The Year That Was 2016 - Rd 16 vs the Warriors with Ben Harlum plus BONUS Original 2016 Ep!

[00:00:01] The Royal Motor Yacht Club Port Hacking is a hidden gem of the Shire, situated on the banks of the beautiful Port Hacking. It's a great place to catch up with friends, celebrate your birthday or any special occasion, and they always show the NRL live on the big screens. The RNYC Port Hacking, proud sponsors of this podcast and big supporters of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Check out their website rmycph.com.au

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[00:00:55] Welcome to SharkCast, quite a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. My name is Sam Shinazzi, OG2015, going into our 13th season of podcasting. Can't wait to jump into it. It'll be here before you know it.

[00:01:19] New Leagues Club's opening early November, which is very exciting, and a whole bunch of stuff happening in Sharkland and in SharkCastland. So stay tuned, subscribe, like, share, all that kind of fun stuff. We are here to recap the 2016 season. We're getting into the thick of it, actually. And this is going to be round 16 against the Warriors. So make sure you're up to date with what we're doing. You can go back and watch the games on nrl.com. There's probably some YouTube ways you can do it as well.

[00:01:46] If you're new to this format, my friend Van Halem and I, we recap a game each episode. So we're up to round 16. And what we do is we take you through the day or the night. We take you through the pregame. We take you through the game before we take you through the coverage, our experiences of the game if we were there and so forth. And you can either go back and watch beforehand or afterwards and go, that's what they were talking about. Anyway, we are brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club and Port Hacking. Jason Hawes of Crips & Crips Real Estate.

[00:02:16] Get our coffee from fresh brew here, Benny, from Mr. Paisley. So if I get even more hyperactive than I am now, this is why Mr. Paisley's best coffee in the world, North Caringbuck. Really? Wow. Okay. For a moment, I thought that this series was called the 2016 rewatch, which I'm not as far along as I thought we would be.

[00:02:40] Because it seemed like every time that you would talk about the 2016 rewatch, you'd always say the 2016 rewatch, which we aren't as far along as we think we would be. And I always want to sort of remind you as I'm watching you on the Chad Townsend set, saying, Sam, Chad doesn't know. Chad doesn't know that we haven't intentionally done this to take advantage of the off season. Our listeners don't know. That's right. Our listeners don't know that this wasn't the plan.

[00:03:05] But it just felt like the title for a very long time, the last couple of weeks has been the 2016 rewatch, which hasn't been done as quickly as I might have thought we would have. Okay. I understand what you're saying. And you're right. The listeners and viewers didn't know this was actually the plan. So I'm apologizing for nothing. Really? No reason. So I'll stop doing that. Bit of a trait. I have, but I'm really sorry. You're right. Chad Townsend doesn't know that, but Chad Townsend did win a competition. Does feature in this game. We're going to do against the Warriors. Ben Harlem from New York city. How are you? I'm good.

[00:03:35] Thank you. I know you're jealous of me because I hung out with Connie Britton this week. One of your OG girls. What about that? What about that? I imagine she was her lovely self as usual. Very nice person. Very nice person. I'm very big fan. I know that you are, so I'm sorry to brag. I really am. No, I'm happy for you. Happy that you got to experience that. Happy she gets to experience your lovely company for a while. Um, but yeah, maybe one day we can time it where I can just pop up and go, Hey, I'm Sam from Australia.

[00:04:05] How are you? That's right. You could just do that. She'd be like, Oh, you all get out of here. You all. Yeah. Um, I mean for everyone that's listening, Sam is saying this and being like, Oh, shucks. Wouldn't it be great to meet a celebrity with a little photo of him and Bruce Springsteen right behind him. So let's not feel too bad for our OG from 2015. He didn't say that last episode. Actually, I was waiting for it and, um, he didn't say it. And I was like, who is this guy? Who is this guy? Does he know anything about the sharks?

[00:04:33] Well, he was at this game 10 and a bit years ago. And we're going to get into that with you. Actually, I've got to think you got an interesting answer, but we're going to do the round 16 game. And as usual, we're going to get to the NYC game before it, but let me just go there, Ben. Were you at this game 10 and a bit years ago? I wasn't, I wasn't at this game, Sam. Uh, I was on a plane with my friend, Tim, and we would have been somewhere over the ocean on our way to ironically New York.

[00:05:03] Now, just to get my friend, Kieran, your friend, Kieran out of my ear. Were you flying economy, premium economy, anywhere? Premium economy, premium economy. Um, Sam. Now, uh, just for our friends that listened to every episode of the shark cast. Um, this is Kieran who likes to paint himself as the every man, but I would dare say that this every man, if you can think back to Vegas, um, if we just want to go back to, uh, that amazing experience we had, Sam, where were we?

[00:05:33] We were just in the middle of resorts world next to a Starbucks trying to find a quiet place for me, you and Gaz, um, to, to do an episode. Where was Kieran? I didn't see Kieran. Where did Kieran end up being? Kieran. He had a lot of people, Hey, PDL. It's true. Hey, Dino and Mace. That's true. Hey, Prime Minister of Australia.

[00:05:55] I don't think Albo was there, but I'm just sort of, you know, I'm giving you the idea of a type of people that he was associating with while we were at the pub getting two for one drinks. We were getting two for one drinks. I thought you were going to go down the route of he actually stayed at the sharks benefactor's hotel, which I couldn't get into because I look too poor. Yeah. See, there you go. That's right. I was at the Park MGM with all of the Waz fans.

[00:06:21] You and Gaz were at the Flamingo and the MGM Grand. You were all over the place. But Kieran, man of the people. I wasn't too low about it. Man of the people was at the Cosmopolitan, the fanciest hotel on the Strip, I tell you, in the presidential suite of the Allegiant Stadium. We should all be going to the Cosmo because our benefactors, the brothers, they own it or part own it. So we should be all giving them money so they can give the money back to us as a club.

[00:06:50] I will say, if you haven't been to Vegas, you walk into the Cosmo, it literally feels like you're in a James Bond movie. It's that fancy. Let's talk about Wooloware. So you were flying to New York. So Ben, did you know the results when you landed or were you in New York and you were unable to watch it? What was your story? I get the feeling because I was trying to read, I was asking my friend Tim because I remember the Parramatta game. I remember watching that in Orlando. Now, in New York, I was on the plane and I've been on Emirates

[00:07:20] and I've been on American Airlines where they've had the live TV, the live Sports 24 option. And it's been actually quite handy. I've watched NRL games and I've watched Sharks games in the sky, which has been fun before. Wow. I know. Pretty good, eh? However, Qantas didn't have Wi-Fi at the time, so that doesn't help. I'm going to assume that I would have known the score once I landed, but the connection would have been, you know what? Actually, now that I think about it,

[00:07:47] I think that I would have just had enough time between LA and the stopover before the flight to New York that I probably would have downloaded the game. And I'm pretty sure I watched the game on the flight from LA to New York. I downloaded it very quickly and got it on the laptop and watched it. Actually, that's 100% what happened. It's all coming back to me now, Celine Dion. That's what happened. Okay. I watched it in replay. Now, is Tim a Sharks fan? Tim's a Dragons fan, so we don't really want to talk about him. Ooh, that's a long flight.

[00:08:17] All right. Well, what you probably weren't privy to know unless they threw up a graphic, which I don't think they did during the game. And why wouldn't they do that these days? I don't know. But there was an NYC game. Yes, there was. And that was at 3.15 p.m. Saturday, 25th of June at Southern Cross Group Stadium. NYC, if you don't know, is under 20s. It was a national competition. They televised a bunch of games. And this one wasn't televised, I want to say. Is that right?

[00:08:47] Well, this would have been on a Saturday, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Super Saturday. I'm going to say not televised, Sam. Referee is Chris Trenman. James Vela, David Ryan are the touchies. Now, your Sharks team, NYC. Will Kennedy is the fullback. We've got Vey and Tuolagi on the wings. Bessie Tumaga and Lockie Stein in the centers. Here's one for you. Billy Magulius playing 5'8". Wow.

[00:09:16] Imagine a little chip kicks he would have done. Yeah. And Rhys Davies is the half. Your front row is Teppa Thuava, Jaden Braley, Captain, Jamin Jollof. Back row, which has been the same for a little while now, Tony Madayuta, Ashley Nisbet, and Jaden McDonough. And your bench is Justin Timu, Blake Braley, Jess Savage, and Leon Tupola. John Morris is your coach. The Warriors are coached by Kelvin Wright.

[00:09:44] And from their team, Junior Pauga in the centers. I've heard of him. There is a 5'8th chord Chanel Harris Tevita. Their captain and front row guy I really like watching is Bunty Afoa. The greatest name in rugby league history, in my mind. Very good player. Very good name. I'm Nathaniel Roach is the hooker. Joey Vuna in the second row. Aaron Clark, he's in form, at lock. And that's about it that I know from that team.

[00:10:13] Now, this is a classic NYC game. So, NYC wasn't known for its defense. It was all about attack. Yep. And it was about you got the ball, I got the ball, you got the ball. And the Warriors win. Sharks losing two in a row in NYC. Warriors win 36-32. So, what's that? 68 points scored in the game. That's pretty good for the entertainment point of view. But, unfortunately, Johnny Morris' boys just go down 36-32 to the Warriors.

[00:10:43] That's a bummer. We all would have been a bit disappointed by that. But life goes on because the NRL is just around the corner. And I was at this game, Benny. I remember being there. Winter time. Would have been loving it. Had the hoodie on. And I can tell you that we're coming off our second bye for the year. Before that, as people would have heard on the last episode, the Sharks won 13-10 against the Cowboys at Southern Cross Group State. A really good game.

[00:11:11] If you haven't listened to our recap, go back and listen to that later on. Or maybe before this, then come back to this. Whatever you want to do. You live your life. The Sharks have won 10 straight games. We're 11-2 coming into this game, Benny. We've won 10 straight. In 2002, and then going back to the 78 and 77 seasons, we won 11 in a row. So we're trying to match that record. Equal it. We've got to get through a Warriors team.

[00:11:40] The Warriors are coming off a big win against the Roosters, 12-10 in New Zealand. They've won three straight. And they're 8-7 coming into this game. So they've won three straight, including the Chookies last week at home. Yep. I can tell you the referees are Matt Noyan and Grant Atkins. Our man Ziggy is on one touchline. And the general who's getting a lot of work these days, Luke Patton, these days being the old days, is the senior review in the video ref bunker.

[00:12:10] And we do have a crowd of just over 12,000 for this game. So, you know, not a sellout, but we're above that 10,000 easily. And we're in that zone of having a good time. It's Saturday, 5.30. Maybe that time slot messing with a few people's social life or whatever. But for people like you and I, our social life is going to watch the Sharks. And this was another close, fun night out for Sharks fans. Now, let's look at the teams, Benny. Let's do it. The Sharkies.

[00:12:40] Your Sharkies on the screen if you're watching. I'll read you through it if you're not. Ben Barber at fullback. Ricky Letelli in 14 is named on a wing. Jack Bird, Gerard Beal is named in the centres. Valentine Holmes, the future, is on a wing. Maloney Townsend, Fafita Ennis. Prior in 16, Luke Lewis, Wade Graham, Paul Gallen. Is there a better back row in the history of the game? I don't know. Sam Tangatisi in 10.

[00:13:10] 15, Chris Huntington. 17, a bustling Jason Bicuya. And 18 is Captain America, Joseph Paulo. He's starting to rack up some games, Captain America. But that back line is Ricky Letelli on a wing, named on a wing, and Gerard Beal in the centres. So we'll see what happens there. So Siah Fecki's groin injury is still keeping him out. The Warriors, they've got a bit of a mixed back line here. And it may come back to bite them at some point.

[00:13:35] Their fullback is actually their usual winger, but a very good player in David Fusatua. Ken Mamalo, a little bit underrated by my memory. And Jono Wright, former Shark, are on the wings. Jono Wright's in 21. Former Shark in the centres in Blake Ashford and also non-former Shark, Solomana Carter. Quite a lethal centre there he is.

[00:14:03] International halves in Thomas Lulowai and Sean Johnson. Their pack is Jacob Lilliman, Isaac Luke, Albert Vete, Bodine Thompson, Ryan Hoffman, Simon Manoring. He's a very workman-like there. On the bench in number one, again, a little bit underrated, is Tuamola Lulahia. So he's been relegated to the bench. Sam Lassani, Ben Mattolino, and Charlie Gubb. That's the Warriors. What do you make of that Warriors team, Ben?

[00:14:29] Well, the interesting thing is that Fusatua goes to fullback and then Lulahia goes to the bench because Sean Johnson has got like a calf complaint, a hamstring complaint. He's got some sort of leg injury that no one knows if he's going to be able to make the 80 minutes, right? This is a Warriors team that I remember. You remember Hoffman. You remember Manoring. You remember Luke at Hooker. You remember Lilliman.

[00:14:56] There's so many names here that you go, yep, that is a Warriors team that I remember when I associate with the Warriors that aren't the WARS, the pre-WARS Warriors. There's a whole bunch of names here. One fact that they mentioned really early on, Sam, I don't know if you picked it up, was that they mentioned obviously that Blake Ashford used to play for the Sharks and they say that in his time at the Sharks he only scored one try for us. Yeah, it gets mentioned a few times, him and Jono Wright, and it'll become obvious why they talk about that. We'll get to that maybe. Only one try.

[00:15:26] When I think of the Warriors, I don't think of Blake Ashford and Jono Wright. No, that's why I did not mention them. When I think of Cronulla, I don't think of Blake Ashford and Jono Wright. Jono Wright was in that infamous Cowboys win 2013 semi-finally played on the wing, I think, or in the centres maybe. He was a part of that. Look, at his time at the Sharks, he was, I would say, competent, probably no better.

[00:15:53] And Ashford came to the club with pretty good regard, like from the West Tigers. Like he was a decent centre, but just never really clicked for us. So they both have gone to the Warriors, as he's mentioned. So I'm going to drop that team now, Benny, and we'll get back to our beautiful faces, or your beautiful face and my face. Bit of a change in the commentary team here. And I do have to disclose straight up, Ben, in case you, I don't think you're going to say anything bad, but Matt Russell is a personal friend of mine, so we'd love Matt Russell.

[00:16:22] It's all going to be glowing. I'm going to say that Matt Russell is probably one of the more underrated commentators, especially out of the Fox line-up. Like, yeah. He is. I really am. I'm a Matt Russell fan. And now that I know that he has good taste in friends, I'm even more of a Matt Russell fan. Can I just tell you? You can tell me whatever you want. It's your podcast. One of the nicest people you'll ever meet, Matt Russell. Like, beyond nice. That's cool. Okay. Well, I'm going to... I do like that he's sort of become the de facto voice of the NRLW.

[00:16:52] I will say that I do like that, though. I like that he's got a niche there as well. But yeah, it's always fun when he pops up. Calls the NBL. Does a lot of things for Fox. He's a very useful person for Fox. The Zone, whatever we're called these days. Anyway, also with Matty Russell, someone who I'd kind of forgotten he worked for us, but he was there a long time, was a former Canberra fullback, Queensland fullback, Australian fullback, Gary Belcher. Yeah. The co-commentator. Absolutely.

[00:17:20] Probably in one of his earlier gigs on the sideline, you can say whatever you want about this guy because he doesn't work with me anymore, although I don't want to get sued by anyone, is James Hooper on the sideline. Well, you don't want to get sued by him because his current employer is an owner of a podcast and a fan group that likes to do some legal action. Sam? Well, hang on. Hang on. Who are they suing? Well, he owns Fanatics here in Australia. I know that.

[00:17:49] There's a very, very famous Fanatics merchandise group in America and around the world, and the only place that they don't deliver to is Australia because of the Kenti podcast guy. Oh, my God. And he sued them. So that is the reason why you can't get your Vikings jerseys delivered. And did he win the case? He won the case. It went all the way up to like the high cold or whatever a couple years ago. They dragged it out as long as possible, and they won. Did he win money or just the, hey, don't do it anymore?

[00:18:18] I think it was the, you guys can't do it anymore, we've got the rights to it in Australia. So I dislike this guy even more. Yeah. Dragons fan. Mm-hmm. Not a great list of shows, but that's up to taste. You know, people like those shows, go watch them, go waste your life there. But he's the reason I've got to pay like whatever, or unfortunately in my case, because much like you, man, our friend Kieran, we're just working class people, my Justin Jefferson jersey is actually a fake.

[00:18:46] Yeah, that's why you have to get the dodgy one. Hang me out of the drive. No, no, because we all buy the authentic shark stuff, but when it comes to the NFL stuff, fanatics can't deliver to you, and that is the reason. Your mate, Mr. Sharks, aren't playing at Shark Park anymore. That is the reason that they don't deliver to you specifically. Not only a liar, but he's depriving Australian people of merchandise. That's right. And it's getting to the stage. Where's the harm?

[00:19:15] That even our friend Gaz had to get some New York Knicks merchandise and some trading cards smuggled into the country by a certain podcaster on the Shark Cast Network that may live overseas. This is how tough times have gotten because of your mate, not Matt Russell, your other mate. This is beautiful. Oh, boy. Well, anyway, James Hooper's making an appearance here, and we'll get to James' work throughout the game. Yep. But yeah, Matt Russell, Gary Belcher, James Hooper.

[00:19:44] It's a 5.30 kickoff. It's pitch black, very wintry vibes, and I reckon I was pretty happy with those conditions given how miserable I like it to be. First few sets, Sharks play powerful, expansive footy on average going 90 meters in the set. Like they're already clicking, and this is their trademark. Yeah, which is different to what happened in the first half of the Cowboys game that we covered last week where it was all Cowboys, and they were running 85 meters down the field in the first half.

[00:20:13] Sharks were on it. They were ready to go in the first half here, which was great. Now, with all the great commentary we've had, great Matt Russell, I found it interesting that no one mentioned that Sean Johnson was playing against both of his former halves pairing. That's right. Chad had just returned. Chad Townsend and James Maloney. And then James Maloney, who I'm going to say is probably the most underrated half in the history of the NRL, if you think about his success at the Warriors, the Sharks, the Roosters, and then the Pemrith and then New South Wales.

[00:20:41] But yeah, Sean Johnson playing against two former Warriors. Kind of cool. Yeah. You would have – I know we spoke on the last episode, Ben, about the current World Cup and the Channel 7 showing it, and it's Sean Johnson, one of many people involved. Yep. Boy, he was loving his rugby league on Thursday night, Sean Johnson.

[00:21:03] If there's one man – and look, I have – when Sean Johnson came to LA and he was doing a whole bunch of work for the Warriors because they were playing in Vegas the same year that we did, of course, and he was sort of the go-to guy for all things rugby league, he needs to be the global ambassador for a rugby league. There's no one on the earth that's more excited about rugby league. I'd say Vossi up until this point was number one for most excited. Sean Johnson has just got him beat.

[00:21:31] There's no one more excited about rugby league. It's so infectious. Honestly, no offense to your employer. Actually, well, I mean, a lot of these are Fox employees anyway, so it doesn't matter. That's right. But Luke Keery is great. Sean Johnson is great. Vossi was great. I thought Trent Robertson was an interesting choice, and he was a breath of fresh air as well. He was the only one that picked up that Moses was injured for a long time in the commentary. I was very happy with the coverage of the Australian New Zealand game. Sean Johnson for Global Rugby League Ambassador. I'm on the bandwagon.

[00:22:01] As long as he's now retired and we don't have to worry about him scoring in the last minute to ruin things. We'll get to that. To be just quite clear, three of the four people you mentioned do work for DAZN, including one who will be exclusive next year. He won't be going anywhere outside of the DAZN studios and workplaces, Luke Keery. But anyway, let's read that. I've noted that I'm loving Matt Pryor's defense. He just rushes up.

[00:22:28] He's the first guy there, usually quite high up in the tackle, and he waits for someone low to come. Yep. But that's infectious, like Sean Johnson. Like Matt Pryor is out of the line. Imagine that big guy running at you, and he just drags you down. Amazing. Yep. And one thing that I've really loved the last couple of months when we've heard Flano and Chad and Gal and Maloney all and Wade all talk about 2016, is that us fans, we obviously know the impact that Pryor had this year.

[00:22:52] But they've really said that – Flano has said that the bench, we couldn't have done it without them, but also that Pryor, the most underrated member of that team, which is something we've obviously known for 10 years now, Sam. But yeah, his first man in defense was great. Now, in the eighth minute, they throw to James Hooper. Yep. But hoops isn't there, and I've written the word ironically. James Hooper is not there. They've gone to him. Yes. There's silence. Silence.

[00:23:21] But he's not doing his job. He's not there. Okay? Yep. There's about 10 seconds, and then he chimes in. Now, to be fair to James, I can't – I didn't write down the exact quote, but he said, sorry about that. I was just – You caught me on the jump or something is what he said. Yeah. So fair enough. Like, these things happen. When you work in live media, these things do happen to be fair to him. A hundred percent. I have noted, and I'm sure this will get me into trouble as I close my windows, which I shouldn't be doing. Okay.

[00:23:49] I have noted – and let's just be careful how we word this – how was he even allowed into Southern Cross Group Stadium a mere few years later after all of the hit jobs he and his colleagues did during the peptide era? That's my words, not anyone else's. I would dare say that the Sharks have been very forgiving of a lot of journalists. Mate. Mate. There was one night, and you know what? I think it was actually pre-the drug stuff.

[00:24:17] So we're talking, yeah, 2010-ish or whatever. And there was another journalist who's no longer with us, so we're not making a lot of that. Yep. And she was infamously known as someone who – if she didn't have a problem with the Sharks, then she sure wrote about it a lot. And after like 20, again, hit jobs on the club, I remember seeing her being wined and dined in the Upper Andrew Ettinghausen corporate area. This is like Younger Sam, no affiliation with the club, whatever.

[00:24:46] I turned to someone who worked there, and I said, how could this be? I'm here waiting to go to the bathroom. I look to the right, and this person is hobnobbing where you usually are, Benny, drinking the wine and the Coke Zeroes and the fancy food. I was like, am I seeing things? And I remember a lady next to me, she was an older lady. She blew up Deluxe. She was saying the words I wanted to say. And this poor – I think it was just a worker there going like, I don't know.

[00:25:17] That's to your point about the Sharks being a very forgiving club, I'll say that. Yeah. Yeah. I thought of the same person when I might have watched next week's game against Parramatta. I did have a think about – I did have a thought about that same journalist. So there was a trio. If you go back and Google it, you'll find out who we're talking about. The trio, the third guy, still with us, which is great, last seen and nothing wrong with this, owning and maneuvering an ice cream truck.

[00:25:47] Yes. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. We love ice cream. Yep. But the fall from grace is there – there's a reason why is my point. And I don't want to get all negative on you guys and girls, but it still kind of annoys me that the way the club was treated during this time. We're moving on though because it's 2016. It's time to celebrate. We get the last laugh. Ha, ha, ha. We're going to win the comp. For feeder at 5'8 in attack, and I've written down, it always amuses me in a childish way. Like it should be illegal.

[00:26:16] What is he? Because he gets the ball. When he's at the scrum. First receiver. Yeah. They do it like probably, what, six times every game? And he's always making meters, busting tackles, offloads. It's very cute. I like it. I like it a lot. Now, tight opening 15. It's very noticeable, and the commentators mention it as well. Our fifth tackle options are not great. We've given away two seven tackle sets in the opening 15. Other fifth tackle options have fallen away. So it's not a perfect start by us.

[00:26:46] It's a powerful start. Not bad defensively. But that was noticeable, yeah? Yeah. Chad's kicking game was a bit off at the start of this game. And as you said, we do give away two seven tackle sets. The fifth tackle options are a bit off. It's, yeah, it's an interesting one. I feel like that we might have been just a tiny bit off. Like, I do feel like that Maloney was involved early, which is typical of origin players just coming off like an origin game.

[00:27:16] Especially if they had lost. I can't remember if we did or not. But Maloney is getting involved early, so maybe he's getting, like, caught on the wrong tackle. Chad is kicking a bit too deep. Yeah, just a tiny bit off. Matt Russell informs us, and he's a very smart man about rugby league. He also has the lab behind him, that Ben Mattolino was a schoolmate of Sam Tungatisi. Hey, there you go. See, I love a fun fact. Fun facts. I love it. Small world. 22nd minute, Blake Ashford scores down our left.

[00:27:45] So, they're right, our left. David Fizzitua goes through Ricky Letelli, and Blake Ashford scores. So, a pretty bad miss from Ricky Letelli. Isaac Luke, he's doing the kicking, as you mentioned, Sean Johnson, bit of an issue there. Yep, with his legs. Warriors lead 6-0. They throw to James Hooper, and he's there. Hey! James Hooper, he's there doing his job. And he tells us how Ashford was unwanted at Cronulla, at which point I almost choke on

[00:28:11] my Coke Zero going, yeah, he scored one try, and he didn't really play that effective. He was unwanted. That's not that surprising. However, we'll let James tell his story. 25th minute, Fafida offloads on the halfway line. Barber gets through some tackles, makes a break, beats the fullback. However, it goes to the bunker for the general Luke Patton to have a look at. Now, it would have been a great try.

[00:28:37] It would have been an 8 out of 10, maybe top 30 Ben Barber try. However, it's no try. There's a double knock on back in the play, and Gal shakes his head. Again, the great Fox cameras and mics pick up everything. And it can be heard saying, double knock on, as in like, you're jesting, sir, shaking his head. So, Gal's not happy, but I think it was the right call, yeah? Yeah, yeah, for sure. 27th minute.

[00:29:05] Another shark, X-shark, comes back to bite us. Nothing I hate more than an X-shark scoring against us. Kyle Flanagan, this is my house style. This is my house. Jono Wright with a try. Again, down their right, our left. It's a good try. The video ref looks at it, but it's definitely a try. Bodine Thompson with the inside ball. Slightly forward to Sean Johnson. Then, Ashford gets the ball with a quick pass to Jono Wright.

[00:29:31] The crowd is booing heavily as Isaac Luke lines up the kick because of the inside ball forward pass. It was probably, what do you reckon, half a foot? Like, it was forward. Yeah, it was definitely forward. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, I've noted that the crowd, it's a very unusual booing style. And I've noted that they sound like a field of cows mooing. So, the boo comes in and then it stops. And then it comes back in.

[00:30:00] It's like it's a recording almost, which it's not. Why do you think that this is the one stage that it sounds like mooing? I don't know. But it legitimately, it's not like a chorus of booing that is ringing around the ground. It's like a constant boo from somewhere, but it just stops like they need a breath when they come back. But it's in perfect timing. It's like unison. So, anyway, we've got Isaac Luke missing the goal, maybe.

[00:30:29] Anyway, it's 10-0. Yep. And the left edge of Ricky Letelli and Gerard Beal is not looking good. Nope. And James Hooper agrees with that. Thanks, Hoops. And he's right. It's not looking good. Thanks, Hoops. 31st minute. Almost another X Shark coming back to bite us, but it's a no try to Jono Wright, thank goodness. And then I legitimately can hear my friend Brendan Manahan, who sits to my left and down a fraction in the upper range reading house. And he's known to do this.

[00:30:59] He gets the Sharkies chant going. Amazing man with amazing talent. I could never do that. That's good. He'll just stand up and go, Sharkies. And he gets everyone going and then he sort of sits down. Yep. But it's definitely my friend Brendan Manahan doing it. And that's very exciting. 34th minute close range. Ennis with a bit of a viral moment, should we say. Mm-hmm. Close to the line. Dummy half. He does a 360 and then scores untouched under the post. And then he does the infamous selfie with the football. Yep.

[00:31:29] And the crowd celebration. One that we all remember very well. Uh-huh. Matt Russell plugs NRL 360, given that he scored from a 360 kind of play. I reckon Matt Russell says the words NRL 360 about five times in 30 seconds. I think Steve Crowley's giving him a bonus, as he should. Mm-hmm. James Hooper refers to it as a Polaroid. And then Gary Belcher roasts him for it, which I thought was tremendously funny.

[00:31:56] And the most important question he's asked, which is, did he plan this in advance or did he just come up with the idea by himself? Was he... Can you... When you see him in the hallways next season, can you ask him this question, please, Sam? I'm going to ask him, but I have to think that that was... Definitely was a plan. It was a plan. It has to be a bet or something, because he even goes to the effort of getting all the crowd behind him. Like, come on, guys, as if he actually has a Polaroid camera. Otherwise, he's just a very quick-thinking, intelligent man, which he is. He is.

[00:32:25] But, like, in the spur of the moment, like, that's crazy. That's right. So I would like to think it was planned, but we will find out in the future, that's for sure. Milani kicks the goal. Warriors are up 10-6. And our man Bubbles, the trumpeter, can be heard. Yes. Doing the end of UpUp Crowley, where he goes, up in note. I love it. He goes up in note. And on some of our weekly podcasts, I've got that sample, that stinger, and I throw it in. It's just a little grab. And he goes up at the end. I love it. So that's Bubbles on the trumpet.

[00:32:55] Pretty good crowd. Pretty lively at this point. Over 12,000, and good vibe, as it is most of these games. 36-minute Maloney with a dummy and a line break. Beautiful long-range run. But he passes to the left and not the right. Gerard Beale is tackled, so it doesn't really come to anything. But then we've got a great moment, the 39th minute. Ricky Letelli scores a try in Ricky Letelli corner. And if you don't know what that means, go back to the game where he schools Sonny Bill

[00:33:25] Williams and scores a try. It's, it's, can you, you're good with direction and you've got a brain. Ben, what part of the ground is it? It's the north end? North, northwest. I'm going to say northwest. Northwest. We don't want to hear from you if we're wrong. We're just going to say northwest. But you know it as Ricky Letelli corner, right? You know where it is. That's where he scores. The ball goes to the, to the ground initially. Gerard Beale gets it to Ricky Letelli. He beats three plays to score.

[00:33:54] The arm comes out. I think people remember this try. The arm sort of comes out late and goes boom. Unbelievable, Sam. Now for our wrestling fans, as many of you out there, I've equated this and you've got to be a bit more old school, slightly old school. But when they had the, the buried alive matches, which was in the, uh, what, what's the, the attitude era? Yeah. What's the attitude? What's the attitude you're called, Ben? Do them all, Sam. So buried alive matches. And it's exactly what you think.

[00:34:20] It's just two behemoths having a match and there's a pile of dirt and you've got to bury the opponent, right? I won't get too much into this, but basically the undertaker is buried alive. And oh no, that's the end of the undertaker. I'm not sure. I'm assuming lightning strikes or something. You're right. And his hand reaches out through the dirt. Yep. And that's what it's like. It's like that. It reminds us. Does that equate to you? Yeah. A hundred percent.

[00:34:45] You got to remember, I'm watching this game for the, what, the second time, the second time I'm watching this game. And so there's just a mess of arms and bodies and players and everything. And you can't even see Ricky Letelli. And then just suddenly out of nowhere, not only does the arm shoot out undertaker style, then it gets the, the, the bloody ball on the line. It's unbelievable. Just gets there, but he gets there. Milani kicks the goal.

[00:35:10] We are up 12, 10 at the break after we were down 10 nil. So I think that's pretty important that we note Ben, that we can come back from adversity down 10 nil. And back then it was harder to come back from 10 nil than what it is now. Obviously it wasn't impossible. It wasn't a huge thing, but still 10 nil down. That's not great. We might see in future games where we're down 18 nil, we might come back. I think it's all very important. These moments of, of trouble that they can get out of.

[00:35:39] So we, uh, we shoot to the second half and I note that kickstart my heart is blasting as the players run on the field. And it's actually, it plays up until kickoff. Like the ball gets kicked and you can sort of hear them lower the, the volume. So that's kind of cool. I thought of you straight away as soon as I heard it. And I have to point out, like, I'm not a huge Motley Crue guy. I, although I like Tommy Lee a lot as a drummer, I'm not a huge kickstart my heart guy, but I did like the fact that we use it at the time.

[00:36:09] And if they threw back to it every now and then I probably wouldn't argue with it, but I don't want people to think I'm completely pro bringing this back. I usually raise it because some of our listeners write to me and razz me and go, Hey, bring back, kickstart your heart. I'm like, Oh yeah, whatever. Second half. That's what we start with. Kickstart my heart. But the Warriors spend the opening five minutes in our 20 meter zone. And then Jono Wright has a really bad bomb trial. Like it's just, he's just got to catch and fall over and he, he doesn't catch it and he still falls over.

[00:36:37] So if you're not a great moment from Jono Wright, one he'd regret. Who knows what would have happened if he'd scored that try. 48th minute. Bekuya chases an Ennis Grubber from close range, goes up as a no try. Paul Gallen says, is that going up as a penalty try? Which the ref says, they'll check it gal. Mantering has grabbed hold of him. The audio microphone at this moment picks up a guy who is going nuts.

[00:37:07] Now, much like when you were on Beer Hill, the last game against the Cowboys, where you couldn't really relay what they were saying on this show. I can't do that either. You can go listen to the audio. It's clear as anything. There's a lot of profanity. There's a lot of innuendo. What I can say, the words that he does say is he's a grub. And then he says, you're killing me. He held him back. Yep. Which sounds like something I'd say. You're killing me. There was a lot more of this gentleman said though. The commentators are 50-50 on what's going to happen. We're not sure.

[00:37:37] But then it comes back. Penalty try to Boogs. At this point, Maloney's getting ready to kick his goal. And there's a conversation between Ryan Hoffman and the referee. Maloney becomes part of the conversation. It's quite comical to watch. And Ryan Hoffman is really emotional. And he's saying, what has changed with the video ref and with Penalty Tries? He said, what's changed? Then Maloney makes some sort of joke. And the referee tells him to step away.

[00:38:04] Then Hoffman says, and I quote, can you ask the bunker how they came up with this? Yeah, no worries, mate. Like they're going to stop the game even more and go, could you just? So I understood the emotion. And I understood where he's coming from. But yeah, wow. In the heat of the moment, some funny stuff said to referees. They probably need a pay increase as well. Maloney gets the goal. Three from three. We're winning 18-10. Looking a bit brighter here.

[00:38:33] 49th minute, Fafita is off the concussion. An HFIT head slam. Nothing comes of it with a penalty. And around this time, Valentine Holmes, who we didn't even mention at all. Nope. Has left the field. Disappeared. Poof. Gone. So he didn't do much in the first half. And he's gone. Because I was thinking, oh, he's having a quiet game. Fair enough. Yeah. But he's gone. And we'll get to that later. But he's off the field. Just want everyone to know. He's off the field. 52nd minute, video ref from an Ennis kick.

[00:39:03] Chad regathers. But he's tackled short by David Fusatua, who's having a great game. Really good game. Good tackle. He's a good player, hey. Like in hindsight, looking back, like a really good player. Yep. 57th minute, Thomas Lulowai does a Ricky Letelli slash Undertaker and reaches out. Mm-hmm. Video ref and the commentators are not sure. Gallon says he's short. The referee said, no, I thought it was okay.

[00:39:29] Video ref, instead of throwing it back to the board, he goes, we have a decision. It's a try. But then he says, we're going to the board. Yeah. He really mixes up his words. That kind of got me intrigued. We think that it reaches the line. Yeah. He's all over the place. It's something like, he clearly reaches the line. We have a decision. We're going to the board. And then it goes, try. It's like, oh, okay. Came from an offload. Isaac Luke, two from three goals. Sharks lead 18-16.

[00:39:59] But there's good news because in the 60th minute, Fafita is back on. He hasn't got concussion. And then the 67th minute, the Sharks get a penalty in the opposition. 20. There's an Ennis and Solomona Kata push and shove. Yep. A spine meeting happens. One of your favorites. We mentioned this last week. Yep. And it's really good to watch. It's probably like 20 seconds. And the ref's kind of going, what are you guys doing? Yep. They tap it and run. Unfortunately, there's an error there. So not much comes from that. Mm-hmm. There's a few penalties in the last 10 minutes.

[00:40:29] And then Isaac Luke takes the two on the second or third penalty. It's 18-all. So he kicked three from four. It's 18-all. Gal is blowing up at this saying, you telling me that's a high tackle to the ref. And I've noted they seem to calm him down every week by allowing him to say what he wants to say. Yep. They don't interrupt him. They let him say it. He's not rude. He's just a big prop forward lock-up guy. He's just direct. And it's the same as when he talks on TV.

[00:40:57] Sometimes it sounds more abrupt than it really is. It's just the way that he speaks. He's not rude in any way. And there's always a confidence in that. He's right. Yes. And he's trying to shape the narrative, which I respect. But then they answer the opposite of what he always wants. Every time. And then he just walks away. Yes. He just walks away, which is kind of cool. Yeah. No harm done. All right. So 74th minute, 18-all. They show vision. Yes. Is there a technical term for this band in TV world?

[00:41:24] It's an overlay of some sort, but they show vision from the past. Like an inset, right? It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you really use your imagination and your Sharks knowledge, you'll know what is coming. So 74th, 75th minute, they show vision of Sean Johnson in 2015 at Shark Park, probably then known as Southern Cross Group Stadium or whatever it was. Mother's Day. Mother's Day. And he scores in the very last moments of the game.

[00:41:53] He beats about a thousand guys to win the game. Now, as I've declared on this show many times, I never got to tell him in person. I always wanted to tell him this when he was a shark. I never got to tell him. The very next morning, I'm talking early morning. It was a nighttime game. It wasn't a three o'clock game. It was either a 5.30 or a 7.30 game. Yep. I ended up in RPA Hospital. Did you? Having my heart being assessed. Oh, no. After the heartbreak of that loss. Because I was having chest pains.

[00:42:22] Sean Johnson almost got rid of our guy, Sam. At some point, they said something like, has something happened in the last? And I went, well, my favorite team lost in the last minute when this guy went through nine guys. And I was really upset. And they kind of laughed. And I went, no, no, it happened. And they went, oh, okay, so we'll get to the bottom of it. Turned out it had nothing to do with my heart. My heart was, at that time, lovely. I'm going to touch wood right now.

[00:42:50] I still attest that Sean Johnson put me in hospital. I agree. And for some reason, they're showing it again. And when I go home, I'd have heart palpitations watching that. Much like I did last night when I watched this replay. Yeah. Speaking of such things, Matt Russell, quote, Valentine Holmes is off the field. His ailment is still a mystery. James Hooper is trying to chase down the symptoms. Oh. And this has really got my attention. It's like, what? Yeah. Okay, we know Val's not in the field, but.

[00:43:19] Real Grey's Anatomy stuff. It's a mystery. Yeah. Yeah, Grey's Anatomy. Grey's Anatomy getting a mention on this show for the second time in two episodes, I believe. Sorry, I couldn't think of another. I'll say All Saints next time if you'd like another. No, no. I'm a Grey's Anatomy guy. It's all good. Ah, okay. All good. Good to know. Still not. I'm not up to date. I've stopped watching. Even though it's still going. I think we've all stopped watching, but, you know. Yeah, I had a lot of good years watching that. Probably jumped the shark after the dude with a gun in the hospital. That was. Okay.

[00:43:49] Not because of that, but just the outcome of that and the people they lost. And they could find a bleak storyline. Oh, boy. Mm-hmm. 27th minute for feeder, as he's known to do, when setting up for a field goal, he strays anywhere but the center. Does love to do that sometimes, doesn't he? Maloney shoots from the center, gets the ball, though. It goes really high, but he misses to the left.

[00:44:16] And this is where I'll raise my regular rant about why is it a seven tackle set? Because you miss a field goal. Like, I don't understand that. You're punishing the team for trying to win the game. This is one of the ones where they brought in this rule to stop. It was the Billy Slater rule. They wanted to stop and give you a seven tackle set if you kicked it dead or whatever. But then that includes field goals, which makes no sense because they're a different type of kick. So what are we doing? Ridiculous. We're changing every other rule. Let's change that one. You want people to be kicking.

[00:44:47] 78th minute. There's a crazy sequence of Sean Johnson going nuts. My heart starts to be quicker. Oh, I thought it was deja vu again, Sam. Sam. He offloads. Kicks to the corner. But thankfully, the ball goes dead. Therefore, we get the seven tackle set here. 79th minute. Ennis gets the grubber. Regathers. Chad tries to kick a field goal just really quick, but it's blocked pretty easily. You're underselling this because, sorry, Sam. Ennis does a grubber.

[00:45:16] Then he regathers it. But then Isaac Luke ends up with the ball and he passes it down to... Pryor ends up with the ball. He's on the ground. He passes up to Chad, who would have kicked the field goal if it wasn't blocked. It's the most unbelievable like 10 second period where it goes through like 20 hands. And good luck if they needed to go to the bunker to work out what happened with the field goal. And I know the commentators go, what was Isaac Luke doing? Just hold on to the ball. You almost gave up a field goal. Thank you for clearing that up.

[00:45:46] It was pretty crazy. And yeah, by the time Chad got it, there was just no chance of getting over. But I love the fact he went for it. We're going to Golden Point. At this point, it gets a little awkward. I guess they're sort of... Not spur of the moment. There's always protocols in plan, but they probably weren't planning to go to Golden Point. So they're like, well, what are we going to do here in between while they're sort of four or five minutes? So they go to James Hooper on camera. Okay.

[00:46:11] That's quite unusual for sideline people in this era during games. He's not even dressed up. He's just got his wet weather gear on. Well, hopefully he didn't order anything from the Fanatics because he wouldn't have got it. That's why. Because he was waiting for his Deshaun Watson jersey to come. Interesting choice of player there. Completely unintentional, Sam. I don't know what you're trying to say. He's on camera and he's sprouting off some Fox Lab quotes, some of which I probably wrote. Yep.

[00:46:41] And then he talks about the mystery of Val's injury. So it's pretty intriguing here. Yeah. No one knows what's going on. The Sharks aren't talking to anyone about the injury. Mm-hmm. We're starting Golden Point and the 81st minute. Bakuya, with a beautiful sort of offload, half-break offload, gives it to Chad who runs 40, 50 meters, gives it to Ben Barber. And this is the game. The game's done. Mm-hmm. But unthinkably, and it wasn't a bad pass, Ben Barber just drops it like Jono Wright style. And it's just a bomb try. And he knows.

[00:47:11] Everyone knows it's like, oh. He's pretty annoyed. That's the streak there, man. Like, that could be it. He's annoyed. I will defend him, though, because when Chad has the ball, Barber actually points to say, kick it, and I will run and grab it. Oh. Okay. But it's an easy pass. He should have caught it. There's no reason why he dropped it. And you can tell he's disappointed. He is. That's a tight five minutes of footy. Sharks defend pretty well. In the 83rd minute, there is, I've written down a vintage in-goal escape.

[00:47:38] An in-goal escape's a term we came up with maybe 10 years ago about, you can imagine what it is. The fullback gets it, or whoever gets it gets out of the in-goal. Ben Barber gets it, and he saves a dropout initially, but then he gets into really good field position. He beats like three plays to get out of the in-goal, and then just keeps going. It's a real highlight reel. That'd be on the highlight reel for sure. Unfortunately, Matty Pryor drops the ball, though, so nothing comes of that.

[00:48:03] 84th minutes, and just before the half break of extra time, Aish should be the line break. And even though we're short on our right-hand side, we scramble. So again, another scrambling example, which would come back October 2, 2016. But it's similar-ish. They look sort of gone, and they get there. Absolutely. And it works. So they know what they're doing. Halftime, everyone is out of breath. Then we get back on the field.

[00:48:32] In the 86th minute, Andrew Fafita has an epic run, and this time he stays down the middle. Quick play the ball. Well, probably the end of that set, if not the next one. Maloney avoids a tackle and kicks, as Matty Russell says, the ugliest field goal you've ever seen. I'd probably agree with him. 11 in a row. Equal club record. Talk me through the field goal. We win. It is the ugliest field goal you've ever seen. It barely goes over.

[00:48:58] But obviously, the main way to find out is to either check the family hill or the Monty Porter stand, and the stand goes up. So you know, even though it is a disgraceful kick, that he gets it, and we win, and we're equaling the club record. And happy day's a hero again. They look pretty happy. They also look pretty tired and out of breath. But it's notable, the fan reaction, but also, like some of the players, they realize what they've done. They're keeping the streak alive.

[00:49:27] They're winning the games they need to win. And yeah, another great win. And some of the wins this year have been really easy, but the other week against the Cowboys and this weekend's Warriors, pretty tough. And really taken to the edge of almost losing. Like this is probably the closest they've come to losing so far in the 11-game streak. So Warriors really brought it. Really good effort. We've talked about the scramble defense. Some great efforts from Ricky Lutelli with that Undertaker try.

[00:49:55] There was a bunch of little moments where they really, in theory, won the game. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good one. It's one of those where I mentioned last week about how you can see sort of different things that the pieces are getting put together in terms of our scramble and the fact that we're coming back and we're winning games and we can hustle in Golden Point. We can score tries in the last minute. We can kick field goals that are ugly in the last minute of extra time and that sort of stuff. This is another great example.

[00:50:24] It's all sort of just all coming together and the streak is alive. Lots of Undertaker references today, Sam. I love it. The streak is alive and it's going to be alive for a bit longer. Yep. If you're a younger viewer or listener, you can go along for the ride and see when that happens. Most other people will know. So coming up next, next Saturday, another Saturday game. Very memorable game.

[00:50:50] One they've already hinted at earlier, I believe Ben, is against the Eels at Southern Cross Group Stadium. So that is three home games in a row with a bye in the middle. Yep. But I love that kind of action. It reminds me whenever the NFL draw comes out every year, I always look at it and go, ooh, there's three games in a row at Minnesota. That'd be a good one to go to. Just, you know, live in the town for three weeks or whatever. Yeah. And I'm getting vibes like this here. I mean, at this point, I wasn't living in the Shire, but that's fun. Home games in a row.

[00:51:19] Two is fun. Three over four weeks. That's a good time, man. I don't like the periods. And we had a couple this year where you've got just big chunks of away games. And it's like, oh, this is our first time at Shark Park for like five weeks. And I was like, how did this happen with a couple of byes and a magic round and that when you can stick a couple together? And it's just, I know that we keep saying it again, like the Minicello pull string, but it's like the crowds are building. The vibes are getting better and better. Shark Park is rocking every week.

[00:51:48] So it's like the more home games, the better. And you can just see that momentum growing and growing. It's good. It's good, Sam. I love it. So the Power Game is going to be a good one. One to remember. You watched that in Orlando, Florida. Where were you? Yeah, I was in Orlando at a Disney World hotel in the early hours of the morning. I think I've said this to you before, but it was also election day. So my friend Tim, the Loser Dragons fan, was watching the ABC coverage of the election. And I was watching the Superior Choice, which of course was the Power Matter game.

[00:52:17] Now, being a very non-political person like I am, and that'll get me into some trouble. Well, have we established who was fighting it out that night for Tim? Who was he watching? I think Turnbull was the Prime Minister at the time. I couldn't tell you who the opposition leader was. Maybe it was Bill Shorten. You know who would know this is our friend Lewis. Lewis is heavily into the politics. Oh, I would have thought he would have said Clinton since he works in talk radio. He should know this. Clinton would definitely know as well.

[00:52:46] Head of news, I saw. He is. That's another story. 2016 Australian election. Yeah, not the American election. I need to stay in this country. I need my visa renewed. I don't want to make any comments about American politics. No, no, no. Oh, we have a winner. Yeah, it was against Bill Shorten. Good call. Okay, so there you go. So yeah, so that was the election. He was watching the nerdy returns. Are you still friends with Tim? Yeah, as much as you can with a Dragons fan.

[00:53:14] Well, how does a Disneyland hotel differ to another hotel? Is there memorabilia around? Yeah, it's all a bit fancy. You can go to the breakfast at the hotel the next morning and Mickey and Minnie and Goofy and Donald Duck and that come and say hello to you when you're eating breakfast and that sort of stuff. That's fun. It's all about the perks, right?

[00:53:35] So you can go a bit earlier or you get the fast pass for free so you can get on the rides quicker and it's all right on. Because you've got to remember the Disney World in Orlando is pretty much like its own city. So if you're getting an outside hotel, you're getting a bus or you're getting an Uber or something in and it's like 20 minutes to get into Disney World. Whereas if you're on campus, you can just jump onto the little shuttle boat and go to Hollywood Studios to go check out Star Wars Land and stuff like that. Yeah, that's cool. I've never done a Disneyland.

[00:54:05] I've been to America five or six times. Never done a Disneyland. I know there's Disneyland's around the world elsewhere. Of course. But yeah, never done that. Yeah, no. I've done a lot of theme parks. Disney, very expensive now. I'm sure. Yeah, I think my Disney days are over. Is there one just out of Los Angeles? I'm making that up. Yeah, Disneyland is in Anaheim. So that's about an hour and a half outside of LA. Yeah, so I went and saw my friend Bruce Springsteen play in Anaheim one year. Yeah. Yeah, that's as close as I got to Disneyland.

[00:54:35] Well, I can't say anything bad apart from being a Dragons fan. I'm okay with him being a Labor fan. But apart from him being a Dragons fan, I don't say too much bad about Tim because we had already organized this holiday in 2016. We had it all locked in. We were going to do all of these cities and do all this. Everything was all locked in. And then Guns N' Roses announced a reunion to her. And then I had to say, hey, dude, I'm now going to blow up this holiday and I'm just going to leave you and you can go do your own thing. And I'm going to go to Chicago because it's the only date that works.

[00:55:04] I need to go see Guns N' Roses perform on their reunion tour and then I'll meet you back in New York. And he had no problems with that. So I can't say anything bad. Disneyland. Okay, cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Where did you watch Guns N' Roses at? I was in Chicago at the Bears Stadium at Soldier Field. Yep. One of the great concerts. That's my... Was it windy? Windy City. No, because it was summer because it was around 4th of July. As you would know by the date of the Warriors game.

[00:55:33] So it was beautiful and warm. Had a nice deep dish pizza beforehand. Really living my best life there in Chicago. Sam? Had you seen G&R before that? Well, I had seen Guns N' Roses I'm using in air quotes, which is just Axl and his cast of Merry Men. But this is the first time that Slash and Duff and Axl were back together in years upon years upon years. I would have been way too young to see them initially at like Eastern Creek and that sort of stuff. When you saw just Axl, was Matt Sorum in the band? No.

[00:56:03] The only OG members would have been Dizzy Reed on the keyboards and Axl on the vocals. Of course, we don't want the emails coming in because you are acknowledging that Stephen Adler was the OG. We're just talking about Matt Sorum as the next guy up. Absolutely. But Adler wasn't there. Sorum wasn't there. And this was the 2016 tour where Adler would show up. He showed up in Cincinnati. He showed up overseas and he'd do a couple of songs. And it was a great tour. Yeah. So... Have you read his book, Stephen Adler?

[00:56:33] No. I haven't read Stephen Adler's book. I've read Slash's book and I do have Duff's book ready to read as well. But knowing the life that Stephen went through, that book would have been a good one to read actually. You're right. Am I making it up? It had something to do with his mum? Did his mum help him write it or his mum published it? Does something to do with him and his mum or something? That sounds familiar. Yeah. I think you're right. Yeah. You know who would be good to ask? Our friend R.C.B. Guns and Roses guy. Is he? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:04] That's cool. All right. Well, that's been another catch-up episode of 2016. Recap episode. Not catch-up episode. A recap episode. We're on track. We're exactly where we want to be. That's right. This is exactly how we planned it. We are on schedule, everybody. And just think, all the controversial things that we left in the episode, imagine all the stuff that Sam had to edit out that we said controversial. We've gone a bit off the rails here. Don't complain. Yeah. The stuff I left in is... Ooh. It's just...

[00:57:33] Too hot for press. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right. And you're just going to have a beautiful night's sleep and I'm just going to be here going, I don't know if I can put that in or not. Cut it all out, Sam. I don't mind. No. I don't want to get cancelled. I have to let people know that I usually leave most things in. It's not a heavily edited show, just so everyone knows that. And I'm going to tell you, there's some really great games coming up. Obviously, it's a great year. But yeah, we got some good times ahead before the bad times and then the good times.

[00:58:03] So stick with us. We'll get you another episode as soon as we can. On time. Right on schedule. On time. On time. Imagine how boring it would be if we released an October 2 episode about the October 2 grand final. Like, give me a break. We already did that with Chad. So you've got Chad. We went to the source. And now you've got Timu co-host, me. You've got the same hair. Yeah. Did I tell you what a great human he was that day? Did I tell you about him? Yeah.

[00:58:29] Well, I heard it on the Kieran episode because that's how I got all my Sam information is through Kieran's episode. Gave you half an hour of his time even though he was super busy. You were super busy. You walked in. He did all the stuff himself and gave you the... Like, I mean, what a guy. That's so nice. And what a great episode too. And then within an hour, we were both at the grand final launch. That's right. You said that. I was wearing the same gear, a bit more smarter, but not that much smarter. It was smart casual. It wasn't anything more formal. He was looking a bit more dapper.

[00:58:57] And then he walked in with like, you know, Hyington and Wade Graham. And I was like, oh, I'll let him be. And then when he got introduced to the crowd, I just happened to be sitting in this prime spot. It's very sort of Ben Harlem spot where I can sort of fist pump everyone. And so it was Gal and I gave him a little fist pump. He's like, hey, you know, and I went, hey. And then I was like, hey, Chad, long time. He was like, hey. And he's like, hey, you're here. I said, yeah, I told you I was coming. He's like, all right. Just have a good one, Sam. And he walks on the stage. I was like, oh, wow.

[00:59:25] But then the best thing was when everyone was leaving the event, and I think they were kicking on somewhere else. We were sort of like just side by side, happened to be side by side leaving. And I was like, hey, thanks again, man. I really appreciate it. And he almost borderline grabbed me and goes, make sure you collab. Collab with me, man. I'm like, whoa, this is great. Okay. I'll collab with you. No problem. He goes, yeah. Just tag me and collab. He goes, I was like, thanks, Chad. You're a close personal friend. And then I met, I can't remember the gentleman's name. It might be Nathan.

[00:59:55] He's heavily involved with the CWSC. And we had like this hour long debate about Will Kennedy. That's how I ended my great final luncheon. Oh, wow. It was good. It was good to hang out with Nathan. I believe his name's Nathan. Well, I'm glad that I didn't, you know, jump back into the recording studio here. And they was like, oh, sorry, Ben. You don't need a Chad's here to take up the rest of the season. I'm glad that I haven't been bumped. Chad would probably do it. You know, that might be an idea. Should we get Chad on for the grand final? I don't know. Okay. Here's the question.

[01:00:25] If you've made it an hour and seven minutes into this, you've passed all of the Disney chat, the Guns N' Roses chat, the political chat. You've passed it all, right? So that means that you're a diehard. So you really want to get to the air. Burying the Fanatics guys. Yeah. The Fanatics guys. All of that sort of stuff. If that made it to air. Yeah. Who knows? Maybe that got edited out. I doubt it. If you made it now, you're a diehard. And I just want to know, since we are now getting to the point where the grand final is going to be in sight, what should we do? Should we do a watch along?

[01:00:55] Should we invite Kieran? Should we invite Josh? Should we invite some other people? Should it just be me and Sam? Should it just be Sam? Oh, no, no, no. You're part of the crew. Like, yeah. What should we be doing? Yeah. Good questions. Yeah. Do we have it so, like, everyone gets the grand final on DVD or YouTube or on the website and we all go, okay, press play now. And then we all sort of do it. We could do that. We could do that. If anyone's got any suggestions, they can send it to the email or the website that Sam's going to tell you right now.

[01:01:23] Yeah, sharkcastpod at gmail.com. We also have sharkcast.com.au. With the feedback option, we have all the DMs on the social medias. But Ben, I don't think there's a wrong answer there. So we'll happily hear what people want to say. Yeah, if you've got a good suggestion. If we stay in this tradition of just looking at the game, I'm open to it. If we want to watch it minute by minute, that's cool too. I'm a little bit of a pauser. So that might cause some problems if we're watching the game and I have this idea to say something. I might have to go, hey, everyone hit pause. Yeah, but that's okay.

[01:01:51] We'll all have our remote ready to go. And then you'll go pause and we'll go, and then we'll go, and back. Exactly. Hopefully we remember to tell everyone to come back. Yeah. But if we don't, it'll still be an amazing episode. So make sure you stick with us on this ride. That is 2016. I've got a good feeling about this year, Ben. Good feeling. We'll be back soon with the Paragame. Stay tuned to our socials. We'll be back with other episodes as well. We've got Mace coming on in a couple of weeks and all being well.

[01:02:20] And we've got plenty planned for you. Up, up Cronulla. Ben, let's go win this comp. Up, up, Grinola. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of SharkCast Radio, a weekly podcast on all things

[01:02:47] Cronulla Sharks brought to you by Dyson Logistics. I am Shark's Nut Newman, and as usual, I am joined by my fellow Shark's Nut and good mate, Sam. How you going, mate? Hey there, brother. How you doing? Apologies. We didn't do a podcast last week. We're all revved up to do a big one this week. It's our 50th. We'll talk about that later on. Everyone get in touch with us. SharkCastPod at gmail.com. We're on Twitter. We're on Facebook. And we're coming number one.

[01:03:24] Well, that was a nail-biting victory against the New Zealand Warriors, where all the official records will read. We rolled them 19 points to 18 in golden point, and that has some serious implications for the NRL ladder. So we rock it into first position on a 28 points, which is two points ahead of Melbourne, albeit with a worse for and against. Now, it was like back to the Sharks of old Sam Shinazzi grinding.

[01:03:52] Not the prettiest game of football, but we got there in the end. It was 08 slash 13-esque. I thought the first 30 minutes, not too flash. Fecky being away, I think, hindered that left-hand defense. And Spiel and Letelli were a bit dodgy out there, but they got better as the game went along, which you expect to happen. And Letelli scored a really fabulous try as well. But it was tough. They came for us, Newman. They were looking good.

[01:04:20] Even guys like Ashford, who are pretty average footballers, he was tearing it up. I think if Sean Johnson was 20% more fit, we might not be here. Yeah, we could have been in big trouble. Well, look, watching the game live, I felt straight away, I'm like, we look tired. And look, to be honest, with four guys that played Origin on the Wednesday and four of our star players, so to speak, it was always going to be the case that we were going to look a little bit weary.

[01:04:48] And it's fantastic that we got the job done in the end. I don't think we should read too much into it. Nobody's really going to worry that we only rolled the Warriors by one point. But I thought that we did enough to get it going. Again, a little bit of controversy around tries. I felt that if we got the Ben Barber try awarded to us, it might not have been so close. Also, Chad Townsend was pulled up short. I thought that could have gone our way too.

[01:05:17] But in the end, we played a pretty good game in Golden Point. We should have iced it, really. In the first, almost the first set. Wasn't that fantastic? Chad Townsend making that break and then, unfortunately, Ben Barber couldn't keep the ball in his hands. You'd think he would have scored. If he catches that, no one's going to get him. But it did. I was sitting there with my mates and Chad Townsend scythed through twice and then couldn't complete the draw and pass.

[01:05:45] Now, I don't know who's at fault with the Ben Barber one. But there was an earlier set in the first half where Townsend scythed through and he had to set Letelli up and threw an absolute bullet that sort of went behind Letelli and it all fell in a heap. So, I don't know. What happened there? Well, we're not going to stick the boot into our boy Chaddy, I have to say. His kicking was a little sketchy in the first 20.

[01:06:13] Probably two or three seven tackles he gave to them. A few more inches here or there. And it's unlike him this year. It is. And, you know, you're not going to play a stormer every game. But the seven tackle set, that's the Cardinals seen in rugby league these days. Especially against a free-running Warriors team. They lapped it up. He got better as well as the game went along. I felt like he righted some wrongs. But it was interesting to watch that first sort of 30 minutes. And it shows. They can win from all sorts of avenues.

[01:06:43] It's a bit of a relief to know that they can come from behind and win. Well, we always knew they could come from behind and win. And I actually felt remarkably calm throughout the whole thing. Whereas a lot of people sitting in the stand around me were super tense and nervous. I was actually like, we've got this. We're going to win. I sort of was almost walking out when Ben Barber dropped the ball to go over in Golden Point. But I don't know what it is about this team. They've got a resolve about them.

[01:07:10] They've got an ability to get it done that we haven't seemed to have for a long time. In semi-final-like circumstances. And I've got to say, I'm pretty excited. I actually cannot remember a team like this that has played like this in those colours. We've had some fantastic teams. I mean, the 99 team is one of the greatest teams of all time. But they didn't play this way. No. And it's a fantastic way to play. They're still a bit flurry and they're still a bit showy. But they know how to grind it out as well.

[01:07:39] And the 99 team was prone to dropping a game. You know, it would be completely inexplicable. Like they'd show up against a team that they were expected to beat roundly. And they just get beat. And it was strange. But this team just keeps finding a way to do it. And that is a fantastic place to be, Samuel. And if we win against Parramatta, that takes the Sharks' record. And I believe... I might be getting ahead of myself here.

[01:08:09] And I'm probably going to regret saying this. If we do win against Parramatta, we are then in touching distance of an NRL winning street record. That is true. There's only been five different clubs, I think, on seven different occasions who have gotten this far. So we're in pretty good company already. I also can tell you that there is a club record at home about to be broken. And that is most wins at Shark Park.

[01:08:38] So not home games, but at Shark Park to start the year. We're coming up to that. So there's a lot of things there. We just want the two points. But there are a lot of accolades coming the way of this, let's say it, champion team. And I just in awe of the team that keeps turning up. I think just there's talent all across the park. I've got to say, I haven't been the world's biggest Fecky fan. And I've been... You and I have had a few... Haven't noticed.

[01:09:08] Yeah, had a few tense words about Sasai Fecky. But I've got to say, I was sort of looking at that edge on the weekend and thinking we need him back. I can now see, in his absence, what he brings to the team. I agree with that. I do also think that it could just be those two guys together. They haven't done it that much together. No. I don't understand why Beal and Letelli keep swapping so much.

[01:09:32] Like, I would have thought that the ability of Beal to set his winger up, you know, get a bit of space and then do what he did for Valor last year. All I can think of, Newman, is the coach loves these two players. Because if I'm coach, and let's all thank goodness that I'm not, I'm playing a centre and I'm playing a winger. Yeah. And the best one, in my opinion, plays in that position. Then another winger comes in. Yeah.

[01:09:54] But there's always the school of thought that says you pick your best 17 players and you just find a way to fit them all into the team. I look at that team list and I'm not unhappy. There's no issues. No. They've won 12. No. They've won 11 in a row. And there's no complaints here. Yeah. And I mean, whatever you think Beal's shown that he's the much better player between him and Letelli, Letelli will turn around and have a stormer of a game. And Beal kind of looks a bit average.

[01:10:23] And then you think, well, Letelli might have the wood on him and it'll be vice versa. So, I think if Ricky can maintain his defence and make it better, he'll be in the team for a long time. He's a good attacking player. That's always the issue with Ricky, isn't it? Yeah. Some of that, he got stood up big time early and we've seen it too many times. We can't complain too much. Who would have thought we'd be in front on our own? Just opportunities abound.

[01:10:51] You don't want to look ahead and, of course, everyone at the club is already telling us week by week. But the draw we have is reasonable. And we've got a lot of home games. So, we should be having a red hot tilt at the minor premiership. I'm loving, Newman, all this vision on social media, which ties into what you're talking about in a sense, of the players all hanging out on their days and nights off. Yeah, it's mad. It's a close team. You know, teams who don't like each other don't do that. No. And it's easy to like each other when you're winning.

[01:11:21] It honestly is because, you know, you're not shining a light on people's personality issues and whatever being showed up in their performance. The team's just finding a way to getting it done. We haven't achieved anything yet, but we have built one hell of a solid foundation. So, we're going to cut to a quick break. And then when we come back, we'll be looking at the news of the week. Newman, my man.

[01:11:48] I just bought this rare, rare piece of Springsteen magic, but the guy can't send it to me in a hurry and I need it. I need it within a week, man. What am I going to do? Whatever you do, don't get in touch with one of those big corporate logistics companies. Give Shark Cars, made a sponsor, Dyson Logistics a ring. They can send anything from a postage stamp to a 40-foot container, road, rail, sea freight, air freight, interstate, local or international.

[01:12:16] They'll do it for a fraction of the cost of corporate competitors and with the best service that you can possibly expect. How do I get in touch with them? Dyson Logistics at dysonlogistics.com. You can call them on 833-91844 or the mobile is 0467-233-153. Dysonlogistics.com and tell them the Shark Cars sent you.

[01:12:46] 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 SCG. Yes. First cab off the rank, Sam, is the NRL draw has dropped. The last six weeks we were told that the draw wasn't locked in ahead. It was. Someone's telling fibbies there, aren't they? Yeah, because nothing changed.

[01:13:13] Well, nothing changed and we were just told in very recent history by someone very high up at the Sharks that the draw has been set for ages. Yeah. And I always thought that the reason they hadn't allocated – well, the draw, the fixtures are set, but the date and time. They've been set too. They were also set and there were no changes. And, you know, the Sharks are sitting on top of the ladder and we've got bugger all free to air.

[01:13:41] We'll go through the whole season with no Friday night, no Thursday night. A ton of Mondays. What's going on, Samuel? You work in TV. Explain it to us. Yeah, I do. Channel 9 get first rights at Thursday, Friday. Okay. But these days it doesn't really matter in that sense because Fox show everything live. So Fox don't really – you know, for example, round 26 we're playing Melbourne on a Saturday night. Fox are loving life. Of course they are.

[01:14:07] So what you're saying is that Channel 9, because they allocate – they get the first picks, right? Yeah. So they get Thursday, Friday, Sunday are the first three games picks. So what you're assuming then is let's talk about the Melbourne Storm Sharks game in round 26, which will more than likely decide the minor premiership. Channel 9 have decided that that is the fourth most important game for the weekend. There are three more important games for them to show. Now, we will clarify here.

[01:14:32] We did find out from the Sharks that for that round they sent an application to the NRL to play prior to – they didn't want to play on Sunday. To the last two rounds. The last two rounds. They didn't want to play on a Sunday. So the NRL has gone okay. So that only left Thursday and Friday. So we will throw that in. But that says to me it's a snub. They have snubbed the Sharks for whatever reason because we don't rate highly enough.

[01:14:58] And let's go to the last round, round 26, because that's the one where we can feel most aggrieved about not having free-to-air. And your Thursday night game is Brisbane v. The Roosters. And your Friday night game is Canterbury v. Souths. So we're saying the Roosters aren't making the eight. We're pretty much saying Souths won't be either. So you've got two free-to-air games will have no bearing on the eight.

[01:15:26] Well, little bearing for at least two of the teams. The Sunday game is Warriors v. Parramatta. Now, Parramatta will not be making the eight. So it's just unbelievable. And I mean, we can go back and look at other matches where we feel aggrieved. And I know a lot of people are sitting there now, Samuel, and they're saying, well, what does it matter? We're on TV anyway. What does free-to-air matter? The fact is we get a lot of correspondence from people, and a lot of people cannot afford Foxtel.

[01:15:55] And a lot of people cannot afford... They have kids, so they're not going to go down to the local club and watch the game. So they don't get to watch the game. There are huge problems around this, and that's a very important one. You raise a good point. And that is a very, very true fact. You look at sponsorship, and we've had an incredible record rise in sponsorship this year, and rightly so. So those people are happy with the Foxtel coverage, and they're happy with the Daily Telegraph coverage, and that kind of stuff. But they're really priming for Channel 9.

[01:16:25] They want free-to-air coverage. 100%. And they're not going to get that until the finals. And in the finals, it's probably the least amount of ads you'll see that is also live and important. That's right. And you have just pointed out to me, you've just handed me the draw again, that the Round 25 Sunday 4 o'clock game on Channel 9 is Newcastle v Souths. They are more interested in playing this game than any Cronulla game.

[01:16:53] It is a flat-out snub, and people have every right to be pissed off. And if you watch Sharkars TV this week, we try and take Lyle to task about it. He's not going to ring the NRL and a huff, because he just can't do it. But as a fan, I'm disappointed. And it comes on the back of something else we want to talk about, which is Channel 9 personalities talking about our club captain, without naming names. Well, let's get into it here. Gus talking about Gallon. Yeah, that's the next... I mean, we'll cut the draw.

[01:17:23] There's nothing we can say about the draw other than we feel we've been snubbed. I understand people are saying that Fox provide a better coverage, and I agree with that. And I understand that people are saying that, you know, you can just watch it on Fox. Not everybody has that luxury to watch it on Fox. And two, in terms of commercial viability, it's better for the club to be on free-to-air because more people watch it. About 30% of households have Foxtel. Yeah. So 100% have free-to-air. Yeah.

[01:17:54] There it is. So that will cut into what you want to talk about with Gallon. After the... It's a second state of origin. Blues are well and truly done. And I'm sitting there watching the post-game coverage. And they go to the panel. And the panel is something like Fatty and Lockyer on the left. Yvonne Sampson in the middle. Maybe someone else. And on the right, they have Joey, Johns, and Gus Gould. And Gus is looking stone-faced.

[01:18:24] And Joey looks like he wants to harm himself. And they throw to them eventually to get their feelings. And Gus, as we all know now, unleashes. And he doesn't name names, which is the first sort of gutless point of inverted commas journalism. And then he tells us that the reason New South Wales have not maintained the same halves for numerous years

[01:18:46] is because of the selfish acts and the way that certain senior members of the team and staff control things. In the past, he talked about Paul Gallon hogging the ball, right? I am here to argue that the reason they haven't had halves for numerous years is because they haven't been good enough. That's just the bottom line there. Well, the first thing about New South Wales is that the selections over the years have been flabbergasting.

[01:19:16] I mean, Dylan Walker was one this year. Blake Ferguson was another. And there's been a million other selections that they've made over the years. It just blows your mind. And Gallon's been sent out there to do his best in teams that aren't as good as the Queensland team. Goal was saying that culturally, the leaders had an issue. And that's part of the reason why the teams performed so badly. It's a shot. 100% it's a shot.

[01:19:44] But I've got a policy here on SharkCast. I'm not going to comment on any Gallon matters outside of Sharks related. I've got no interest in talking about Paul Gallon. Fair enough. I agree 100%. I always argue to people this year, forget about years gone past. I don't want to think about that. This year, he's not, in my opinion, getting in the way of the ball. And if he was, we wouldn't be coming first. We wouldn't be the second best attacking team in the comp. We wouldn't be where we are on the ladder without his leadership.

[01:20:13] His strength this year, hit-ups, and the timely, minimal offloads. Correct. Good offloads. Playing a few less minutes. Not dramatically less minutes, but having a break every now and then has really helped his output. And I believe he's going to get another contract. So you would say, Newman, he's not hogging the ball, wouldn't you? There's a difference between hogging the ball and a leader putting his hand up and saying, I'm going to get this done.

[01:20:40] There were times when we had struggling teams where he was probably over-calling the halves because he thought he was a better option. Okay, but he's not done it this year. No, but people who don't watch our games or have something against the guy, which is the vast majority of people, seemingly, they just spit that one out. And for me, it's hard to take because it's not happening. It's not a fact. Paul Gallon is a phenomenal footballer. As a player, he's fantastic.

[01:21:08] He handled the question in the press conference after the Warriors game really well about Gould. He said, I'm not going to deal with it now. I don't want to talk about it. And he just sort of killed the situation there and there. Well, he's been through it a hundred times and his usual response is people are entitled to their opinion. Gus Gould's obviously got an opinion on him. Everybody's got an opinion on him. He's a polarizing figure. He's not well-liked in the overwhelming rugby league community.

[01:21:33] I would say there are shark supporters that don't like him. I'm going to say I like him. I'm going to put it out there. I know you always liked him. I haven't always liked him. I didn't like him for a little while last year. What else is happening in the news, Newman? Some bad news. It's already been covered over in great detail on social media, but we lost one of the great sharks of all time, an immortal Greg Pearce. He did just about everything in the game.

[01:22:03] He coached the club. He captained the club. He captained the kangaroos. He was around for years and years and years, an absolute champion player, a gentleman, and he fought bravely a long illness. And we just want to send a big shark cast rest in peace to him, his family, and thank him for his contribution to the club. Newman, can you help me out here? Did he show interest in running for the board or maybe going for the CEO job five or six years ago?

[01:22:32] I remember he was very much in his illness, going through his illness, but he was still doing his business activities. I'm sure he put his hand up at some point. He was always putting his hand up around the club to help where he could. I don't know the details of that specifically. I'm sure somebody will write in and let us know, but he would have certainly been very capable. Sad news, we send our love and respect to his family, friends, and former teammates.

[01:22:59] Back on Paul Gallen, another bit of news that washed in across the Mangravy Shores was that he got in a little bit of strife for making comments on the judiciary. Now, he basically made comments that Sam Diaday should have been suspended for longer than what he was for his spear tackle. And that Wade Graham only got suspended because he hit, his hit was on Jonathan Thurston and the implication was that if he hit anyone else, he wouldn't have been suspended.

[01:23:29] He's saying what everybody thinks. He backed it up though with something from Wade Graham and his lawyer at the hearing. That was the lawyer, the prosecution's case kept saying, no, it was Jonathan Thurston, it was Jonathan Thurston. He's right about Thurston. He should have got six to eight. I mean, how quickly do the NRL want to forget, and I'm going to get in trouble saying this, Alex McKinnon. I know. By saying two weeks for Thurston, they're saying, and this is me saying what they're

[01:23:59] saying, we don't care about you, bro. Gallon is not saying, what Gallon's saying is the truth. Everybody thinks it. It's disgusting. There's no one who thinks that Sam Thurston shouldn't have got longer. I mean, the Wade Graham one's a bit different, but the Sam Thurston one is clear cut, but you can't call in to question the integrity of the... I can. I can do it. And forget about who it is, Sam Thurston. I don't care if it's Adam Newman. I'm sick of seeing these tackles. These tackles are not good or exciting.

[01:24:28] They put a guy in a wheelchair who's never going to walk again. No. And it's not like it's a new thing. You know, the game's evolved and changed. Ever since I've been playing and following it, one of the worst things you can do is a spear tackle. Pick someone up and drive them head first into the ground. Now, I'll tell you, Sam, that my rugby league career was cut short because of a spear tackle. I was playing for the Aquinas Colts in senior grades and was picked up and driven head first

[01:24:55] into the cricket pitch at Sutherland Oval. And I was heavily concussed and made the play on. And I made a decision to retire after that because I thought that something very, very bad could have happened to me because of that. And it was a clear cut spear tackle. The player who did it to me was sent off, subsequently suspended. But in the NRL, it seems to be okay. Just on a lighter subject matter, because we haven't gone there before.

[01:25:25] I'm picturing a young Stuart Mills here running around. Yourself. Me? What were you like? No. What position? I was never quick. I was always like a back row. Either way, Stuart Mills was quick. No. Did you have your little hunch? I can see you're hunching your back a little, yeah? Yeah, absolutely. Similar running style. That's what I thought. That's what I'm saying, okay. No, I was always sort of a tall back rower. Back rower? Yeah. Okay. Too much of a cat though, mate. I don't believe that for a second. Didn't want to do the hard work. Didn't want to do...

[01:25:52] I still do some of the warm-ups with Cronulla Caring Bar A-grade and do full contact warm-ups and stuff and some of the wrestling. And man, you have to do that sort of stuff to really realise how tough a game rugby league is. Oh, yeah. It is so hard. I warmed up with the boys and was doing some wrestling with them and I couldn't move for like two days afterwards. It's just unbelievable.

[01:26:19] So it's a tough game and the gallon call's dead right. You've got to protect your players and heads and necks and there's no excuse for spear tackles. So that is the news of the week. We'll cut to a break and when we come back, we'll put our hand into the mailbag. Hey Newman, I'll be around your house four o'clock. Give us a couple hours of drinks and beer before the Sharkies game. What kind of beer do you want me to bring around? Make sure you bring around some beer from the Shark Island Brewing Company, Samuel.

[01:26:44] They are the Shire's own craft brewing company with a range of delicious beers from heavy craft beers through to light drinking pale ales and summer ales. Sounds awesome. Where do I pick it up? You have to head down to the brewery itself, which is Unit 8, 29 to 33 Waratah Street, Kiriwee. They're just next to Australia Post there. That's Unit 8, 29 to 33 Waratah Street, Kiriwee. They're open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the afternoons through to about

[01:27:14] five o'clock. Awesome, man. I'm bringing around some Shark Island Brew beer to your place soon. Check them out on Facebook. It's Shark Island Brewing Company. I love the pale ales and I reckon you're going to be all over the culture.

[01:27:42] And now it's coming to the time of the show where we go out the front of SharkCast headquarters and see what that little shark here who rips around the neighborhood on the high-vis motorbike has shoved into the mailbox, which is built into the front fence. This is the mail section. You can get in touch with us, sharkcastpod at gmail.com or tweet us at sharkcastpod. We are built on your content. What's the first cab off the rank this week, Samuel?

[01:28:07] We have a question via Twitter, via the mailbox actually, Neiman, which we thank our author for. And the author is www.bw.bw.b.b.b.b.b.b.b.b. He knows who he is. Do you know what that means? Win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, buy, win, win, buy. Let's call him 12 wins. But I feel in the last couple of games, especially versus the Warriors, the guys seem to be playing scared of losing. They get to a marginal lead and then revert back to protecting it rather than putting it away. What are your thoughts?

[01:28:36] That also mirrors an email that we got from Michael in Canberra. And he said something very similar in that we, oh, you almost said exactly the same thing. I mean, there's some games recently where we just have come from behind to win. Yep. But I mean, the Warriors game, I said it earlier on, I thought we looked really tired and we had an excuse for that. You know, you're not going to win 62-0 every week. Sometimes the teams you play against play really well.

[01:29:04] And look, to be honest with you, against the Warriors, they played well, the Warriors. And we still beat them. So that's great. When we play really poorly, a team that's really poor and then only roll them by two or three points, then that's a problem. Maybe the Bulldogs game was a little bit like that where they were real, real flash and we only just got over them. I'm waiting for the day, even when we do lose a game. And it could be in a couple of days or it could be in a couple of weeks or it might be next year.

[01:29:34] I've got no idea. But there's going to be some headlines. You know, Sharks got the shakes. Yeah, of course. It's coming. You can't worry about that. You've just got to go out there and play to win. And that's what they're doing week to week. And as we've said numerous times, yes, we take it very seriously. And you should all take it very seriously. But you should also just have fun with it and put on those ugly jumpers and just have a bit of fun and celebrate. Celebrate a really good team this year. Enjoy the ride.

[01:30:01] Now, we've got another email from Matt who's written him before. And he lives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. And he has said he's booked his trip back for the grand final. Wow. Talk about enjoying the ride and wants to know if we have purchased grand final tickets yet. So what is your call on that, Samuel? I think, fingers crossed, I'm fortunate enough in the few worlds that I live in that I could probably get a ticket if I'm desperate enough not to be able to get one through other means. But the answer is yes, I do have a grand final ticket.

[01:30:30] I don't have one. I know I keep saying that we should win the comp with ruthless efficiency and destroy it. But the grand final is so far away. It's an absolute joke. And we've been bagging the NRL all day, it seems. Why are they on sale? Why? I know. So neutrals can buy them? It's not going to not sell out a week before if you put it on sale. Exactly.

[01:30:56] And the other thing is, if we do make it, I'm going to go and I'm going to drop a lot of money and buy decent seats. Of course. But I don't want to buy, spend $200 on a seat for me and my wife and a lot of our friends are going to put together $1,000 or $1,200 and then find out it's going to be a storm Broncos grand final and I can't sell them.

[01:31:19] The way I look at it, Newman, and I'll tell you this is the absolute truth, when we bought them, was right three minutes after James Moline kicked that goal against Canterbury. Oh, God. And the tickets were on sale that day for members before the game and there was heaps of really good seats. Quite expensive. And then he kicked the goal, the conversion to win and I said, brother, if you're going to get one, just get one now because this team will be top four. Fingers crossed they'll be top two.

[01:31:46] And if you're top two, Newman, you need to win two games to get to the grand final. And if you don't win those two games, you have three games to get there. They're a good chance to be there. I'll tell you this, Newman. Here's a stat for you. We haven't told you this one. Of all the teams who have won 11 straight games in one season, which we have done. Yep. I think it's happened on seven occasions. It's been five teams. Only one team's won the comp. Oh, don't say that. Oh, God. Samuel. But, but, but, it was the most recent premiers in North Queensland. Yeah, right. Okay.

[01:32:16] If we continue to play really well, I will make a decision about grand final tickets in the next few weeks. It's tough. You want to be with your friends. I want to be with you. It's tough. It's tough. It's just, the NRL make it hard. They do. They do. And, you know, people have got a right to say, I think it's sensible to say June and the grand final is in October. Well, my thing is, and I'm not really in that situation, but if you have some money to drop, then just do it.

[01:32:46] But if you're like the normal working man or woman and you don't, you just hold off and you'll be able to get one. There's always a ticket somewhere. Now, we have another question from Sharky Shane on Twitter. And he's, again, mentioning what we've mentioned before. And that is, what do we have to do to get the respect of Channel 9 and the NRL to get Friday night and free-to-air games? I think we're being punished for 2014. I think we get punished because we don't have a huge supporter base.

[01:33:11] Like, we don't rate as well as the Broncos, as South, as Parramatta. We just don't. I can tell you on pay TV, we do. Yeah, but not on free-to-air. No. We don't rate as well as those clubs. And I think Paul Gallen isn't liked. I think that's got a lot to do with him. He's employed by Channel 9. Yeah. I think it's all getting out of hand, the Paul Gallen stuff. I know. He's a dude playing footy. Let's get over it. I know he doesn't help himself sometimes.

[01:33:42] I mean, in the goal comments, he didn't do anything to deserve those. No. Yeah, but I just think that's not the sole reason, but it plays a part. And it's more of a commercial decision. I think it's just because we don't rate. If they put us on there five times a year, our ratings will improve. People like the way we're playing this year. We have become, despite what people say about Paul Gallen, everyone's second team. Yeah, right.

[01:34:09] I would say seven out of ten league fans would be four or some three maybe wouldn't. Well, I listen to some AM sports talkback programs and that's the general consensus. A lot of people say that, you know, we're their second team. And it's not so much the fairy tale story of not being there and then coming from 2014. It's the way they're playing. They move it down the field through Kingston who runs inside the 30. Here's Peachy giving it to Kamali. A flat pass on his outside.

[01:34:39] Cliff and Manua. A ball back on the inside for Paul Mellor. Manly haven't touched the ball in what seems like a quarter of an hour. But we do have a $50 voucher competition. A $50 voucher for you to win in the Cronulla Sharks Leagues Club Bistro.

[01:34:59] The first person to email or tweet us with the correct answer of naming three players who have played for both Parramatta Eels and Cronulla Sharks. Of any era. Doesn't matter. The first person to write in and tell us that you will win yourself a $50 voucher to Sharks Leagues Bistro. Now, you and I ate there recently and it was pretty good. It was really good. Is it a new chef or a new menu? It's a new chef. New chef. New chef and new menu.

[01:35:29] And they have absolutely lifted their game. The barbecue plate we had was sensational. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Samuel, big game this weekend. And 7.30 on Saturday night, the Parramatta Eels roll into town. Now, I know we run a podcast and a TV show and I know we basically say every game is a big game. But because the way the ladder is shaping up and the fact that we are in front of Melbourne, but they have a better for and against,

[01:36:00] every game has a big bearing on whether we finish in that top one or two position. So, Melbourne play Brisbane in an absolute blockbuster on the night before. And if Brisbane can do us a favour and then we win, we go four points clear. But if it happens the other way around, we drop to second. Oh, yeah. I think it's going to be a tight tussle for the rest of the year. And you're right. Every game is crucial. People are talking about the importance of breaking the club record this week. And that is important for a lot of different reasons.

[01:36:29] But the main importance is that we get two competition points. I've heard people's different theories about the foreign against that we're playing Newcastle in a month or so at home. And we're going to lift it there. But you know what? That's absolute rubbish talk. You can't take that as red. Make it beat us by 10. Yeah. So, I'm not going to buy into that stuff. I think I might have read it on a Facebook forum, Newman. Okay. But, but, but. It is a big game. Parramatta are a really defensive team. They're probably not going to, touch wood, score more than 20 points.

[01:36:59] But their defence is pretty good. And the Sharks are in for a very physical game. And I'm sure we can match them. I'm not really fearing them. But I think it's going to be a good contest. I think it'll be a tight one for a while. Yeah. I mean, it's very, very hard to get a read on them. I mean, you look at them on paper in terms of how many players they've lost. You know, it's semi-red rata. Is he playing? Is he not playing? Is he still in Fiji? Kieran Foran is out for the season.

[01:37:28] They're going to have their points stripped. They've got every drama under the sun. But Brad Arthur seems to be able to keep getting them up for games. Who does it remind you of, Newman? Reminds of me, of us in 2014. Thank you, sir. Actually, it reminds me of us more in 2013 when the Asada saga hit the fan. But we still managed to perform okay. In 2014, the wheels fell off big time. Well, if they don't get their points stripped, they're sitting in, I think, fifth spot. But...

[01:37:57] Yeah, they're a good side. They're going all right. Yeah. They're a good side. Look, I think that with us traveling so well, they're going to be looking at this game with a lot of trepidation. And sort of thinking that there's been so much negative press around Semiradrata. He's in a little bit of trouble with an APO. We're not going to go down that road. But that's obviously going to be distracting for the team. We're flying high. I would think we want to win this and win this well.

[01:38:26] But, you know, if we don't or it's close, I'm not going to be surprised. Yeah. And it's going to be a big crowd down there. And big crowds expect big things. It's going to be a great atmosphere, that's for sure. If you're thinking about staying at home watching on TV or going to the club or another club or a pub, scrap that. Get down to the ground. Get to the game. Get to the game. It's going to be awesome. Are you going to be there, Samuel? I'll be there. I'll be there in the APO. It's going to be good. All right. Well, you should come over here for a few tins beforehand.

[01:38:54] I'm putting it out there to the Shark Cast crew, the people who listen to us. We have thousands of listeners here, man. Yes, I know. But there are certain people that we hang around with socially. And I'm just putting it out there that you can come to my place. And I've got some Shark Island Brewing Beer. Delicious. Kane from Dyson Logistics. Would love to have you over to say thank you for your magnificent support. Yes. And then afterwards, we can support our other sponsor in the locker room. Now, this leads us somewhere, Newman. After the game. Yeah.

[01:39:24] Newman, just to wrap up the preview, I'm going to say Sharky's by 10. Yeah, I'm going to say Sharky's by 14. I'm expecting us to win this one well. Now, you're talking about having a party before the game for our close friends who we love dearly. Yep. This is our 50th episode. Correct. So, first of all, hats off to you and I. Who would have ever thought that we would have got our shaking hands right now? Radio is such a visual medium. Theatre of the mind, Samuel.

[01:39:52] They tried to shut us down more than once. They did. They couldn't stop us. Now there's even some competition flying around, Samuel. Oh, I've heard whispers about this. We thank each and every one of you for listening and for supporting us. That goes without saying. 50 episodes, Sam. It's been good. It's a milestone. We've come along so far. We've got the TV show. People always stop me in the club now and say, we love what you're doing. It's just fantastic. It is nice. It is nice. And, you know...

[01:40:19] It's a treat to get so close to some of your idols, particularly guys of yesteryear. Like, yeah, we all love the current players and I love Val and that kind of stuff. But, you know, we got to interview Andrew Eninghausen and he was really, really cool. And that was fascinating. And we've gotten to interview Steve Neen, who's played in Grand Finals. I'm trying to tease something up with a former captain of the club, Colt Hero. You guys are going to love it. And he's aware of what we... And it's just... He knows what we do.

[01:40:48] And I'm just blown away by it. And also, Jono Docking is a big fan of the show. We're trying to twist his arm to give us an interview. But he's a very, very busy man. I reckon we can get him. Yeah. I reckon we can get him. Just to talk to these guys and to do it through an independent podcast. And we like to think we do it in the right spirit, you know. We're critical where it's required, but we also exist to support the club. It just shows how much people love this club. And, you know, outsiders kind of think we're strugglers and we're battlers.

[01:41:17] And I don't necessarily disagree with that, but I don't really agree with that either at the moment. But this club is very loved. And we feel that every day now from our listeners, from you guys, from people who watch the show, from people within the club. Yeah. Even sometimes from the players. Like, it's a really nice thing for us to be able to do this. It takes a bit of time. It takes a bit of effort. We're not going to lie to you about that. But the reaction, even from day one, has been really, really cool. So we thank you guys for that.

[01:41:46] 50 episodes, they tried to shut us down. They couldn't. And, you know, a lot of people write into us and say that, you know, we missed an episode over a week. It's just we've got it. It's difficult for us to be in the same room together. And also the TV show. And we know that's not for everyone, but it takes a lot of planning and a lot of time to execute. We haven't missed too many episodes, to be fair to us. I understand how people feel. I know when I listen to podcasts that I rely on and they're not there.

[01:42:16] You kind of get a bit... Well, but the flattering thing is someone said to bail me up in the club through the week and said, it's part of my week. Oh, yeah. On Thursday or on Friday, I put it on for my commute. And that's the stuff that blows me away. It's amazing. That we become a part of people's routine. Absolutely amazing. And we appreciate each and every one of you. And that sounds insincere, but I couldn't be more sincere. So that's another episode done, Sam.

[01:42:45] 50 in the can. Well done. Who's been your favorite interview? So not necessarily the favorite person, but what was the best interview, do you think? To be quite honest with you, one of the first interviews we did last year was Jeff Robson. And I hadn't really interviewed anybody ever before. And he was a super nice dude. And for whatever reason, I don't know why, that stands out as a bit of a milestone moment. And we had a great chat outside.

[01:43:15] And it was a tough interview because he's such a lovely dude, but he's playing like a bastard. And everyone watered his head. Yeah. Yeah. So that was an interesting one. What about you? Well, just on that, he has retired this week, I believe. Is that right? Well, he's requested the end of his contract from the Warriors and they've given it to him. So he's come back home. Yeah, right. I mean, it's probably not worth his time playing Reggie's over there with his family here. No. Lovely guy.

[01:43:43] My favorite interview, look, I think it's been recently actually. And it's been one of two guys and it's been Andrew Oettinghausen for obvious reasons. Yeah, that was huge. And also Michael Annis was really cool. Yeah. Because he's one of the more high profile players and has been for quite some time. And for him to give up his time and be so humble and encouraging, it was really cool. Really cool. It's quite hard to get the players. You know, they've got the mainstream media want to interview them, of course.

[01:44:14] They've got training commitments and then they've got days off and, you know, you don't want to hassle them on their days off. So sometimes it's quite hard. It's not like the players are dicks about it, but they're very busy, you know, and they don't have a great deal of time for a little podcast. But Mick Annis actually sought us out. And he was super keen to come on the show because he knew it was a great conduit to the supporters of the club, which he cares about. And that just blew me away.

[01:44:44] I'm also going to throw in Chad Townsend because I, like everyone else, have watched him since he was literally a kid come through the ranks. And man, he got a shot, then he didn't get a shot, then he went away and came back a really stronger player. And to see him speak that way, he's still a pretty young guy. And the form that he's in and the fact that he's a local junior, that was pretty special. Yeah, he's turning into a special personality, isn't he?

[01:45:10] The photo that he uploaded to Facebook of him getting his jersey signed as a very young kid by ET, I mean, that was sensational. That was a moment. That was emotional. For a club that cops a lot of crap about not having local juniors, stick that in your pipe and smoke it. That was awesome. All right. So, Samuel, get the record out. It's almost worn down in the NARB and it doesn't matter. We're going to buy them on eBay. We'll get them wherever we can. We'll have to.

[01:45:37] Play that song loud and proud and hopefully we are dancing to it in the aisles on Saturday evening at about 9.30 when we roll through the aisles. All right. Let's make history, boys. Let's do this. Up the sharks.

[01:47:32] SharkCast 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. 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.

[01:48:02] Jason Hawes, Crips and Crips Real Estate. In the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming out with a train.