Haven’t had a chance yet to put my thoughts down on paper for yesterday’s game.
Apologies that it might be a bit long but here goes.
Didn’t think I was going to go at first as my wife was working all day and my son was supposed to be taken to camp down near Bundeena at 4pm. He ended up going with friends but they couldn’t get him until 3.30pm so I thought there was no way I was going to get a parking spot by turning up on game time. Could not believe it when I jagged a spot in the carpark at the Solander playing fields.
As I walked in through the gate, the game had started, it was just a few minutes old. Season ticket seats were still dirty.
First half showed we were off the pace a bit. Tries to Nikora, and two to Big Sexy saw us lead 14-0 at half time. Disallowed one to Ronny was disappointing but correct. I thought Rudolf and BHU did so well for us up front, they were strong and made metres. Tigers did not throw anything at us at all, they looked so insipid in attack. But for some reason we started to play football like we were 20 points down. Nicho made some mistakes and couldn’t kick the goals, albeit they were from out wide.
Ramien made some really damaging runs and looked good with the ball and actually passed to Katoa so he could score. Katoa’s tries were ridiculously easy, there seemed to be hardly any defence at all.
Noticed that Toby and BHU stayed on a bit longer than usual, not sure why Fitz did that.
Will was safe at the back and while Sifa was a bit quieter this week he still took some stopping. Matty Moylan was outshining Nicho and defended so well.
All of us in the stands felt that Fitz would give them a bit of talk at halftime about the poor attack and we were hoping we’d come out a bit better. I went off and got a Pepsi Max, no real lines to wait, was back in my seat before the second half kicked off. Got stared at by some botox laden woman outside the ladies toilet while I was queuing up for my drink. Was constantly on her phone, looked like she wouldn’t have been out of place in an episode of MAFS.
Not that I watch it.
At all.
**** me, I’d rather watch South Park and that’s saying something.
Second half saw us start well, Jesse picked up a loose ball (Tiger's players were having a little nap at the time) and had us on the attack pretty quickly. But if Fitz did say anything at half time about our lack of patience, we must have ignored it. We still seemed to push the pass. Got across the stripe again soon after through Ronnie – again he just had an easy run to the line, just a simple step inside and he was in. That made it 20-0 and I think the Tigers had then had enough.
I think at this point it was when the 4 idiots came on. Not sure whether it was a ploy by coach Madge to distract us and give them a breather or if he thought they might have had a better chance with four extra players. Whatever it was it didn’t work. Although it would have been fair to say the pitch invaders might have been slightly more interested and fitter than any of the Tigers players. With that bit of lunacy over, the game restarted and we scored another two tries through Ramien and Kennedy. Ramien’s was one of pure strength running over four players before slamming the ball down. I think Big Sexy was a little upset though, again Ramien failed to pass it to him with the line wide open and a hattrick beckoning. But Jesse had decided to do it the hard way. Again Nicho couldn’t kick the goal.
Kennedy’s try was a beauty set up by Nicho and McInnes. In fairness though the Tigers were all over the shop by now and were ready to crumble like Cam Smith in the Masters. (When he birdied the first two holes this morning, by George I thought he’d beat that Scheffler guy!) It was out a bit wide again and the crowd held their breath as Nicho lined up the shot. The entire crowd roared when he put it over and Nicho gave a wry smile.
With less than a minute on the clock Ronnie threw a pass to Sione that would have put him away again but Maumalo grabbed the intercept and reluctantly ran 50 metres to score. Brooks’ one and only chance of seeing his name on the scoreboard vanished as he badly shanked his kick almost at right angles.
Game over and glad to get the two points but far from our greatest effort in attack especially and need to do better next week. After walking down from my seat I walked past Buzz Rothfield at the bottom of the Upper ET deck. He could be heard muttering to himself, “Hmm, clunky Sharks…” and "must get a drink" as he made his way down to the dressing room.
As I had some time up my sleeve I walked down to the sideline to watch the players be congratulated by the crowd and have their photos taken etc. Big Toby seemed to having a good time and Jess from the Sharks got him to do a selfie video with some of the kids yelling and screaming and shouting “Up Up Cronulla!” Good stuff!
Katoa, Hynes, Dale, WK, Nikora all lined up to sign jumpers, scarves, hats, flags, boobs etc while Ronnie did a Fox interview and Cam McInnes did a radio one. Fifita was the one on there the longest making sure he spoke to as many of the crowd that he could. Even Noaksey the head trainer was getting yells and getting photos.
It was great to see everyone in good spirits, there was a lot of backslapping going on so it is plain to see that Fitz has built a great culture here at the Sharks. Just have to keep him away from any sports scientists!
A few of the lower grade players were there too. Ryan Rivett, Lachie Miller, along with Mahene Hiroti who I must say looked pretty fit and I didn’t realise how tall he was. Matt Ikuvalu was also there with no strapping at all on his legs or feet, so he looked like he could have played. Connor Tracey also didn't seem to have any problems walking around. Saw Wade walking around as well, laughing, talking, backslapping like everyone else, looks like a very happy camp.
Only person I didn’t see was Fitz himself. He was probably lying in wait inside the sheds ready to unleash on them and convey just how much he was disappointed in our performance. Although he was probably getting ready for the press conference. As the players began to leave the field and go inside, I decided my time at Shark Park was at an end. A takeaway Thai meal would be waiting for me at Menai so I walked to my car among the joyous Sharks fans.
All in all a good win and great to bag the competition points but we need to improve a great deal before next Saturday.