# Sexton THE MAN! Finals Week 2 Preview

An episode of [Backstage with Cooper & Matty Johns](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1729949087), 16 Sep 2025, 47 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/d7a60aed-0ec1-4a17-9f87-b248003b7796/27411483-9462-403a-9772-b35a00c101b2/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=676e8df2-b284-47a4-9fbd-b248003b77ad

The boys are back to break down all the action heading into Week 2 of the NRL Finals. Big talking points, key matchups, and predictions you don’t want to miss. From star playmakers standing tall to which pack wins the battle through the middle – it’s all on the line this weekend. Subscribe, Watch, and Follow Catch the full episode on YouTube and stay updated by following us on social media: Linktree: Backstage with Cooper & Matty Contact Us For any enquiries, email us at: contact@johnsmedia.com.au 0:00-Intro 1:30-Justin Holbrook Knights! 6:45-Nic White 9:30-Bulldogs v Panthers 30:20-Raiders v Sharks 44:00-Backfence Player See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Well should we do it?
[0:00] Speaker 2: Three?
[0:00] Speaker 1: Two one? Do you want to get through to one?
[0:09] Speaker 1: That week? One of the finals? Done? RASMI And how
[0:11] Speaker 1: are you brother? How are you doing?
[0:16] Speaker 3: Doing very well? Thank you?
[0:17] Speaker 1: That's a garage treating your mate. Yeah.
[0:19] Speaker 2: Look, as you know, a bit of a tumultuous And
[0:22] Speaker 2: the week last week the whole place got flooded.
[0:26] Speaker 1: And thank you for alerting us about the white ants
[0:28] Speaker 1: to out this neftually there's white ants building mounds.
[0:32] Speaker 3: Yeah, and and all that would has absorbed a lot
[0:35] Speaker 3: of that water. So you can't even close the garage
[0:37] Speaker 3: door now, so I must get bloody cold out there,
[0:39] Speaker 3: rose man.
[0:39] Speaker 2: Yeah it sucks.
[0:41] Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, it sucks. It's our garage. Don't be grateful.
[0:45] Speaker 3: It's went free. Yeah.
[0:46] Speaker 2: Well look I went and I bought myself a hammock
[0:49] Speaker 2: this week, so it happens again. I'll be sweet. I'll
[0:52] Speaker 2: be up, you know, and.
[0:52] Speaker 1: Above a well down the road we've got the MC.
[0:55] Speaker 1: I want to stay there. Don't make a song and
[0:57] Speaker 1: dance about it.
[0:58] Speaker 2: No, I appreciate you, going to thank you so much.
[1:00] Speaker 1: No, you have the song wamc Yeah, yeah, stand at Wyam.
[1:05] Speaker 1: Don't make a song.
[1:08] Speaker 2: Like that.
[1:08] Speaker 1: It's yeah, let's get a finals football.
[1:12] Speaker 3: Oh you silly man. The big story this week Matthew
[1:17] Speaker 3: Justin Holbrook new Newcastle Knights coach.
[1:19] Speaker 1: We finally found ourselves a coach to the Newcastle Knights.
[1:22] Speaker 1: I like it. It's good appointments.
[1:24] Speaker 3: You played with Justin Holbrook at Newcastle, right, yep?
[1:27] Speaker 1: I did?
[1:28] Speaker 3: Was that first grade reserve grade?
[1:30] Speaker 1: I didn't play. I didn't play it one thirty off
[1:33] Speaker 1: in coops. No, but he no, he played with him.
[1:36] Speaker 1: He was Joey's understudy. Like the year we won the
[1:39] Speaker 1: camp and ninety seven Leo Denov was Joey's understudy. So
[1:43] Speaker 1: they needed one and they bought. They brought Titsy Wholebrook
[1:46] Speaker 1: from the Bulldogs. And I know, you know, being a coach.
[1:51] Speaker 1: This is a fairly shallow statement. It doesn't mean he's
[1:54] Speaker 1: going to be a great coach up there. But one
[1:55] Speaker 1: thing about him when he come to the Knights, he
[1:57] Speaker 1: immediately fit in. He immediately was really really popular. Everyone
[2:01] Speaker 1: really liked him, like the fans really liked him. He
[2:03] Speaker 1: was a wholehearted player, never let anyone down, really positive bloke.
[2:08] Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm happy about it. He won't get much
[2:11] Speaker 1: sleep in the next three years, because mate, it's a
[2:13] Speaker 1: monumental job and he's got to have his hands on
[2:16] Speaker 1: most things.
[2:17] Speaker 3: Yeah, and I spoke to Sammy Verrals during the week
[2:20] Speaker 3: who had him up at the Gold Coast, and he
[2:22] Speaker 3: had very he very much enjoyed his time owner. Apparently
[2:25] Speaker 3: a very good coach as well.
[2:26] Speaker 1: Well. He won a title or two. It's Saint Helen's
[2:30] Speaker 1: he's sat on there. His win rate was eighty percent there.
[2:33] Speaker 1: Then went to Titans, and you know the Titans that
[2:35] Speaker 1: they'll face with a tough situation, they actually improved that
[2:39] Speaker 1: they well they were nine.
[2:40] Speaker 3: Remember they made the finals and then they would have
[2:43] Speaker 3: made it to the week two of semi finals, but
[2:46] Speaker 3: that last play the senate didn't pass to the winger
[2:49] Speaker 3: and they bombed the try and they didn't get the
[2:52] Speaker 3: verse and the roosters. You remember that Rasmuse were a
[2:54] Speaker 3: Titans man.
[2:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, Patrick Krbertt, that one was don't.
[2:57] Speaker 3: Keep your receipts.
[2:59] Speaker 1: Break with the Herbert family. They are latitious.
[3:03] Speaker 2: But I know Dustin Holdbrook, I'm a I'm a big fan.
[3:06] Speaker 2: I know that hindsight is a you know, is a
[3:09] Speaker 2: great thing. But when you know they signed Daisy was
[3:12] Speaker 2: he was the next big thing. But if I look
[3:15] Speaker 2: back on it, I wish we had a whole Brook
[3:17] Speaker 2: there for them another year.
[3:19] Speaker 3: And Michael Checker, you were you were talking about him
[3:22] Speaker 3: for the Newcastle job. He's now signed as the assistant
[3:24] Speaker 3: coach for.
[3:25] Speaker 1: The Rooster's full time assistant at the Rooster.
[3:27] Speaker 3: Because he had done some part time stuff for them
[3:30] Speaker 3: before helping out Trent Robertson there.
[3:32] Speaker 1: People say he hasn't got a regul league background, but
[3:34] Speaker 1: he played. He played both league and union growing up.
[3:37] Speaker 1: His league play growing up, and he coached Lebanon in
[3:40] Speaker 1: the World Cup. Okay that was short, short stint, but
[3:42] Speaker 1: talking to the Lebanese places, had a very very good
[3:44] Speaker 1: sound knowledge of the game. Brilliant communicator, brilliant man manager.
[3:49] Speaker 1: In these days coops, I mean you've got you've got
[3:52] Speaker 1: two or three assistant coaches. Whatever you may lack, they
[3:55] Speaker 1: can pick up. I mean it's like Billy Ach. Correct
[3:57] Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong, But I've heard Billy Ach say this.
[4:00] Speaker 1: When I worked at the Storm. You had to talk
[4:02] Speaker 1: to like You talked to Billy like about attack and
[4:04] Speaker 1: he goes, mate, I don't care what you do. I'm
[4:07] Speaker 1: just looking after defense. Just make sure that I'm blue derors.
[4:09] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[4:10] Speaker 3: BELLI barely looks at the attack. And if there's some
[4:14] Speaker 3: stuff that he sees in your attacking game, it's generally
[4:17] Speaker 3: only to do with effort or you know, maybe you're
[4:20] Speaker 3: passing early. When he thinks because you're a little bit tired,
[4:23] Speaker 3: you're trying to distribute some work to someone else, that's
[4:25] Speaker 3: the same time he will sort of pull someone else up.
[4:27] Speaker 3: He only focuses on defense. As a head coach, should
[4:30] Speaker 3: they I always find a lot of assistant coaches who
[4:34] Speaker 3: actually are assistants in the attacking coaching role when they
[4:38] Speaker 3: make the transition to head coach, they actually don't. They
[4:41] Speaker 3: don't do as good a job. Jason Rowles is a
[4:44] Speaker 3: great example. He was every time he's been an assistant
[4:47] Speaker 3: at a coach where he was at. He was at
[4:50] Speaker 3: the Roosters, he was at obviously Melbourne, he's been defensive coach.
[4:55] Speaker 3: Both times. He hasn't even touched the attack. He's been
[4:58] Speaker 3: the defensive coach. And they make it. They make a
[5:00] Speaker 3: really good transition to being a hedge coach. They do
[5:02] Speaker 3: because head coaches need to focus on holding the standards
[5:06] Speaker 3: for effort and defense. They don't even look at the attack.
[5:09] Speaker 3: They recruit someone who is an attacking specialist.
[5:12] Speaker 1: And the other one is Cameron Sorelda. He was defensive
[5:15] Speaker 1: coach at the Panthers. And so your spot on, your
[5:19] Speaker 1: spot on, And oftentimes I think it's really important when
[5:24] Speaker 1: you get a coaching staff together. Is they talk about
[5:28] Speaker 1: it in NFL, they call it siloing. So if I'm
[5:33] Speaker 1: head coach, coop your defensive coach, and the ras man
[5:35] Speaker 1: is attack coach, you look like an attack coach. Raise men.
[5:39] Speaker 1: So if you attack it So the last thing we
[5:42] Speaker 1: need or the last thing I need from YouTube blokes
[5:45] Speaker 1: is operating is different identities because what happens is like
[5:50] Speaker 1: if our defense is really struggling and our tax going great,
[5:53] Speaker 1: the ras men says to me, well, it's not my fault, mate,
[5:57] Speaker 1: we're attacking great. But what happens a lot of time,
[6:00] Speaker 1: having too much emphasis on attack brings errors, and an
[6:02] Speaker 1: errors impacts defense. So you need to work in a
[6:05] Speaker 1: cohesive manner. And I think a lot of time in
[6:09] Speaker 1: bad clubs, I'd look at their system and mate, and
[6:11] Speaker 1: I'll see it that some clubs all the time. You know,
[6:13] Speaker 1: this is a little insight into fans on what happens
[6:17] Speaker 1: the politics of coaching stuff. I've heard attack coaches bag
[6:21] Speaker 1: the defensive coach and vice versa. Mate, it's not my
[6:23] Speaker 1: fault that we're losing. Look at that and you're going, yeah,
[6:25] Speaker 1: but mate, your attacks, you're making so many errors that
[6:28] Speaker 1: the defense, the defensive coach can't absorb them. So it's
[6:31] Speaker 1: a cohesive unit.
[6:32] Speaker 3: Rubber union doesn't get to start much on this body.
[6:34] Speaker 3: But shout out to Nick White, who was the scrum
[6:37] Speaker 3: half for the Wallabies last week in the in the
[6:40] Speaker 3: Test that they played on Saturday afternoons against Argentina. He's
[6:43] Speaker 3: from the Hunter Valley Hunter Valley Boys, Nick and he played,
[6:46] Speaker 3: he played his last game, he retired And look, I
[6:50] Speaker 3: don't know Nick White that well. I think maybe I've
[6:53] Speaker 3: crossed met him once before, potentially, But I was woken
[6:57] Speaker 3: up in the early hours of Saturday night by Nick
[7:00] Speaker 3: White on the piece facetiming me with a couple of
[7:03] Speaker 3: my mates. So shout out to him. In his words,
[7:06] Speaker 3: he said, I'm the best half that has come out
[7:09] Speaker 3: of the Hunter Valley. So shout out a great career,
[7:13] Speaker 3: but shout out to him. Had a bit of had noise.
[7:15] Speaker 3: The next day he said, sorry, brother, I wasn't trying
[7:18] Speaker 3: to sled you. I was just having a laugh, mate,
[7:19] Speaker 3: And I said, well, you know you're not the greatest
[7:22] Speaker 3: ansorts come out a hunt Valley. There's been three of us.
[7:24] Speaker 1: Yeah true, Nick, Let me just give you a bit
[7:27] Speaker 1: of advice mate, when you're out on the drink and
[7:30] Speaker 1: having a great time, Nicoll, people don't have head noise
[7:32] Speaker 1: the next day. It doesn't matter. I do it all
[7:34] Speaker 1: the time, and I'd take great pride in it. Actually
[7:36] Speaker 1: I were it as a badge of honor you.
[7:38] Speaker 3: You face on a lot of people should have more
[7:40] Speaker 3: head noise than you.
[7:41] Speaker 1: I never get head noise.
[7:43] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, Coop, you're one to speak as well.
[7:45] Speaker 2: I think every time we've been on the pisce, we
[7:47] Speaker 2: end up calling some of your contacts and nice notably
[7:52] Speaker 2: Justin Olan.
[7:52] Speaker 3: Always just a ol ras Men loves Justin ever literally
[7:57] Speaker 3: ever since I reckon me and he became teammates. Every
[8:01] Speaker 3: time and you have had a beer, yugo ring juzzy.
[8:03] Speaker 2: Yeah, he's always he's always up for a chat. He's
[8:05] Speaker 2: a good man. And yeah another one camera munster. Yeah,
[8:09] Speaker 2: we gotta call one New Year's I think.
[8:11] Speaker 3: Yeah, because you're from because rasmun is born in Rockampton
[8:14] Speaker 3: as well.
[8:14] Speaker 1: Made you get a round, round, get around, you get around?
[8:17] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, which is Harry Grant obviously came Monster and
[8:22] Speaker 3: Tim Glasby territory, so he's Tim Glasby's next on the
[8:25] Speaker 3: FaceTime list?
[8:26] Speaker 1: Is it Glasman? Well, Rasmond of the Glasman and ras
[8:31] Speaker 1: Man your father? Right, he was down Coops to the
[8:35] Speaker 1: final two people to be the boss of the NRL
[8:39] Speaker 1: and Todd Greenburn got it. It was about fifteen years ago. Yeah, yeah,
[8:42] Speaker 1: he nearly got. He was near the head of the NRLs.
[8:45] Speaker 2: Me, thank god that you could have ever.
[8:49] Speaker 3: Thank god. I'll tell you what. And if he's listening,
[8:52] Speaker 3: thank thank bloody thank god because the game it would
[8:55] Speaker 3: have been driven the ground.
[8:57] Speaker 1: He's a good man sign and he listens to the potty.
[8:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out to him.
[9:01] Speaker 1: He is one of the best. That's where you get
[9:03] Speaker 1: your sense of humor for from and your great humility
[9:06] Speaker 1: and gorgeous looks. It just looks gorgeous ones.
[9:12] Speaker 3: All right, let's start at the Sunday game because that's
[9:14] Speaker 3: probably where a lot of the big news is coming
[9:16] Speaker 3: out of the Bulldogs play the Penrith Panthers. Straight off
[9:19] Speaker 3: the top, let's talk about some of the injuries and
[9:21] Speaker 3: potential changes. Stephen Crichton and Marcelo Montoya have been named
[9:27] Speaker 3: on the extended bench for the Bulldogs. I mean, I'm
[9:30] Speaker 3: not sure whether they're going to come back in or not.
[9:32] Speaker 3: I mean, Critter, it would be some effort for him
[9:34] Speaker 3: to come back into that side. Marcello, I'm not sure
[9:37] Speaker 3: where his ankle is at. But what are your thoughts
[9:39] Speaker 3: on that?
[9:40] Speaker 1: Yeah, Coops, you don't see, it'd be some sort of return.
[9:46] Speaker 1: There's two guys that come to mind in this situation.
[9:48] Speaker 1: One is remember ruben Wicki horrifically doing his ankle and
[9:54] Speaker 1: made basically and like he had like he treated himself
[9:58] Speaker 1: through the week with like harv leaves and stuff like that. Anyway,
[10:02] Speaker 1: he played. He played about a week later and did play.
[10:06] Speaker 1: I don't know if he got through the game though.
[10:08] Speaker 1: The big one was Paddy Richards Paddi Richards in the
[10:10] Speaker 1: Grand Final qualifier for the West Tigers and two thousand
[10:14] Speaker 1: and five, mate, did it really bad as bad as
[10:16] Speaker 1: Steven Crichton's And I remember, mate, there's no way he'll
[10:20] Speaker 1: play that week and he was in doubt even the
[10:22] Speaker 1: day before the game. He was in doubt they didn't
[10:24] Speaker 1: think he was going to play. Did the last training
[10:26] Speaker 1: session played, and of course they scored that amazing try double.
[10:30] Speaker 1: It's scored that amazing trio off Benji, so it can
[10:32] Speaker 1: be done. It's funny to see where Cameron Surroldo may
[10:37] Speaker 1: very well look at this game. If this wasn't an eliminator,
[10:41] Speaker 1: I reckon he wouldn't play. He might try to get
[10:45] Speaker 1: him out there. Given the enormity of this game against
[10:49] Speaker 1: I mean, just for his presence Cooper, He's going to
[10:52] Speaker 1: be He's going to be vital up against his old side,
[10:55] Speaker 1: et cetera, etcetera.
[10:56] Speaker 3: I've seen Marcelo Montoya during the week his mother flew
[11:00] Speaker 3: in to treat his ankle, to give it the old
[11:02] Speaker 3: Fiji and massage. Apparently apparently she's quite the masseuse on it.
[11:06] Speaker 3: And I can say I can't speak for our critter
[11:09] Speaker 3: and the Samoan culture, but living with two Karma Cameth,
[11:12] Speaker 3: the Fiji and King I haven't seen. You know, those
[11:17] Speaker 3: Fijians can recover from injuries like I've never seen.
[11:20] Speaker 1: Really.
[11:21] Speaker 3: I've seen Buller like do five week injuries and be
[11:25] Speaker 3: back in literally a week and a half and he's
[11:28] Speaker 3: of the belief Kava and just his DNA was repairing me.
[11:33] Speaker 3: Me and Harry were like, this man is actually in Adonis.
[11:35] Speaker 3: I've never seen anything like it. So Marcelo might be
[11:38] Speaker 3: right to go.
[11:38] Speaker 1: He might be and I see kick out. They wanted
[11:41] Speaker 1: to do a scan on him or an X ray
[11:43] Speaker 1: and he said no, he rejected it with his beliefs
[11:45] Speaker 1: on the face. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[11:47] Speaker 3: And also on the extended bends for Penrith, Mitch Kenny
[11:51] Speaker 3: has been named on that bench. Somerton is still named
[11:53] Speaker 3: at nine, but you'd expect Mitch Kenny to come back in.
[11:57] Speaker 1: I believe my male is he will play, which.
[12:00] Speaker 3: Is a huge in because you could tell they really
[12:02] Speaker 3: missed him, particularly read their attack on the weekend. Not
[12:05] Speaker 3: that some ofton did a bad job, but you could
[12:08] Speaker 3: see what Mitch Kenny brings to that forward pack. He
[12:11] Speaker 3: gives it to Nathan at the right time. He understands
[12:13] Speaker 3: their system better than anyone.
[12:14] Speaker 1: He's the king of their defense.
[12:15] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, this is if.
[12:17] Speaker 1: He takes part in with the Malees before we believe
[12:21] Speaker 1: he's going to be known. It's the first time all
[12:23] Speaker 1: the year Penwouth have been full strength. Is this the
[12:25] Speaker 1: first time it's all about timing.
[12:27] Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's a good time. Okay, let's this Bulldog's
[12:30] Speaker 3: Pendrith game. Where do you how do you think the
[12:34] Speaker 3: teams and the coaches are going to be approaching this game?
[12:36] Speaker 3: What's their headspace and mindset? Let's talk about Penrith first.
[12:39] Speaker 3: How do you think they're going to be feeling come
[12:41] Speaker 3: up against the Dogs this week? Because I think after
[12:43] Speaker 3: they watched that Melbourne game, dogs were quite out of form,
[12:47] Speaker 3: not really a lot of a lot of errors and
[12:49] Speaker 3: not a lot of stuff was sticking. I'm of the
[12:52] Speaker 3: belief that they'd be quietly confident. You can never be
[12:55] Speaker 3: confident going into a finals game, because I think they'd
[12:58] Speaker 3: be they'd be licking their it's a little bit coops.
[13:01] Speaker 1: I think they'd be licking their lips. And no matter
[13:03] Speaker 1: who they played, I think that's there might they might
[13:07] Speaker 1: tend to be. I think still they're still my favorites
[13:10] Speaker 1: because just as I said before, it's the first time
[13:14] Speaker 1: they have been a full strength. The halfback is really now,
[13:20] Speaker 1: you know, playing he's hitting top four. His precision last
[13:25] Speaker 1: week and the Wars made the Wars took it to
[13:28] Speaker 1: him last week. The war was in some ways won
[13:30] Speaker 1: the physical battle, but it's just the precision of Penrith
[13:34] Speaker 1: and Nathan that won it. From so look, as I
[13:37] Speaker 1: said before, mate, like if anything, he'll look and I
[13:41] Speaker 1: think that Ivan will look to him and Nathan look
[13:44] Speaker 1: to change a few things up. Given the fact that
[13:46] Speaker 1: Camera Seraldo, he knows their style of football very very
[13:50] Speaker 1: well on how to defend it, I think you'll see
[13:52] Speaker 1: some variations from the Dog's point of view. Hey look, coops,
[13:55] Speaker 1: you know if you're gonna win the comp, you gotta
[13:57] Speaker 1: beat them, all right, And he'll look at this game
[13:59] Speaker 1: Cameras arouldo. One thing about the Bulldogs excuse the pun
[14:03] Speaker 1: but they play great. When the play great when they
[14:06] Speaker 1: play with a great underdog mentality and they're going to
[14:08] Speaker 1: go out there, it's going to be a huge crowd
[14:11] Speaker 1: in their favor. They're going to be up emotionally, they're
[14:13] Speaker 1: going to play with the energy of a side that's
[14:15] Speaker 1: got nothing to lose, and that gives them a punch chance.
[14:18] Speaker 3: Last week against Melbourne, that first twenty minutes they really
[14:20] Speaker 3: give it like they were real physical with Melbourne. They
[14:22] Speaker 3: kick Chase, they were really good with their defense. I
[14:25] Speaker 3: think if they bring that mentality similar to like the
[14:27] Speaker 3: Wise did to Penrith. They'll look really good. But my
[14:30] Speaker 3: big thing is don't try to out Penrith. Penrith and
[14:33] Speaker 3: we said this last week when they're going down to Melbourne,
[14:36] Speaker 3: you're not going to out don't try to play that
[14:38] Speaker 3: same soul and out grind them. I think they need
[14:40] Speaker 3: to have the same I think they need to change
[14:44] Speaker 3: their mentality this week and they're not about trying to
[14:46] Speaker 3: beat Penrith the last ten minutes where you grind them
[14:48] Speaker 3: down over seventy minutes and then you run away with
[14:50] Speaker 3: the game. Because Penrith have done that consistently for five
[14:53] Speaker 3: years and it's going to be a much harder game
[14:55] Speaker 3: trying to beat them at their own game. To you
[14:58] Speaker 3: need to really disrupt them physically early and then they
[15:01] Speaker 3: need to be playing a lot of good football and
[15:03] Speaker 3: need to be really high skilled because if you're just
[15:06] Speaker 3: sitting there dropping people off and trying to wear them
[15:08] Speaker 3: out fitness wise, they're going to get you in the
[15:10] Speaker 3: back end of the game.
[15:11] Speaker 1: Well. And the other thing about like the other thing
[15:13] Speaker 1: they got to do coops, They've got to start like
[15:15] Speaker 1: you said, start well, but if you can pinch a
[15:18] Speaker 1: try early, you know, pincher try Suddenly you find you
[15:21] Speaker 1: might find yourself eight points clear, mate, against a red
[15:24] Speaker 1: hot favorite that just exerts a little bit of pressure.
[15:26] Speaker 1: I go back to the peak years of Melbourne Storm
[15:29] Speaker 1: right and when Cooper was half back of the Krong variety.
[15:33] Speaker 1: But with Cooper, like Cooper was brilliant at organizing team,
[15:37] Speaker 1: but he would have he'd have a GPS in his
[15:40] Speaker 1: brain out how he wanted and thought the game would go.
[15:44] Speaker 1: But I used to see Coop and that changed the
[15:46] Speaker 1: further got in his career. But early to the mid
[15:51] Speaker 1: part of his career, if he was chasing points, he
[15:53] Speaker 1: looked uncomfortable because had you took him away from the
[15:57] Speaker 1: way that he wanted the game to be played. And
[15:59] Speaker 1: I see similar stuff with Nathan. I see Nathan the
[16:01] Speaker 1: way he builds the game. You know it starts getting
[16:04] Speaker 1: those suffocation sets on and repeats it. But suddenly, mate,
[16:08] Speaker 1: if you find yourself early in the contest six or
[16:11] Speaker 1: eight nil down, then you've got to play with a
[16:12] Speaker 1: bit more urgency. So like last week that the Dogs
[16:16] Speaker 1: cannot do what the Warriors did, Warrior's got got a
[16:21] Speaker 1: penalty early, they're in a position for for an attacking
[16:25] Speaker 1: set and maybe pinch a try early to put pressure
[16:28] Speaker 1: on tenor boy doesn't put it out. It doesn't kicks,
[16:31] Speaker 1: it doesn't make touch unforgivable. Every opportunity you get, you've
[16:36] Speaker 1: got to be down that field. You've got to be
[16:37] Speaker 1: given it some. If you're not scoring points, you've got
[16:39] Speaker 1: to get repeat sets. You've got to start, You've got
[16:42] Speaker 1: to burn them out. You've got to do that. And
[16:44] Speaker 1: you said it before about errors, Cooper, the Dog's defense
[16:49] Speaker 1: is actually good. Structurally is good. I thought against the
[16:52] Speaker 1: last week the Storm dominated yard throughout the game, but
[16:56] Speaker 1: the way they defending their own quarter is very very good.
[17:00] Speaker 1: What's killing them are the errors. Now, I'll go out
[17:03] Speaker 1: to Toby Sexton talk about Sexton's inclusion here, Coops, why
[17:07] Speaker 1: this is important And I took exception of it at
[17:11] Speaker 1: the time. Everyone in removing Toby Sexton and bringing in
[17:18] Speaker 1: Lachland Galvin, they kept putting stats out going, oh, look
[17:22] Speaker 1: at this, he's not creating enough linebreak. It says, look
[17:26] Speaker 1: at this, and that's the reason we've moved him on.
[17:28] Speaker 1: And Galvin's going to make us a better attacking team.
[17:30] Speaker 1: Now that might be the case, That might be the
[17:32] Speaker 1: case as far as ability to score pure points, that
[17:35] Speaker 1: might be the case with Galvin, but Sexton was a
[17:39] Speaker 1: far more was a steady, calming influence. And crucially, when
[17:44] Speaker 1: Sexton was in that football side, they made far less errors.
[17:49] Speaker 1: And at the moment for the want to get their
[17:51] Speaker 1: attack on, they are making so many unforced errors. That's
[17:54] Speaker 1: what's killing them. So if they get out there this
[17:56] Speaker 1: week complete up to around ninety percent, get their defense
[18:00] Speaker 1: on as have been doing. Kick well, mate, they've got
[18:03] Speaker 1: to punch his chance.
[18:04] Speaker 3: Yeah, let's the three key players. Can we talk about
[18:08] Speaker 3: them for a second, Starting with the Bulldogs. I've got
[18:10] Speaker 3: my three key players this week for the Dogs. I
[18:13] Speaker 3: think Maddy Burton, he's named it. Center's my If Crichton
[18:16] Speaker 3: doesn't play, he'll play left center. Bronson Cherry I believe
[18:19] Speaker 3: he's coming back into the side. He'll play right center.
[18:22] Speaker 1: Yep.
[18:23] Speaker 3: But I just think that Dog's left edge, it's their
[18:26] Speaker 3: biggest threat, it's their biggest strength. Kick ol Burton there,
[18:31] Speaker 3: but I think Burdo's got to get a bit more involved,
[18:33] Speaker 3: and I I think he looked when he went to center.
[18:37] Speaker 3: I thought he looked really good. He was running the
[18:39] Speaker 3: foot he put him under a man's pressure Melbourne. But
[18:42] Speaker 3: we said it last week. I think he's got to
[18:43] Speaker 3: bring I think Siro's got to tell him to bring
[18:46] Speaker 3: out the torpedo. I cannot wrap my head. And I
[18:49] Speaker 3: understand that they want to build into this grinding game
[18:52] Speaker 3: like Penrith do. But he has a weapon that no
[18:55] Speaker 3: one else in the NFL has and they're just not
[18:57] Speaker 3: using it.
[18:57] Speaker 1: Well, Koby's one of my three key men. Two. I'll
[19:00] Speaker 1: jump in there for he's one of mine. For the
[19:02] Speaker 1: same reason, Dylan Edwards is suddenly having a bit of
[19:05] Speaker 1: a dip in confidence as far as that high ball
[19:07] Speaker 1: is concerned. He had it a few years ago and
[19:10] Speaker 1: suddenly he's just I can see there's a bit of uncertainty. Well,
[19:13] Speaker 1: Burder mate, there it is like, although you're playing center
[19:17] Speaker 1: in yardage sets, put yourself in position for that last
[19:20] Speaker 1: tackle kick and don't place it fucking whack the thing
[19:24] Speaker 1: towards the stars.
[19:25] Speaker 3: Yeah, well, if he did it at origin towards the sun.
[19:27] Speaker 3: When he played origin at center, they did the same thing.
[19:30] Speaker 3: They'd get him to come in field, Nathan a two
[19:31] Speaker 3: passed it to him, he'd whack him up and Klem
[19:34] Speaker 3: was at the back from maroons and they just couldn't
[19:37] Speaker 3: get it on the fall because it's that odd. I
[19:38] Speaker 3: don't know why they're not wanted, whether it's his left
[19:42] Speaker 3: knee problem and he's not able to hit it as far, but.
[19:45] Speaker 1: No, I think he's got a bit of it. Like
[19:47] Speaker 1: you know, it's like with terms that they want to
[19:49] Speaker 1: place the ball in a place, let's place it.
[19:51] Speaker 3: There's a time and a place for that cure. Like
[19:54] Speaker 3: maybe the first fifteen to twenty minutes the building of
[19:56] Speaker 3: the game. Sure, don't bring it out. But after that,
[19:58] Speaker 3: when there's a bit of fatigue and you want to
[20:00] Speaker 3: out to like force errors and start to put a
[20:03] Speaker 3: bit of doubt in the back three his mind. He
[20:05] Speaker 3: needs to be pulled into least at least using it
[20:07] Speaker 3: two or three times a game.
[20:08] Speaker 1: They're not using it at all, Coop, I wouldn't be
[20:09] Speaker 1: placing the ball at all of him anything from fifty
[20:12] Speaker 1: five meters out. Don't place it, jam it, torpedo it, mate.
[20:16] Speaker 1: We need something to win this game. We're not going
[20:18] Speaker 1: to win the game playing percentages. We've got to force
[20:20] Speaker 1: eerrors out of them. We've going to dominate possession. That's
[20:23] Speaker 1: one of the ways we do it.
[20:24] Speaker 3: My next one is Bill Kickout. I think kickout I
[20:27] Speaker 3: thought he was their biggest attacking threat against Melbourne. I
[20:30] Speaker 3: think he's going to be such a big way that
[20:33] Speaker 3: they're going to want to play against Penrith, particularly getting
[20:35] Speaker 3: it Nathan, making Nathan make a lot of tackles and
[20:38] Speaker 3: he just attracts so many defenders and gets quick play
[20:40] Speaker 3: the balls and she just happens around him. He gets
[20:43] Speaker 3: off loads, he gets quick play the balls. I think
[20:45] Speaker 3: they're going to want to use him for that. And
[20:46] Speaker 3: then my third was kind of Tracy. I think Nathan's
[20:50] Speaker 3: kicking game is so important. You saw him build a
[20:53] Speaker 3: lot of repeat sets last week against the Warriors. Charles
[20:55] Speaker 3: Nikol Klocksdad did a really good job at saving a
[20:57] Speaker 3: lot of tries off grubbers. I think that it's going
[21:00] Speaker 3: to be a big job for Tracy this week in
[21:03] Speaker 3: order to diffuse a lot of their attacking kick threats.
[21:05] Speaker 1: Biggest biggest challenge of Connor Tracy's career because he coming
[21:10] Speaker 1: through it was a half but a little bit of
[21:12] Speaker 1: center like a fullback. Although he's had in months, there's
[21:15] Speaker 1: still a newish position for him, particularly at this level,
[21:19] Speaker 1: so he's going to be subjected to all this array
[21:22] Speaker 1: of attacking kicks from Nathan. He's going to be he's
[21:25] Speaker 1: going to have to handle those giant bombs, those dead
[21:28] Speaker 1: ball bombs that he puts up, and he's going to
[21:31] Speaker 1: be in charge of protecting the forty twenty. He's got
[21:33] Speaker 1: a massive job. My other two is Tobe Sexton for
[21:36] Speaker 1: the reasons we just spoke about, and Liomy kick out
[21:39] Speaker 1: Billy kickout he had last week. He had Jonah Peasant
[21:43] Speaker 1: in front of him. They just didn't do it enough.
[21:45] Speaker 1: Every time they gave him. Every time they opened the
[21:47] Speaker 1: field up to the far touch line to open the
[21:50] Speaker 1: spaces up and got him the ball one on one,
[21:52] Speaker 1: he caused problems. They just didn't do it enough.
[21:55] Speaker 3: My pen with three, I like it through these ones
[21:57] Speaker 3: a little bit quicker. Moses Lioda yep. I think up front,
[22:00] Speaker 3: particularly with that he was really strong for him upfront
[22:04] Speaker 3: against the Wires last week. And I think there's bulldogs
[22:06] Speaker 3: pack They're not as big as the Wires, so I
[22:09] Speaker 3: think Leodo is going to have a huge impact going
[22:12] Speaker 3: after a lot of their big boys, particularly Maxi King,
[22:14] Speaker 3: Him and Maxi King going at it. My two obvious
[22:17] Speaker 3: reasons Nathan Cleary. He's kicking game proved the difference against
[22:21] Speaker 3: the Warriors last week and I think he's going to
[22:23] Speaker 3: want to play the same game. But I think the
[22:25] Speaker 3: most important player on the field for Penwick this week
[22:27] Speaker 3: is Brian Totter for the reason obviously we know what
[22:30] Speaker 3: he does out of the backfield, his meter oriadge and
[22:32] Speaker 3: all that, but that left edge blaze to lungey Casey
[22:37] Speaker 3: McLain AND's on the wing there. They are relatively new edge.
[22:41] Speaker 3: If I'm an attacking half, particularly in finals this time
[22:44] Speaker 3: of the year, that's the edge you want to set up.
[22:46] Speaker 3: You want to hit Nathan's edge and then you want
[22:48] Speaker 3: to attack that edge because they've leaked a lot of
[22:50] Speaker 3: points this year.
[22:51] Speaker 1: Bizzi.
[22:52] Speaker 3: They've put Bizza there because he started on the other side.
[22:54] Speaker 3: They've put Bizsi there for his defensive experience to try
[22:57] Speaker 3: to help those two young lads, and I think he's
[23:01] Speaker 3: the most important player defensively for Penrith to help those
[23:05] Speaker 3: boys defensively.
[23:05] Speaker 1: Yeah, I got I've gone. I've got Nathan for all
[23:07] Speaker 1: the reason if he spoke about I've gone, I've gone
[23:10] Speaker 1: a Brian Toto bron to. Given the fact that the
[23:13] Speaker 1: Dogs you can't stop him, You've got to minimize him.
[23:16] Speaker 1: If the dogs can have him, have him run for
[23:20] Speaker 1: less than two hundred meters, they've done outstanding job. And
[23:22] Speaker 1: I'll tell you how I would defend a Bizzer bron
[23:26] Speaker 1: Toto is that I would be the tal malolo rule
[23:29] Speaker 1: that Melbourne did is that mate, he's hit him low
[23:32] Speaker 1: right his post contact meters. He just drives through the
[23:36] Speaker 1: line against position. Mate, chop him down with the league's
[23:39] Speaker 1: tackle from Markert's side on. Yeah, that's what you do.
[23:41] Speaker 1: Stop his momentum immediately.
[23:43] Speaker 3: I agree. He's so hard to tackle if you're trying
[23:45] Speaker 3: to get him up top and wrestle him to the ground,
[23:47] Speaker 3: if you have to sacrifice him, not putting him on
[23:50] Speaker 3: his back in order to save meters, because so many
[23:53] Speaker 3: people go high and they try to wrest them to
[23:55] Speaker 3: the ground, but he just breaks tackles and keeps leg
[23:57] Speaker 3: driving through. You've got your markers. You've got to stress
[23:59] Speaker 3: to your markers in that first aid defender get up
[24:02] Speaker 3: and you've got to dive straight into his leads.
[24:03] Speaker 1: So true. And my other one, Cooper is Isaiah. Isaiah
[24:07] Speaker 1: are more than any other more than any other player,
[24:11] Speaker 1: even Nathan cleary. He's the decision maker whether the ball
[24:14] Speaker 1: goes north south or east west. And when he's really
[24:17] Speaker 1: got it on, they look fantastic like that. They there,
[24:21] Speaker 1: they win of their games. When he's a little off,
[24:25] Speaker 1: and I've seen it sometimes a little bit off, they
[24:27] Speaker 1: get two past centric and two sideways. So he's a
[24:30] Speaker 1: crucial man.
[24:31] Speaker 3: Okay, how if this next one, I want to ask
[24:35] Speaker 3: the Bulldogs and Panels will start with Bulldogs. If Bulldogs
[24:38] Speaker 3: are to win this game, how do you see them winning?
[24:41] Speaker 1: I see them, I see them getting off to really
[24:43] Speaker 1: fast art. Well, we're talking about getting an early lead,
[24:46] Speaker 1: applying applying scoreboard pressure and then mate, just eliminate urrus
[24:55] Speaker 1: at the end of the if they win the game,
[24:57] Speaker 1: we get to the end of the game, I look
[24:58] Speaker 1: at the statue and I go, mate, what about that
[25:00] Speaker 1: any made two errors in the whole game. That's what
[25:02] Speaker 1: they've got to do to give themselves a chance. They've
[25:04] Speaker 1: got to kick well, put in the corners. They've got
[25:06] Speaker 1: to attack Penrith with their energy. And the other thing
[25:10] Speaker 1: with the football coop, it's imperative. They've got to get
[25:13] Speaker 1: forward early. They've got to get forward. If if Bronson
[25:17] Speaker 1: Cherry is a big inn. He's a great he's a
[25:19] Speaker 1: great yard. He so one of the best in the competition.
[25:22] Speaker 1: If if he and Jacob kraz can get forward in
[25:25] Speaker 1: early tackles, then that allows their smaller fast to pack
[25:28] Speaker 1: the ball play a little bit, you know, and they
[25:29] Speaker 1: can cause a lot of problems there and on with you.
[25:32] Speaker 1: It's attacking that right head. You know. Last week we
[25:36] Speaker 1: saw Broncos applied a lot of pressure to and and
[25:42] Speaker 1: to the and of the Raiders young guys, the young
[25:45] Speaker 1: guys in the side, blokes who had been outstanding all
[25:48] Speaker 1: season for the Raiders, when the pressure really got on,
[25:50] Speaker 1: they tightened up. They've got to do that with Blaze.
[25:52] Speaker 1: They've got to go a Blaze a lot. This is
[25:54] Speaker 1: his biggest chance.
[25:56] Speaker 3: I think that's the Bulldogs. That's where they've got to attack.
[25:59] Speaker 3: I think you'll see them that right edge of I
[26:02] Speaker 3: believe it's Galvin Preston, it'll be Bronson Cherry if crit
[26:07] Speaker 3: is not there, and then I don't know who's on
[26:09] Speaker 3: that right wing, but they're they're the four that are
[26:12] Speaker 3: going to have to attack that and particularly that space
[26:14] Speaker 3: between Casey McLain and Blaze to lunging attacking and putting
[26:18] Speaker 3: pressure in between there, because if those two lose confidence,
[26:21] Speaker 3: it's going to put so much pressure on Bizia and
[26:23] Speaker 3: the back roller on that side as well. Ye who wins.
[26:27] Speaker 1: Coops, it's it's it's I give I give the dogs
[26:31] Speaker 1: a punches chance. But I gave for Penrith simply because Cooper.
[26:36] Speaker 1: Number one is because they've got a pretty decent seven.
[26:41] Speaker 1: But the other one is the Panthers need to do
[26:44] Speaker 1: We'll put it this way. They don't need to have
[26:47] Speaker 1: a lot of things. They don't need luck or a
[26:50] Speaker 1: lot of things to go their way to win. To
[26:52] Speaker 1: win football, big football games, they've got the template. They
[26:55] Speaker 1: know how to do it if they can just they've
[26:57] Speaker 1: got those suffocation sets that they just apply and they
[26:59] Speaker 1: just meant a lot of positions doing it that way.
[27:01] Speaker 1: But if the Panthers you own a big games. If
[27:03] Speaker 1: the Panthers just defend well, really strong in the yardage
[27:07] Speaker 1: and regularly get Nathan into attack positions, I don't know
[27:11] Speaker 1: who beats them.
[27:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, I've got Panoth as well. I think
[27:16] Speaker 3: watching what Nathan did with his kicking game last week,
[27:18] Speaker 3: and at this time of the year, you just know
[27:21] Speaker 3: they're not going to beat themselves throughout the year, they
[27:24] Speaker 3: beat themselves a hell of a lot of times. I
[27:26] Speaker 3: think they've got this finals experience and they've got all
[27:28] Speaker 3: their troops back, They've got the best half back, probably
[27:31] Speaker 3: best player in the world. I think they are not
[27:34] Speaker 3: going to beat themselves. And I don't know if I
[27:37] Speaker 3: think for Bulldogs to beat them, they're going to have
[27:39] Speaker 3: they'd want parents to be a little bit.
[27:40] Speaker 1: Off and Coops. The big home crowd for the Bulldogs
[27:45] Speaker 1: seventy thousand plus, which you will be ninety pm Bulldogs fans,
[27:49] Speaker 1: they'll relish that. They'll just they'll revel'll be out there.
[27:51] Speaker 1: I'll love the atmosphere. No, no, Coops. We're still working
[27:57] Speaker 1: out we're talking about doing outside broadcasts outside.
[27:59] Speaker 3: The ground because we're going to do it. Last last
[28:01] Speaker 3: week in camera, a lot of our listeners got in
[28:02] Speaker 3: touch because we shouted out they're doing an outside broadcast
[28:05] Speaker 3: and they were looking for you.
[28:07] Speaker 1: Yeah, well what happens, Coops. It was logistics what happened.
[28:11] Speaker 1: We wanted to actually be able to get in to
[28:13] Speaker 1: the ground do some interviews and stuff like that, but
[28:16] Speaker 1: there were logistics reasons why we couldn't do it. As
[28:18] Speaker 1: far as TV rights and whatnot, So it got shelved.
[28:21] Speaker 3: On race Man who wins?
[28:24] Speaker 2: Just quickly my camera's gone, so sorry to all the viewers.
[28:27] Speaker 3: That's all right.
[28:27] Speaker 2: I'll just leave you on Coop for the time being.
[28:30] Speaker 2: I've gone a different flavor, flavor Saver. Flavor Saver. I
[28:34] Speaker 2: think a couple of crucial mistakes last week by the
[28:38] Speaker 2: Wise I think cost them McLean and scored off the
[28:41] Speaker 2: back of that. I like the way the Doggies play.
[28:44] Speaker 2: Think in front of that crowd, they'll be like, they'll
[28:46] Speaker 2: be up for the moment. So I'm going for the
[28:48] Speaker 2: Underdoggies does too, Dogies, we can use that one as
[28:51] Speaker 2: a buddy doggie style.
[28:54] Speaker 1: You've always been a dog you man, absolutely as opposed
[28:57] Speaker 1: to a reverse cowgirl. That's take. I was just watching
[29:01] Speaker 1: World War Z before. What a wonderful movie. Brad Pitt,
[29:04] Speaker 1: And there's a scene in the movie where he goes
[29:08] Speaker 1: to this guy because Israel built the wall to stop
[29:12] Speaker 1: the zombies going in, and he said, how did you know?
[29:15] Speaker 1: And he said, well, word comes through from India that
[29:17] Speaker 1: there's a zombie thing happening. He went, yeah, well, why
[29:20] Speaker 1: did you believe that? He said, because we do what
[29:22] Speaker 1: we do now we have ten guys in the room,
[29:24] Speaker 1: and nine of them's job was to say that's ridiculous,
[29:28] Speaker 1: and there's one that's got to have account of you
[29:30] Speaker 1: and try to talk him into it. He said, oh,
[29:31] Speaker 1: it was the count of you, and you ras Man
[29:34] Speaker 1: are the count of you.
[29:35] Speaker 2: So if they win standing up for the Doggies fans
[29:38] Speaker 2: when anyone else will.
[29:39] Speaker 3: One of the great one of the great anal.
[29:42] Speaker 1: Analogies, mate, comparing you to Brad Pitt and comparing the
[29:46] Speaker 1: game on Sunday to World Wars.
[29:48] Speaker 3: My favorite scene in that is when Brad Pitt looks
[29:51] Speaker 3: across and he sees all the zombies running past that
[29:53] Speaker 3: sick kid, and he realizes that if you infect yourself
[29:57] Speaker 3: with some sort of like the only cure for the
[30:00] Speaker 3: zombiess so they don't infect you as you did. We'll
[30:03] Speaker 3: google that flash if the only cur is to be
[30:08] Speaker 3: sick because the zombies they don't want to touch sick blood.
[30:12] Speaker 1: Very interesting collective beggars can't be choosing, can they.
[30:15] Speaker 3: That's what I thought at one point zombies. He would
[30:17] Speaker 3: have thought zombies would be such picky assholes. Friday night game, Yes,
[30:22] Speaker 3: Friday Night, it's actually for foot it's actually Saturday this game. Sorry, Yeah,
[30:27] Speaker 3: that's right, Canberra week after Friday. Yeah, yeah, Canberra versus
[30:30] Speaker 3: the Sharks. Let's talk about. Look, Canberra is completely unchanged.
[30:35] Speaker 3: I thought maybe they may have had a couple of
[30:37] Speaker 3: injuries given the extent of that ninety minute battle they
[30:41] Speaker 3: have with the Broncos. Sharks are unchanged except Tom Hazelton
[30:45] Speaker 3: has been named on the extended bench. I'm not sure
[30:48] Speaker 3: whether he comes back in or not. Hazel maybe come
[30:50] Speaker 3: onto the bench for him, be a little good inclusion
[30:53] Speaker 3: because Hazel and I can find the white line mate.
[30:55] Speaker 1: He and were steady on there, mate they Yeah, Hazel's mate,
[31:02] Speaker 1: Nichols he just made always gets across.
[31:04] Speaker 3: There are some good tri scoring front rowers in the
[31:06] Speaker 3: modern game at the moment, and a lot of them unathletic.
[31:11] Speaker 1: But Adam fanil Blake he's another one. Ad He's very athletic.
[31:15] Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you put yourself? Let's start with the
[31:18] Speaker 3: Sharks for a second. If you're the Sharks, great Fitzgibbon
[31:21] Speaker 3: and the team, how do you think they're going to
[31:23] Speaker 3: how do you think they're feeling coming up against the
[31:24] Speaker 3: minor premiers Raiders this week? Because I believe off the
[31:29] Speaker 3: back of that Broncos game, that crucial ninety five minute
[31:32] Speaker 3: game into a six day turnaround where they play Sunday
[31:35] Speaker 3: into a Saturday game. I am confident. I'm taking a
[31:41] Speaker 3: lot of confidence into this game. Shark's playing a good style,
[31:43] Speaker 3: and I think if there's a time to go after
[31:46] Speaker 3: the minor premiers, it's probably now.
[31:48] Speaker 1: Well a lot of the times what you do coop
[31:50] Speaker 1: when when you'd play, we certainly do it with a
[31:54] Speaker 1: Knights back in our day when we played. If you
[31:55] Speaker 1: played a semi semi final on one day, the next day,
[32:00] Speaker 1: you all gather together as a team to watch who's
[32:03] Speaker 1: going to play next week? Yeah? Yeah, mate. They would
[32:05] Speaker 1: have been sitting there in double extra time or in
[32:07] Speaker 1: the golden point just going yeah, how maybe not like that,
[32:11] Speaker 1: but mate, how good is this? Just keep burning each
[32:14] Speaker 1: other out, So they would be they'd be going to
[32:17] Speaker 1: a lot of confidence.
[32:18] Speaker 3: Because physically it's it's obviously this time of the year,
[32:21] Speaker 3: that physical game, because that was outside of the ninety
[32:24] Speaker 3: five minutes, it was a battle like. It was a
[32:27] Speaker 3: high intense eighty minutes.
[32:28] Speaker 1: Full stop day football. See.
[32:30] Speaker 3: But I think the emotional dam like those Raiders boys
[32:34] Speaker 3: you know. They they were very they were They had
[32:36] Speaker 3: some controversial calls against them in a heartbreaking up and
[32:40] Speaker 3: down roller coaster game. They've got a lot to leave
[32:43] Speaker 3: behind them and move on to the next week in
[32:45] Speaker 3: only six days. Yeah, they would have been stewing for
[32:47] Speaker 3: a couple of days after that game gone bloody, helt like,
[32:50] Speaker 3: pissed off about some of the ref calls, pissed off
[32:53] Speaker 3: about some of the other scenarios in the game. It
[32:55] Speaker 3: takes a lot to drop all of that, leave that
[32:58] Speaker 3: at the door and go, guys. We got a job
[33:00] Speaker 3: in six days to keep our season alive, to make
[33:02] Speaker 3: it to a prelimp final.
[33:04] Speaker 1: Yeah, it does. It's been a both of their sides
[33:07] Speaker 1: are coming from such a different mindset, like the Sharks are.
[33:10] Speaker 1: The Sharks are surging. Sharks are playing their best football,
[33:13] Speaker 1: they have for years best under Crow fitz Gibbon. They're
[33:16] Speaker 1: playing great football. Mate, They're in a roll. They've won
[33:20] Speaker 1: eight from their last nine. They've just they've just had
[33:23] Speaker 1: a big win over the Roosters, mate, They've just sat
[33:25] Speaker 1: and watched the Raiders put himselves through hell then, you know,
[33:29] Speaker 1: and for the last hurdle there against the Broncos, they're
[33:32] Speaker 1: going to mate. They'll go down there super confident. The Raiders,
[33:36] Speaker 1: on the other hand, they're going to put themselves back
[33:39] Speaker 1: together a little bit, but they've got the right coach
[33:41] Speaker 1: to do it.
[33:42] Speaker 3: How do you think the Raiders will see this game then,
[33:44] Speaker 3: because they've played the Sharks once this year. It was
[33:47] Speaker 3: a tight game in round five, twenty four to twenty.
[33:49] Speaker 3: They beat them. The Raiders, they scored a try in
[33:51] Speaker 3: the seventy eighth minute, actually pinch it to win. How
[33:54] Speaker 3: do you think they are viewing the Sharks because they
[33:57] Speaker 3: are flying at the moment show.
[33:58] Speaker 1: I don't think Ricky will put much emphasis on the Sharks.
[34:02] Speaker 1: I think he'll spend all these energies on his own side.
[34:05] Speaker 1: Like if you watch him last week, and we spoke
[34:08] Speaker 1: about this in the review, if the Raiders had just
[34:11] Speaker 1: kept playing football, didn't tighten up like what they're doing.
[34:15] Speaker 1: They just look at the rear vision American Mate, the
[34:17] Speaker 1: Broncos are coming. When it went when it was twenty
[34:20] Speaker 1: six fourteen, I think it was twenty eight to twelve
[34:23] Speaker 1: or twenty eighth when they were within twelve points, I
[34:28] Speaker 1: don't know if who was commentat was a Dangana in
[34:29] Speaker 1: the country, but he went, oh, mate, this game is
[34:33] Speaker 1: not over yet. Well, there was no about nine minutes
[34:36] Speaker 1: to go, Like, really, they should have been able to
[34:39] Speaker 1: They should have hang on and if and when, I'm
[34:42] Speaker 1: sorry I've used the wrong termy hang on is not
[34:45] Speaker 1: the right word. They should have kept playing. That's been
[34:48] Speaker 1: one of the great things about the Raiders this year.
[34:50] Speaker 1: Come hello, high water. Regardless of the circumstance, they've played
[34:53] Speaker 1: their football. I think Ricky will go away, what's that
[34:55] Speaker 1: game and say, hey, boys, look at that. If we
[34:59] Speaker 1: just kept playing foota ball, we win, maybe even comfortably.
[35:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, and I agree. It was twenty eight to twelve
[35:05] Speaker 3: with fifteen minutes to go. I think in that game,
[35:08] Speaker 3: any any side would go we've blown a sixteen point
[35:11] Speaker 3: lead in fifteen minutes, despite of you know, the Hudson
[35:15] Speaker 3: Young Resold situation before that, despite any of the penalties
[35:18] Speaker 3: that led up to that moment that people are sort
[35:20] Speaker 3: of blowing up about. That doesn't matter. They're still up
[35:22] Speaker 3: by sixteen points for fifteen to go. That the stuff
[35:25] Speaker 3: that happened before that had no impact on how they
[35:28] Speaker 3: should have handled that fifteen minute scenario. And you practice
[35:31] Speaker 3: that all the time of training fifteen minute scenario. How
[35:34] Speaker 3: do we ice teams out? How do we put the
[35:35] Speaker 3: pressure on them, turn them over in the corner, keep playing.
[35:39] Speaker 3: But they just they didn't handle that scenario.
[35:41] Speaker 1: Broncos were eleven at one point and that's where the
[35:45] Speaker 1: raid is. You just go, mate, let's just go for
[35:47] Speaker 1: these blakes. Let's say the raid like if you look
[35:49] Speaker 1: at kaya weeks, try just for just for a half time,
[35:52] Speaker 1: he comes off his right foot and just waltz us
[35:54] Speaker 1: through because the Raiders forwards were out on their feet.
[35:57] Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the Broncos forwards right on their feet. So
[36:00] Speaker 1: boys like Ricky will show them in the video and say,
[36:02] Speaker 1: have a look at them. They were gone. Mate, we
[36:04] Speaker 1: beat ourselves. Come on, let's get out this week. We've
[36:07] Speaker 1: been the best. We've been the best side all season.
[36:12] Speaker 1: You don't turn into a bad side overnight just by
[36:14] Speaker 1: one loss. Let's get out there and game. Yeah, they'll
[36:17] Speaker 1: be they'll be really confident.
[36:18] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm keen to see how they approach his game.
[36:20] Speaker 3: Three key players. Let's start with the Sharks boys. Who
[36:24] Speaker 3: who's your top.
[36:25] Speaker 1: Three trendle Yep is one for obvious reasons, like last
[36:28] Speaker 1: week he played I think probably the great best games
[36:32] Speaker 1: ever played in in our role player. Yeah, he was superb.
[36:35] Speaker 1: The past selection was was tip top really good. He's
[36:39] Speaker 1: he's he's really important. He and Nico and Blake Brawley
[36:42] Speaker 1: are found. They've found combination which.
[36:44] Speaker 3: I'll jump into you because he's mine as well. Tricky
[36:47] Speaker 3: Tricky Trendle obviously played great last week, but I think
[36:51] Speaker 3: he's my most important player because the edge that he's
[36:54] Speaker 3: attacking this week is that Raiders right edge. Yeah, Reese
[36:58] Speaker 3: Walsh put a clinic on against last week. All the pressure,
[37:01] Speaker 3: all the clips that FITZI be showing that edge this
[37:04] Speaker 3: week is that's the side they want to attack too.
[37:07] Speaker 3: That's the side who's going to be low on confidence.
[37:09] Speaker 3: They're at the young edge. The other side has been
[37:12] Speaker 3: defending quite well for the Raiders. That is the key
[37:15] Speaker 3: weakness at the moment. And Tricky is a big Tricky
[37:18] Speaker 3: has been awesome with the footio and him and Malatalo
[37:21] Speaker 3: have been deadly together. I think that those two were
[37:23] Speaker 3: really important, well.
[37:24] Speaker 1: Probably for me, the most vital men for the Raiders.
[37:27] Speaker 1: While what you were just talking about there is Jamal Foggery, right,
[37:33] Speaker 1: So if I'm FITZI I'm saying just tricky boys. Just
[37:37] Speaker 1: keep going at him, keep going mate, like because last
[37:40] Speaker 1: week when when the Broncos just kept going at him
[37:43] Speaker 1: and creating things in and around him, I think that
[37:46] Speaker 1: really affected his composure and attack. And he's the most
[37:49] Speaker 1: important bloke with the attack. They've got a ruffle his
[37:51] Speaker 1: feathers to affect the Raider's composure. So yeah, trendle. Secondly,
[37:55] Speaker 1: Ronaldo Malatalo may love that bloke, just love his atitude.
[37:59] Speaker 1: The way you plays. He brings the vibe, he brings
[38:02] Speaker 1: the menace. Swagger, swagger, mate, He'll be out there, he'll
[38:05] Speaker 1: be sledging and going. So Ronaldo is mine. My second
[38:09] Speaker 1: one and third one is Adam Fanil Blake. Again almost
[38:12] Speaker 1: the same as last week, but Filla Blake is just
[38:15] Speaker 1: a phenomenon.
[38:15] Speaker 3: Big job for him this week too. That Raiders pack
[38:18] Speaker 3: is huge. That Raiders pack is huge, and they are
[38:20] Speaker 3: firing at the moment. Tarpani and Papoli up front, Hawsebrot Locke.
[38:24] Speaker 3: He's Adam is the bloke who can really enforce those
[38:29] Speaker 3: like He's he's so dominant, he's he's got so much
[38:32] Speaker 3: leg speed. He's the one who can really give it
[38:34] Speaker 3: to him. My other two for Sharks were Blake Brayley.
[38:37] Speaker 3: I think he's scooping gear along with him and Tricky.
[38:40] Speaker 3: I think he's so deadly in the middle, similar to
[38:42] Speaker 3: Tommy Starling, how they play very nippy, very crafty around
[38:46] Speaker 3: the rock. He can cause a lot of disruption. And
[38:48] Speaker 3: then my third, same as you, Adam Vanil Blake.
[38:50] Speaker 1: Yeah, Raiders, I've gone most important Jamal Foggery. Last week
[38:56] Speaker 1: they lost, they lost their composure. A lot of the
[38:58] Speaker 1: young guys tightened up a little. But that's his domain.
[39:01] Speaker 1: He's got to have that composure in and in extra
[39:04] Speaker 1: time a golden point when they'll search him for that
[39:06] Speaker 1: big play where they was searching for the field gold.
[39:09] Speaker 1: They just lost their composure. Again, that's that's Jamals. That
[39:14] Speaker 1: that's his that's his domain. He's got to get that right.
[39:17] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[39:17] Speaker 1: The other one Josh Papalee, Big Papa. The reason why,
[39:21] Speaker 1: the reason why Billy took him into Origin camp for
[39:24] Speaker 1: that last game was he needed something special. Took him
[39:27] Speaker 1: in for his presence and his leadership. So you know
[39:31] Speaker 1: he's a big one for him. And the third one
[39:33] Speaker 1: is Ethan Strange. We talked about Ronaldo brings the vibe.
[39:36] Speaker 1: I reckon, Ethan Strange brings us the energy and the vibe.
[39:39] Speaker 1: And I thought with Ethan last week, I thought he
[39:41] Speaker 1: was excellent in the first sixty six minutes. I reckon.
[39:44] Speaker 1: When I reckon, he was a little bit symbolic of
[39:47] Speaker 1: how they stopped playing. He sort of went into your
[39:49] Speaker 1: shell a little bit. Mate. If I'd be saying to Ethan, hey,
[39:52] Speaker 1: brother mate, you've been outstanding this year, mate, and I
[39:57] Speaker 1: need you even in the type moments I'll accept in
[39:59] Speaker 1: their I need you to keep playing football. And b Ethan.
[40:02] Speaker 3: Strange my three for Raiders Hudson Young. I thought he
[40:06] Speaker 3: was their best player last week on the field. I
[40:08] Speaker 3: think he's he's the real leader for that left edge
[40:11] Speaker 3: as well. And I think he brings out the best
[40:13] Speaker 3: in Ethan Strange because he's so skillful. How do you
[40:17] Speaker 3: used to play a bit in the halves growing up
[40:19] Speaker 3: as well, so he kind of got a halves mentality
[40:21] Speaker 3: at different times. You can see that when he brings
[40:23] Speaker 3: out his little sort, kicking.
[40:24] Speaker 1: Out another better half that came out of Hunter Valley
[40:26] Speaker 1: than Nick White.
[40:29] Speaker 3: Shout out of you.
[40:30] Speaker 2: Nick.
[40:30] Speaker 3: Who Number two for me is Kayle Weeks. I think
[40:34] Speaker 3: he's provides so much X factor for him, But I
[40:36] Speaker 3: think he's going to be the most important player on
[40:38] Speaker 3: the field because he'd be kicking himself a little bit
[40:40] Speaker 3: last week with whilst she kicking two forty twenties on him. Yep,
[40:44] Speaker 3: you know a lot of the time that's the fullbacks
[40:46] Speaker 3: role to get those back three working together to shut
[40:48] Speaker 3: down those threats. And I have no doubt Trindle and
[40:51] Speaker 3: Nico they like going for that early kick, that early
[40:53] Speaker 3: forty twenty, so I think they'll be reviewing and seeing
[40:56] Speaker 3: some opportunities around that this week. And then my number three,
[40:59] Speaker 3: Josh Papali as well. I think you know, with we
[41:02] Speaker 3: spoke about Faniel Blake on the other side, Papaly in Tarpani,
[41:06] Speaker 3: they'll be looking at Fanil Blake and Rudolph who were
[41:08] Speaker 3: instrumental last week, and they're going to want to really
[41:11] Speaker 3: give it to those Blakes this week if they're to win.
[41:14] Speaker 1: What's the verdict who wins it?
[41:16] Speaker 3: I'm going the Sharkies. I've got the sharks and thoughts
[41:20] Speaker 3: I said, well, I said it in the preview for
[41:24] Speaker 3: last week's game with Broncos Raiders. I said, whoever wins
[41:28] Speaker 3: this game is going to go to the Grand Final.
[41:30] Speaker 3: Whoever loses it are going to be so physically damaged
[41:33] Speaker 3: after what I thought was going to be a really
[41:35] Speaker 3: physical game that I thought they were going to beat.
[41:37] Speaker 3: I'm just sticking with my guns with that. I think.
[41:40] Speaker 3: I think Sharkis are looking really fresh at the moment.
[41:43] Speaker 3: They're going on a They've got a long They've got
[41:45] Speaker 3: a seven day turnaround. Raider's got a six day turnaround
[41:47] Speaker 3: on the back of a hard game. I think the
[41:49] Speaker 3: Sharkis are full of confidence, and I think they're going
[41:51] Speaker 3: to get it done.
[41:52] Speaker 1: I'm going to gather Raiders Raiders given the fact that,
[41:56] Speaker 1: like I said before, they've been the best season, all
[41:59] Speaker 1: best team all year, I reckon, excuse me, I'm back
[42:04] Speaker 1: and thank you, thanks and thank you Rasmond, and I'm
[42:09] Speaker 1: back in them to learn the lessons from last week.
[42:11] Speaker 1: I'm back in the fact that they can sit down
[42:12] Speaker 1: in the video session, right, I'd be really disappointed. But
[42:16] Speaker 1: one of the things that can pull them together and
[42:17] Speaker 1: get themselves back together again is looking at the video
[42:20] Speaker 1: and saying, hey, we beat ourselves. Correct, we just if
[42:23] Speaker 1: we kept doing what we've done through the year and
[42:25] Speaker 1: kept playing football under pressure, we win the football game
[42:29] Speaker 1: and The other thing is make Canberra playing the Raiders
[42:32] Speaker 1: at home at night. I think is as tough as
[42:36] Speaker 1: beating the Melbourne Storm at home at night back in
[42:38] Speaker 1: their peak. Yars Rasmund, what do you think?
[42:43] Speaker 2: Right? Just quickly before I give you my verdict. I
[42:46] Speaker 2: noticed on the comments last week someone called you up
[42:49] Speaker 2: for saying Papali and it said, it's actually Papa to
[42:54] Speaker 2: give you credit for, you know, always adapting and evolving,
[42:57] Speaker 2: learning every day. You're not You're not a perfect person.
[43:00] Speaker 1: At least as opposed to the old man man.
[43:05] Speaker 2: I'm going the milk because everyone loves some milk and
[43:09] Speaker 2: they're everyone second favorite team, so they're going to bounce back.
[43:12] Speaker 1: Do you know the old camera milk they used to have.
[43:14] Speaker 1: There used to be a camera. Miok brought thing out
[43:16] Speaker 1: called Camera Lime. It was lime flavored milk which was delicious.
[43:20] Speaker 1: So you'd walk in the sheds before the game, and
[43:21] Speaker 1: you know, like like before the games, you wouldn't you
[43:25] Speaker 1: wouldn't have breakfast because you're nervous. But when you're get
[43:28] Speaker 1: in the sheds, it's an now full kickoff. Suddenly you're
[43:30] Speaker 1: starve and hungry and they just have a crate of
[43:32] Speaker 1: this delicious lime flavored milk. There it was the lime milk. Good.
[43:35] Speaker 1: It was delicious, it was fantastic.
[43:37] Speaker 3: I couldn't help me because I wouldn't have thought that
[43:39] Speaker 3: milk and lime would go together.
[43:41] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I made have one. I'll make one for you,
[43:43] Speaker 1: a lime spider lime flavor. Yes, milk is awesome. How
[43:48] Speaker 1: good is it? What a what a drink?
[43:49] Speaker 3: A couple of alcoholics in the room, that's right, A few,
[43:54] Speaker 3: don't say A couple of the three of us? Three
[43:56] Speaker 3: is a crowd? Can we do our back fence player
[44:00] Speaker 3: of the round? Who last week? Do you remember who
[44:02] Speaker 3: you predicted last week? Because I said Reese Walsh and
[44:05] Speaker 3: I think while she got the player of the round,
[44:07] Speaker 3: I can't remember who you and Rasmin said.
[44:09] Speaker 2: I said the mule, which you know, depending on who
[44:12] Speaker 2: you're going for.
[44:12] Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I think dad, Yours wasn't, very wasn't.
[44:16] Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
[44:19] Speaker 3: I can't remember what yours was. But who do you
[44:21] Speaker 3: think for this round? This can be across all the games.
[44:24] Speaker 1: All the games. You go first, you go in mind.
[44:27] Speaker 1: I've got.
[44:29] Speaker 3: I think, I mean, I think that the back fans
[44:34] Speaker 3: player the round. I got to give it to Nathan Cleary.
[44:36] Speaker 3: I think he's going to build from last week with
[44:39] Speaker 3: his kicking game, and I think he's going to really
[44:41] Speaker 3: dominate that arena this week.
[44:42] Speaker 1: Okay, what about this one? And even though one back
[44:45] Speaker 1: in the Panthers and I think the Panthers win Sotilly
[44:48] Speaker 1: to Bana.
[44:49] Speaker 3: You love him.
[44:50] Speaker 1: I love him as a player. He's like he's arguably
[44:54] Speaker 1: he's in the top three byes of the season. His
[44:56] Speaker 1: impact when he comes on the bench is enormous. He
[44:59] Speaker 1: actually wouldn't surp.
[45:00] Speaker 3: He starts, well, we'll get him on the pod because
[45:03] Speaker 3: he's in that. He released that rap song as well
[45:05] Speaker 3: with last year with Joey mahn Who do you remember that?
[45:08] Speaker 3: Rose Remember the what's that? Joey Marno, Joseph Sual still
[45:12] Speaker 3: Tub and see Wai Wang.
[45:14] Speaker 1: I wonder they had a rap ground. If we got together,
[45:16] Speaker 1: we could do it. Maybe a cover of Grand Master
[45:18] Speaker 1: Flash and the Furious Fire The Message.
[45:20] Speaker 3: What was their band?
[45:24] Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard the song wasn't bad.
[45:27] Speaker 3: It's actually pretty good. Yeah, we've played it a couple
[45:29] Speaker 3: of times at PRIs rose Man and we always we
[45:31] Speaker 3: go out with a really good vibe. RaSE Man, your
[45:34] Speaker 3: back fence player, the round.
[45:36] Speaker 2: I think if Canberra had won that game, we'd probably
[45:39] Speaker 2: be talking a lot more about tom Starling. I think
[45:42] Speaker 2: I think Tommy Starling is going to They're going to
[45:44] Speaker 2: get the win and he'll be the hero.
[45:46] Speaker 1: That was my player last week. It was Tommy Starling.
[45:48] Speaker 3: That's right.
[45:49] Speaker 1: I got off to a flyer too.
[45:50] Speaker 3: Yeah, he did go off to a fly Okay, here
[45:52] Speaker 3: it is. It's called our debut album. It's called off Season.
[45:59] Speaker 3: But there dream Yours I think that's what it was called.
[46:02] Speaker 1: If you want to play a little bit, put a
[46:04] Speaker 1: little bit.
[46:05] Speaker 2: We rocked the party.
[46:06] Speaker 3: We rocked the party.
[46:08] Speaker 1: I love that.
[46:09] Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know for copyright reasons, if we
[46:11] Speaker 3: can even play it.
[46:12] Speaker 1: You can play, you can. I believe you can play
[46:14] Speaker 1: fifteenty seconds.
[46:15] Speaker 3: All right, let me play a little bit of that list.
[46:17] Speaker 3: Fifteen seconds, dish.
[46:18] Speaker 1: They always play about fifteenty seconds.
[46:20] Speaker 3: Okay. The band's called dream Yours. I love it on
[46:23] Speaker 3: What's Over somebody can.
[46:25] Speaker 2: The reason I found that is because I had it
[46:26] Speaker 2: on my YouTube recent searches in the weekend. Why I
[46:30] Speaker 2: think we looked up the other weekend that's when you
[46:32] Speaker 2: drank creepy of you.
[46:33] Speaker 1: A couple of videots. You are, Yeah, we are.
[46:39] Speaker 3: It is.
[46:40] Speaker 1: That's the Telly. More than just a good footballer and
[46:48] Speaker 1: a pretty face can sing?
[46:49] Speaker 3: I know, Well that's more rapping, I would say, than singing.
[46:53] Speaker 1: Isn't rapping and singing the same thing?
[46:55] Speaker 3: Ra's man last call is rapping and singing the same thing.
[46:58] Speaker 2: Man, I think No, definitely not.
[47:01] Speaker 3: Okay, my bad enjoy sleeping in the cold tonight.

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