Trial 1: Sharks vs Knights @ Gosford, 1:45pm Saturday 17-Feb 2024

[MrDravid]

Shoulder charge is just a penalty, unless they hit the head. He didn’t.

Those of you who are saying Tommy’s was accidental need to look again. Doesn’t matter if he’s falling, you can’t hit them in the head.

No double standards at all, we are just wearing black white and blue glasses.

If a grade one charge is worthy of a sin bin there's going to be a sin bin a game this year

Of course, not every grade one was even binned yesterday.

 

[Sir Chadley]

If a grade one charge is worthy of a sin bin there's going to be a sin bin a game this year

Of course, not every grade one was even binned yesterday.

Look, I can’t pretend to put myself in the ref’s shoes and all refs are going to have different interpretations all the time because the rules are so grey.

All I know is, he hit him high and I think it was probably a fraction late too, so I have no complaints about the sin bin. As for the other games I didn’t see them so I can’t comment.

 

[SF]

If a grade one charge is worthy of a sin bin there's going to be a sin bin a game this year

Of course, not every grade one was even binned yesterday.

Except for the Vegas games, can almost guarantee they will be refereed like Origin games.

To me it’s worthy of a grade one charge, but 100% not worthy of the game being brought back and stopped by the bunker for something nobody noticed. It is the most frustrating thing about the game as a spectator at the ground.

 

[apezza]

Shoulder charge is just a penalty, unless they hit the head. He didn’t.

Those of you who are saying Tommy’s was accidental need to look again. Doesn’t matter if he’s falling, you can’t hit them in the head.

No double standards at all, we are just wearing black white and blue glasses.

Yeh agree. I only watched the highlights but that swinging arm looked pretty bad in terms of today's standards.

 

[apezza]

So he got away with a $3000 fine. I'm surprised but will take it.

 

[bort]

So he got away with a $3000 fine. I'm surprised but will take it.

Yeah grade 2 doesn’t seem out of the question. No malice but very sloppy and looked fairly forceful.

Play was slipping and was fine though so maybe they took it easy on him.

I thought usually in a trial you stayed at 13 just the binned/sent player can’t be on during their punishment. Am I misremembering? Or did they scrap that when Preseason Challenge became a thing?

 

[Sparkles]

Or was it the other way around?

They probably started twice as many players likely to have a round 1 jersey but we went 12-nil up

Maybe O’Brien slipped on his agreement to manage his stronger side against our more inexperienced one once we pantsed him early

There's a question for Sam's next interview

 

[BurgoShark]

I just mean having a seperate reggies team limits our depth by having less available spots for non-top players. Meaning more players looking elsewhere, even for just having a reggies deal once they finish flegg.

Do we leave ourselves short in ways

Not at all.

I did a detailed comparison of Newtown vs Panthers NSW Cup last time this discussion came up. Newtown had a similar amount of pathways players and made less lineup changes than the Panthers throughout the season. Many of the Jets-contracted players are former Sharks pathways players, and it is very rare for Sharks player to sit out while a Jets guy plays ahead of him. Billy Mags would likely be the only guy then might do this for.

There may be some missed marketing/merch ops from playing elsewhere etc. but from a footy PoV they are tightly aligned and the Sharks players almost always get preference. There is very little difference between a “fully controlled” team like Penrith and the Sharks/Jets setup.

Someone used an example of Johnny Lee Gabrael playing last season - but in the games he played the Sharks had something like 4-5 other halves injured/missing from their Cup and Flegg teams.

 

[bort]

And not like a dude won’t jump at a contract to play sharks because he’s on a jets one not a sharks reserve grade one

 

[BurgoShark]

And not like a dude won’t jump at a contract to play sharks because he’s on a jets one not a sharks reserve grade one

Agree.

Can you think of any examples of Sharks pathways players being “blocked” by Jets players, and then leaving to become NRL players elsewhere?

…or the flip side, any players who went on from being Jets contracts but the Sharks missed out on them? I can only think of JJ.

I can however name plenty of guys who came through on Jets contracts / Sharks T&T and became Sharks NRL players (Kennedy, Talakai, Hunt, Hazelton, Iro, Hiroti)

People like to hypothesise that the feeder arrangement has all these negative limitations, but recent evidence just doesn’t back it up.

The Sharks have lost plenty of young players, but for the most part they get poached at 16-19 before competing for a spot on the Jets becomes an issue. They are leaving for cash, more opportunities within the 16yo-21yo pathways, or because they see their path to NRL blocked (Chevy stuck behind WK and Kade). That is nothing to do with the Jets being the Cup feeder.

Whole point of the pathways and feeder system is to produce NRL players. Sharks have done a pretty good job of that. 20 of the top 25 who have played an NRL game for the Sharks worked their way through this supposedly “sub-optimal” system.

 

[Mr Ryan]

And it’s not like we’re only ones doing it.

Do any of the non Sydney teams have reserve grade side?

 

[BurgoShark]

And it’s not like we’re only ones doing it.

Do any of the non Sydney teams have reserve grade side?

Newcastle and Canberra.

For Melbourne and the Qld sides it is standard practice to spread their players around through a few different feeders.

 

[Mr Ryan]

The other thing about reserve grade, and some people might not care, is if you take away the partnership like ours with Newtown and go down the path of all NRL clubs having their own Reserve grade teams - you lose the chance of having a North Sydney or Newtown playing on Grand Final day.

 

[BurgoShark]

The other thing about reserve grade, and some people might not care, is if you take away the partnership like ours with Newtown and go down the path of all NRL clubs having their own Reserve grade teams - you lose the chance of having a North Sydney or Newtown playing on Grand Final day.

Yep - and pushing those clubs back to 3rd grade also hurts them.

 

[Sevshark]

Not at all.

I did a detailed comparison of Newtown vs Panthers NSW Cup last time this discussion came up. Newtown had a similar amount of pathways players and made less lineup changes than the Panthers throughout the season. Many of the Jets-contracted players are former Sharks pathways players, and it is very rare for Sharks player to sit out while a Jets guy plays ahead of him. Billy Mags would likely be the only guy then might do this for.

There may be some missed marketing/merch ops from playing elsewhere etc. but from a footy PoV they are tightly aligned and the Sharks players almost always get preference. There is very little difference between a “fully controlled” team like Penrith and the Sharks/Jets setup.

Someone used an example of Johnny Lee Gabrael playing last season - but in the games he played the Sharks had something like 4-5 other halves injured/missing from their Cup and Flegg teams.

**** johnny lee

 

[Walley_01]

I'm surpised Dykes and Atkinson didnt swap at all during the game - i was expecting Dykes to have some time at 6

 

[Proud Shark]

Thoughts on Sam Healey? I thought his scooting game out of dummy half was superb, he is very quick. Looked a bit off the pace regarding service and red zone attack though. Looks worth keeping above that train and trial though.

 

[BurgoShark]

Thoughts on Sam Healey? I thought his scooting game out of dummy half was superb, he is very quick. Looked a bit off the pace regarding service and red zone attack though. Looks worth keeping above that train and trial though.

Yeah agreed. Have always thought his passing style is a little awkward. We are spoiled with Brailey though.

Made some great contact in defence a couple of times too. Definitely worth investing more time in. He can really trouble defences with his running game. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Sam and his agent himself holding off committing to the Sharks in case another team comes knocking.

Another pleasing thing was finally hearing Puru's name pronounced properly. Was painful to hear every journo and podcast call him knee-why. Anyone who has been watching him a while knows his name, but for anyone else it doesn't take much effort to watch the official team video.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1630361923652059137

 

[Jaz]

Yeah agreed. Have always thought his passing style is a little awkward. We are spoiled with Brailey though.

Made some great contact in defence a couple of times too. Definitely worth investing more time in. He can really trouble defences with his running game. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Sam and his agent himself holding off committing to the Sharks in case another team comes knocking.

Another pleasing thing was finally hearing Puru's name pronounced properly. Was painful to hear every journo and podcast call him knee-why. Anyone who has been watching him a while knows his name, but for anyone else it doesn't take much effort to watch the official team video.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1630361923652059137

I'll forever love this video.

"Matt. Moylan."

 

[BurgoShark]

I'll forever love this video.

"Matt. Moylan."

My son and I all last year were big fans of referring to WADE graham