The Year That Was 2016 - Rd 13 vs Bulldogs with Ben Harlum plus BONUS Original 2016 Episode!

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[00:03:00] Sharkies! Sharkies! In the Shire, turn your porch lights off because we're coming home with a trophy.

[00:03:20] Oh, hey there. Welcome to Shark House Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. My name's Sam Shinazzi. I'm an OG from 2015. Had to think about that. And we're here to talk about this season that was 2016 with our good mate Ben Harlem. This episode is brought to you by Dyson Logistics,

[00:03:49] the Royal Motor Yacht Club in Port Hacking, Jason Hawes at Crips and Crips Real Estate. We get our coffee from Mr. Paisley's, and this morning I need a thousand of them because last night I was blessed to be at the Porter Gallon Awards. You all know that Will Kennedy has won the award and Quincy Dodd won the NRLW equivalent. Ben Harlem, welcome back to your show, the recap 2016 season. We look at each game. We're up to round 13. We're halfway there, which is awesome.

[00:04:17] And over summer, we're going to get to the grand final. But how are you, sir? You rocking some denim? It's getting a bit cooler over there, I believe, in New York City. Yeah, it's getting a bit cooler. And like a bat signal, I've been hearing all the messages you've been, the subliminal messages you've been leaving in other episodes about, oh, we're a bit behind on the 2016. Oh, we might eventually get to another episode with Ben on the 2016. Don't think I don't listen to all your other episodes, Sam. I've been hearing them. It's like you just put out the bat signal for me.

[00:04:48] No, but that's nothing to do with you. That's me letting the audience know not to go anywhere over summer. It's also an explanation as to I get very busy and you get very busy and we live literally in alternate lifestyles, although we do sleep the same hours in that I don't sleep and you're awake time zone wise, but you're busy at work and doing stuff. So we can't really record then. So it's a bit of a time zone situation as well, but nice little slot for us now.

[00:05:17] Not a shot at you, Benny. The only shots that you were from Kieran about your lifestyle of being rich and famous, that's all. He, of all people, can talk. Some of the bull crap that he pulls out that he tries to be the common man and tries to shame me just because I just happen to have a job in New York and he's pulling out this stuff like, ooh, I could work anywhere. Ooh, look at me. I might be going here. Ooh, I work for a sales company. Ooh, look at me. I'm Kieran.

[00:05:46] Like, okay, mate. All right. Jeez. He does a very good life, Kieran. He lives a good life. He does. He's not as working class as what he would suggest. No, he's all, oh, I went on my first date. I was wearing stubbies and thongs and she still loved me or whatever. And it's like, okay, mate. Sure. You're not the working class guy that you're trying to make yourself out to be on here, Mr. Aliens. Like, jeez. He was working class. So I'll let that one out of the bag. So anyway, we're not.

[00:06:16] I'm best friends with James Maloney. Look at me. I'm Kieran. Well, you know what? Us common folk have jobs and we are here to talk about 2016. Unfortunately, the 2026 season needed to have all of your attention, Sam. Now that has been thrown into the garbage and we can focus again on the golden years like we have the last 10 years ever since the season and these games that we're reliving. I'm sorry to start on a negative note, everybody.

[00:06:47] But it had to be said, I'm very happy that all of you are listening and I'm very happy that we can all come together and enjoy this game together. We haven't done this for about a month. There's been about a month of Kieran jibes your way. So I know you've been holding it in. So well done. Well played. Thank you. I try my hardest. So on these shows, if it's the first time watching, we individually, separately go watch the games from 2016. We're up to round 13. And then we talk about what happened.

[00:07:17] And so it's not a rewatch for the viewer. We encourage you to do it. It's more, we're just going to fill you in on what we saw rewatching the games. Now, we are doing round 13, Ben, at ANZ Stadium, as it was once known. It's a Monday night game, seven o'clock kickoff. Now, part of the tradition of these episodes is we talk about the NYC game.

[00:07:44] Now, one of the rare pickles they throw at us, one of those New York pickles, is that this game actually happened a few weeks later. There was no game for NYC before the NRL game on this night. So the actual round 13 game is around round 16 later on. So that was the case. They did play at, I believe they played at the Homebush Stadium.

[00:08:14] But it was on Saturday, the 18th of June, three o'clock game. Your referees were Adam G. Drew Alton was a touchy. And the Sharks team to play the dogs in NYC was Bessie Tumaga at fullback, Josh Tualaga and Samazi Vi, I'm sorry, on the wings. Ken Johnson, Lockie Stein in the centres. Billy Magulius playing 5-8, which is pretty wild. It's a weird side, Sam.

[00:08:43] It's a weird side. Rhys Davies at half. Your props are Teppa Fuava and Jamin Joloff. Captain is Jaden Braley hooking the scrum. Back row is Tony Matautai, Ashley Nisbet and Jaden McDonough. This one might throw you on the bench in 14 is Sione Katoa. That was the first thing I noticed was Sione on the bench. Justin Timu in 16, a very young Blake Braley.

[00:09:12] Ooh, what a future he's got. Oh, wow. And in 17, the opera singer Daniel Vasquez, coached by John Morris. I'd have to do the research on Blakey Braley. I'm not sure if he's popped up before this, but that's pretty cool. I don't remember him at least in 2016. I don't remember you mentioning it, Sam. So this might be the first one. Doggies have Marcelo Montoya on the wing with another chap who isn't relevant in our life. But Marcelo Montoya is on a wing.

[00:09:41] Adam Kieran's at 5'8". Lockie Lewis is at half. And other players we probably don't really know. Coached by Ben Anderson. I don't know if that's any relation to who we think it might be. It could be. There are a lot of Andersons around in the Bulldog era, but let's just leave that one for now. I'm sure one of our viewers or listeners will let us know. The good news is... Wikipedia says that it's Chris's son. Okay. So he's got... Yeah, he had a few. There you go.

[00:10:14] Not to be confused with Jared, who played with us, of course. Sharks win NYC 20-18. Tight one. And Bessie Tumaga got a double. Tepa Fuava and Ashley Nisbet with tries. Tumaga two from four. Montoya got a try for them. So close game's a good game. Sharks win in the future on Saturday the 18th of June. They win the round 13 game. So there you go, Benny.

[00:10:44] That's just a bit of a wrap on that. But let's get to the main event, my friend. Round 13. NRL. Monday Night Football. What a great thing that was, depending on your thoughts on Monday Night Football. Ben, were you a fan of Monday Night Football? I didn't mind it. I didn't mind it. I probably prefer it more than the Friday 6pm game. I will say that there's a real trend this year, at least for us, that we always seem to have two Monday Nights in a row. The next round, again, is another Monday Night for us.

[00:11:13] I think that's interesting that they did lots of seven-day turnarounds. Yeah, the old Monday Night Football. Yeah, I think I do prefer it to a Friday 6pm game, which is what it essentially replaced. Yeah, I remember that. And we've talked about it. That year we got hammered with the Monday Nights. A lot of rounds. We really did. There was heaps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. But won the comp, so that's all right. As a spoiler, in case you didn't know.

[00:11:38] Now, our referees for the game are Ben Cummins and Matt Noyan. We've got Casey Badger on one touch side. And I found it very interesting, and I'm sure at the time I was a bit vocal about it, Luke Patton in the video ref. Interesting. Controversial. Oh, let's just get one of the Bulldog's greats. What do you think? The general. There was no one else? Very interesting. No one else you could talk? Yeah, was everyone else working a normal job on a Monday? Like, what was going on? Come on, guys.

[00:12:07] And that's nothing against Luke Patton. I'm sure as honest as the day is long, it's just not a good look. That's right, exactly. Lucky there wasn't really any controversial bunker. There were a lot of bunker calls, but like, not anything too crazy. It is. And we'll talk about it throughout, but it is one of my favorite things. It's someone looks like they've scored and the referee, usually Ben Cummins in charge, looks around a bit sheepishly and goes, well, let's have a look at this. Mate, just blow the whistle.

[00:12:37] It's a try. That's one thing. And I've got it on my notes for right at the end, but I'll bring it up here. One thing I don't miss is you have this amazing try and then you don't hear the very satisfying of the whistle. You always hear that. And you go, ah, I know that they check it now anyway, but it's just, it just ruins the whole vibe of everything. I mean, if there was six tries tonight in this game, I'm sure five of them were video refs. We'll go through it. You can work out the math, but there was a lot. And when he gave one, I was like, oh wow, you actually, I think it was the VAL try.

[00:13:06] I was like, wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah. What a surprise. Yeah. So a crowd of just over 10,000 at Homebush. It's a Monday night. Sharks are on a pretty good roll. We know that. We'll get to that in a sec. But you were there, I believe. Is that correct? Yeah, I was there. I drove into Homebush in the Jeep with a couple of my mates and we went in and went into the game and watched it. Yeah, I fondly remember going in for this game.

[00:13:36] That's why when you mentioned it was the Bulldogs game, I had to clarify, even though we only played them once this year, just to make sure. Because it's the only Bulldogs game I remember from that year. But yeah, I went. Where were you, Sam? I was definitely at home watching this in my Newtown residence. And let me ask you about you before we get back to me. You were working in radio. Yes. Yes. So you just didn't mind the early starts. Late night early starts.

[00:14:05] Well, I noticed that when the last try is scored very at the end of the game, the clock at a core stadium had 8.48 p.m. So if you think about that game, you're probably out of the stadium by 9, home by 9.45, 10. And then I'm up at 4. So like, I mean, that's a solid six hours sleep. So that's not too bad. I'm just asking you the question, my friend. I know you can power through. You're a power through guy.

[00:14:34] But also, it's the start of the week. We're on an eight-game win streak, so why not? And that's the thing, right? And I think a lot of the people that are listening would agree that especially this year, once we're on this streak, it's like, okay, this is something special. Even though we might not expect what's going to happen at the end of the year, let's try and get out to as many games as possible and make sure that we can watch it in person. So I think I'm very much in that mood at this time.

[00:15:01] So eight-game win streak coming off a round 12 bye, and we're 9-2. The last game we played was a 20-12 win over Manly at home, which we discussed on the last episode. Yep. But our first – is it our first bye of the year? I'm not sure, but it's a round 12 bye, and it's getting towards historic stuff. Eight in a row, really good wins.

[00:15:29] Canterbury are 7-5, so very up and down. They're coming off a 32-20 loss against Canberra in Canberra. We are very much favorites to win this game. Where were you sitting? What's happening? It's a great question. Sort of on the corner of the bowl.

[00:15:51] But I couldn't tell you – I couldn't tell you – actually, that's a lie, because I remember, because there's a video of the very end of the game. We are close to where the Sharks are for the second half. So I think we're near where that last try is scored from memory. But you're not sort of behind – and we'll get to it – the Maloney kick. You're sort of around in a corner. Yeah, sort of around the corner. This is just – this is my memory. I'm thinking, yeah. Yeah, sure.

[00:16:20] You saw how many – how little people were there. You just read the crowd. Pretty much you could sit anywhere you want. There is a shot. At the end, I was looking for you. I don't think I saw you. You weren't with all the Sharks fans, so to speak? No. No, no, no, no, no. It didn't show up in the TV coverage, unfortunately or fortunately. Speaking of which, Monday Night Football, one of the premier slots as far as TV back then, obviously pretty much a TV product, is Monday Night Football.

[00:16:48] And we have Warren Smith and Greg Alexander, staples of Monday Night Football. Yep, absolutely. But this is a big ensemble. Yeah, it's a huge ensemble cast. And we'll get to the rest of the guys very shortly, so let's leave it at that. Sharks are in their black away jerseys.

[00:17:14] And if you can't remember the 2016 black jersey, go Google it. But what were your thoughts on that jersey? Love the jersey. This away jersey is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, I wore the 2015 version, which doesn't have the sponsor on it. It just has SCFC on the front. That was what I wore to the Titans game this year. Wearing black on the Gold Coast, probably not the best idea, but it was just the jersey they packed.

[00:17:43] Because it's the reverse of the Reebok jersey. And it's probably the closest at that time that we had to a Reebok jersey remake. And it's probably one of the best black jerseys that we've had. Big fan of the reverse Reebok jerseys. Big fan. All right. So kickoff is underway. And I think Fafita as the first hit-up is pretty good. He does.

[00:18:11] Second tackle, Gerard Beal with an error. And that's never a great way to start. And the commentators in Warren Smith and Greg Alexander make note of the fact, and it's mentioned a few times, that we have a luxury of backups in the three quarters and that Beal and Ricky Letelli are fighting it out for a spot. We're not sure. They're working out who's the best person to play there.

[00:18:39] But they also mention the fact it's not great that Beal drops it for the second player of the game. Yeah, that's right. On that note, should we have a look at the team list, Sam? Ah, that's a great idea, Ben. This is tradition and part of the show. We don't throw up a team list until we're a few plays into the game. Let's do it. Thank you, Ben. Okay. My pleasure. Here's the Sharkies team for those listening, those watching can see it. We love our listeners.

[00:19:04] It's a mostly standard team of Barber, Fecky, Bird. Beal is in there. Beal is starting. And number four, the future Valentine Holmes, Maloney Townsend. Fefita Ennis. And this one's a bit odd. Jason Becuya in 16 is listed as starting the game. Luke Lewis, Waygrave and Paul Gallen. Sam Tunger-Teesi in 10 is on the bench. Ricky Letelli in 14 is on the bench. Chris Hyington, Captain America, Joseph Paulo.

[00:19:33] Therefore, there is no Matt Pryor there, Ben. Yeah, interesting, right? And I got to say that I don't remember at all the subplot of Beal and Letelli almost switching game to game. Oh, yeah. From my memory, it's just Beal is just on the bench and he comes on when needed. But this is a whole subplot that I've completely blocked out of my mind from the middle of the year.

[00:20:00] Fascinating, really, because I don't remember Letelli being too bad in any of these games. But there is a point, like we mentioned a couple of games ago, that he does get dropped to the bench and Beal has the spot for a few weeks. I think it was around the Brisbane game a few weeks ago. And when we threw up the flashback old episode, we might do it for this. We'll just see what it's like. But that's the one where you rubbish Ricky Letelli's reputation. You and Newman just savage him.

[00:20:30] I reckon it was more Newman than me in hindsight, but only because he's not around to fight the battle. But for those wondering what the hell that means, back in 2016, obviously, we were doing episodes. And after the episodes, Ben and I do, we've been throwing up those old episodes. So we'll see how this one is. We'll hopefully get to it. But we do rubbish Ricky Letelli, and we're quite awkward about it, but also not holding back because he wasn't good in some of the games. And that meant Beal got his shot.

[00:20:59] So I think we'll see moving forward. There's back and forth. I don't think it's up until the grand final. I think by that point, it's pretty established. But Ricky comes back in and finds some form. But it's a bit of a – it's like the one spot, and we talk about it because every other spot is elite and everyone's playing out of their skin. But those two guys, they're almost the weak link in a very good team. Yeah, it's fascinating, isn't it? Isn't it? Yeah.

[00:21:29] Let's go to the Bulldogs team. Okay. For those listening, we love our listeners. Will Hoppawati at fullback. The wingers are Curtis Rona, blast from the past, and Sam Perrett, probably veteran stage at this point. Joshie Morris and Kerrid Holland, named from the past, in the centers. Josh Reynolds and Moses by the halves. Pretty good front row in Aidan Tolman.

[00:21:57] Michael Leescher, which we'll get to, and James Graham. Sam, the great actor from Dawson's Creek, Josh Jackson, is in the second row. I always love throwing that one in, Benny, with Raymond Fartilla. At this point, I'm laughing at my own joke. Wow. Oh, no. We're only 19 minutes in. David Clem, with a big lock. And what about this bench? Sam Cassiano. I'd have completely forgotten about him. What a beast. Adam Elliott, Tim Brown, and Craig Garvey.

[00:22:27] Just on Joshua Jackson. Yes. Where is Benny? There he is. Hang on. I'm losing track here. I need an assistant. There you are, Ben. There you go. Were you a pacey guy, or were you a Dawson guy? Dawson was a bit of a wuss, really. He cried a lot. I was more of a pacey guy.

[00:22:55] I mean, I was more of a Katie Holmes guy, to be really honest with you. There's a summer podcast. Yeah. Big summer podcast. Yeah. I think Pacey was cooler for sure, right? Yeah. Do you remember all the rumors that would be like around that people would say, oh, Dawson's going to pass away in the creek. And that's why they called it Dawson's Creek. This is classic. You know, I was in primary school at the time. So people would just make up crap. But yeah.

[00:23:23] Dawson was like, you know, not cool enough. I mean, hey, he was a film nerd. Nothing wrong with that. Loved his movies and everything. But yeah, more of a pacey sort of guy. You know what I love, Benny? You know what I love? What's that? I answer every random question you've got. They never talk about how Pacey treated Joey. They never talk about it. I'm thinking a certain ski trip, was it? Or a trip away. They never talk about that. We've all got flaws.

[00:23:52] And we all, just like how I forget about the Ricky Letelli versus Gerard Bill battle in the middle of 2016. There are some things that just fade from your memory that don't get brought up 10 years, 20 years, 30 years on. You know what's more heartbreaking is that for the past, what, six months to a year, we've had the vision, literally, of Joey and Pacey making a new film, hanging out at premieres,

[00:24:21] at James Van Der Beek tributes, arm in arm, looking each other in the eye glowingly. And then she has the hide to come out with a new boyfriend on Instagram. Like, you're killing me. You're killing me. Oh, devastating. Hey, I've got a Katie Holmes, San Jose, New York story for another time, Ben. I've got one. Oh, that's for the summer podcast. Sign me up. True story. I love this. And me and my peak Katie Holmes fandom.

[00:24:52] That's always a good one. Anyway. Well, there's a tease for the summer podcast. Back to the game. Big tease. I'm getting hate mail right now. Back to the game. So, on the second tackle, Bill makes the error. Yes. And the vision you and I have been watching, the coverage, we don't get the pregame. And we just get straight in. So, we have Warren Smith. We have Greg Alexander. All of a sudden, another voice chimes in. Out of nowhere. And I vaguely recognized the voice.

[00:25:20] Took about two or three sentences. And then I was like, oh, it's Braith Anasta. And I knew he was obviously a color guy. But I didn't realize he was back in 2016. My notes tell me he retired in 2014. And Braith just comes in out of the, just off the back fence, chiming in. I was like, okay, we're going to do this. And we'll get to some more ensemble as the game goes on. But confident young Braith coming in and saying his things. Yeah.

[00:25:50] He doesn't sound bad either. Like some of the other people we've had and doing pop-up gigs or whatever sort of sound a bit nervous and tentative because it's probably their first gig. Braith sounds exactly like he does now. Doing Super Saturday or NRL 360 or when he would commentate games occasionally and that sort of stuff. He sort of just slid right into it. He was quite good. Now, Ref Cam is back. In slow-mo this one. Isn't that crazy?

[00:26:15] A slowed down Ref Cam of the dog's poor fifth tackle options and my brain can't cope with this. I've labeled it ridiculous vision. And there is a real focus, especially in the first half, on how bad the fifth tackle options are for the Bulldogs. For a lot of the half, they refuse to kick. And you're sort of wondering what's going on. And they start to kick. And they're the worst kicks you've ever seen. And we'll get some more of those kicks. Yeah, and you go, oh, that's why.

[00:26:45] We'll get to some specific ones throughout the game. But Ref Cam in slow motion. And I think there was even an audio over it in slow-mo. There was. That's what pinged that it was slow-mo because I sort of was half paying attention, making some notes or whatever. And then I heard, roar. And I was like, oh, my goodness. It's slow motion, Ref Cam. What person thinks this is good? I don't understand. I mean, I think back then, actually, Steve Crawley was in charge back then.

[00:27:14] So he oversees everything. I'm not naming and shaming. I'm just trying to work out. But someone within the Fox organization who I love and adore, they thought Ref Cam was the way to go. And then the commentators really made a point of when they were talking about the lack of options and the six tackles and that. They said the dogs, on average, only force two dropouts per game. That's it.

[00:27:40] And there's a tease because I wonder how many dropouts they end up forcing in this game, Sam. Now, there's a lot of talk about Origin 2. Origin 1 is in the past. Yeah. And I believe Fafita had a big game off the bench. I don't think it was. It wasn't the Epic game, was it? It was a different game. No, no, no, no, no. I think that's the following year. I think that's 2017 at Suncorp, right? Yeah. So there's talk of Wade Graham being picked for Origin 2 because Boyd Cordner in particular is injured.

[00:28:10] So we'll wait and see on that one. Fifth minute, opposing the Bulldogs' bad kicking, Michael Ennis with dummy half kick, unbelievable kick on the third tackle, no less, into the end goal. And Chad with a spectacular force of a dropout. Yep. Really great kick. Great kick. And we see a few more from him. And seventh minute, we've got a Fecky no try. I was up celebrating both in 2016 and now, but it's a no try.

[00:28:39] Gerard Beal improving on his start of the game, draws in two on one. Fecky with a man in cover trying to get him. Foot goes out. Here's a point for you, Benny. Okay. Now, the referee, who have we said? Is it Ben Cummins? Yes, it is. I'm convinced. The video ref is also Ben Cummins. The same voice. You think it's the same voice? Go back and have a listen. People who are watching, listening, go have a listen.

[00:29:09] When the video ref comes across, and I'll tell you, I think I can tell you who the video ref is. Well, didn't we say it was Luke Patton? We did. You know what? Maybe it wasn't Luke Patton. Now you say it. Maybe there was a change. Or maybe it was. Whoever it is. Whoever it is. They sound like Ben Cummins. I was freaking out. Oh, okay. Well, my. When you've got time, go have a quick listen to a video ref. My main. Okay.

[00:29:37] Now, it says here that the senior reviewer was Bernard Sutton. Oh, well, that's who it was. So, maybe Ben Cummins is a secret Sutton brother, and they've got identical voices. Now, my main thing was, Sam, sorry to interrupt you there, was the fact that when they look at the replays, the touch judge is literally, he's looking right at Fecky's foot. He knows that it's in touch.

[00:30:07] It's quite obviously in touch for him, but it doesn't really do anything. And they go back up to the bunker. It's quite outrageous, to be honest with you. I think everyone's scared to lose their job in this game. And over that season. Not even this season. I don't think that's changed, Sam. So, Luke Patton was like the football advisor video referee. That's what we're saying, yeah? Yeah. And then Bernard Sutton was the decision-made sort of guy. I swear.

[00:30:33] I was very amused at that, but it doesn't take much to amuse me. We go back to the fifth tackles being really bad for the Bulldogs. It's just one after another. Like, they're either dying with the ball or just these terrible kicks. Another great kick from Mickey Ennis into the end goal, the 10th minute. However, then we have a kick return from Hopawati at fullback for the Bulldogs. 15th minute.

[00:31:03] Epic return. I think Val and Benny might catch up to him and pull him down. And then either the next play or that, definitely that set, Josh Reynolds, Mr. Energy. Like, he's always just an energizer. He scores under the posts with just pushing up through the line. Too much for Ennis and for Chad. Very soft defense. And the dogs go up 6-0 after 15. I found it very amusing.

[00:31:31] And he's a personal friend of mine and he's a great analyst. But Brandy talking about the 1%ers being missing from the Sharks game. But he's so shocked. And I'm shocked he's saying it because we've just won eight games in a row. And we've conceded the first try. And he's talking about 1%ers. Like, I appreciate you talking about this game. But they know about 1%ers. They're top of the table. So. You're encouraging the Brandy hates Cronulla agenda. Be careful, Sam. Be careful. No. No.

[00:32:00] Brandy loves Cronulla. At this point, the ensemble grows. And I'm just smiling, Benny. You can see me smiling now. You can imagine how I was looking. You know me very well when I'm watching this game. And here we go. Andy Raymond's there. We love Andy Raymond. We love Andy Raymond. That's a Monday night staple right there. Andy Raymond in there. He comes in after the try. Without spoiling too much going forward in this game, it's kind of like his biggest moment to shine.

[00:32:29] Each time it sort of gets less and less. And the reason or one of is he has Anthony Minicholo with him again. Midi's back. Minicholo's back. Yeah. And the thing is, is unlike normally when there's someone being tested, like when Gasnia was on the sidelines, it was very much let's cross to Gaz. Yes. But this one, whenever Minicholo's been on the sideline for these Sharks games, it's very much, he's an interview with Anthony Minicholo on the sidelines. Poor Andy Raymond's just asking questions or whatever.

[00:32:58] It's a very bizarre setup. But he's back. Yeah. No shade on Mini. Like he has a lot of experience in the media, but it's almost like, and I don't have a better word for it, but it's almost like, it's almost like Andy Raymond is holding his hand, assisting him and then, and then going, oh, what do you think, Mini? And Mini actually sounds a little bit nervous and reserved. He's not quite his personable self. So it's, it's quite odd. But anyway, so there's five people on this coverage.

[00:33:29] Although really four and a half, because Andy just keeps getting bumped and bumped and bumped. Yeah. Now 19th minute for feeder passes into Paul Gallen's head. It's a turnover. And there's, what have I got here? Three ref cam tackles and I'm nauseous. So they get the ball, the dogs, and then from behind, you've got ref cam, three tackles. And I'm, I'm almost out here. I'm like, I don't know if I can do this game, Ben. You're about to tap out. Boy,

[00:33:59] it's hard work. I don't, I don't, I don't recall any conversation with anyone going, Hey, how about that coverage with the ref cam? Like no one, no one's up for this. Are they? No, I don't. Well, I think it goes away. I don't think it sticks around too long. If I'm being honest with you, I don't remember it continuing into 2017. Oh, probably, probably not. But a year of ref cam, that's a lot of ref cam. It's a lot of ref cam. And I mean, we're watching the Fox coverage for the majority since we're on Monday night.

[00:34:28] So often that it's ref cam. I don't see channel nine using ref cam. I don't think so. I think it's a Fox thing and that's, that's a cool initiative, but just way too much. Um, 20th minute. And we'll talk about this in a little bit in depth here, Benny. Uh, there's a grubber kick and us sort of bumbles that can't get it. And of all people to score a try, it's Michael Leisha. So let's open that can now for the younger, the younger, the younger, the younger crowd. Well, the younger crowd,

[00:34:57] Michael Leisha was a gun under twenties player for a number of years at Cronulla. Definitely one of the next big things. Everyone just assumed he was going to go on to NRL status at the sharks. Bulldogs, but Flano had other ideas because I'm assuming because Mick Ennis came on the market. Yep. And the bulldogs were like, yeah, you can have him, but we need someone in return. And so Flano went, you can have our bright young thing,

[00:35:27] Michael Leisha. And the whole fan base went, no, this is terrible. And myself included. I was like, what the hell's going on here? Mick Ennis, he's past his prime. He's not very good. He's angry. All this sort of stuff. Little did I know he'd be the nicest guy in the world and a great player and win as a comp. However, Michael Leisha was a really, really good footballer. And then he went to the dogs and to surmise,

[00:35:57] the rumor is, Dez Hasler really put a leash on what he could do. Dez Hasler was basically like, don't run. He was the best running hooker you've ever seen. And he was like, don't run dude, just catch and pass and tackle. But he got a nice contract for it. A couple of years, bigger money, et cetera. So he was like, okay, well, I'll get some first. He didn't have much of a choice because Ennis was coming. So there was this sort of battle between Ennis and Leisha, as far as the fan base went.

[00:36:26] I don't know about in real life. It doesn't seem like in real life, it was a thing, but Leisha was nowhere near what he was going to be for the Sharks and pretty short career in the NRL. But yeah, ironic that he scores this try because Ennis can't contain the ball. They're up 12 nil. Yeah. It would have been, it would have been very satisfying for him. Didn't his dad used to post on the message boards or whatever. I think he, I think his dad post on the message boards. Leisha,

[00:36:56] spoiler alert, doesn't make it to the end of the game. Yeah. It doesn't really end well. I mean, him and Adam Elliott being in the same team. We won't even, even touch that one. It's just not really like you would hope that Flano sort of thought, look, we've got, we've got, we've got Braley and then we've got Braley, Braley. And eventually we're going to have Braley, Braley, Braley. When he doesn't retire the third one, like we don't need Leisha.

[00:37:25] We've got Ennis now and, and gives him away. And obviously it works out well for us and, and poor Michael, it doesn't really end well for him. It just, Mick, sorry, Dez was just good for that. Wasn't he? That those sort of right players, which is ironic because when you think of like the, the Ben Barbers of the world, even, you know, you Josh Reynolds, Moses M by like all these players that are real off the cuff sort of players, but Dez was such a, no, don't run.

[00:37:54] Like Josh Reynolds has been very vocal about how, um, Dez was very much like a, you're a system halfback. You can see it from Leisha's game. Like if you even watched one of his NYC games, let alone 50 of them, like we did, you can see that he was just an amazing attacking running player. Now it was obviously a lot more of attacking competition. Yep. Like, but there's no reason to say that wouldn't work in NRL in the right team, but this was not the right team. Well,

[00:38:22] I think the Bulldogs were the right team because they needed a spark. If like, I mean, with all respect to, to Hodgkinson and, um, and Reynolds, like, I mean, they're not the most electric, um, halves combination with a different coach. Leisha could have been like the X factor that they needed, but it just with the coach, it just didn't work out for him. It's a right team, wrong coach. So, uh, Warren Smith after this try, then throws the Minichello.

[00:38:51] He doesn't throw to Andy and it really, and yeah, that's right. Andy's been sidelined on the sideline. Uh, really threw me that. Hmm. And I reckon, I reckon knowing Warren Smith, it would have thrown him a little bit too. Cause they're good friends, good colleagues. Uh, 23rd minute. We think we're in, but Ben Barber drops the ball cold over the line and the ref plays on a tackle. And then we go back and have a look, but a clean drop from Ben Barber.

[00:39:21] Yeah. A rare one too. And it was quite an obvious one. As you said, um, the ref just keeps going or whatever, but it's a shame because we don't really have that many opportunities. Cause the dogs in the lease in the first 20 odd minutes are just playing great. Really? Like they're not taking advantage of their opportunities either, but they're, they're holding us out. They're doing well. They're frustrating us. Yeah. We should talk about that. They were pretty good in the first 20. We were, we were good in patches, but certainly not the eight game winning team that we've seen.

[00:39:51] And it's not looking hairy, but it's looking like, Oh, we're in for a battle here tonight. Right. And then they get a penalty, the bulldogs. And then my, uh, M by can't find touch. Yeah. This is on the back of a number of really poor kicks and also not kicking because they've been told not to kick because you're not good at it. And the commentary team just lose it. And as we do as viewers, it's like, what the hell was that? Yeah. It was the closest thing to not,

[00:40:20] I'm not saying they're being unprofessional, but as you said, it's very much like us watching at home or whatever. They, they, they do lose it. It's the best description that you could say. They just go, Whoa, that's why they're not supposed to be kicking. Yeah. Very, very honest appraisal. And it's very, it's a weird night. Cause then. Brandy Alexander is at pains to tell you what a great kicker M by actually is. As far as his natural skill and ability. And, and you, you don't remember him being a bad kicker. Like, like you watch him on this game and it's like,

[00:40:49] are you in the right career? Like what's going on here? But yeah. Anyway, it's an advantage to Cronulla 26 minute Chad towns and dummies close to the line and scores a try. I've noted that. Oh, it goes to video ref. And I've noted that Brayton Nass is very at home in the commentary booth at this point. Yeah. He is quite excellent. To be honest with you, there's no nerves or anything. He's just like, yep, this is where I'm going to be forever. Now. It seems that way. And one day I might even host my own show.

[00:41:19] Maloney one from one. We're down 12 six. At this point, I can hear a shark. Now what's our friend on the trumpet called? Bubbles. I can hear bubbles and the sharky chant. And I'm imagining you were part of that maybe from a distance. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Would have, that's about the 30th minute. So it's the first I can hear those guys and girls. Now, this is unbelievable. Highlight real stuff. People will know this one.

[00:41:49] 30th minute, right edge. Jack bird gets the ball, Jack bird gets the ball, holds it, dances a bit, has a step, drags into opposing players, and then flicks around the corner for the future Valentine homes to score relatively easy try for Val. Jack bird brilliance. Jack bird brilliance. Absolutely individual brands. Just something out of completely nothing. It's really outstanding. And like, just,

[00:42:19] you watch it, as you said, it's like that sort of highlight thing. A lot of people will remember from these games. You might not remember the full games, but you remember these sort of highlights being played endlessly, but yeah, just something completely out of nothing. And I know I said it really, like I said it early on in the season or whatever, but like bird was training a full back and five eighths in the preseason. And yet he's just there. And he's just like, just fits in anywhere. He's just a footballer's footballer. You do wonder. And you know, maybe another episode, this is four,

[00:42:48] but you do wonder if injury, even from like junior days up until now playing in England, you do wonder if injury didn't hamper him so much, how much more he could have done where he would stand in the game, et cetera. Like for us, he's a club legend. I think in the scheme of things, people probably look at Jack bird and go, Oh, he was a guy with some talent, has some good years. He's not going down as one of the greats, unfortunately in, in their eyes,

[00:43:17] but he has all the attributes. And I just, I wonder, I've never really thought about it, but until now, but if he didn't have all these injuries and he could play consistently, maybe if he wasn't club hopping, et cetera, that would be my thing, Sam, if he didn't, if he didn't go to the Broncos and he sort of stayed with us, even if it was just for a couple more years until in the Ronaldo's and the Catoas and the heroes of the world and that sort of stuff, you know, started to come in. If he just stayed with us after 2017,

[00:43:46] I feel like that his, he'd be looked at more fondly. It's just, it's one of those things we just talked about how, you know, Des didn't, didn't jive with Leisha. Well, I didn't, you know, Bennett didn't jive with, with bird and the injuries obviously then just crueled him or whatever. But yeah, I think if he stays with us a couple more years, he's certainly looked more fondly upon by the wider football community. Maloney hits the upright from the sideline and it's 12, 10.

[00:44:15] So hits the upright. Doesn't go in 12, 10. Not a great night. No. And then they throw to Minnie again. There's no Andy Ramon. Here's Minnie on the sideline. So we're trying to get used to this situation. What's Andy doing? Yeah. Getting, getting hot dogs and burgers for everyone or something for Andy. Bring Andy back. 35th minute, Sam Cassiano. And this reminds you of the Cassiano, what was it? Probably two, three years where he was a real. Yep. Stand out.

[00:44:44] Did he play origin? He played origin, didn't he? Um, let's have a look close to it. Maybe one second. Uh, no, he, um, he played, he was a New Zealand international. So, okay. Okay. 2013, he played for, um, played for New Zealand. So that's probably what you're thinking there. 35th minute, uh, close range, Barbara and Ennis can't stop him. And it was one of those things where is he a bench player? Is he a starter?

[00:45:13] Cause of his body size and shape and everything, but a really handy player in those few years for the dogs. And they're up 18, 10, the bulldogs up 18, 10. And rare for Ennis to be sort of embarrassed by two tries like that in a row. He's embarrassed by Leisha and then embarrassed by Cassiano, which no, I mean, in our watches of the last, however many games, 13 or 12 or whatever. Um, you haven't really seen that from Ennis. It's a, it was interesting the back to back. I'm going to say that maybe the nerves of playing the old club,

[00:45:42] maybe we're there. Um, fun fact, he is undefeated against the bulldogs when he played, uh, with the sharks mainly because it was only two games over the two years, but that's beside the point. Um, but yeah, very interesting back to back that Ennis is sort of out of position, not really effective and, and lets in the two tries. I'm reasonably sure Benny, his attitude was, he didn't want to leave the dogs. Is that something that rings a bell to you? Uh, yes, I believe so. I don't think that he,

[00:46:11] I think he thought that he was going to be at the dogs for the rest of his career. And then I think he was a bit blindsided by, yeah, by that, especially because he, he didn't even play the, um, whether I think it was 20, was it 2014? He didn't play the grand final. He had the broken foot. Oh, or was that 2012? There was one of them. One of them. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, I don't think it's, you know, that, that close. And then you feel like, Oh, you're going to go to the sharks then. Willie ever play in another grand final again. We'll find out.

[00:46:40] We sure will. Uh, dogs are winning the forward battle, uh, to end the half 18, 10 scoreline. We're sort of, we're thinking, Oh, this isn't great. We're not used to this. It's eight points. But the sharks aren't playing too good. And then to start the second half, and this rings a few bells for me, a tag at TZ error. And when I saw this, I was like, Oh, is this the tag at TZ game? And it's the tag at TZ game. And that's dramatic. Yes.

[00:47:10] But we are going to see another error or two. And, and like we said about Lutelli and Beal, if anyone on this team makes a mistake, it's like, what the hell are you doing? You're the perfect. Yeah. So tagger with an error in the 44th, uh, Leisha, uh, I believe he's on report, a penalty for lifting Chris Hyington, which is a great effort given Hino's, um, size, um, pretty much does the, it's almost like a spear tackle, I guess. And then from that penalty,

[00:47:40] we have the tag at TZ error. So it's two errors in like three minutes. It's very noticeable. And it's like, Oh, okay. Um, then we have another penalty for chat inside the 10. And I've noted the ref cam is really utilized. This means I'm stepping away for a minute. I had the, the, the digital earphones on the wireless earphones. And I walked away from the screen, still monitoring it via the audio. But I was like,

[00:48:09] I need a little refresher here. I can't be watching this. No offense. As I like to say, no offense to any of your coworkers at the time, Sam, but I don't think utilizing the slow motion ref cam, I can sort of, I can work with, but when it's a quick tap and they sort of, and the ref is trying to be like, Oh, you're taking the quick tap. I'm going to run back now, whatever. Let's, let's not use the ref. Cam for that folks that whoever the director was, we can calm it. They might've been under, they might've been under direction.

[00:48:37] So I'm going to say that they were. Yeah. 52nd minute. Fecchi is injured and gets up slowly. And we will find that. Let me look at my notes. Groin issue. Groin issue. Yes. So Fecchi gets up slow. And then eventually there it is. Leaves. Sorry. Leaves with a groin issue. Ricky Letelli comes on and Gerard Beal moves to the wing. So that's interesting to note. We'll tell you that centers built a wing more conversation about that kind of thing.

[00:49:06] But Shane Flanagan was pretty obsessed with not only the battle between those two guys, but having a three quarter on the bench, which obviously historically. Always seems to work out for him. Even in the grand final, it still works out. We all think it's a crazy maneuver. It's usually always Fecchi too, right? Yeah. It's always set every second game that we're covering here. So there's always a, Oh, I'm lucky we had that back on the bench. I did recall.

[00:49:33] It might've been at the Chad Townsend live recording that they were talking about the fact that most of the forwards can play such big minutes. They didn't need the four big guys on the bench. Like you weren't replacing Louie away, Graham, you weren't replacing gallon. So you had the two props and they both had big engines as well. So he kind of gets away with it that year. Maybe it was just a thing. Maybe in February with the assistant coaches, maybe they were just like, you know what?

[00:50:01] We don't need four guys on the bench playing middle forward. So yeah. And it's, it's a piece of art as we'll see throughout the season. I'm sure there's more games before the grand final where this is going to happen. I'm, I'm, I'm relatively sure. So, all right. Now 55th minute, a beautiful ball from away Graham inside ball. Ben Barber gets it. He burns four guys to score kind of close to the corner where you are,

[00:50:29] or I think it's where you are 18, 14, we are down, but it's a beautiful try. What are your thoughts on this try? It's just, it's one of those rare ones where you just sort of, you, the ref, you're, I don't even know if the ref goes to the bunker or not. I think we said that it was, I think he said that he, he didn't earlier, but it's just one of those ones where it's just like, there's so much great ball work in this, in this game and so much like out of nothing.

[00:50:58] And you sort of can just see how this is going to work a bit later with, with Barbara and everybody, how everybody just sort of clicks into position. Now we're in the middle of the year. Like it's just one of many great tries. That's from the highlight reel that you almost forget about. Right. But it's just amazing how each of these backs all were able to do just something out of nothing. They just needed the one little pass from Wade or whoever it was that's passing or whatever.

[00:51:24] We saw earlier with bird making it just something out of nothing going to Val. And then now with this one, it's just, it's amazing how we can just sort of click into gear like that. Yeah. The thing of beauty, James Maloney misses the goal from the left sideline. Important to note. Not a good kicking night. Not a good kicking night. One from three, I believe we're down 18, 14 in the 55th minute. And Ben, you're getting a Christmas bonus this year.

[00:51:50] Cause I just saw your private chat comment about the team was up and that's how out of touch. I am with everything. I did. I didn't want to blow up your spot, but I thought I'd just message you at the start. Like, Hey, don't forget the team list this time. And that's okay. We seamlessly made it work. I don't want to blow up anybody's spot, Sam. Uh, 59th minute. I thought we were in Ricky, the telly, no try. This does go to the video ref. And we hear that line, which we've heard this year before as well in real time.

[00:52:18] There was green grass between the ball and the line. This one was a tiny bit more obvious than the, than the Ronaldo's and Adam for Noah Blake's and all that, that we, we were, had taken away from us this year. This again, great ball work ruined by, um, what essentially is, um, Ricky knocking on and just getting so close. And I guess some good defense, scrambled offense from the, um, uh, from the bulldogs. But yeah, uh, unfortunately a bit of PTSD from a couple of, uh,

[00:52:48] more recent games, um, with the little tiny blade of grass beforehand. Now here it is in all its glory ref cam. This is now I'm going to just say this right now, Sam, this is the best use of ref cam that we will see all year in 2016. I can tolerate this one because it's visually not that bad. And basically Ben Barber looking you in the eye going, yeah, it's a try. It's a try. And he's almost gesturing like, look, it's the line, the ball hits the line.

[00:53:16] And then in the best use of ref cam all year, the referee shakes his head and you get the whole full 3d avatar. You're in the 40 X seats that move and whatever, because he shakes his head and the camera's wobbling. And it's just hysterical. Now. Whoa. Oh, stop it. Don't do that. Now, as you can imagine, um, so when younger Sam and even older Sam played slash plays, for example, PS games,

[00:53:46] yeah. PlayStation games, you know, big NFL guy, bit of WWE rugby league when it's possible. Yeah. More of a sporty guy, but doesn't mean I don't play other things, you know, Josh bowling. I'd be happy to know I did last of us, that kind of stuff. Oh yeah. Okay. Josh is a gamer. Okay. Yeah. The last of us fanatic, but popular. I don't know. You could probably put a year on it for me, Benny, when it started, but the,

[00:54:16] the equivalent of games. Yes. The, yes. What's the word? There is a term for it. What's the big series of, what was the big, the big one? It's, um, Kyla Murray's obsessed with it. What's the game that everyone loves? Uh, call the duty. Call the duty. That kind of thing. It's very military type games. You can imagine. I wasn't a fan of those for those. Yeah. If you don't like ref game, I don't think you're really like the, uh, the, the, the first player sort of view. Yes. Um,

[00:54:45] there is a term for it, but yeah. Uh, so we get past that. Somehow we move on from that nauseating bit of television. Um, 60, 60 to 65 minutes, uh, some poor sets on their line from us. We've got the ball. We're attacking. We can't get across the line. It's not looking that great, but we're close enough. If good enough, good enough, close enough. And in the 78th minute,

[00:55:15] there's a long range attempt to score. Um, and it's a Ben Barber. I've got bomb tried. Is that ring a bell to you? No, try to Maloney. What am I saying? Yeah. So what happens is, and this is the most fascinating thing about the last 10 minutes is I was obviously at the game. We know that we win this game and we know how we sort of win because we remember the last kick to win it. Right. But we are, we are stationed at, at the bulldogs end. Like we are way at the other end of the field.

[00:55:43] I'm thinking we've got like five minutes to go. How on earth do we get a penalty or something? But no, they, they pass it wide and, um, Beal gets the wall of ball cause now on the wing and he makes a break. And then he, and even as I'm watching, I go, don't kick, but he kicks. And then Ben, Ben Barber sort of, um, he doesn't pick it up, but he sort of jostles with his body to keep the ball going. And then he sort of loses it. Then Maloney sort of grabs it and then loses it. And yes.

[00:56:14] And they try and claim that it's a try, but it's not, but, I, even though I know that we win the game in the next couple of minutes, I go, Oh, we bombed it. That's how, how are they going to rule this against us? Like how are they, how are we going to get the ball back here? Um, sure enough we do, but, um, but yeah, that I can just imagine that the game, I would have been like, well, that was our only opportunity. Now, is there a way that we got the scrum from that play? Is that how it happens? Yeah. So he tries. So, um, Cummins ends up explaining to James Graham that, um,

[00:56:44] I think it is like a Graham or a Tolman or someone is in there and touches the ball. It might even be the, the Kerrard player that I, yes, that's it. Um, one of them, uh, in the process of, I think it's Maloney scoring, um, to get touches the ball first and then Maloney. Gotcha. So we do get the ball back. Thank you. Gotcha. Now, 78th minute, uh, Ben Barber gets the ball in that next set.

[00:57:14] In my head, it was a scrum play, but it wasn't a scrum play. No. a few tackles later, Ben Barber gets it and he has a great ball, a step, a jinx, and he passes to Ricky Letelli who does a great job to get to the trial line right in the corner. It's a bit hairy. We're not sure there's a lot of video ref, but once you see the first replay, you're like, Oh, it looks like a try. And the only,

[00:57:41] the only thing is that he's wearing pink boots and M by who's making the cover tackle is also wearing pink boots. So if you're looking sort of from afar, you sort of go, no, the pink boots are out, but no, they're two different people playing with two different pink boots. And yes, as you see the first replay, you know, straight away, it's a try and you're going to have a kick to try and win the game. Yep. There's a great, a great shot of the bench going up when they score the try. Yep. Everyone's pretty happy. I remember watching this at home and definitely out of my seat.

[00:58:11] And, um, I remember, well, I got a lot more emotions after the goal, but I remember it being just a real, I was like, this is kind of special. Like something's going on here. Like we don't usually as sharks have this kind of good fortune. I won't say luck, but however, Maloney hasn't had a good game with the kicks. That's right. Now I'm going to say fun fact. I'm not normally one to do the spirit fingers. I hope that's not,

[00:58:39] I hope that's not sort of just for a lot of people, just not really my thing. Yeah. But I will say that this is the, on the one and only occasion that I have put the spirit fingers up in the crowd, uh, to try and, and will Maloney on because he hasn't had the best kicking game. So I can tell you that this is the one game in my shark supporting life. Let's, let's, let's double down here. Let's, let's, let's zone in. Let's focus. Yes. Yeah.

[00:59:09] Do you remember, do you remember thinking I have to do this to get it across the line or what was the story? Your mate was candidly. I feel like that me and my mates were making fun of the spirit fingers, not working during the game because Maloney wasn't having the best of success. And so I think we all felt compelled that we're, since it was on the bell that we needed to pick up the slack, Sam, and we needed to join in. And maybe that was enough power that we could, uh,

[00:59:38] band together and the power of the spirit fingers would will him, um, over and look what, that's what happened. It would not just not to put the victory on me alone, Sam, but I'm not, I won't. I will say that this is the one and only time that I actually did the spirit fingers at the game. Now Maloney's a pretty cool, calm collected dude. Like he doesn't look phased by much as we know, watching him so closely, he's a friend of Kieran. How could you be phased by stuff?

[01:00:05] He's seen a lot with Kieran and I believe Kieran seen a lot through him as well, to be fair. I bet. Now you're watching him lighting it up. It could go obviously one or two ways. You've got the spirit fingers going. Yep. I mean, before this kick, I don't know if I'm having James Maloney kick for my life kind of thing. Like he's very good. He's great, but it's like,

[01:00:34] I didn't know he was clutch necessarily. Well, just think about the circumstances, right? He's had a bad kicking, kicking night. Probably hasn't had his best game. Full stop. He's just come off an origin game where they lost like, I think six, four or something like that. He missed that kick. I think. So, so like he's had a bad kicking week basically. And, and now he's got a kick to win the whole game. It's not one that you're going to put money on. As you said, kick for your life.

[01:01:03] That's why the spirit fingers were needed, but we do need to get this kick to keep the street going. We didn't want to stay on top of the table. The whole thing. You don't need to go to golden point. I need to work the next day. You do. You do. So lines it up. Am I correct in saying? Yes. It hits the post. It hits the upright or post and goes in. And goes in and we win. Yeah. I,

[01:01:31] I do remember that moment actually in the moment and, going pretty crazy. And we had a very young child. Yeah. Under one year old child in the house. So that wasn't that cool. So I was very understated, but like the quiet kind of, Oh my God, you know? And then, um, so then win the game, which is great. Warren Smith back next year, I believe from his bad health run this year. Sharks true contenders for the title in 2016.

[01:02:00] They flicked the porch light on. That was a quote. Yes. And we're all, we're all feeling it. And I've noted that the players look genuinely happy and they also look relieved. Yeah, they do. The ones on the bench look relieved. Everyone on the field looks relieved. Everybody is happy. So at this point, I don't even think I'm watching interviews, whatever, jumping on forums.

[01:02:28] I go outside of my apartment in the little, well, not little in the big courtyard. I don't know what it is. Big area. So I'm not making too much noise. And I ring my big brother, my big brother, David, who at this point I'm going to a lot of games with have all my life. We've got season tickets and we're pretty excited. And I don't know if it was me to him or him to me,

[01:02:57] but by the end of the call, we had grand final tickets that Monday night. Now I'm not saying I went the first, I'm sure many people went before me, but for me personally, that was the moment we secured two grand final tickets. Wow. So this was the game. Yep. Wow. That was the moment. So say what time did you have the game finishing? 940. Was it? No, it was, um, it was 848. So let's say the kick was about 850. I think by nine 10,

[01:03:26] I maybe 905, even nine o'clock. Like at some point after nine, I had grand final tickets. Wow. Okay. And it was basically because in your mind, these sort of comeback finishes or whatever didn't really happen. And that it was for further proof that this was something special. It was all that. It was obviously heat of the moment, excitement, emotion, but it was also just like, well, it was almost like that thing. Well, if it's not this year, when's it going to be like, this is incredible. of course.

[01:03:56] Now we still are only in round 13, the whole team. That's right. With broken legs or whatever, but we're halfway through the season. I just had never experienced anything like that. I've experienced eight games in a row, I think, but not, not like this and not like this execution. I'm at a point in my life where I'm studying the game for work. I, I, I know when I see a good team and yeah, with respect to, let's say our 08 team, they did amazing.

[01:04:25] They weren't an elite team. You know, you can say maybe 99, 99.01, very much closer, very much closer, but there was something about this team where if we're going, let's tell him Mr. Tackle, get rid of him or tagger, drop the ball, get rid of him. That's pretty good. So there's all that in my head. And I guess there's always that thing where you can just sell your tickets to the Manly fan or whoever, you know, so, and we've done that in the past,

[01:04:54] but this was the moment. Manly's making the grand final. Did you have a good, this is obviously a spoiler for our grand final episode, but everyone will forget by the time we get there. Cause it'll probably be 2030 by the time. No, no, it'll be this spring, summer, this spring, summer. Where did you get good seats or did you just sort of go, okay, let's just, let's just get whatever we can. No, we, we, we, we picked them in the moment and they were, they were good seats. They ended up being the ones, and there's a bit tiny bit more of a story, but, um,

[01:05:23] my nephew and I ended up sitting in them and yeah, it was like maybe 15 meter line. What, right where Ricky makes the tackle, maybe 20, 25. They were amazing. Uh, but, but then, you know, we'll tell this story later in a while, but my brother ended up going with a friend as well. And they had separate tickets a bit further back. So, but with the two original seats we got were, um, specifically, I think he was looking at his computer when we bought them kind of thing. And I was like, yeah, just get them. I love this.

[01:05:53] I love this a lot. Yeah. So I was a believer. Yeah. This is the moment. This is the moment. Um, I think we've encouraged this before, but like, this is probably around the time that a lot of other people, a lot of people listening now probably thought, yeah, like send us a note. Yeah. Sam's got all the details. He's going to tell you how to get in contact with us. Let us know. I want to know, when did you decide? Did you wait till the prelim or did you wait till early? Like Sam, cause you had a moment like this where you were confident and Sam,

[01:06:21] people can contact us at.

[01:06:51] That's sharkastpod at gmail.com. Before the Monday allotment on the Monday, as we all know, they released 10, 20,000 tickets for the fans, but definitely at that game, I know people who did it personally and I was watching people. It was quite fascinating. People on their phones, buying tickets after the Cowboys prelim. So obviously you knew you're in the grand final at that point. Give us a spoiler. Like when did you get your fancy seats? Yeah. Like did people buy them? No, you.

[01:07:21] Oh me. Oh, okay. So to lift the curtain a tiny bit, cause I worked in radio and, and how I ended up on the field after the game. I, yes. So I worked with Andrew's, Andrew's ex Catherine, who was still a lovely lady. It has a bestselling book. If any of you are interested, you should go and buy it. What is the book about her life in her life?

[01:07:49] Her life in publicity meeting Andrew Johns being, being married to the best player in the game, being a British, British expat coming to Australia and dealing with all of that. And then having a kid and then getting divorced and having, having to deal with all that. It's, it's a very, and she's very funny. She is a very naturally funny person. If you meet her or if you read her book or whatever, but through her, yes. Can I ask this? Ask away. Andrew and her still on speaking terms. Not really.

[01:08:19] Absolutely. Yes. No, still on speaking terms. Now, I think she goes into detail in the book about how it was obviously a bit dicey then as any separation would be, but they have a kid who's just graduated year 12. And so, so they're great co-parenting, which is half of the reason why I ended up on the field at the grand final. But it was, it was really like, she said to Andrew, my son, Ben needs to get on the field. That's right. Yes. Our son, Ben, remember he's a grown man that works at Nova.

[01:08:49] No, I don't want to, I don't want to sound privileged or anything. Cause I very much appreciate the fact that I did get tickets through the NRL and I was very thankful for that. Um, with my, that was, that was a week of, no, no, it was, it was assured to me during the year and probably around this time that if we did make the grand final, the NRL would be able to look after me, whether that was, look, we have a staff allocation you can buy from. I was willing to pay whatever. Gotcha. Okay. So it's, yeah. Sorry,

[01:09:18] I don't want to get like a dickhead saying this, right, but it's around this time. I, I fondly remember, getting home and saying to my grandparents saying, guys, I've just been assured if we make the grand final, we have tickets. So don't worry. We're all sorted. So much like you on, on the phone, I remember fondly walking in. So yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to, this was your moment too then. It was around this time. I remember coming home from work one day and saying it. So it was around this time of year that I did, that we knew that if it was going to happen, it was going to happen. Um, sorry,

[01:09:47] I don't want to sound like a dickhead being like, Ooh, look at me. I, it was the greatest day of my life and I got free tickets. Look at me. I don't know. Um, does that word count as a swear word? Cause you said it twice in five minutes and you can only say it once. So. I don't know. I think it's more offensive that you say swearies to be perfectly honest. I don't blame you. I don't know where that came from. I don't know where that came from. Yes. So sorry to sound like an idiot, um, an out of touch or whatever, but, uh, no, we're getting the story. It's fine. It happened.

[01:10:16] And I was very thankful. Yes. Very thankful that it was around this time of, of the season, much like you, that, um, that it was like, okay, if we're going to be there, I'm going to be there. And I was obviously very thankful for it. So yeah, we have, we have a lot in common in that respect. Crowds are starting to swell. Well, I didn't have a fear of not getting a ticket. It was more just, you know what, let's just get this sorted. and because I believe it might've been, I wait, when we did buy grand final tickets and we sold those pretty quick. So. Oh, did you? Okay. See, I always thought 2008 that we would,

[01:10:46] um, we'd make it to the, um, I always thought we'd make it to the prelim and we'd lose. And then with the whole Cameron, Cameron Smith of it all, then that sort of got a bit dicey and I didn't really know how it was going to end up. Again, that's a summer podcast for another day. Um, but yeah, can confirm that was our first buy last week in round 12. That was our first buy. There's another one in around 15 coming up. So pretty quick succession. Oh, two and very quick succession. Yeah.

[01:11:15] So next, next week, as you say, we're on a Monday night at points bet stadium, uh, not points bet stadium. Where are we? We're at Southern cross, Southern cross group stadium. So air L.com have points bet stadium on their 2016 calendar. That's interesting. Um, we're against the Cowboys, right? Cowboys. We won't say too much about that game, but yes, no. And it's, this is the game that we were talking about way Graham in the commentary being speculated. He might make origin too.

[01:11:45] And cause it's a Monday night game and the origin teams are announced on a Monday. And there's a certain tackle against a certain protected species of Mr. Jay Thurston, um, that might ruin those origin dreams for Mr. Graham, but we can get into that in the next, um, episode. We don't have to waste the good stuff here. We've already, I've already sworn twice. So like, you know, and you've also said that there's a tackle on Jonathan Thurston by way Graham. So, um, next game up is going to be Cowboys at where,

[01:12:14] where'd you say we were? What's our home ground? Southern cross group stadium. Now ocean protect. Love ocean protect. Love ocean protect. And then we have the buy. Yes. And then we're back and we'll go through all that stuff. This is some real pearls coming up. Oh my God. Can I just actually, you know what? What's after the buy? I'm going to tell you. Yeah. Can we, and no results. I'm just going to tell you cause our younger listeners may not be completely wherever week to week. Like we are. Okay. We got warriors at home. If you recall what happens there.

[01:12:45] One of my favorite games here at Southern cross group stadium, sharks, eels. So those, so those two games, Sam, I'm getting hot out of the collar there. Oh my God. What's that? I'm in America for those two. I do. I do remember. I think I, I think I missed the warriors game altogether. And I remember waking up. It was the same day as I believe a federal election. Cause I was with a, um, uh, I was with a real political nut and he was watching the ABC like a

[01:13:14] run me through what, who was running for what, what was the year as it, as if I knew, I remember 2016 do the mass. All I know is that he was a nerd watching the results come into the ABC in his bed. And then in my hotel room, I was watching the Parramatta sharks game. He's a dragon's fan. Not much, not much for him to be celebrating, Sam. I don't want to know about his political agents. If he's a dragon's fan, please. That's right. Exactly.

[01:13:43] Then we have, I will say, I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm very excited about those two games because they're games that the Warriors game. I don't even know if I've seen more than once on TV and the Eels one, I think I've only seen once in a hotel room in Disney world. So after the Eels game, origin period, what says to you origin period sharks, 2016, what are you thinking? Origin period. There's one game. This is the game. We'll go to Penrith. Oh, yes.

[01:14:12] So we got a lot of fun this spring and summer, Benny. This is going to be awesome. There's, ah, there's so much happening. Oh my God. And just a reminder to everybody. If you, um, if you don't have the fancy DVD set, um, that came out that had, that had every game. I know a lot of people bought that sort of stuff. I think I had it. And then I had to sell it before I moved here to America. NRL.com pretty much has the majority of all these games. Majority. You just go to the draw section and choose 2016 and then just go through the games. They normally have the replays there.

[01:14:40] So if you do want to follow along or watch it the week before, if you can see the episodes coming up on the feed, go to NRL.com, go to the draw section. And I think there's usually a percent of the time. There's usually two links. It's half one second. Yep. First half, second half. If you do like, if you are listening and you haven't been watching and you go, Oh, I actually wouldn't mind seeing what, you know, Sam and Ben are vaguely trying to explain from these games. You can just go to NRL.com. And I'll give you a tip. I'll give you a tip.

[01:15:08] Watch it on a newer product than an older product. For example, I was watching a lot on my 14 year old Mac. And I remember saying to you, boy, it's grainy boy. This is terrible. And then I happened just one night for circumstance, watch it on a reasonably new, like, you know, three or four year old iPad. And I was like, Oh, I can see all the players. This is great. Yeah. I know even in this game, I watched the first half on the Chrome browser and it was grainy as all heck.

[01:15:36] And then I switched over to Safari and it was clear as anything. So, okay. Maybe it's a browser thing. There you go. Anyway, not to do, not to do tech talk with Ben and Shanaz, but you know, we've, we've gone off the rails. If you, if you're still listening, bless you. Oh, people listen. Don't worry about that. All right, Benny. So great win by the shark. He's historic in a lot of ways because we thought this could be it. This could be a year and there's more of that coming. All right, Ben, we'll, we'll talk to you sooner rather than later. That's for sure. We won't say when,

[01:16:05] cause I always get in trouble when I say things and we don't do it. And it's like, where's the podcast. But we're hoping in the next seven to 10 days next week, we'll say next week, seven to 10 business days. I think that's pretty, I think that's pretty solid. That's enough time for everyone to, to track down the, the next game and watch it. Yes, absolutely. And that's about all we got. But stay tuned and subscribe for other episodes that will appear in your feed. But for now,

[01:16:31] Benny Harlem and I are out of here and we'll go out with our intro slash goodbye music. Ben, have a great day in New York city. Great night. I should say, stay warm. And Oh, by the way, as professional as we are, keep those thumbs up, Ben. If you hear something after this episode, like in three seconds, I stopped talking. If it means I found the corresponding 2016 episode. It means the audio is okay. It means that we haven't said everyone should be sacked. I'm going to throw it up.

[01:17:01] I'll throw it up no matter what it says. So if that's what happens, you're going to hear a fellow called Adam Newman, who some of, you know, some of you don't know, some of you like, some of you don't like. That's a joke. And it's just an episode from 2016. If it doesn't happen, it means I couldn't get it up, up Cronulla. Oh, well, see you later, Benny. Let's go. Bye for now. Goodbye. Let's go. Sharks. Let's go. Win the comp.

[01:17:39] Hello and welcome to this week's episode of SharkCast Radio, the original weekly Sharks podcast brought to you by Dyson Logistics, Shark Island Brewing Company, and the locker room at Sharks Leagues. I am Sharks Nut Newman. And as usual, I'm joined by my fellow Sharks Nut and good mate, Sam. How you going, mate? Newman, I'm in first place, top of the table, nine in a row. I'm loving life. Everyone get in touch with us. SharkCastPod at gmail.com. We want to hear from you. We're on Twitter.

[01:18:09] SharkCastPod is the Twitter handle. We're on Facebook. Please come and hang out with us because we love your company. Round 12, sore ass roll. All in a comeback, miracle comeback. The Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs, 20 points to 18. It was a game where we trailed the entire time. And that win keeps us in first position on 22 points.

[01:18:39] This is glorious place to be. Unbelievable. If you would have told me earlier in the year that, but we'd be sitting outright first, I wouldn't have believed you, but just a fantastic win, sort of against the run of play and just a fantastic place to be in, Sam. It shows this year that this team is so different from years gone by. Three out of four times this year, we've been behind and we've won the game behind at halftime, I should say. And this was another example of that. They didn't give in. Majority game didn't play overly well. There were some positives, a lot of positives.

[01:19:08] There were some negatives, which we'll get into, but to have that conviction to hang into the death is a really, really great trait. They're playing as a team, which is my favorite thing about all of it. They're playing as a team. Yeah, absolutely. I was at the ground on Monday night watching, you know, a lot of people were saying, oh, the Bulldogs were the better side. And part of me gets that where they were running the ball a lot harder than we were. And they were really trying to razz us in defense. And they seem to make more meters with the ball in hand. But even so,

[01:19:38] we butchered a couple of tries. Like I thought Fecky could have scored that try in the corner that, that was chalked off by the bunker and Benny Barber, you know, he's not going to ever do that again. And then it's a different game. And also the Bulldogs kicking game for all their great running that let them, let them down massively. So I don't know if they played majorly better than us, but for us to get the win despite that was just fantastic. And I got to say, Sam,

[01:20:07] traditionally it's us that get heartbroken like that in the last minute, not other teams. You're a hundred percent correct about that. And also just the fact that coming off a bye in this crazy period we're in, and we're up so high on the ladder and everyone wants to bring us down. I thought it was a danger game for that reason. I wasn't overly worried about the dogs. They ran really well. Cassiano and Clem are unbelievable, but we had enough razzle dazzle in us to get out of that mess. Their kicking game was atrocious. Townsend and Maloney's was pretty good,

[01:20:36] and it was enough to get us into some great areas. Ennis as well had some great kicks. Ennis' kicking game was brilliant. Those first two kicks that he got on the sit-up in the in goal, I've been waiting for plays like that from our players. I love that play where you get a standard kick away in general play, and then you get a repeat set out off that. I love that play. The teams were pretty even, but they had no kicking game at all, and their attack wasn't amazing. Our forwards struggled for a while. I think Fafida and Gallon were really feeling origin.

[01:21:05] That was very clear to me. And we'll just get into a few game specifics here is probably the 75th minute, definitely the last 10 minutes. We were on our own line a couple of times. There was one set in particular. Everyone knew they were going to rush up the Bulldogs to keep us down there, and Gallon did like a three-meter hit-up, got bashed by James Graham. And then I think Fafida did the same thing. In that instance, you've got to go wide. You've got to go two plays wide, surely. Yeah, but I mean, in the 75th minute, and if it's been a long kick from the other team

[01:21:35] or we've been defending and they turn the ball over on the line, I mean, the players are fatigued. And to get shape around the ball in terms of shape both sides of the ruck and shape two players wide is difficult. And if you go two sideways without any forward momentum, that's when you get dragged back into the in goal. So you need those big, strong carries from your props. And look, not every carry that they make is going to be, you know,

[01:22:03] 10 meters and over the advantage line, pop their nose through and get a quick play. Or sometimes they just have to run into traffic and try and lay a platform so that we can shift the ball wide or get a quick dummy half run. I mean, when we're playing from our own corner on our own try line, it's hard going. And if they'd have shifted wide, one, two, three wide, and we were gassed and not running onto the ball with any conviction, there's an error that could come there. Because I say that because in the last set of the game

[01:22:32] that got us up the field, they did shift it wide. But I guess that was desperation stakes. That was a minute to go, two minutes to go. I'd have to look at it. I mean, if we've got the shape to go wide, you know, to go two and three passes wide, and the players are there and the players are in the right positions and we can do it, and Galen just tucks it under his arm and runs a meter, then of course that's not the right play. But if there's no shape and no one's in position to receive wide passes or tip-ons on our own line,

[01:23:00] that's how you drop the ball or it gets intercepted or you get dragged into the end goal. So I'd have to look specifically at that incident. But I'm not going to hang them out to dry. Oh, no, no, no. It's not player specific. It was more just the plays at the end of the game. And to their credit, you know, Galen and Fafita and the other guys really got bashed and they took it well and kept getting up. And they played good games. They were just busted from, you know, the game earlier in the week. It looked like we were coming back for all money, but then we kept making errors. I mean, Wade Graham dropped a ball

[01:23:29] that normally he would have picked up just on a standard pass. Jack Bird dropped one on a little unders line, which he should have caught. I mean, we were making errors when it looked like we were coming back. So the clock was really running out. Had the no try at the end as well. On another day, that could have gone our way. So, you know, not everything was going, well, not much was going our way. So for us to pull that out of our ass, so to speak, and still get the win was unbelievable.

[01:23:57] And Ricky Vitelli, you know, he almost went out at the end there. He was close and he didn't need to be. Yeah, he was real close. Other than Val, who's spectacular at that jumping through the air, legs up, score a try. I mean, Vitelli, they drag their legs along the ground and they go at it in a touch. Can we give Vitelli a bit of leeway there because he is a centre? Yeah, you play on the edge. And they do all that stuff at training. They do all that. You know, they practice that stuff

[01:24:25] because it's such a big part of the game now where you can only get the ball in the corner. And it's something a winger has to have in his arsenal these days. And Fecky's got that low body, low centre of gravity. He's stocky in his heart. Like when he ran over to the top of Brett Stewart to score that try against Manly, there you see that he's a great, that's what he's in the team for. But then when you see him go for the corner and probably if it went to the other side, Val Holmes would have had his leg in the air and scored that try and Fecky doesn't.

[01:24:55] There are areas of improvement. What's great for me, Sam, and I know you feel the same way, is that we are just ticking these hoodoos off. We are. We are. After the bye, win a game. A-N's in stadium, win a game. Beat the Bulldogs who we've got a bad record against, win a game. We're beating Manly. We're just... We're going to Newcastle and winning. We're just breaking all these hoodoos. And, you know, you always sit there and say, oh, we don't have a good record against Team XYZ. And we're just breaking the hoodoos

[01:25:25] and, you know, we're looking at one big hoodo towards the end of the year. But it's ticking these victories off, winning from behind, winning from in front. I love... And more importantly, Newman, is the fact that it's winning and getting those two points. So they're banking them up. Should they beat the Cowboys this week? Should they? They'll be six points ahead of them. And they're going to be there at the end of the year, competing like everyone else, probably more. So every game is crucial and every win is crucial. And are we going to lose a game this year?

[01:25:54] We probably will. I don't think we'll go undefeated for the rest of the year. It would be lovely if we did. But every win, like the Canterbury game, is as important as beating Newcastle. It was as important. Like every game is just crucial. The players that we talk to on SharkCast TV say the same thing. So obviously this is a line that's getting trotted out by the coach, which is we haven't won anything yet. And he's right. We haven't won anything yet.

[01:26:20] However, you don't get to the finals without winning your regular season games. And you don't get into the good position in the finals by winning your regular season games and winning them well. That's how you get into the top four and build yourself a foundation to win the premiership off. So I mean, the cliche rings true that no, we're not winning the premiership in May. But, you know, if you lose those close games, those 50-50 games, all of a sudden you drop down in the ladder and then you're fighting for your survival.

[01:26:48] And you're not thinking about putting together a premiership team with a premiership style of play. You're thinking, God, if we don't win this game, then we won't make the eight. Or if we don't beat Manly around 26 in the yellow jerseys, then we don't make the top four. All that stuff is distracting. And that's what's beautiful about being on top, right? It is. And if we're going to win the comp, which is what we all want to do, is what we're all here for, we're going to be in the top four and ideally the top two. If you're in the top two, that's a very good chance of being in the grand final at the very least. That's right.

[01:27:19] I mean, of course you want to make the top eight and everyone in the top eight has a chance of winning the comp. But as you said, you're dead right. If you're in the top two, that gives you the best chance to make the grand final. Everything's laid on for you to make the grand final. You're not travelling anywhere. No, you're not travelling, you know, and you're playing against teams that haven't won, that have probably only won 50% to 60% of their games. And you don't know who it's going to be. Is it going to be like this week,

[01:27:48] it's the Gold Coast Titans who are in eighth position. Next week, it might be Penrith. The week after that, it could be who? I don't know. You don't know. Whereas, I just love the way they're going about their business. Hats off to Shane Flanagan. I've been a critic, probably a deserved critic. But you and I talked offline about, it doesn't matter what you do with coaching, you've got to have good players. And this year, we've got good players. Man, anywhere you look on that field, it's almost an embarrassment of riches.

[01:28:17] I was, much like yourself and probably all of our listeners, you know, every day of our lives now, people are talking about the Sharks. You know, you might wear your Sharks hoodie out to work. And everyone knows you're a Sharks fan and they want to talk to you about all sorts of things. And someone the other day was a little bit surprised that we're in that position. And I said, that disappoints me. You watch the game of Rugby League. Can you not see the team that we're putting out there? And he's like, what do you mean? I said, okay. Just sit, hold up. Ben Barber. Pretty good player, right? Yeah, Ben Barber.

[01:28:47] Jack Bird. Immense future. And performing right now as well. Let's go to the halves. Maloney, one of the best halves in the comp. New South Wales half. Chad Townsend. Improvement out of sight. Paul Gallant. Luke Lewis. Wade Graham is your back row. Champions, right? Andrew Fafita in your front row. With Ennis playing career best form. Yeah, it's a great team. And then that allows you to carry players like Fecky. Fecky's not a world beater.

[01:29:14] But you don't have immense pressure on him to do things that are above his station because there's strength across the park. Same thing with Letelli. Letelli, he cups a lot of criticism because he's not a world beater. But you slot him into a team like that and he's only got a job to do which he's capable of doing. Well, that's what they're talking about now at coaching level. All the players play their role. They know their role and they're playing it. That's different to how last year was apparently. And I'm sure the new halves in Maloney

[01:29:43] and Townsend have helped with that a lot. But just back to what we were talking about. Just as I said, the embarrassment and riches we have with these players and fingers crossed touch wood, they stay healthy. If they stay healthy, man, we're in this comp up to our eyeballs. I want to talk about two players in particular who you've already listed off there. First is my buddy Ben Barber. I mean, I tell you what, how good is he playing? I actually listened back to one of our earlier podcasts and we said,

[01:30:11] oh, if he can recreate about 30% of his form of 2012, then we'd be pretty happy. He is at about 100% of that. He's playing the house now. He's at least at 90. I mean, he hasn't... Oh, he's had a couple of almost length of the field stuff. But he's going as good as what we need him is basically the story. Well, he's doing less of that going the length of the field stuff and more of getting the ball close to line. And he either scores himself or he ball plays.

[01:30:41] And I mean, that last try that Letellie scored, that was a beautiful pass from Benny Barber. Incredibly safe under the high ball. Incredibly safe. I don't think he's dropped a bomb all year. And that's coming from my work history of stats. And that try he scored off, that little inside-out play, that speed was blistering. We haven't really seen that. Fullback is obviously his position. We forget. We were trying to mould him into a half. Oh, I haven't forgotten. You know, we had the battle of the fullbacks over summer.

[01:31:10] We did. And Andrew Fafita, what a player. Yeah, now I was... Now we're talking about being critical. I was critical of him over summer in our podcast. Deservedly so. Yeah. And as I'll tell anyone who'll listen, he has performed the house down. His discipline is really good. His handling is really good. He's a guy who's knowing his role. He knows when to push that quick play the ball and when it's okay to have the slow play ball. There's no in-between for Fafita. It's either a fast or slow play ball. And I'm cool with that. Damaging runs.

[01:31:41] If anything, needs to lift a little bit in the defence. But, he's playing big minutes. He's going to blow a bit of steam every now and then. Look, I tell you, people focus on his play the ball. And I think it's unfair, actually. Yeah, he makes an odd error, but there's no player who's perfect when it comes to errors. What we... I think we focus on that little negative in his game so much. Well, it's not a negative anymore, is what I'm saying. And forget about the damage he does and how difficult he is for opposition teams to handle.

[01:32:09] And I really noticed that at origin level, how different New South Wales looked when he came on. And I sort of thought, we've become a bit used to this at the Sharks, that he's just a big body barging out the field, carrying people with him. And he just gets us on the front foot. I'm loving his restart returns from the kickoffs. Can you imagine trying to tackle him? I don't want to. I just... He's got skill. He's close to our best player this year. We'll get into that another time. But he's... You're right. Him and Ben Barber.

[01:32:37] And I thought Jack Bird was also the difference on Monday night. Oh, yeah. I mean, the mainstream media talked a lot about that pass. And he was trying to send a message to the origin selectors. But he was really good. And a lot of people, particularly the guys in the League Unlimited forum, have been very critical of him, saying that he's overhyped. I just think that he is just a genuine footballer. And he would have made a good fullback. He would have made a good 5'8".

[01:33:05] And now he's making a good centre. You could probably play him in any... Even in the back row. But it's going to take 10, 12 games to get... For him to find his feet there. And he's done that now at centre. I think if he was a bit heavier body, he would kill it at lock. But I think centre is his preferred position. I think that he's busy enough to stay involved and be really influential like he was on Monday. His defence is getting better and better every week. He's smashing blokes out wide.

[01:33:35] And, yeah, I think that if he wants that jumper, he'll have it for a long time. So the upshot is the game wasn't as ugly as a lot of people were saying, but we still didn't play our best. And we still won by scoring some great tries. It's a great time to be a Shark supporter. There's plenty of room on the bandwagon. We're going to cut to a break. And when we come back, we'll look at the news of the week. Newman, I'm heading down to the Bottle O. Yeah, man, I don't go to the Bottle. You know, they only drink Shark Island Brewing Company beer. Shark Island Brew?

[01:34:04] Man, in Sutherland Shire, we've got our own dedicated craft brewing company. They brew a range of different delicious beers. They're all local Shark supporters. And they're just local business having a go. You can go down to Unit 8, 29 to 33, Warwickau Street, Kirrawee. They have cellar doors on Thursday, 3 to 7 o'clock, Friday, 2 to 7 o'clock, and Saturday, 12 to 7 o'clock. You can buy takeaways or they'll fill up your growlers. Once a month, they have cellar door

[01:34:34] where they have a food truck in and they pump the tunes. Sam, you've got to get down there. I can't wait, buddy. Try and stop me. And now it's come to the time of the show where we see what news has washed in across Botany Bay towards the Mangrovey Shores of the SCGS. And we see what news we have for the week. The first big bit of news that we can cover off on because we were no help last week was the David Fafita issue. Now, what can you tell us about that, Sam?

[01:35:02] Our friend Robbie Willis at the Sharks has given us a bit of an exclusive, which you might see on Shark TV as well. He's overseas visiting his brother. He's had three weeks compassion leave. Some personal stuff going on. We don't know more. We don't need to know more. Family stuff, I believe. Family stuff. I would love, Newman, if there was some kind of apology system or shaming system on the journos slash wannabe journos who blatantly not only get it wrong,

[01:35:31] but go out there and just put out rumours and speculation just to be the man for like three seconds. And that's something we try not to do here at Shark Cast Media. People look to us to give news, and that's very flattering, but we try not to be, oh, well, we've got this scoop. We'd rather provide the news to you in the formats of Shark Cast TV and Shark Cast Radio that we can without overblowing the social media because, A, we're not in a race,

[01:36:00] and, B, we've got respect for the players. Yeah, so, I mean, hopefully whatever's going on, he can feel better about things and come back and get fit and play because, as we've said, he was pretty good at the start of the year in the trials and the opening few games. So, prop depth is probably the weakest position that we've got in terms of when, you know, if we're missing Pryor, so let's say we were missing Pryor and Tagatisi, then the alarm bells start to ring. Well, we had Jace Pecouia named at prop last week.

[01:36:30] I don't know if he played there, but he was named there, so... He's not a prop. I am a little worried about it, Newman. Yeah. A little worried. Yep. Now, the other bit of news is that State of Origin is just knocking down the Sharks' door as a reflection of how well we're playing. Looks as though... As though Wade Graham is going to be picked as a... In the New South Wales team. Assuming that there are some injuries, it looks as though Ben Barber is right in the mix for Queensland too.

[01:37:00] Jack Bird was mentioned, but we are hearing that that won't happen. I think under the reign of our old nemesis Bob Fulton, boo, boo, I think that Dylan Walker will get another shot, but I think Jack's probably another year away. I reckon Wade will be starting, or at least named in the starting squad. Not sure about Barber or how I feel about that. Don't know if I want him up there playing in a big game. He's only going to get picked if there's an injury,

[01:37:28] but the fact is we'll have Gallon, Fafita, Graham, and Maloney. That's four of our very, very critical players missing out, and I just watch the game worried. I just watch it worried, going, please don't get hurt. It's so torrid. The game is so torrid and physical, and the amount of work they put in the defence, it's just so tiring, and I don't begrudge Gallon for being tired on Monday night, because not only does he have the physical toll,

[01:37:57] being captain of that side, he's got to do all the media. It must be incredibly emotionally exhausting, and it's good of him to just back up for us. Yeah, we just need to get through this period, Newman, two more Origin games. We get through that okay, then we look ahead to the end of the competition season. Now, there is some signing news. Rumours around that Sam Tagetese has been re-signed for two years, not in his best form. Jason Bakuya is very close, and also Shane Flanagan

[01:38:25] is in the throes of extending his contract. So what's your take on all that, Samuel? Bakuya, 100% behind, big fan, and very happy to see the way he's playing this year. I love his energy, I love his toughness, and he's got a bit of skill too. Tagetese, I'm all for, but he definitely needs a lift. But I like him as a player. We've spoken about how he might be better on the edge rather than being a middle forward. He's a huge human, lovely bloke. I'd be cool with re-signing him, but he needs to work on those hands a little bit. And Shane Flanagan,

[01:38:55] I mean, look, he's coming first. He's had pretty much nothing but success with us as far as, you know, finishing positions go. My biggest criticism of him was the way they played, and this year they're playing the way I want them to play. So, I guess it's just a matter of how long you re-sign him for. I know a lot of people are from around the club that were involved in 2014, and a couple of administrators and ex-players, I won't say who,

[01:39:23] they're very perplexed as to how he came through that so unscathed. But there's no point dwelling on it. There's no point dwelling on it. I completely hear you, I completely understand you, and a whole bunch of our listeners will as well. But you've got to live in here and now. Yeah, the here and now. Like, he's come back from, so 2013, you know, an amazing year, 2012 made the finals. 2014 was a disaster. He wasn't around because of those reasons. 15, now, it's just, I don't know, I don't think you can begrudge him a re-signing. No.

[01:39:53] And we're in a position, sorry to interrupt you, we're in a position where financially, should it all go pear-shaped and he has to be paid out, well, it's probably not as bad as what it once was in that situation. Should it come to that ever? It's such a tough one with coaching. Like, it's, you don't see, you only see the man as he's presented in the media. You don't see how he controls the players at training, how he deals with the issues that pop up with players all the time through the week. And one, you know, coaching is such a rollercoaster. I mean,

[01:40:23] look at previous premiership winners in Robinson and Maguire. Like, when they were flying high, if someone said, do you want them at the Sharks? You would have said, yeah, 100%, absolutely, throw the checkbook at them. And then, now, you're like, well, you know, they're not, all of a sudden, it's, they don't look so good because their squads are a bit weaker. Can you tell me what you told me a couple of hours ago, and you meant the revelation about rugby league? This is groundbreaking stuff, Samuel. And the thing I'm going to say is,

[01:40:52] everyone talks about coaching and philosophy and blah, blah, blah. It all comes down to having good players. Success comes down to having good players. And look at our team, we've got good players. And you look at the Roosters and South, they don't have the squads they had when they won the comp. They've either got injuries or they've, a lot of players have moved on. I'll tell you what, if Shane Flanagan ever wanted to quit as an NRL coach, first grade coach, his first other job would be as a recruiter,

[01:41:20] because his recruitment has been almost faultless. However, I will say this, our premiership window is narrow. You're looking at our team and you've got some guys, we've got some exciting young youth, which is awesome, but the foundation of our team are the likes of Paul Gallon, Luke Lewis, Chris Hyington, fair bit of age in that pack. I mean, Ennis is also knocking on a little bit, and Maloney's not a young man. So the window is pretty narrow. Now,

[01:41:50] if we lose Gallon and Lewis, I'm going to say that's, that's going to hurt us big time. So Shane Flanagan's big challenge is not only to maintain the rage and win the comp this year, but also to make sure that we're going to remain competitive on the back of this window. And I'm not seeing too much happening there. There's no new signings on the horizon as yet. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens then. I don't know what he's going to do about that. If one retires, I just wanted to say Newman back to your original point about Shane Flanagan

[01:42:20] getting out of certain situations in a glowing light. I can tell you as a man on the street, who's not living in the Shire. It's not a universal theme. I still hear things about, when I say things, I hear opinions about our coach and our senior players who were around in those controversial years, and they haven't forgiven nor forgotten. And some of those people are in high positions in rugby league where they won't have the guts to say it on record, but they feel that way and they will say that off record.

[01:42:47] So I don't think it's necessarily a fair thing to say that these guys have gotten off scot-free. I think that as Sharks fans, we're loving life and we're number one, and we're happy to overlook some things and the way other people were treated during that whole messy situation. But I can tell you now, particularly with the captain, a lot of people call him certain names. They do. They do. And they haven't forgiven and they haven't forgotten. I don't know. It's a tough one. We're so happy with how we're going.

[01:43:14] And it's been such a remarkable and rapid turnaround. I mean, it's sort of hard to know where you fit. Everybody's just loving the ride that we're on at the moment. But when you talk about re-signing Flanagan, that issue always comes up. So it's... Is it the coach, Newman? I mean, I don't think I have the answer here, but the coach, the CEO, like the rapid turnaround. Wooden Spoon 2014 for obvious reasons. Lack of sponsors for obvious reasons. Coach comes back. New CEO.

[01:43:45] Mm-hmm. Hello world, here we are. Yeah. Is it a mixture of all those things? It's a mixture of all those things. It's a mixture. See, Lyle Gorman has done a great job around the sponsorship and around creating a culture in the club of success and professionalism. He's done a great job with that. Shane Flanagan, as you said, has, even when he was sacked, he obviously was still out recruiting because some of the names are kind of the club. Please, if he wasn't recruiting, I'm not sitting here. He's recruited some great players into the club

[01:44:13] and the additions of Michael Ennis, James Maloney into the club and Ben Barber in those very, very important positions, very high quality players. Any club would be happy to have those players on their books. And then at the same time, you've got Val Holmes and Jack Bird and to a lesser degree, Wade Graham, who are young players that have come on. It's a perfect storm. And because the team's winning on the field due to those good players,

[01:44:43] other things become easier. It becomes easier to sign sponsorships if you're winning games because you get more media coverage. It's that simple. You're in the papers more because you're winning and therefore people are like, well, yeah, why don't I sign on with the Sharks? They're a great fresh brand with a lot of energy around them. I'd associate my business with them. And anyone who tells you that they can create that on their own is lying because there's quite a bit of luck to do with it.

[01:45:11] There's also so many different factors need to come and work together. And the coaches won. Back on the original point, re-signing him, I don't know. I'm in favour of it, I think. The other thing that we've talked about before, Newman, is the coach does get us to these great spots. He gets us into the finals. But we haven't seen a grand final for a while. We haven't seen a premiership. So I wonder when that question becomes a factor in his leadership at the club. Probably not for another few years, I guess. Wonderful that we're sitting on top of the ladder

[01:45:41] and I wouldn't have it any other way. And please don't think this is a complaint about that. But it does change the equation. And it changes the expectation. And it does change what the coach does. All of a sudden, he's probably now thinking, okay, we're playing great football, we're winning games. How do we maintain this for another however many weeks it is until last week in October? How do we keep the players level-headed? How do we maintain our fitness regime because other teams are going to kick up a gear

[01:46:11] and we can't get left behind? And all of a sudden, the pressure will come. The Sharks have never won the premiership. Is this going to be the year? And that pressure has been too much for others to bear. Just on that, Newman, while we're airing grievances and that kind of thing, here we are being all emotional on Shark Gars Radio. I'm really, really getting the irrits with, you know, in this day and age of social media which we talk about so much. Everyone's a critic. Everyone's an expert. Two guys have a podcast, I think they know what's going on.

[01:46:41] We are a bit hypocritical in this regard. No, but you know what? We're not because we know about what we talk about. We have experience in it, we have some love in it, but you and our listeners know the sort of people I'm talking about and if you don't, just bear with me. I'm talking about guys and girls with blogs and opinions and the one I read during the week about why the Sharks won't win the comp and I thought, oh yeah, it's pretty interesting. Click on that, clickbait and it was a person's opinion on why it won't win the comp but it wasn't anything to do with football.

[01:47:11] It was to do with the fact that it's such a funny tagline that you guys haven't won a comp still and I was like, am I really reading this and am I wasting my time and someone's actually printed this on some sort of website around the world and that's the problem with when you're so successful people love to bring you down. People are going to try and tear us down and there's a lot of people in the media with agendas that don't like our club and they won't like that we're having success and they'll do everything they can to stop it and that's where the job becomes tough.

[01:47:40] When the chips are down and everybody is against you it's easy to rally together and say, all right, we're a unit here, we're going to stick it to the man because everybody says that we're cheats or we're corrupt. It's easy to get that siege mentality but when you're on top and people are trying to bring you down just because you're successful that's a lot more difficult and that's not something anybody at the Sharks has experience with or has the knowledge of how to manage. Do you remember the Ben Barber

[01:48:09] Fecky scandal? Oh yes. How could I forget such a wonderful moment? Cast your mind back in the second half on Monday night against the Bulldogs where Barber got caught in goal and he did a dummy to Fecky which was one of those horrible like, no, don't throw it. And then Barber got up, laughed, pointed at Fecky and was like, I wasn't going to do that to you bro. They're as tight a group as you're ever going to see. I mean, it's this massive cliche that they're a band of brothers and all this sort of stuff but it's true.

[01:48:38] They're really tight and they get along well and like families sometimes people have issues. Some great articles during the week I believe on nirl.com Fafita talking about the brotherhood and the family and how he doesn't like seeing his little mates getting pushed around. Another one with Ricky Letelli talking about how he's now sort of a utility player and he'll do whatever it takes to be a team player because this is an opportunity for him and the players to do something special. So that wraps us up for a very in-depth

[01:49:08] news session. We are going to cut to a break and when we get back we will look into the mailbag and see what you guys have sent to us. Hey Newman buddy I was on the internet and I bought this amazing product but there was no shipping involved I don't know how to get my product from America to Australia. Don't give one of those big corporate logistics companies a call get in touch with our mates Dyson Logistics they can ship anything from an envelope to a 40 foot container air freight sea freight rail road

[01:49:38] they can do all your customs clearance and they'll do it at a fraction of the cost of those corporate competitors and with the best service you can possibly expect. How do I get in touch with these guys and even they sound amazing? Man you can call them on 83391844 but the best way is to go to Dyson which is D-Y-S-O-N logistics.com that's Dyson logistics.com and tell them the Shark Car sent you.

[01:50:24] And now it's come to the time of the show where we go out in front of SharkCast headquarters and see what that little fella who rips around the neighbourhood on a high-vis motorbike has shoved into the box which we've had built into the front fence the latest segment you can get us at SharkCastPod at gmail.com tweet us at SharkCastPod or send us a message on Facebook Sam we're wrestling about in the mailbag what's the first one he got for us this week sure am buddy we have a letter from Mitchell from Coffs Harbour and he sent us a photo with the letter the photo basically is the issue and that is

[01:50:54] he bought a ticket for a game at Shark Park and on the ticket it had obstructed view on the ticket back in your day you might have bought a Green Day concert show and you were last in and said look obstructed view but you still he's looking for the obstructed view and he sees it and it's a big pole with a little speaker on it a speaker on a pole hanging up and they're all around the ground you guys would have seen them we are intrigued

[01:51:23] by this and we're going to forward this letter and email and photo to our game day management team because we're not sure in this day and age why we have such speakers in such positions yeah I agree with Mitchell 100% here why we don't need these in 2016 it's a dirty great big speaker on a pole it obstructs people's view and the other issue for mine which seems to have gotten better but over the years the issue is the volume also

[01:51:53] like literally ripping people's heads off I can remember being at the ground and the ground outs are going off and kids like covering their ears because it's so loud and noisy I mean we'll send that on to Lowell Gorman I'm sure that the answer will be well we don't have the money to redo the entire PA system but to me that is we're speculating on that they might have been told that was the best thing to do we're not sure there are challenges around

[01:52:22] Shark Park there are challenges around the fact that there's no cover there are challenges around the envelope in terms of where you can put food and beverage the media one thing you don't know about the media is that when we have a big game like a big 9 channel 9 game there's not enough media boxes so when you've got ABC 2GB channel 9 and Foxtel there's not enough room often away teams complain about

[01:52:52] the facilities which have been improved there are challenges with Shark Park and that's one of them and look I'm with you Mitchell they annoy me too he's paid good money to sit in a good stand and he's got a speaker in his eyesight absolutely correct so we'll get on it and we'll see if we can get a result for you mate at least get some sort of explanation now we've got an email from Craig in Caring Bar and he says hi guys to be honest I just can't work out Sam Tag a tease in regards to form on his day he can be one of the

[01:53:22] best in the league other days lacks ball control and aggression I've been moving on

[01:53:52] but his hands definitely let him down he's got to be better I mean he made two big errors against the Bulldogs one was a catch in traffic which he can forgive but he's got form in that regard the other one was a damn offload and he passed it straight to him by I think or one of the dogs players and on the back of that error that he'd made a couple of minutes before it was a bad one let's hope he can improve next up Newman we have Troy the trucker from Maitland love hearing from Troy

[01:54:21] he's enjoying the shark cast media experience as we are he likes both the double fix as he says the TV show and the audio so thank you for that Troy he's loving Ben Barber Bird and the future Valentine Holmes he said how good is life at the top of the table it's a nice positive letter from Troy it's not too much you can argue with that I mean life at the top of the

[01:55:04] back of the telly being on the bench when will you recognize the genius of Flano's coaching well the genius of Flano's coaching is now infiltrating state of origin football correct hey blaze how you doing I don't know how to answer that because we've been debating it

[01:55:34] I still think that if you carry another forward on the bench or a player with utility value that can play in the forwards we don't have as long of flat spells and I can tell you right now that teams are going to come out and bash us because even though we beat Manley and the they had a

[01:56:04] I think you just reshuffle that utility player Luke Lewis even Joseph Paulo could push out there in a pinch David Fita is away I'd like to see David Fita there or I'd to see someone like a capable who can play in the back row on the

[01:56:34] win the comp fair enough I'll say he's a genius when he stops putting it back on the bench is my answer alright Samuel going to war so make sure you write to a sharkcastpod at gmail.com now we have a competition this week you

[01:57:04] give us a bit of a click we got to taste some of the new samples in the bistro it's very good very tasty really good like surprisingly good for club food so you can have $50 worth of this said food which gets you a couple of meals and a couple of beers if you take a date there or you can probably stretch it the

[01:57:34] answer to this question wins the $50 voucher what is it Sam which player who played in the debut season for the North Queensland Cowboys in 1995 also played for the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks now that is

[01:58:04] inaugural year in 1995 also played for Cronulla Sutherland Samuel

[01:58:34] huge game coming Monday night 7 o'clock kickoff at Southern Cross Group Stadium Shark Park in the big boy the mainstream media is saying or feel good at least that it teams in scintillating form the Cronulla Sharks take on the North Queensland Cowboys I am so excited about it do you have a team for us there Samuel your Cronulla Sharks to play the premiers this Monday night fullback Ben Barber named on the wings

[01:59:04] society and Valentine the future homes in the centres we have Jack Bird and Gerard Beale James Maloney and Chad Townsend of the halves props are Andrew Fafita and Sam Tagatisi with Michael Ennis our mate playing hooker great back row of Luke Lewis Wade Graham and Captain Paul Gallon the bench named is Ricky Letelli Chris Hyington Jason Bikuya and Captain America Joseph Paul I can tell you Newman Sasaya Fecky is under an injury cloud

[01:59:34] massive doubt unlikely to play Sasaya Fecky I can also tell you the most improved player in rugby league and our cult favourite of the year so far Matthew Pryor is close I'm only going to say close to being fit to play whether he does or not we're not going to tell you that you think Letelli would play on one wing or Beal and Letelli comes back into the starting side and Pryor goes back onto the bench so we

[02:00:04] don't carry her back on the bench but what happens if one of the backs goes down oh my god they just forfeit Jake Gagan might be getting a 17 jumper this week yeah hard to get a read on how he's going Jake Gagan they washed out last week so you know what he's going to be someone else's love interest next year

[02:00:45] premiers for no reason they had a great year last year culminating in an amazing grand final win they're playing well this year they've lost a few recently but there's still quality all over the park guys like Thurston make guys like O'Neill get state of origin jumpers yeah yeah of course they make players around them look better and you know the Lachlan Coote is a hell of a player out the back I

[02:01:15] like us they got strike power all across the park what they have that we don't have is they've now got that culture of winning big games they won the grand final they won all the semifinals leading up to it in fine style you know they dropped a couple of games this year but that's always going to happen I'll tell you what this is a real test the dogs were a test manly were a test and Brisbane were a test but this is next level stuff I think it's going to be an absolute cracker I'll be disappointed if we don't break Monday night crowd record

[02:01:45] yeah it should be a big crowd I believe there is a two for one offer on at the moment not sure how long that might last given the way that sales might be going but we encourage you as always doesn't matter who the opposition is but this, this week's very special Newman, they won nine in a row eleven is the club record I don't know what more these boys need to do for fans to get out of their houses away from their TVs and watch the game I say that without other stuff going into your life I know everyone has difficulties I have them

[02:02:14] it stopped me from going to a game on on Monday Newman everyone has them I'm not telling you how to live your life you know what I'm saying I'm saying if you can get to that ground the people of the Shire are getting out the crowds are being good oh I'm not I'm not knocking anyone I'm just saying if you go to a game this year this is the one you want to go to and in games like this I mean it's great to have a big hostile crowd doesn't matter who we're playing but in games like this where we really want the crowd to influence the referees and get us a couple of hometown penalties that can be the difference and it was interesting that

[02:02:43] Shane Flanagan and Mick Ennis and some other players have actually made comments saying that they hope you know we're swinging from the rafters down there I think we're going to need a big game from the likes of Val Holmes Jack Bird Ben Barber it's going to you know our forwards will lay the platform but to score against those guys it's going to take something special yeah I agree you talk about the forwards laying the platform it's something they didn't do in that final last year but but they rectified that a bit

[02:03:13] in the round one loss which was a close game 20 to 14 I think it was they've got Matt Scott they've got Jason Tamalolo he loves playing against Cronulla the forward battle is huge and important so we encourage you to get down there make sure that you say hello I will be in attendance with one black tip reefy how do you feel about that? we've been hanging out for like nine hours now today this is the first I'm hearing about this we need to alert

[02:03:41] Valentine the future Holmes standing on the wing on your side he's going to be in for a bit of an ear bashing from someone now look I am really hoping that Val can score a try depending on what half it is in the northern end because I sit right on the sideline sort of in the north in front of Hogsbreath Hill Beer Hill so you see those tries in that northern corner they're front and centre so if Val Holmes could get two tries there I'll be into that bloke he just razzes on

[02:04:11] Humphrey as he calls him just to get a rise out of people and it works I'm excited he's going to be in the house that's amazing he's actually staying at my joint so you can come and have a drink with him is that right that's right lucky Michelle's away lucky Michelle's away that's it for another episode of Shark Cast Radio we want to thank you for following us and supporting us over this journey we're actually ramping up to our 50th podcast if you can believe that now we are 99% Sharks 1% Rock and Roll Sam and I both have some gigs coming up

[02:04:38] I am playing on Friday night at Valve Bar with a very cool Jake Martin who's a singer-songwriter from the U Brighton in the U UK I'm on early come down if you work in town come down and have a beer I'm also playing the following Friday with Jake at the Sands Hotel Ballina so if you're up around that way come and have a couple of drinks Sam you got some gigs coming up too Mo? Friday 24th of June playing a full band show at the Newtown Social Club

[02:05:08] with a great band called Halfway and the Legendary Crow and then I believe fast forward to Thursday July 7th maybe it's one of the first Thursdays I'm at the Golden Barley whoa with my mate Bruno from Peabody we're doing some solo sets I used to love Peabody yeah he probably still would yeah now I'm a big chance of being at the one the Friday gig you will love it with Crow you will love it full band show I think Reno might be in the house as well oh yeah alright I think of a big chance

[02:05:37] of being at that one so when we're talking about music Sam is firing up the wheels of steel he's pulling the 7 inch single out of the sleeve he's going to put it deep in the groove and we are going to dance around the living room to the strains of Up Up Cronulla as we say every week Up the Sharks come and say hello when you are at the ground we'd love to hear from you this is Shark Cast Radio I've been Newman you have been Sam go you little sharkies let's do this go to Sharks

[02:06:20] up up Cronulla name of the Sharks bit you Sharks Sharks forever go up now's the time to see all the Sharks are here

[02:07:31] Sharks forever up the Sharks 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 Caring Bar region and has his eye all across the Shire

[02:08:00] 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 and Crips Real Estate call him on 0410-417-450 that's 0410-417-450 Jason Hawes Crips and Crips Real Estate

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[02:11:07] you