing. Hopefully it would be exciting if we can both make the finals again. I'll definitely be keen to jump on. It could be at shark park. Ocean protect stadium. We'll say not if our cats, it's got anything to do with it. It won't. Ah, bless. You know, it probably won't be. I shouldn't have said that, but you know, I'm just having a laugh, but yeah, let's hope that we can. That's fun. You know, we won all recently.

[00:46:25] That was a good one last year. I mean, I say that as a winner, but a good contest. The finals. Okay. It's been some good, good classes in the finals. Yeah. It'd be nice to. If it's in a prelim, that'd be good. If one of us would make the grand final. My old man happy. The Sharks fan. He'd like to be in the grand final again. I'd like to be there again too. I'm not buying. We should point out that your dad is a big Sharks man. He'll be in the house on Sunday all being well. So that's pretty exciting. Mr. Wallace in the house.

[00:46:55] Exciting says, and I've just found out, I think I might be getting corporate box tickets through some connections at work, which is very exciting. Dad will be more excited than me. I'm sure. But one might say, one might say you're going to be in the zone design. Yeah, that's right. I better try and find some nice clothes to wear. Not my normal football going into it. I won't be wearing the beanie on the other weekend. I was going to say, if I need the zone merch to get in, I'm screwed, but I've actually got the t-shirts. I could maybe wear the t-shirt.

[00:47:25] I don't know how corporate that's going to be. I got the great black the zone t-shirt. We'll worry about it on Sunday. Well, everyone, this has been Aaron Wallace. I'm Sam Shinazzi. We'll have more shows for you before you know it. Up up Cronall. Let's go. 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.

[00:47:51] Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast, if you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips & Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips & Crips Real Estate. Sharkies! Sharkies!

[00:48:15] Back in the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy. Enfim. Printed at the shift.ae. Un-nuck. $2. $3. $5. Thank you.