The Year That Was: 2016 - Rd 4 vs Melbourne w/ guest co-host Ben Harlum

[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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[00:01:05] Hey hey hey hey hey, welcome to SharkCast Pod, a podcast dedicated to the greatest sporting club in the history of the world, the mighty Cronulla Sutherland Sharks. This 2016 Catch Up, Rewatch, Recap episode is brought to you by Dyson Logistics, the Royal Motor Yacht Club, and Port Hacking, and Jason Horwitz at Crips & Crips Real Estate. I am Sam Shnazzi, an original gangster from 2015.

[00:01:31] This is our 12th season of doing things like this, having zany, wacky fun about the Sharks, with a little bit of sadness thrown in from time to time. On the other end of this line, as regular viewers and listeners will know, is our friend Ben Harlem. He's been allotted, I think just without necessarily asking for it, but now he does ask for it. He's been allotted the 2016 Recap series. Benny from New York City, how are you my friend?

[00:02:01] I'm good, yeah. I'm now the time machine guy. To be honest with you, after listening to the mailbag that you did with Josh earlier in the week, I think I'm very happy with my little niche here. I'm very happy to be reliving 2016. I'm very satisfied here. Thank you for joining me here in the past. It's a great episode too. Everyone should tune in. Great episode. Absolutely. I always love... It's like, you know, it's a lucky dip where you go, okay, well, Kieran's there, so that's great.

[00:02:30] And then you go flagship episode with... And then you see, you go, oh, Josh, great. Excellent. Fantastic. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go, Benny. Let's go to Monday, the 28th of March, 2016. Another Monday night. How many Monday night games do you think we had in 2016? Without actually knowing, we've already had two out of four. There's a, you know, a Canterbury game coming up. There's a few more I can think of. I would say there's...

[00:02:59] Is there seven? Wow. That's unbelievable. We had seven Monday games, lots of back-to-back Monday games. Yeah. The Manly in Melbourne. Then there was like, I think a Cowboys Canterbury and then a random South Swan near the end. I remember as well. But yeah, seven. Seven Monday night games this year. And that was always a thing. Like how many Mondays do you get? Yeah, that's right. Cause everyone's, you know, like it's a very much a TV product. And then there was always a conspiracy of, okay, we'll do the crap teams get it.

[00:03:28] Or do they put the really good games on there before the Matty John show? Depending on who you ask. But yeah, seven Monday games in 2016. That's high. That's a lot. Yeah. It's heaps. This is not a crappy game. This is a good game, which will show us so much about what's going to come in October that year. So Monday 28th of March, 2016, there was some light rain, rain around, but the conditions I'm told were good.

[00:03:59] Let's start out like we normally do with the NYC team and game. And it was quite remarkable this one. Yeah. This one's a special one. So kickoff 4.45 PM. Chris Sutton is your referee. Let's go through some of the notable people in the team. For the Sharkies, Sione Katoa is on a wing. Bessie Tumaga is in a centers. Jack Williams Jr. Is the 5'8".

[00:04:28] Jaden Braley, captain. Jamin Joloff at prop. And Billy McGullis on the bench. So not a star studded as usual. Boma Morris is the coach. And for the Storms, a fullback called Jesse Arthurs. Now there's a center called Corey Parker, but it's not Lee Corey Parker, whether that's obvious or not. Yeah. 5'8". It's getting interesting here. 5'8". He's Scotty Drinkwater. Okay. Yes.

[00:04:57] I always maintain he is a 5'8", no matter what. So yes, that's good. This proves it. The 7 is intriguing to me. Now Man of Steel, formerly Cooper Cronk Jr. Brodie Croft at half. Oh yeah. And he is killing it in the UK. So the Brodie Croft-Cooper Cronk experiment started back in 2016. We need a replica of you in case you go down. It was started in 2016. Wow.

[00:05:25] Josh Kerr is a prop. Jake Turpin is hooker and captain. Beau Furmore, who'd go on to play for the Titans and become a good player, is on the bench as well. Coached by Eric Smith, who I'm not aware of his work. That's how they lined up. Remarkable game. And I'm just going to read the blurb, probably written by our friend Rob Willis.

[00:05:46] The Sharks have pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in rugby league history to stun the Melbourne Thunderbolts, 48-40 in the Holden Cup at Southern Cross Group Stadium. Melbourne had a 34-6 lead at halftime. They led 40-18 with 18 minutes to go. That's crazy. But five tries in the final quarter of the game capped off one of the greatest escapes in recent memory. Get this.

[00:06:11] It was the second time this season, so we're only four games into the season. Four games in. The Thunderbolts have scored 40 or more in a game and lost. That's crazy. That's crazy. It's the NRL in 2026. That's what that is. It is. The Sharks go undefeated at NYC at this level, although they did miss that game as we spoke about last week. So, remarkable, Benny. Just remarkable stuff.

[00:06:35] The most remarkable thing is I didn't realise until now that their under-20s team were the Thunderbolts. Yeah, well, not the Storm, the Thunderbolt. No, that's right. Is that what a little Storm is? Like, how does that work out? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a little Thunderbolt. It's not a full Storm, just a couple of little Thunderbolts. Cute. Melbourne Storm getting cute. Yeah. About as cute as they got in 2016, I can tell you. Pretty much. That's about it. And we saw a lot of that in the NRL game, which we'll talk about. But there you go.

[00:07:05] Jaden Braley scoring two tries. Sione Katoa scoring two tries. Jack Williams Jr. Bessie Afaga-Tumago, who I should have pronounced his full name before. Eight goals. Great stuff. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good start. 4.45 on a Monday is a bit of a rough time to kick off. At least everybody getting in after work got to see the finish. That's an amazing, amazing game. I was going to ask you, are you a NYC guy? Are you rocking up early? What are you doing if you have the time?

[00:07:34] I always like watching it on TV. I, you know, you start, your Super Saturday would start basically in the morning when they used to do the under-20s. I don't know. I don't, I don't remember seeing many under-20s in person. I remember before the ill-fated Cowboys final in 2017, the highly touted under-20s were playing. Oh yeah. And that was not, yeah, that was a rough one for that.

[00:08:00] But I always loved watching the Toyota Holden Cup on TV. That was always fun. Bring it back, I say. Yeah. The production was always really good. I remember going to a lot of games. It was a bit circumstantial though, because at work we started covering it pretty early at Fox Sports where I work. And there was a role which was a very, a very simple enough role, but basically someone had

[00:08:25] to record the scorers and any sort of send offs and send bins, that kind of thing, a simple enough job. But because there wasn't always TV coverage at every game, they'd send us to the games to do that. That was the job. Oh, okay. Usually you'd stick around and do the NRL kind of subs. And it was very much before the NRL got their act together and did all this stuff online.

[00:08:49] You can just, not that I'm suggesting companies look at nrl.com for any kind of help, but I would go to games and I'd have my little, you know, net pad out or whatever. I'd be like, oh, Jaden Bradley scored in the 20th minute. And sometimes you'd call it back into the office. It was just, yeah, different time. Oh, wow. I saw a lot of those games. I remember being at Leichhardt for the 08 game where we won in NRL level. I saw a lot of NYC in person, basically what I'm trying to say. So that's cool.

[00:09:19] I didn't have a strong attachment to this kind of era, but yeah, like you, I love watching on TV and the production was just like the same almost as the NRL because they were set up before the NRL. So it made sense. Yes. And that's, and this is around the time where not to get too inside baseball, but when you'd watch a lot of the finals games in the grand finals back, Fox would have their own coverage, even if they, even if channel nine was the broadcaster. Um, so if you watch a lot of these replays of finals games on Fox, you will get a Fox coverage

[00:09:49] because the cameras and the commentators were already there for, um, under 20. So they just stuck around. Uh, so this is around that time. Yeah. The TV production, it was such a good TV product. It was, it was just the best. Yeah. In a lot of ways, I'm not going to say it was better than, but there was a lot more outside broadcasts for both Fox and channel nine and whoever else was involved. And that gives you more of the big fight feel or whatever I think. Yeah. But it was a different way of doing it.

[00:10:17] Like obviously in the studio, you can do all your tech stuff. You can have all your stats on the, on the boards and there's room and space and technology and time. So it's a different vibe, but yeah. Um, good times. The NYC. Mm hmm. Now we moved to the NRL, Melbourne storm a three and oh. Yeah. They're going well. Our sharkies are wanting to look, it's not a sellout Ben. There's about 9,000 people there. In fact, I'll give you the real crowd. Okay.

[00:10:47] 9,155. Yep. That's fair enough. Yeah. It's a Monday night, but blockbuster game though. Now I hinted at this, at the end of the manly episode, Sam, and I actually can't find any evidence of it except for my own memory reading the newspaper the next morning. Um, and it was a very small article in the telegraph that explained how after the manly game that the spine got

[00:11:15] together and had, I wouldn't say an emergency meeting, but it was very close to it to try and figure out what was going on. Cause they weren't happy with the performance, um, after the manly game. And I can't, I couldn't find any evidence of it. Um, when I did some searching this week, but I do remember, and I find, I always find that interesting because it is right just before the streak starts. Yeah. So, which I've always found fascinating that that hasn't been brought up enough in terms of the, the law of 2016.

[00:11:44] I did mention following that up and I haven't, but I will now won't be great podcasting cause it won't be for this episode. That's fine. And if I shoot, if I shoot a text away now, it's going to be weird cause I won't be able to tell it the way I want to tell it to the two people I want to ask. Yeah. We have lots of games to get back to it. So I'll get an answer. I hope. Great. Yes. And then we can bring it up and we'll, we'll, we've referenced it twice. We're not, we're talking about. Yeah. But I love a good spine meeting.

[00:12:13] Look, maybe there was a spine meeting in the NRL 20, 2026 this year. Who knows? Fingers crossed for the big West Tigers. Also Sam, um, one of the, the stats that I saw, and obviously we went really overboard with the Manly stats. And so did the common commentary team last week, obviously with the hoodoo, but with Melbourne. So the sharks up until this point had only won twice since 2005 against Melbourne.

[00:12:41] And then the other stat that I saw that was interesting was that, um, in that period since 2005 to 2016, the sharks hadn't scored over 20 points against Melbourne in a game. Now as a stat guy and a sharks fan, can you remember the first time since 2005, the sharks ended up scoring over 20 points in a game? Isn't it kind of more recently than not? Didn't it last a long time? Yeah. A very long time.

[00:13:09] I think it's, is it crazy to say it's under Craig Fitzgibbon? It was 20, 22. Yeah. Yeah. There was one game where we beat them 20 to 18, but over, um, over 20 points, 20, 22. Yeah. It was 28 to six. We beat them in 2022. So from 2005 to 2022, we didn't score over 20 points against Melbourne, which says a lot about the game and the two teams and the style that we all played at that time.

[00:13:37] At the Fox Sports Lab as it's now called. Yes. We used to push that one hard. Like it was a common theme throughout each production of storm, Melbourne, Melbourne storm in the grand final. You would have heard it 20 times. Okay. That was one of our keynotes because it was just, it kept, yeah, kept building and building and building. It's like, well, why can't we score points? Yeah. We will talk about the style of game and I'm glad you referenced it already, but it is not 2026 TVL ball.

[00:14:06] No, not at all. It is closer to the grand final to be fair. Yes. Very much. So a lot of grand final vibes, slightly more open. We're down at points bet stadium. Is that where we are? No. Southern cross group. It's going to be every episode. I'm going to be saying that. Well, the NRL have got it wrong on their website. They haven't even got the ocean protect if they're going for the latest Southern cross group. Of course. And I made that reference in my notes. I should probably just go back to my notes.

[00:14:35] They're a little bit more, a bit more trusty. Now it's noted. There's a strong wind, Benny at Chuck Park. Color me surprised. So surprising. We're running into it. I didn't quite hear who won the toss. I haven't got that in front of me, but we're running into the wind first half, which is surprising given the first set because Melbourne make 20 meters off their first set. It's an unbelievable first set.

[00:15:04] So Sharky's kickoff, Melbourne receive. They're running with the wind and we just bully them. We bully them. And it becomes a theme for that game and for the whole year. Yeah. Warren Smith and Greg Alexander make note of it. And it pops up on the little ticker, 20 meters. Warren has a great line. When for fetus, mother's cam Smith, he made eight meters and then he got dragged back another eight meters the opposite way. And yeah, for feet of just mothers cam Smith in one of the tackles.

[00:15:34] If you'd go back and watch it, it's just, it's one of the closest sets to that famous dragon set that you and Kieran were talking about a couple of weeks ago. Um, it's a few, a few times in that, in this game, including the set, I had to sort of rewind to watch it again and go, is this as good as that one? And it wasn't, but it's a great way to start the game and, and, and the, but it's the perfect way basically.

[00:15:58] And then in our first set, we almost score, which is quite exciting. Yes. And Luke Lewis is heavily involved. Do you want to just take over and talk for a sec, Benny, while I get my page back up? Yeah, of course. And the most important part, and it's a theme that sort of ends with this game, Sam, is that the, the last few games I've really stressed how much Mick Ennis controls the, the kicking and the last sets of the, of the first few games of the season. He's the one directing the pace.

[00:16:28] He's the one that's kicking on the last tackle, which I have always been surprised at and have said this to you, Sam, in the last couple of episodes, um, because of obviously how good Chad and Maloney were in 2016, that, um, that Mick was still the one that was sort of dictating the pace. Um, the first set, I think it's Townsend that kicks.

[00:16:49] Um, I actually don't see Mick Ennis kicking until I think 31 minutes in, which is such a big change from the last few games to this one. It's a notable, obviously they've sat down and gone, give us the ball. We can control the pace now because we've got our rhythms. That's, it's really important to stress in terms of the development of the side, um, in 2016, the, the Ennis last tackle options that dominated the last few games hits a wall here.

[00:17:19] It is, it is officially stopped with this Melbourne game. So maybe that was part of the, uh, the breakfast meeting. I'm going to assume that it was. Uh, at this point, they do mention Melbourne winning 10 of the last 11. Quite shocking. The first kind of brouhaha begins. Not the last. Our man, Andy Fafita is around it. I think Will Chambers is somewhere there. Oh, Will Chambers is, is always there.

[00:17:43] What I noticed as well, and I've forgotten about this was that Cooper Cronk, who in my mind is perfection and Andrew Fafita, they have a bit of a running battle. They do. And I think that that carried on through other games and I'm sure, do you remember that great newspaper article where it was like Cronk to the sharks question mark. It must've been around the time he was signing with the Roosters, but I think we had a go at him.

[00:18:13] I remember the time period. I remember Jimmy being asked about it in a, in a press conference at the time. Yeah. And so, but Cronk, I believe came out and said something like, I wouldn't go there because of their personnel or he said it's something very matter of fact. Wow. I'm sorry. They don't play the style of football. I like, it was something alluding to, and I think it's to do with Andrew Fafita and just his awesomeness. That's so funny. I'm sure it's not a personal thing.

[00:18:42] It was just, I remember at the time watching this game, it triggered a few things. Cause I was like, Oh yeah, Cooper Cronk, he used to get pretty angry on the field. And for some reason he's really angry at Andrew Fafita. Very much so. And just quietly, I wish we did get him. But anyway, we are very quickly on the replay box in the bottom right corner. Yes. Given a ref cam and the ref cam is the fight with Andrew. And I think we'll chambers. Yeah.

[00:19:11] So last, last episode, I said that we needed more ref cam. We saw the second referee. He had all the head gear on, but we didn't really see any of the footage and they over deliver in this game. That is for sure. Not just in a little box in the corner either, but for the first little treat, we get ref cam in the corner for the replay. There's a lot of ref cam coming and we'll get to that. Yeah. We see months to make a break down the left-hand side. You know what we haven't done, Benny? We haven't gone through a team. It's very unprofessional to me. Let me flash up these teams.

[00:19:41] Cause I'm just talking about them. Ref cam was important. Now our second priority is the teams. It was, we'll give you the listeners. Our, our podcast listeners will read it out for you, but for the Melbourne storms on my lovely graphic. So no Billy Slater. So we have Cam Munster at fullback, young Tomina Payer at the wing with of course, Marika Korobedi, Will Chambers and former shark and freshly former shark it appears.

[00:20:11] Curtis Scott makes an appearance. We'll get to that. Former shark Blake green and Cooper Cronk of the halves, Jesse Bromwich, Cam Smith, Jordan McLean front row, Tohu Harris, Kenny Bromwich and future shark. Dale Finucane is the pack. I mean, what an amazing pack. And then Christian Welsh, Tim Glaspy, Felice Kifusi and Ben Hampton who always makes me giggle because I watch him play and go, well, I don't know. Are you a rugby league player? I don't know.

[00:20:38] I always remember on, on the, on the message boards, there was always a real, let's get Ben Hampton to the sharks. I always remember that was a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Sharks forever. Really, really wanted Ben Hampton for a period there. Much like a lot of players like Blake Austin, like that you mentioned in the, in the, or another episode this week. He, that was what undone Flano at the sharks trying to get him. It's funny. We've been Hampton. Like, you know, he's, he played a bunch of games playing the grand final.

[00:21:08] Like I've not done any of that. So it's not a disrespect thing, but I always just, when I saw him playing, I always felt better as a fan. Yeah. I know that sounds awful and mean, I'm not trying to be that way. It really does. I know. But when I saw Ben Hampton, even this guy was like, Oh, Betty Hampton. So for the mighty sharkies. Yes. We have Barbara Fecky, bird, Lutelli and Valentino, the future homes Maloney Townsend.

[00:21:34] We have Andrew Fafita, Mick Ennis, Matt Pryor in 15, a common theme of him not being in the 10 jumper. Luke Lewis, Wade Graham and Jason Bicuya is starting in 18. So Paul Gallen is still away injured. Bench is number 10, Sam Tagatisi, Gerard Beal, Chris Hyington and Captain American Joseph boy. So it's a standard kind of team for the sharks in this year and a pretty good one. Such a team's apologies. That didn't come earlier.

[00:22:03] And yeah, we see months to make a line break down our left through Jack bird. Although he was injured earlier in the game, even though we're only minutes into the game, there's a lot of injuries in this game. Yep. But I think Ben Barber makes a tackle and we'll see more amazing defense from him in this game particular. And we'll talk about the defense because a lot of traits that you're going to see later on in the year as well. And we keep talking about it. The repeats, the vision we've seen before, Benny.

[00:22:32] Eighth minute, the future Valentine home saves a try with an intercept 70 meter run. He really had to reach for this one. It's similar to the famous Penrith one, but was it Penrith or Cowboys? Cowboys. Cowboys. But gets tackled by Cronk and Chambers more specifically. But then of course, Will Chambers holds him down. And of course he goes to the sin bin and he gets a round of applause from the Sharks and Sharks fans.

[00:23:00] I will say though, unlike the famous Cam Smith one, there aren't enough fans running up to the fence to give it to Chambers. Might have been because it was too early in the game, but I will say I wasn't too pleased with the lower ET stand and their behavior. You need to run to that glass fencing or whatever they've got set up and you just need to really get in their face like some of our friends have against Cam Smith in obviously a later game. Yeah.

[00:23:29] So one of our regular listeners, Mark, he is the main guy that does that and his face is all over TV over the years. Mm hmm. I'll need to go back and see if he's there. I'm sure by the time I do that, he'll get in touch and let me know. Let you know. But you're right. It wasn't quite as crazy and chaotic as it normally is, but it was early. You know, we were still finding our seats, et cetera. Yeah, it's Monday night guys. Come on. Tap and run. No shot at goal for Shane Flanagan. Was he over called?

[00:23:58] Did the boys over make the call instead of him? He's a, he's a two point man. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Just went for it. Probably should have went for the two points in retrospect, but that's okay. Now there's a lot of errors and we're still sort of finding our feet throughout the game. Both teams make a lot of errors actually. Yeah. Even though it's a good game. The storm adjust is bad with the discipline there. Hmm.

[00:24:21] Now I do remember this night for lots of reasons, but because I was so invested in Valentine, the future homes, whenever something to be fair, positive or negative would happen, I would hear about it from people around me, people on the phone, people writing into the podcast. And I loved it. Obviously I played it up. I loved it. Loved every minute of it until he broke my heart. In this game.

[00:24:52] In the first half, at least he bombs three tries. There might be more coming. It's a shocker. I could only imagine what the mailbag would have been on the shark cast after this one, because Val has a shocker. Yeah. And just on that, we are going to run some retro episodes, just throw them up. And that was a request of our friend beer boy. It was something I've been playing and do for a long time. Whether we do it for this episode or not, I'm not sure. But in the coming weeks, I'll get my act together and we'll throw up some old episodes where it'll kind of align with the time and be a bit of fun.

[00:25:21] Might be for everyone. That's for sure. We'll give everyone a bit of a warning about it. But he bombs his first try, Valentine Holmes in the 13th minute. Great pass from Chad Townsend. I'll say this also, and we'll talk about him throughout the game, Ben. It may not be obvious or not, but I'm a bit of a Chad defender, you know, in real life, in podcast life, which matches real life. He had a really good game. And he has a really important role in this team.

[00:25:50] It's becoming really obvious. I already knew this, but he has a really good game. And it's interesting that he gets hooked in the Canberra game. It's interesting there's a form slump. It's interesting the fans kind of in hindsight, probably not even that year necessarily, but in hindsight, really turning on him as our guy. But he had a great game in this and we can get to that.

[00:26:18] Now, I want to talk to you about Matt Chetchen, the referee. Yes. Is that not one of the biggest losses in the game's modern history? Him leaving the game. I don't know when he retired, but he left because he didn't like the spotlight, didn't like the way things were going down. Yep. Part of his personal life became public. Honestly, being completely serious. What a loss. He was a great referee. Yeah.

[00:26:48] And for all of the crap that we give the refs, I mean, continuously, right? And like a lot of it deserved and a lot of the over the top. Um, but it is a shame when you get someone who is good and referees grand finals. And I think it's pretty fair. Um, and is one of the good ones that you go, okay. Yeah. And then he leaves, not because he feels like he's too old or anything, but because of personal reasons and he just loses passion for it.

[00:27:18] Yeah. That's a shame. And that was one thing that when they actually, you know, they, they zoomed him on and said, oh, Matt's the referee or whatever. I did go, ah, no. Two things. A, bring back the second referee. I've said it before. I'll say it again. And, and B, a big loss to the refereeing ranks. I think maybe he started getting less high profile games or less. There was something else involved from the kind of headquarters point of view, as well as the off field stuff.

[00:27:48] Yeah. That whole referee room has always been very high politics. Even, even if you ignore, you know, the, oh, well, the Sutton's always have control, all that sort of stuff you take out. But it's always been very political about who gets what and, and what is going on, especially since they can easily dump you to under twenties and that sort of stuff. Yeah. It's just probably not worth his time in the end, but yeah, a shame. He, he definitely got better as he got older.

[00:28:16] And at this point, it's almost like he's at the peak of his powers. And again, I'm not sure what year he left, but just seeing him in this year, it was just, it was so refreshing and it's a pretty well officiated game. Actually, there are three refs. I'll tell you what though, we're not bringing back the second ref camera, Benny. No, that's true. In modern times. And if we are, I'll be the one putting it on the guy's head and I'll be making sure it is rock tight. It is not rolling around and I'll also be directing.

[00:28:46] Yeah. We need some, we need some stabilization on there. That's for sure. So we're now given insight into how a scrum packs first of many ref cams at the scrum. Yes. What did you learn from scrum cam, Ben? Well, there was, there was so, there's so much going on in scrum cam cause you've just introduced the scrum clock. Then later in the game, we're discussing about whether Jack Burton come on or off in the scrum and no one has any idea.

[00:29:16] I didn't really learn much to be perfectly honest with you. What did you learn, Sam? I learned that if I'm going to have a second camera, a ref camera, sorry, on the second ref, it can't be the scrum. No. Just six guys going boom. Yeah. You just, you just see the other ref and just the, you know, a couple of defensive plays. You wave to your friends in the crowd. Not a good shot. Not a good shot at all. All right. 19 minute. We have some points.

[00:29:40] We have Kifusi finding some space between Luke Lewis and Chad Townsend and Brandy laments the wasted job. Great chance of Cronulla having the extra man. Sharks are down six nil, literally just as Chambers gets back on the field. Literally they score the try as he runs back on at that tackle. Yeah. That's disappointing. Yeah. And a pretty simple one, just a big fella going through between two players.

[00:30:09] I think Luke Lewis was more at fault than Chad there. Mm-hmm. And we're down six nil. Now people who listened to the last episode of this series, and please go listen to it. It was the manly game. I'm getting the giggles just talking about it. But we saw the introduction of Mark Gassner in the commentary team. You were very opinionated about old Mark. He's a dragon, you know? He did a great job. Former co-employee. Like we were colleagues. And a hell of a nice guy. Like really nice guy.

[00:30:38] Anyway, he was involved and we were talking about the commentary and the presentation team. And there were four people trying to get their words in. And Gass had a very specific role. He'd come in, come out. So we kind of got used to it by the end, but it's noticeable in this game he's not there. And I don't know why. Maybe he was on Super Saturday. Maybe he was doing other things. Maybe he was not free. Maybe he was in the studio, Matty Johns. I'm not sure.

[00:31:07] But it's very noticeable that Andy is just chiming in as much as he can to let you know, hey, I'm still here. I'm Mr. Monday Night Football. I'm Mr. Monday Night Football. And to be honest, I liked it because when I think of Monday Night Football, I think of Warren Smith, Greg Alexander, and Andy Raymond. That's who I think of. You could have a Laurie Daly in there from early on, sure.

[00:31:34] But my kind of classic is the three of them because you don't really need four. Nope. Now this intrigues me, Ben. I don't know if you can help me here or not. I'm sure one of our listeners will. Okay. We've got the Let's Go Sharky's Let's Go chant, which is a classic in our real world. Yes. But I've deciphered that it's coming through a megaphone and not a just chitch pre-recorded piece of machinery.

[00:32:04] Yeah, this is definitely a live human. Yeah. I agree. I didn't get that straight away, but later on I did. And why is that, Sam? I just, we'll get to that. But do you remember someone with a megaphone? I don't remember someone with a megaphone. It was a megaphone, right? Yeah. Yeah. It was amplified. It was amplified, but not through the speakers. Yes. Unless it was just someone that was very close to the crowd mic.

[00:32:35] Oh, I mean, maybe, but they'd have to be like as close as we are to our mics now, pretty much. Would the security have let you in with a megaphone? It's Monday night, you know. Yeah, that's true. Strolling through with a couple of beers. Yeah. But this definitely isn't a pre-recorded Sharky's piece. You might've been able to actually, because we had the CWSC. We had our friend, big fan of the show and great fella who had the electric fin that he used to carry around. Like the... Yes.

[00:33:04] So you could, you could bring stuff in. Yeah. So you could have, you could have got something in. Yeah. It was amplified in some way. Let's, we'll make sure if we get something in the mailbag, we're going to have to follow up on that next week. Although I wonder if, and we'll find out in future episodes, if he was allowed to keep doing that. Maybe this was like the... We did only hear, we did only hear the Sharks chant once from the megaphone. We did, although I have noted. Yes.

[00:33:30] I later heard the same gentleman saying in a chant like way, you don't know what you're doing. And I think it was aimed at the referee. See, now that might've been the one that got him. Yeah. That might've been the one that got Chechen out as well. He might've driven Chechen over the edge. That's right. That's right. A voice I didn't recognize. It was a sound I didn't recognize, a sound I didn't remember, but they did have the supporters group that are pretty good that year.

[00:33:58] So maybe something attached to that. Okay. Yeah. I have noted, and this is me not even trying to be funny. Okay. Every ref cam shot that appears, I'm taking one more anti-nausea pill. It's getting out of control. Now I'm not great at the best of times with that kind of stuff. Like I've told you Blair Witch Project, forget about it. I can't do it. Yep. But it's getting crazy. Yeah.

[00:34:23] So you gotta be careful if you are going to direct the new iteration of the ref cam, because you will need a spew bucket next to you. If it's not on as tight as you're claiming it's going to be. Yes, seemingly. But I'm going to make it with the technology we have in this beautiful year we're living in and with some extra gaffer tape or whatever he's got on. So it's nice and sturdy and I'll somehow slow down the vision so it's not so jerky and quick and...

[00:34:51] Get that like cinematic mode you can have on your iPhone. Yay! Oh no! That's a bad sign. This is a disaster. No, keep talking. The light's still on I promise. Okay. So yeah, we need to do like the cinematic mode like they've got on the iPhones where they just crop a tiny bit just so they can make the footage a bit less rickety, more like a cruise ship sort of thing so you don't get seasick. So Sam doesn't have to smash the anti-nausea pills.

[00:35:19] So for people listening, not watching, I knocked down the on-air sign but it's all good. I've just got like a million wires around me that you can't see. Benny knows what it's like. Yeah. I'm serious about the anti-nausea though. Like it was getting a little bit... A bit much. A bit hairy and there's more to come. That's really funny. That's not why people have tuned in though. No. In it. Maloney inside ball to Ben Barber. Runs 50 meters, swerves around Munster. A try I remember like yesterday. Fantastic stuff.

[00:35:49] That will get us through the turnstiles. Inside ball. Sharks do a Melbourne on Melbourne. It might as well have been Billy Slater. And Ben Barber at his best. Brandy mentions 2012 Ben Barber. What did you make of this try? It's unbelievable how much different he looks as a player compared to just the year before when he was playing for us. I know it's a different position but he looks happier.

[00:36:18] All the boys are around him. Jimmy's there right away like singing his praises. It's just... He looks like a completely different player than when we were trying to play him in the halves for the Sharks. And obviously when he was in Brisbane and that sort of stuff. Like it's just... Again, it's just a sign of what's to come with the side. But it is amazing how just obviously a really good preseason. Injury free training in the position that he is like superb at. Just makes such a difference.

[00:36:48] And he looks happy. He looks happy. He looks real happy. That swerve at the end was just beautiful. Like it's worth going back just to watch that. Jimmy misses the kick. Maloney misses the kick. It's gettable. It's from the left but it's gettable. So we're down 6-4. Trailing 6-4. Now at this point Andy Raymond again chimes in. Because he's doing a great job. Now Curtis Scott has broken his leg. Yes.

[00:37:14] And there's a big deal about it because he just left the Sharks. He's 19 years old. He's the next big thing. He's genuinely a really great player. I do note though being a bit cheeky. It's not the last time he'd find himself in trouble in the south. And we can leave it at that. We will leave it at that. But a big loss for the team in this game. Like their left center just gone. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:37:41] And the fact that he actually played for 10 minutes thinking it was a cork. He would say later on. And then he went off and they were like, actually you do have a fractured fibula. So let's get the ice on it and you're going to have to sit there for an hour. So good on him for like having the guts to play for 10 minutes thinking that he was just going to run it out. But not good because he obviously would have had friends and family there to come see him at Shark Park. Yeah, not the best.

[00:38:11] But it does mean that there's a bit of a backline shuffle and things get a bit discombobulated for them. But only for a small part until they get there. I believe that Tohu Harris goes there. Okay. And Brandy pleads with the Sharks to go down that avenue at some points, which they will at some point. Next up we have Mick Ennis getting smashed at dummy half by Kifusi. Yep. I've noted that Ennis is fearing for his life at this point. Yep.

[00:38:41] And gets a penalty out of it. Yes. And this is when I noticed that it was probably his first kick of the game. I'm sorry if I missed one Mick earlier in the game, but we're 31 minutes in and that's his. It looks like he's going for a 40-20 or like a big clearing kick from dummy half, gets smashed and gets the penalty. Now, next minute we've got another bomb try, a bombed try from the future Valentine Holmes. Yes. And it's a Jack Bird inspired play.

[00:39:11] It's a good play. Yeah. So things are like starting to look like maybe it's not Val's night. The commentary team's talking about it. The fans talking about it. So one of those nights that Val definitely could have back then. He was young, finding his feet. Now, this is when the Jack Bird controversy happens. He gets injured when there's a scrum. Yes. And they had some rule.

[00:39:35] I'm not sure if the rule still applies that with the scrum packing, he has to get off the field, even just like a meter off the field or whatever, a foot off the field. And he can't play until there's a break in play. Yes. That's what is claimed to begin with. Yeah. This is a bit of a soap opera here. I will inform you in our audience though. I'm popping another pill, brother, because Chad is arguing with the referee.

[00:40:04] And of course they flick on Ref Cam. Now, I don't mind it here, but as a visual, it is shocking. Yeah. It's Chad right up in your face. Like you're wearing those virtual reality goggles or whatever. Whoa, settle down Townsend. Right. That's exactly what it is. But it's like, imagine the VR, not even in 2016, but VR in like 1989 or something. Yeah. Going to like time zone or tilt or something. Tilt. Yeah.

[00:40:32] Anyway, Chad argues with the ref and Matt gets everyone kind of going, well, what the hell's going on? Jack Bird misses the set in defense. There's no break in play, but then he jumps back in and everyone's like, you can't do that, but no one cares. So you can do it. But later on, Warren Smith corrects everyone. And he said, once your team has the ball, you can jump on. So it's like they gave us the wrong information maybe. And to be fair, why would you get that information right? Because it's such a silly thing.

[00:41:02] It's like the disruptor the last couple of weeks. Can you put two hands up? Can you put one? Can you jump? Can you not? When is a disruptor a disruptor? Who knows what the commentator is saying? Because we are just as confused. We've got another flare up between Maloney and Munster. Yes. We've got Valentine Holmes playing at fullback where he drops a grubber in the 35th minute. Now, that did remind me that Benny, Barber and Valentine Holmes would occasionally swap.

[00:41:30] Like we saw this as early as round four. I don't know. I guess they wanted a better kick return. I'm not sure what the purpose was. Do you have any idea why he would be at fullback? Yeah. I'm not really sure because it's not like that Barber dropped a sitter or anything like that. Maybe they just felt like that maybe Val had like a bit more pace or something, which would be interesting, like an interesting thought or maybe just getting him used to it. It's an interesting one that again has one of those things that has been overlooked over the year.

[00:42:01] It could just be maybe let's give them something different. Like Val's sort of a harder runner. Maybe it's a different point of attack. Anyway, he drops the ball, which is very on cue with what he's doing tonight. Yes. I noticed that the crowd's getting louder at this point. There's lots of errors from both teams. We go to the break trailing 6-4. And one thing that you did mention obviously with the team list was that Munster is playing fullback here.

[00:42:29] Munster is, he has a pretty really, a pretty really, a good game. He catches all of the kicks to do great kick returns or whatever. And obviously signs of things to come with him playing fullback for the end of the year. So when we obviously mentioned Munster, he's playing fullback. If you were not at the game, Benny, we're not sure if you were or not. I don't think I was. If you're at home watching this Monday night, you've got early starts with your radio the next morning.

[00:42:59] Yeah. What are you looking like? You've got your Sharky pajamas on, you've got a jersey on and some trackies. That's interesting. Like a general statement. What would you probably be wearing? Did you have a routine or? No, I never had a routine. I did wear a Sharks jersey once watching a game and then picked up some Chinese after the game and ran into Flanno. And he said, oh, did you go to the game? And I had to go, no. But I think it was like Mother's Day or something.

[00:43:28] So I sort of had a bit of an out there. I thought you were going to say there was some spillage or something on the jersey. Oh, no. Well, you don't want to spill any Billy Key chicken or something on the jersey, which is very important if you're going to like King One after a game or before a game. Very important. You don't want any stains. No, I can't remember what my normal routine would have been, Sam, but I didn't have a jersey that had to be worn or no superstitions or anything like that. Do you have a superstition?

[00:43:55] Like are you, like, is it like you've got like a podcast Flanno and then like a going outside Flanno, a work Flanno? It's funny, I looked like this in three episodes this week, so don't be alarmed. You'd think we've recorded them back to back. Back then there was a couple of routines that I had. Yes. One involved, I'm just going to be perfectly honest like I am with our audience. This is the most honest I am in my life, I have to tell you. Okay.

[00:44:24] When I'm on the podcast, this is who you're getting. Yep. If you and I are Mr. Paisley's, I'm probably not going to tell you this. Maybe I will. Okay. A bit more regarded. Had a pair of boxes. Okay. Well, that's fair. A lot of players have that sort of stuff. Color coded, not official ones, but color coded to the colors that we love almost perfectly. Okay. And it just became a bit of fun on game down where it's, yeah. Fair enough.

[00:44:53] I had a favorite jersey that I would wear, you know, grand final, big occasions, and it was just a no sponsor, 80s original classic jersey. Great. But no, not really. But I was just thinking, because if you weren't at the game, maybe you, I mean, it wasn't a cold night, but maybe when winter comes, you're in your sharky pajamas or something. It might've been a shark scarf or something like that might've been worn. I'm more intrigued. The fact that it's a bit of a mystery. You don't know where you were.

[00:45:22] Your memory is pretty good. Well, I do remember it was my mom's birthday the Monday before and my uncle's birthday is the week after. So I'm going to assume that I might've sacrificed my mom's birthday knowing that I was going to have to go out to dinner for my uncle's birthday on that Monday night. And then we probably watched the game straight after. That's what I'm assuming. And that sort of came to mind when you said the date at the start of the episode. So I'm going to say this, this probably was a, a rare 2016 game I wasn't at.

[00:45:51] A lot of birthdays and, and, and celebrations in your life around this period of. Yeah. My grandmother's birthday is April 1st. So this is a very busy two weeks in, in the Harlem household. So Sharky's come out. They force four dropouts in the first 14 minutes of the second half. Everyone is gobsmacked, including us. It is remarkable stuff. And they mentioned that, um, that in that 15 minutes, 14 minutes or so we have nine sets and the storm only have one set.

[00:46:19] So what's coming up now again is another Valentine Holmes bomb try. Yes. Coro Betty does make a really good tackle. So it does influence the event. He didn't just, that one's not fully on Val. No, but he probably should have scored being the great winger that he is. Mm hmm. The 60th minute. We have a no try to young Tom and a pair. Apologies for not pronouncing that right. Mm hmm. But we get access to the bunker.

[00:46:50] I think. Bunker of the night. Yeah. The first one. So as we described in the man, the game last week, he got the bunker, the gentleman in the bunker in the seat and the shot from the back. And you can see all of his screens and then we get the screens ourselves on our TV sets. Yes. No sponsorship just yet. This is a very much a look where we could put your brand.

[00:47:11] Um, what I love Ben is exactly that is that the commentators, the viewers, it's clearly a no try, but they clearly need to go to the bunker. They obviously need to show it. We need to get it in there at least once. The game is three quarters gone and they have to go in the bunker. Get up there. That's right. Now it starts getting a bit more lively. We've got a penalty against Corabetti. Yes. So Chad, I think I'm correct.

[00:47:40] Saying this either makes a dummy half run or it's a, or it's a pass short pass from dummy half and makes a run. I think it's from dummy half. Yes. Dummy half. Yeah. It's a core Corabetti trips him. Correct. Not only is it a professional foul in the fact that he wasn't square, he's stopping an attacking play. He legitimately trips him, not half trips him. He puts his leg out and trips him. Yeah. And this leads to a brouhaha and a whole lot of things. Yes. But go ahead.

[00:48:09] What it doesn't lead to is a sin bin or a send off. Um, and Flano in the press conference, he claims the sin bin is dead because after, after the manly game where, what was it to power? Or someone should have been sent off for, for the hit on, on Jack Bird or whatever it was. On Birdie. Should have been sent off. Now after this with the most deliberate trip you'll see in 2016, he, he comes out and he goes that the sin bin and the send off is dead.

[00:48:37] You say 2016, I say in your lifetime you won't see. Yeah, pretty much of the last few years, uh, however many years, um, Corabetti does get banned for a game. He does take the, the early guilty. Oh, he does. He does miss the next game. So the match review panel, they did, uh, they did say that he had some of the answer for, but after we sing the praises of our guy, uh, check in.

[00:49:00] There is a bit of a, that's on, not on me when he's talking to Wade Graham during the aftermath of that incident. It's almost like he threw it up to the bunker and the bunker went. I don't think so. So no, we've already got our footage in now, Sam, it is around this time that your mate Andy Raymond, he does pipe in and he says that Wade Graham has hurt his elbow. And he heard it earlier in the game when he smashed Blake green and that they're still trying to work it out, but he's playing through it at the moment. And so we talked about the amount of injuries that were there.

[00:49:31] Um, birdie goes down, uh, maybe he can get back on the field. Maybe not. Um, that was just the scrum rules, but yeah, so Wade is, is injured as well at this time. Now he also gets hit high by Cam Smith. Yes. It's revealed that he doesn't wear a mouth guard. And this becomes actually like a bit of a news story. Yeah. So what's going on there when they were working out the elbow? Was he, did he forget to put the mouth guard in? Was he just a non mouth guard guy? We need it. We need to get to the bottom of this one too.

[00:50:00] Add that to the homework. Yeah. Maybe remind me about that, Benny, but I feel like it turned out a whole bunch of them, not in our team, but in the NRL didn't wear mouth guards. And I think, I think the clubs and doctors were like, you probably should be. So, but that was a big, one of the big reveals of the game was Wade Graham not wearing a mouth guard. Like we know he's tough, but that's also a bit silly. 73rd minute. This is where it gets really good, Ben. Oh my God. Yeah.

[00:50:29] Melbourne are looking a lot better. They're on the attack. They're on the move. They're in our half. They go right and they go left. And we've seen them go right and left in the future. Yeah. 73rd minute. I see it as a four on two overlap. It may be five on two, but there's an angle, a replay angle, which is alarming, but also amazing at how they stopped this as a spoiler. So four on two overlap. Melbourne has it.

[00:51:00] And we scramble to our right and it's Chad Townsend. It's Andrew for feeder really dominant in the play. Yep. Keep in mind on the edge, a Valentine homes. And then Ben Barber makes the actual save with Valentine homes and Chad Townsend. Andy kind of slows it down though. And it's just grand final over again. It's not as dramatic in that they were going to go ahead of us.

[00:51:26] It's not as dramatic a play that it went for three minutes or whatever, but it's the same play. They go right and they go left. And they've obviously been practicing it already in the year because they, they just pin them down. Yeah. But it clearly is something that becomes muscle memory because it's, it's essentially three or four guys doing this, what the whole team would do later in the year that would save all of our lives. Literally. Yeah.

[00:51:55] Because that's one of the famous stories, right? That a lot of the players say that after, after they were just about to, um, you know, well, after they'd done the main training that they would do these sort of drills all year. And obviously you can see that it works then and it's going to work a lot of times then obviously in the most important, um, moment, uh, for all of the players on the field. Yeah. It's, um, it's similar, but obviously not as full on as, as that moment will be in October that year. No, definitely not.

[00:52:22] But I can't separate them as far as them being related to each other. Like there, yep. There's a distinct line between what's going to happen seven months later, which is, you can tell this isn't a fluke. This is something that they are mastering. Now, if this is 2026, um, Sam, have a think about that and something amazing happens and, or, and obviously the storm miss an opportunity. What would the Fox coverage do straight away after a missed Melbourne opportunity?

[00:52:52] Go to Craig Bellamy, who we haven't seen all night. We haven't seen any coaches box in this whole game. That's the one thing I've got to say is a huge flaw in the coverage. There's been no Craig Bellamy in the whole coverage of him going over, kicking the chair, go. Going back. None of it. At Southern Cross Group Stadium, now Ocean Protect Stadium, you can find both coaches very easily. Yes. That's interesting. You see everything. You see everything. That's interesting. I didn't think about that.

[00:53:21] So last play of the game. Yes. Melbourne make a line break again. So they're looking pretty good. It's all over. Ben Barber stops the line break or, or yeah. And what I've noted is a wheelbarrow tackle. Yeah. He's sort of like got his legs up or whatever. Yeah. And then Jack Bird over the top gives away a penalty, but what it does is it has another brouhaha and the rivalry just keeps simmering. Yeah.

[00:53:50] Will Chambers throughout the whole game. He's angry. Cooper Cronk's angry. A lot of them are kind of angry. You know, it's Ennis. It's way Graham. It's for feeder. It's Jack Bird. Like they're all pretty fired up. And there already was a history there throughout both clubs existence. But you can tell that there's already something building between these sets of teams and players.

[00:54:16] And we'll see it again a couple, or at least one more time before the grand final. Yeah. And the fact they have to wait until round 26 to, to like try and even the odds and fire up again. Like it just would have been that they just waited so long to get back on the field against each other. And most people know what happens in that game in round 26. And then that leads to the grand final, but you can see it in this game throughout. It's not just the last minute. You can see it throughout. There is an intense rivalry. Will Chambers is in everything.

[00:54:45] It's all the usual suspects. So it was a really fascinating game to watch back. Yeah. It's, it's, it's an interesting blueprint for what happens in October. And like, and both teams are so evenly matched and like we make mistakes. They make mistakes. And like, we give Val a lot of crap, but like he runs for 174 meters, but then you've got Munster who is pretty much flawless at the back. Obviously he's still coming into his own as a fullback.

[00:55:13] He's running for 219 meters. Like the whole, like all of the teams are just, it's just putting the, the chess pieces in the right slot. And it's just, it's almost like a first draft of what will happen with the grand final. So you can just see the little pieces there that just get improved from both sides. We're very evenly matched. And we still haven't scored 20 points against them. 14 points to six is the final result. And, and that doesn't matter at this point because we've got the win. It's a rare win against Melbourne. So that's awesome.

[00:55:44] That's right. It gets us back to two and two, I believe. Yep. And we head to Campbelltown. Campbelltown. Now I'm looking forward to watching this one. Cause a lot of points as a spoiler. I don't have a great memory of this one. I have no memory of this game. This will be like watching a brand new game for me. I do not remember this game, which will happen a lot. I'm looking at the, some of the games here. There's, there's a couple here that I, I don't recall.

[00:56:12] There's a couple of real close games and some blowouts too, but anyway, we'll get to that down the track, which will be a lot of fun. But yeah, next up is Campbelltown on a Saturday, Saturday. I'm going to say Saturday. We'll find out what time it is, but it's a Saturday. It's a second of April. One day after your grandma's grandmother's birthday. I'm going to say you might not be there. Benny might be your grandma's birthday. I was definitely not there. Cause I've never been to Campbelltown stadium, but I can say that a shark West Tigers Saturday game would have,

[00:56:42] that's a prime five 30 slot. Like nothing screams five 30 super Saturday than sharks tigers from Campbelltown. I was going to go there, but I didn't want to presume, but we'll get to that. We will. Sorry. Getting ahead of myself. No, I like you. I like those odds. One in three. I don't mind those though, to be fair, but we're on our way. And as an absolute spoiler, this is not actual. Oh, it is. It's the start of the streak. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:57:12] Yeah. This is definitely the, yeah, this is definitely the start of the streak because we go any later and we were, you can't fit in the bit of the lull that we have at the end. Yeah. Okay. So this is history. This is history right now. And it's start. What about that? It starts with Melbourne and it ends with Melbourne. Whoa. Yeah. This is heavy. This is real heavy. All right. So that is our round four. Look back at the Sharks in 2016. Great win. Guts you in. And you're right.

[00:57:41] Valentine Holmes was just fine. He bombed a few tries. That's right. That's right. Also one final thought before you wrap things up, Sam, shout out to Warren Smith, because while they didn't cross to Craig, they did cross to the Sharks bench and New Brown was there. And Warren definitely took the opportunity to mention that New Brown had just tried to charge his iPhone in the microwave and blew up the phone. Bonus points to whoever fed him that stat, Sam. That is excellent commentary skills right there.

[00:58:11] Now that's Warren's own work. I would say. He might've got a reminder from someone, but I, I, Warren does his own stuff as well. And, and then most of these guys do. And I had not noted that for some reason, but it's very fresh in the memory. So, oh yeah, that's a classic. Uh, yeah, that's a good one. And interesting out of all the guys in rugby league that we've watched and that I've covered in 12 years, like it, it doesn't scream New Brown to me.

[00:58:41] Like he's a really mature, normal sweetheart. Who obviously didn't know about technology. It wasn't a prank, right? It was a mistake. Is that the story? I guess it was a prank. I feel like that it was either a prank or he, I think he might've, I think he Googled it and just got a joking answer. And this is like pre Google AI that just fed you anything. So I think he just, I think it was just a poor set of circumstances that led up to the

[00:59:11] phone blowing up in the microwave. This was the time though, when everything was revealed in the paper the next day. So nothing was a secret. I'm not suggesting there's secrets now, but if that happens now, either it's on social media within one minute or we don't know about it. You know, that's right. A hundred percent. New Brown, he would play an important role that year as many of our extra squad members would your Cape Wells, your Mitch Browns. We'll get to all that. It's going to be a lot of fun. So Benny, we won 14, six great stuff.

[00:59:40] We beat the storm. We're off to Campbell town. You and I will cover that as soon as we can. Yes. Great to do another game. We are going to catch up. We are going to get there. It's going to be a lot of fun. And as I said before, I'm looking into throwing up an old episode of that week. Let me ask you advice on air, Ben. Would you like to hear as a recap episode, sorry, as a retro episode, would you like to

[01:00:03] hear around this time of when I publish the round four game, would you like to hear my old buddy Newman and I talking about the game afterwards or in the lead up? Like how, what would be best there as a listener? Okay. As a listener, I would say that in this part of the season, it should be a recap. And then once we get to the pointy end of the season and the finals, I think then, then

[01:00:30] you, you, you want to, you want to relive sort of the excitement in the lead up to some of those big games. I think reek. If I was to do it this week, which I may not, but if I was, it would be us after the game talking about the game that we just watched. Okay. Gotcha. That's right. We're also going to have to have a think about what, like we, you just can't have us two nuffies talking about the grand final, right? Like what are we going to do there? Well, we could, we could do something. If you want to do something, we can make it a bit bigger if you want.

[01:01:00] I don't know. We can't just dedicate an hour to it. Do we watch it live and everyone can go on YouTube and watch it at the same time as us when they play it back? Yeah. I don't think we're going to do a short recap of that one. No. We can get more people involved. We could, we could do anything you want. The world is our oyster. If anyone has any suggestions, send us a note. They'll have suggestions and we, we bless them for that. And we'd love to hear their notes. So yeah, let us know what you want to do about that. But we're having a lot of fun.

[01:01:30] It's a lot of fun. And if you're not watching a long after or before or whatever, you should go back and do it. It's a lot of fun. You can watch it on nrl.com. You can probably watch it on YouTube. There's extended highlights somewhere. So you don't have to watch the whole thing like we are, but yeah, like it's, it's fun while we're reliving it. We might, you might as well jump in and, um, and have a bit of a watch because there are going to be games like this Tigers game that you will have no memory of. You say that, but our, our listeners and viewers, as you know, are not so, and they remember

[01:01:59] everything, but yes. Oh yeah. They're probably yelling going in the 22nd minute. You forgot to mention this. That's why you listen to this podcast. Cause you're just as dedicated, if not more dedicated than we are. Absolutely. And there is the, uh, the DVD box set, which I have, and many people have. Oh yes. You could do that. You crack that one open. And I believe, I believe the footage is probably better than what you're seeing on the website. Yes. I would say so too. That was unfortunate.

[01:02:27] That one unfortunately did not make the move to New York with me, but yeah, if you've got the DVD set, crack it open a hundred percent. And that's about all Benny. We can report on from Southern Cross Group stadium now known as Ocean Protect Stadium. Yes. We'll be back with a Campbelltown episode soon enough. Mm-hmm. Appreciate your time, Ben. Thanks for having me. You know the line. Thanks for being had everyone else. Thanks for tuning in. We'll get some more episodes to you shortly. This has been shark ass pod looking back at 2016.

[01:02:57] What a year, what a time. So glad I was there. So glad you were there, Ben, all of our listeners. But the great thing is Ben and I'm, I'm discovering this every week as has been this case since we started the podcast 12 years ago, new listeners, new viewers every week, young listeners, young listeners who, who didn't even really, they're that young. They didn't even really see us in that year. They've gone back to watch themselves. Their parents threw them into it, et cetera.

[01:03:25] So these episodes are as much for people who didn't experience it at the time, or they were just a bit too young or whatever, as much as for the tragics who lived every moment. So it's, it's fun. It's fun. Benny. Thanks for your time, brother. Really appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. Take care over in New York city. Everyone else will talk to you another time. Up up Cronulla. Let's go win it. It's over. It's over. It's over. Shark Cast is supported by the best and most honest real estate agent in the Sutherland

[01:03:55] Shire, Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate. He's an expert in the Carring Bar region and has his eye all across the Shire. Lifelong Sharks fan and supporter of this podcast. If you're looking to buy or sell in the region, the person you need to be talking to is Jason Hawes from Crips and Crips Real Estate. Call him on 0410 417 450. That's 0410 417 450. Jason Hawes, Crips and Crips Real Estate.

[01:04:24] Sharkies! Sharkies! Back in the Shire. Turn your porch lights off because we're coming over the truck.