September 28, 2025 • 54 mins
History is made — the Broncos have ended Penrith’s dynasty in an all-time prelim, with Adam Reynolds nailing the game-winner to stun the Panthers. Meanwhile, the Storm were too good for the Sharks, booking their spot in the decider. We unpack how Brisbane pulled off the impossible, why Melbourne always rise in September, and what it means for a blockbuster Grand Final showdown.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Any feedback on my singing last week of Jerry Marsden
during the Pacemakers Never Walk Alone. Good feedback, solid feedback.
I don't think there was any feedback, right, Okay, no feedbacks,
good feedback.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
One person said he was so impressed that you were
able to learn how to sing out of your ass.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Okay, well I don't know who that person is, but
in your face, bro.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Because Starle Braithwaite and the Sweet Silver I'm trying to learn.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Piano man, piano man, Yeah, yeah, you heard of it?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Was that Elton John.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You know that's rocket Man.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, very close. Not physically welcome everybody where. We're better.
Review to the weekend's game, extraordinary games, particularly the second
the Sunday game, which we've just witnessed extraordinary. Cooper, We
are primarily lovers of the game, our family first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
We loved the game.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We love the game, and the game has never ever
been in a better spot. The game has never been better.
This final season, this final series, has been extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I agree. I think the games have just been phenomenal.
And like I even I was saying this because I
was down in Melbourne last week watching the game. We're
going to talk about, but also watching a bit of
AFL and the AFL like the AFL is in a
good spot with what they've done. Entertainment, Snoop Dogg, things
like that. But I've watched all the AFL finals games
(01:36):
this year. The drama that we've had in the NRL,
every game, well most games, but particularly that Broncos Raiders
and then tonight that Broncos Penrith game. The games are
just pure entertainment, like there is everything. It's like it's
written on a script. It's that good.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
See it again, It's like.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It's written on a script. It's that good.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
A master of Snoop Yeah, smoothing there is that?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
What? I don't think that's a Snoop Dogg song.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do you know in the movie in Old School, he
gets he's up there and he's got will get yeah
and he goes. I think, but I have a most
playing and that. I actually thought he was really good
at the Afield Green Final. And let's start let's start
with We'll start it with Friday. The temptations to start.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
With the game we've just seen stayed disciplined, but let's
stay discipline is cool.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So you went down, you went down, I went yeah
down last week? Yeah, yeah, yeah, what day did you
get down?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Wednesday? Wednesday? I went down there just to spect. I'll
tell you right now now there's a thing in at
Melbourne that Markey brentan all started calling me the rabbit's foot.
Who's Markey Brenttle is the assistant coach of Melbourne yep, for
those that don't know, because every time I go down
and the last couple of years, I've been down a
bit because just for what, go watch the boys play
(02:56):
keet behind the lads. Obviously I'm an old boy, but
I've got a lot of my old teammates still playing
in that team. And I've never been down, and they've lost, never,
not one. So call it a four leaf clover, call
it a rabbit's foot, call it whatever the hell you want.
But they are under no illusion down there that I
am not. I am the good luck charm.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Your great your influence is still felt in that club.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
And I said this to someone down there actually at
the game, because.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It was it was it, Craig, So you listen to me.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
There was someone in the Fiji Airways lounge that was there.
They asked, first of all, did you used to play
what are you doing in here? And then followed by
did you used to play at this club? Which I
said yes. They said how many games did you play?
I said about about nineteen. But the legacy that I've left,
they're starting to see the success of that now, the
pillars that I left at that club, both on and
off the field, the well that I dug, those players
(03:49):
are starting to drink from that well.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Drink. They are absolutely you know, the things that you
put in place. Your frustrations were that you were years
ahead of them as far as development, tactical sense, preparation,
all of those things. But now they're starting to understand.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I start, I finally understand what it must be like
for someone like Elon Musk. Yeah, right, when you are
so far ahead generationally than everyone else in your environment. Yeah,
they just can't understand what you're talking about. It's like
it's liking back to the future. He went back, and
you know, starts talking about things like the mobile phone,
the car, and they're like, what back in my day
(04:29):
when I was there, you know, And I know it's
only three or four years ago, but it's still a
long time in the context of the.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
When I was listening to a Fats Domino song today,
Blueberry Hill, and he was a man who was a
decade ahead of music at the time, and when he
brought out songs like Blueberry Hill, people so, what is
this what? And then it's later recorded as he's influence
over modern music, and I thought, I think exactly the
same as you.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And your mic just cut out for a second. It's
a right to give a big push in that. Do
you want to finish that turd of a thought that.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You yeah, are we okay? Now? Yeah? No, I was
just saying that, you know, Fats Domino brought out Blueberry Hill,
and people at the time went, what is this? But
it turns out that he was at least a decade
ahead of the music scene in America in the fifties
and the sixties. And as I was listening to that
song the other day, that wonderful song, Blueberry Hill, Fats Domino,
(05:24):
I couldn't help but think that you were the Fats
Domino of Melbourne Storm Rugby League. The things that you
put in place there that they those those poor players
at the time weren't ready for but now are able
to absorb.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I am now I'm now very disappointed I even told
you you might cut out in the first place. Maybe
that was God sending a symbol down it was supposed
to be.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
But you are the rabbit's foot, so you go. You
Actually I had fears when you tell me that you
stay at Harry Grant's place at the time. Oftentimes I think,
I don't know if that's a good idea, because it's
fair to say that your lifestyles are probably different these days,
probably complete polar opposites.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
No, not not as opposite as you think. See the
first time that we sort of did that a couple
of years when I stopped playing and I was like, oh,
I'll come down. He was like, come down, stay here,
and I was like, yeah, sure. I was always tiptoeing
around like on game day and that this time, no,
I was just a slob. I followed Harry's exact game
day routine. We got we got a coffee, we went
into the club. Did he did a little bit of
(06:23):
sort of pre habit on any niggles that he needed
to sort of fire up for the day, and he
did a bit of an ice bath and a spa.
I followed the exact same thing, even though I wasn't
even about to go and play a game. You're about
to go and sink.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
He was preparing himself for you were getting over a hangout.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
No, no, I was about to prepare myself to go
on the beers. So technically it was both of our
game days. And then we both went for a nap
about one thirty, and then we both woke up about
four o'clock and he was like, have you just like
followed my routine here today? And I said yes, But
you know what, it is very very nice and Dad Jackie,
you guys won't understand this, but to be an old
(07:02):
boy of a club who has so much success, because yes,
my opinion is neutral when it comes to who I
think is going to win the game, but when you're
an old boy of the club and you know that
your club's either going to be in a prelim or
a Grand final every single year, it is a nice feeling.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah. When I go to the nights old boys, I
look at the modern players to go, oh god, I
wish that you guys could have the same success that
I had. But anyway, yeah, I kind of digressed there
with the cover.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Hey, why we were on the topic of singers. Can
we actually talk about. I noticed Cooper was out, so
you can explain this to him what happened on your show.
We're filming it tonight. But last night on your show
with Brian Fletcher, you spoke about that young singer at
the Dolphins at the Dolphins home ground at the Queensland
Cup Grand Final.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
The Queensland Cup Grand Final was Billy Bears up against
the North. Anyway, pre game, they got this young fella out,
had this darling ice blue double breasted suit, had the
that the haircut that looked a class act handkerchief and
top pocket, et cetera. Anyway, he's still in the national
anthor and he's seeing his guts out, but unfortunately his
(08:09):
microphone just kept cutting out, none of them, like all
the players were laughing, but he was just anyway, the
wind was just blowing into his hair like anyway, I said,
I said, you know that poor bugger. I said, it
looks like a class actor. Said, let's get him on
the show this Thursday final show and he can like
basically do the national anthem to see at our season
and flesh goes, that'd be great and he said to
(08:31):
replicate the wind, I'll blow in his face and then
I had to go, and then Hammy was on and
my next comment was okay, Hammy, now grand Final head
to head. So it was sort of we just sort
of fumbled along there for a second, but nonetheless wonderful
viewing for the viewers. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, And can you tell us the yarn that you
were saying about Snoop Dogg the other day? Remember, because
I saw Snoop when I was down there, I thought
it was Snoop there was. They were doing a p
asked where they had a Snoop Dogg impersonator going around
around Swan Street and Richmond, which is just around the
corner from where I was staying. I was having a
coffee and I saw him pull up in his like
low riding one of those high suspension cars that they
(09:13):
ride around in California in and he got out looked
exactly like him. It was a fake Snoop dog Everyone
was running around. He walked into a liquor land and
everybody was running in there to get pictures. They had
to break it to him later on the news that
because people were posting on their instagrams and that, but
Matt Snoop Dogg and people going this is crazy, wasn't
him looked just like I.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Looked like him. Yeah. Yeah, So the story was on
on Friday. There's a guy that myself, Letchenheini, deal with
a bit, Richie. He owns a number of pubs in
around western Sydney, and we'll sort of get there because
it's Grand Final coming up soon, a Grand Final week.
He was like, oh, boys, would you come out and
just do some favorite bit of a talk to some
of the locals. So yeah, yeah, So we got out there.
(09:53):
It was about I think about five hundred people. They
were having a bit of a lunch and we got
up there and did a bit of a routine and
a bit of fun. Anyway, it was like, oh, yeah,
rich what's happening? And well he looked very excited. He
said what's going on? And he goes, oh, mate, I
just threw threw a bit of bait out there, and
he said he took the bait. So what are you
talking about? He said, I've booked snoop tomorrow night after
(10:16):
the AFL Grand Final. What and he goes, yep, as
soon as when he does the Grand Final appearance, he
said he's going to jump on a plane him and
his whole crew. We're flying him here and he's going
to play the Bella Vista Hotel, the Bella Vista pub
Snoop Dogg.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, I've seen I saw some after you told me
that I saw some videos and yeah, he private jet
up or something. I said, Richie, what time was he
going to start? He said, starts at midnight? But anyway,
I said to Richie, had to go. He said it
was unbelievable. But he didn't get the little too. He
didn't start, he didn't study his giggle too. They must
kill it they, I mean they must when when a
big act like that comes out. They must really just cash.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
In those those big western Sydney pubs. Man, they are
just they are gold mineshmos. We should invest in a
pub'd love to. Yeah, well, speak to Richie. Yeah we
can do it. This is cy throwers a bone.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, it's more of an offair chat, but we should.
Let's just make sure that we flag this Friday night.
Let's get into the bit of the footy. Storm played
the Sharks. You, Matthew, were very bullish on the Sharks.
You thought the Sharks were going to get up by two, Yeah, yeah,
which they fought amicably. I thought. I thought a lot
of people are getting into them saying that they crumble
(11:23):
under pressure. But I think they've had pressure on them
the last two weeks before. They did a good job
with it. Then they just come up against a better side,
I think, more experienced in finals.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Finals football, it's about one of the primary corner cornerstones
is disciplined and Melbourne Storm that's why they're they're made
seventy Grand finals, they're in really big games. They are
very very disciplined. They don't beat themselves. Sharks the other night,
too many self inflicted wounds and like it was unforced
(11:55):
erarors like drop balls with no pressure on them. But
the big one, the big one was just given away
offside penalties. They gave so many offside penalties away. And
I think the one that probably the best example, which
is a symbolic of the whole performance, was very early
in the game, about three or four minutes in. Mate,
they start really well, the Sharks and they put the
ball right in the corner pocket and they've got the
(12:18):
they've got the Melbourne Storm trapped there and Mate, and
they give away an offside penalty like get behind the
referee and We spoke about when you are an underdog
going into these beat really big games, if you're going
to be a favorite, if you're going to be a
if you're going to cause an upset, you've got to
you've got to get off to a really good start,
and you've got to do a lot of things really
really good. They got off to a good start. They
(12:41):
got them trapped in the corner and they gave away
as simple offside penalty. One step ahead of the referee,
get behind him. So what happens there? Melbourne storm. That
next set they worked their way down the field. You
get a repeat set in the next set they score.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, that was the set Munster went down the short
side on fifth or fourth a tackle found Xavier Coats
and then they grubbed it in and then will Warbrigs
scores on the right hand in the right hand.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
There was so many penalties in that game, and I
know a lot of people have had a lot to
say about the penalty count, which warranted because I was
at that game and Jesus, it was slow. It was
a shit. I said to everyone, this is a boring
game to watch. The atmosphere was great at the standium,
but that first half, in a forty minute half of footy,
there was twenty two minutes of ball in playtime, which
(13:25):
is heart like. And then you look at that Broncos
Pendrith game on the other hand, that was so much
ball in playtime.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Cooper and I'm telling you, man, and we're going to
we'll touch more on this in the preview midweek, but
I'm telling you this is a huge factor going into
the Grand Fire in the fact that look at the
speed and the intensity of the day game Penrith against
Brisbane compared to the speed and intensity of the Sharks
(13:53):
versus Storm and on top of that they got two
days extra rest. Agreed, it's incredible advantage too.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We're not going to go too in deep, but there
is two schools of thought and in a sense where
Broncos are probably more battle hard and to a tough
game than Melbourne are. At the moment, Melbourne have had
kind of stop started games without Storm Bulldogs and then
Storm Sharks game where it hasn't been a high quality
match like the Broncos have been exposed to. But you
saw that how much fatigue was out in the field
(14:20):
and Broncos panel they were both out on their.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Feet in a hot, hot afternoon too correct Like it's
just there's so many factors there. But yeah, Coop Crnulla,
they were just and this final series more than any other,
I've soon seven tackle sets and errors are being punished
more than I've ever seen. Every seven tackle set just
about you know, becomes a tried and the other end
(14:43):
of the field. And in this game, every offside penalty
that Crnulli gave away Melbourne capitalized on in their score.
If they go into this game Cranulla and they just
go and they just changed that aspect of their game.
They are more disciplined as far as given away penalties
and just you know and unforced errors that in my opinion,
they probably win. But you know, the problem is sorry,
(15:06):
But the thing about it is Melbourne will not beat themselves.
They will not beat themselves.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And they we did speak last week about the inconsistency
of their spine this year and how the team sort
of played that Melbourne side. But I thought Munster Hughes,
Harry and Papenhausen Hughsey and perhaps coming back to that
side after having a few weeks out, they were unbelievable.
But Monster, I thought, that's as good a game Monster's
(15:33):
had since his Origin performance.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Well, let's talk with some of the individual performances there,
because we sort of spoke about the tail of the
tape and there were certain things in the game and
we'll talk about more in the preview, but there's certain
aspects of Melbourne's defense that going to work on their
left side defense is a little bit shaky, but we'll
do that in the preview. But individual performances, Yeah, firstly, Munster.
Munster for me is still number one when it comes
(15:56):
to big game performance. You know, if you look like
Nathan is incredible, but if you look at Munster at
every level Origin, you know, and and finals and Grand
Finals when he's in him, you know, like his impact is, oh,
he's always huge. And the thing about it is because
we spoke about this in the preview, Cornella, I'm sorry.
(16:16):
Melbourne been playing two narrow shapes for him too. Narrows.
They've been working sort of near post or midfield shapes.
It hasn't really been giving him space to move. They've
been they've been getting pressuring Hi from the inside and
the outside move. In this game, they played more width,
they moved the ball pass the far past, and opened
up the field, and you could see they couldn't like
(16:38):
the sharks, given the nature of how they got in
the ball. They had to just be passive on him,
which allowed for Master. That's all he needs, just a
little bit of time and goes there and away he went.
And that's that's he was. He was phenomenal. If he
wasn't setting them up directly. And what I mean by
that is like the little chip out of the top
for Paps to score. He was setting them up into,
(17:00):
which is drive through the line, get half through, play
the ball quick. Harry scoops and goes.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I want to actually, let's talk about that try. Just
brought up there with a little kickover for perhaps because
that was such a beautifully executed try. Harry gets out fine,
takes takes the marker out, Toby Rudolf as the marker
takes him out. But what I love about that, And
they've got to call the best part of that, those
three together, Munster, Papanells and Harry particularly perhaps perhaps is
(17:27):
very vocal with what he sees. So perhaps perhaps perhaps
was the one that he called. He told Munster, Kennedy's
in the line. They've got a call for when the
fullback comes into the line. So he was screaming that call,
that call, that call. So Munster instantly knows when when
the fullback or whoever, if somebody calls that, they know
instantly that the kicks on because the fullback's in the line.
(17:48):
And it's such a such a on the fly to
on the fly in late in the game when it
was going to be the it ended up sort of
being the deal breaker forum that sort of try but
to execute that under pressure off a quick player the ball.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
It was beautiful and you watch him coop. He's so
good at what I would describe as just finding a way.
Now what I mean by that is oftentimes you get
a person and say, okay, did little chip over the top.
Now what you do is you take the ball and
you keep your head down. And Munster got the ball.
He knew it was on. He just found a way
to kick it and get it.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
To the It was actually auly technique.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's an ugly technique. It was a half shank hooked it.
But that's the thing about Munster. He's very nature. The
nature of his game is he is unorthodox. He just
gets it done. Just on that I cannot believe that
teams will push their fullback into the defensive line round
halfway and expect not to be punished for it. It
(18:46):
just blows me away.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Well, you're told, you're kind of told in defensive systems
these days that when if if a marker or you're
in trouble, that fullback is told to kind of plug
on that short side. And it solves a hell of
a lot of problems in defense. And it needs to
be a healthy balance of you can't not do it
because teams are punished. You're with the ball with it,
but you have to have an ability to stop that
(19:09):
kick if you're going to be in the line.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I just can't particularly round halfway. I can't fathom. That
was about the thirty meter line, but yeah, thirty forty
meters out. I can't fathom why you would do it,
because I understand all those things of matching numbers. I
think I think that is the greater evil. Like if
I'm a player, if you're a playmaker out there and
you are thirty forty meters out and you are seeing
(19:33):
that the fullback is in the line and there's no
one out the back, and you don't kick it, shame
on you like, that's an opportunity you cannot miss. Yeah,
it's just so blatantly obvious. Yeah, anyway, but.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I think, I think, I think the bad teams probably
don't punish the good team like the teams who do
it enough, so they kind of get lulled into a
false sense of security that the full backs can plug
too many times in the line, and then when they
come up against a good spine who identify it, punished
for it. I want to can we quickly talk about
Jerome Hughes as well for a second, hughs He comes
(20:05):
back two weeks off the back of a four round
of broken forearm, gets surgery, and then any questions that
you had in that first twenty minutes that he may
have been carrying it, hiding himself whatever, were immediately just
proven wrong. As soon as Stefano gets that offload out
to him, he steps I think it was Tig Wilton
(20:26):
and then fends that that young lock that they've got
Jesse someone he's a good player to very very good player,
but fends him with that with that broken for yeah,
robo robo. But Hughsey. I thought Hughsey was unbelievable and
a lot of pressure like and he's one of Dally
and he's one of the best halfbacks in the comp
(20:47):
but I have no doubt a little bit of pressure
on his shoulders, not just with that injury, but with
the form of Jonah Pezzitt the week before as well.
Like and Hughes is a big game player, but to
have to have that pressure from a player underneath you
in that squad was there was a little bit coming
into this game with Hughes is a little bit underdone
(21:07):
with an injury. He had to have a big game
because you know they had a player there, Jona Pezant,
who could have played started in that side as well.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Coops, And you are exactly right, and people will listen
to that and go, oh, Coop's that's absurd. No, No,
it is true. Never underestimate people's insecurities. And I'm not
saying straight in security with your own, but it is true.
Champions always hear the footprints, always hear the footsteps behind him,
hear it coming. And I use the example all the
(21:36):
time with Munster in State of Origin when they lost
game one this year and I learned an interview with
him in the radio and they asked him, how did
you find out that you were going to be given
the captaincy by Billy Slater when Duc was dropped, and
he said, Billy called me and said can you come
to my room and I have a yandy about something,
And he said, I thought that I was about to
be dropped. Now that you're spot on about like the
(21:57):
drone thing, he's looking going the young guys, I mean,
and suddenly he's playing really good football and some people
can't help themselves too. Coop, Like Jerome would have been
places where people are going to go and just going,
oh hey, the new Blake. Jonah, he's gone, right, so
they don't really need you. He'd be copping that that,
And so I just think, Coop, he hasn't given like
(22:21):
people have really gone mate. Applauded for his performance and
what he under adversity, but not nearly enough. No, I
mean Shane Webb. He played in the Grand Final in
two thousand with a broken arm, but he broke it
five weeks earlier. Yeah, he played for Jerome twenty two
days earlier. He broke his arm and he's out there
fendom Blake's office, coring tries from forty five to fifty
(22:42):
meters out so fantastic performance. Blake. You mentioned before mate
two the two big boys two he Comic and Muther
and Stefano were fantastic. Firstly, Stefano man, my god. In
this sort of the back end quarter of this season,
he has been sensational.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Well, you know, I'm going to get to our back
fence player right now for me because a lot of
big game players in that storm side. I had Stefano
and we actually I watched it live, but I didn't
realize the impact he had in that first twenty five minutes.
His first twenty five minute stint was as good as
any front rower has had this year. Maybe not on
(23:19):
the stat sheet like but some of his quick play
thea balls that he generated for that side. And we
went back after the game, Harry, Wishy and I we
went back to theirs and rewatched it after the game.
The boys like to rewatch the game because he can't
sleep after it. And that first stint he had was unbelievable.
He got Billy Burns with a bump at one stage
(23:41):
to get this quick play the ball, and even blokes
like Fanilla Blake were really struggling to handle him. Yeah,
early the boys say he's got a bump. And when
I say a bump, let's use the example of like
when Tino how he runs at Yat, he really winds
up a bump, like you can see him winding up
five meters out and he gets his big bumpers up
(24:01):
and it's your job to kind of avoid his bumpers
or prepare for him. The boys say, Stefano, you can't
prepare for him because he's so powerful. He's bump and
he gets it up so late with off the back
of footwork that like he's very unassumingly strong.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, Harry said in Origin, like he flew out of
the line at one stage to try to get Stefano
who's playing his Wales, and even it even surprised him.
He's like, mate, he hit me with this bump and
it literally went straight through him and I couldn't prepare
for it. I thought he was unbelievable. I think the
last about seven weeks he's been close to the best
front run on the comp.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Well that that the Hugheses try. We're just talking about
you watch that, mate, he run there, he bumps off
a bare foot blokes. He just goes bump, bump, bump
and he goes halfway to his line, throws that bad hughes.
He's been a revelation in your old roommate mate two.
He coming Commuth. It was his best, one of his
best performances as a Storm player off the bench. He
just gave an enormous lifts to me.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
They need that. They've lacked that real impact off the
bench when they haven't had, like, you know, ever since
they lost like Brandon Smith. Obviously no Nelson this year.
That real punch off the bench where you have someone
that comes on and brings leg speed and a lot
of rock speed for you had too. He was unbelievable
(25:14):
on the weekend with that, the other Blake wanted to
give a big rap to it.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I thought it was his best game as an NRL player.
Will Wollbrick I thought Will was the week before he
had he had a mixed game the week before, had
some difficult periods, but all alls well, had ended well.
He finished the game well. But right from the start
of this game he was superb. He scored the first try,
but everything he did was high quality.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, and they trindle pepp at him. They had They
obviously had a game plan to bomb that side. With
Muller Talo coming through as an attacking threat, and he
put a lot of floaters up, a lot of torpedoes.
Brick didn't drop one. I think, man, what did you
make of that Shark's performance, because, like we just spoke,
we'll get a lot of raps to storm them. But
I like what the sharks. The Sharks clearly had a
(25:58):
game plan to get it Melbourne's left edge Munster, Jack
Haworth and Xavier Coachs and I thought they the two
tries that they scored in that first half once they
went down there, Nico found it out the back to
Kennedy who they jammed and he beat him with some
good footwork and found Katara in the right corner. And
then the next try he puts Billy Burns through a
hole in between Munster and jack Howarth. Yeah, and then
(26:20):
Katoa scores again. That's it's a it is looking at
Melbourne's edge defense. It is probably the the side where
they're going to get targeted a lot in this Grand
Final coming up that space between Munster and Jackie Howarth,
and I thought Sharks actually did a really good job
at exploding it.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, it's funny Coop that that left hand side. It
was it was probably not for Melbourne in your spot
on they're going to go continually. And it's funny because
both times both tries you were talking about were bad
decision making, but for totally different reasons. The first one
it was, it was they all went outside in in
(27:01):
uniform uniformally it was a bad decision collectively, just where
it rushed in past the ball and he shot it
through and little tunnel ball could tow it to score.
The second one, where Billy Burns went through and then
off to can Tell to score his second try, was
the fact that there was obviously a lack of communication
on Munster's inside and you see Muster sort of backing
(27:22):
off a little bit trying to buy time and that's
where they hit the short ball. So I don't know,
I don't know where the problem is coming from. But
Munster is the lynch pin in the middle and he's
either not getting communication from the inside or the outside.
But they've got a lot to work on there, because
that is Ruce Walsh, that's his favorite side, looping around
on that out side, he's very very good.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Especially with Adam Reynolds over and that attacking edge as well, well,
but who was your did you have a back fence?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I went to I just thought i'd like to his player.
And he's had a little bit of an up and
down season too, he but I thought off the bench,
he gave a lot of punch. Every time he got
the ball made.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
He was mighty Yeah, we'll get Stefano and two we
will get you those your gifts, your.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Gold plated cuff links. Yes, come to you.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
All right, let's get to that. Let's get to this
second game Sunday afternoon and those Sunday afternoon games. Let
me tell you something, those day Sunday games, it is
putting a lot of thought into the NFL's had to
go to a day Sunday Grand Final because I saw
during the week that Valandi's were saying the TV ratings
for those afternoon games. It's always been a TV thing
(28:29):
do it late at night. But the other games have
been breaking some records, and I.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Think I think soon the broadcaster will be online. Yeah,
they'll be on side. I would not surprise me even
next year that if Valandi's lent on Channel nine, they'd relent. Say, yep,
no problem, they can sell that to the advertisers. That
even if the ratings are slightly down, you've got to understand,
there's so many people sitting at barbecues, there's more eyeballs
(28:54):
on the game. It's just that people are watching collectively, right,
And the advertisers be that. So the very fact they're
saying this year, this final series, the ratings are up
thirty four percent, thirty thirty four percent, right, And and
the real big ones of the day games, now people
are watching you collectively your pubs and like say, you go,
(29:16):
my god, how many people are watching the game. Yeah,
So if it's you know, in that situation, the ratings
a go thirty four percent, and it's in day games
and people will be watching at venues, but the ratings,
the ratings could be up like sixty percent probably, yeah,
but it's the standard of the football. We had Hudson
(29:36):
Young on Tonight Show on Sunday Night Show, and I
was sitting there watching the game with him and we're
having to talk about the game, and I said to Hudson,
I said, I'm telling you, in mine, mine is a
life that has been wasted in rugby league. My life,
I said, but I'm telling you right now, the game
in my whole time in this sport. The game has
never been better, the players haven't have never been better,
(29:58):
every aspect of the game. The game is flying. It's
just incredible, and it just makes you as a regular person,
and I think a lot of listeners will back this
up with me. It makes you really proud to be
a regular league person when you watch a game. Some
of the games have been played in this final series
and the game we just saw just there. I just
thought both sides were incredible, the storylines going in and
(30:22):
the expectation of what the game could be. It lived
up to the billing in a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah, I agree, and I'm going to talk about some
of the players' performances and some of the big moments
from the game. But looking at the build up into
this game, we spoke about it, the X factor of
the Broncos up against the discipline and the absolute clinical
nature of Penrith Panthers. It was always going to be
a big clash and I always had the theory that
(30:49):
I mean at finals as luck and timing and everything
of who you get on the draw. But the only
team I thought that could beat Penrith were the Broncos.
I thought if Storm came up against Penrith, Penrith were
going to beat them because they play a similar style,
but the Broncos X factor and their physicality with boys
(31:09):
like Payne Hers and Xavier Willison, their big strong pack.
I thought really fatigued Penrith because by the end of
the game, and Penrith should have had him on the ropes,
like with how much footy they sort of started getting
down their end, how many chances Broncos gave them. The
Broncos defense on their line they were so resilient held
(31:31):
him out a lot of the time. But usually Penrith
would put teams to the sword with their attack. But
they were really disrupted. They were I haven't seen Penrith
look that tired in the last five years. Like they
fatigued very quickly and not quickly, but it was it
was a testament to how physical and quick the game was.
But there was a point there where Leam Martin and
(31:52):
Mitch Kenny both went off and in a very key
part of the thing, and I thought it must be
so much fatigue out there because you don't see that
those blugs come off in this moment extraordinary coop.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
There was a time Louam Martin stood up once and wabbled,
and I was with Hudson and I said, did he
get a headshot? And he goes, no, he's just fucked.
He's gone and made. And I'm going, oh my god,
Like Coop, if the first game we spoke about Melbourne
Storm Sharks was defined by Melbourne's greater discipline, then this
(32:22):
game was defined by Brisbane's desperation in their online defense. Yeah,
that's what one of them came. Because Coop at foot,
like Penrith in the first half, destroyed the Broncos with
the yardage game as they destroyed most teams without yard
and just dismantled him. And I must say, going in
at fourteen nil down, I actually thought the school line
(32:45):
it was in some ways flattered Brisbane. They were so
under the pump. And we'll sit there again with Hudson
and you just yeah talking And I said him, if
Penrith came out and score in the first five ten minutes,
I said, the flood gates can open. It's gonna be
a big score. He goes, Yep, definitely. Anyway, Buck of Mo.
They had so many opportunities to do that, Penrith, and
(33:08):
they just kept going and going and going, and they
just found a way to stay in the contest or
to defend their line. Yeah, it was. It was an
extraordinary defensive effort, Coop. And you said, Xavier Wilson before
Xavier Willison Lea Martin being gone. Xavier Willison, who has
played very little football player, he hit the wall completely right. Yeah,
(33:33):
And I said to the boys, haven't looked at Xavier here,
and he was. He played the ball and he put
his head in his hands and he actually turned and
looked towards the coach's box and just to say, fucking Madge,
you've got to take me off and go on. And
then about five minutes later scores the tryes the vital.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Drip his first stint. He was very gas Penrith did
a good job of actually identifying. There was a couple
of times there where you could see Nathan and Mitch
Ken in particular. Miss Kenny's got a good knack on
the field of he screams and he'll point the players
and say get at him. And he was pointing at
Zavi will listen a lot, tipping his forwards into making
him make tackles because he become really ineffective at points,
(34:13):
jumping off tackles and you know, just just not really
You're getting a lot of quick play the balls through him.
But his second stint with the footy mate he was,
he was a big game breaker for him because he's
got him a lot of quick play the balls.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Obviously scored seal the brought.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Him back into that game with that good try, But
some of his some of his balls.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Can you put our man up, Jack for a second,
because I want to ask him about his great mate
Adam Reynolds. Jack played with Reno and they remain good friends. Hey, Jack,
that must have been, like you, We're not a pressure
on rene Jack going into this game, given the fact
that you know they played so good without him being
in the side, and so you could see him finding
(34:52):
his way and you can see that the hamstring is
still not one hundred percent. But to nail that kick, yeah,
and that's just one of those moments that can define
your Yeah, your time at a club. He's had.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Renold's had a thousand, thousands of kicks, and a lot
of them have been high pressure kicks, and especially early
in his career there at Souse with.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Madge, he done some crazy kicks.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
But it's a crazy moment to think too, Like, don't
forget the fact that you know, the Penrith's first win
in their dynasty was against Sour Sydney, Renault's last game
for SOUS and he missed that goal. So I think
it was to level it that game. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And and then like to finish this full game run
to try and make five and he kicks the goal
(35:36):
to pretty much send him away in the last three minutes.
It's pretty it's a bit of a a It's a
huge moment for Reno and I don't know, I'm not
sure if it would have weighed on him too much
that kick back in the day, but I reckon it
would have regardless that if they win the Grand Final.
I reckon, I reckon it's probably relieved a bit of pressure.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
In his mind. Oh definitely, Jack spot on, Yeah, and
go on what you just said before, Matthew on a
pressure on Renner. You could you could see, And I
said it to Jack. During the game, particularly the first
sort of three quarters of the game, their attack was
really clunky. Their attack was really clunky between the communication
between him and Ben Hunt. Yeah, in particular, but it
(36:14):
was like they'd gone away what had been working for
them probably the last five weeks because they had Adam
Reynolds come back and they all looked to Reno for
you get us around the park, and Reno probably was
it actually slowed their attack right up because he was
always setting up saw a play for himself. When the
last sort of four weeks when they've been going well,
they'd just been playing footy, playing footy, playing footy, and
(36:36):
then ren b Reece Walsh or Ben Hunt or Billy
Walter saw something. Then they called the ball and on
and Reese Walsh. You could see him. He was hugging
that right side a lot, just hanging around Rena because
obviously he looks up to Reno and he's just following
Renau's lead. And it actually hindered a lot of his
attacking performance because he wasn't floating like he usually does.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
It's spot on Coop because when they lost Reno Magual, Okay,
what are we going to do here? Right, so they
had to fall back into a more reactionary style football,
watch and react. And let's not forget the fact that
lost Billy Wilders, right. Billy has been one of their
very best players. This year as far as impact, but
even when he went to six it was outstanding. So
to lose a player like that loves a big hole.
(37:16):
But then Renault comes back in, who is such an
influential player, He's naturally going to have his even if
he wants to take a back seat, not over play
his hands, he naturally his footprint will be on how
you want to play. And you can see it took
a long while from to really start to work it
out a little bit, but oh man, it was. It
was a great game of football. And may I tell
you what, I got so much respectful to Recee Walsh.
(37:38):
Reecee Walsh, Like you know he's a pretty boy, well
get that and all that sort of stuff. Mate, He's
he is fucking tough, mate. You look at her in
that first twenty minutes when the heat is one, he's
taken two and a set of six, he's getting jammed.
He's just he can't be discouraged. I've said it before.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
He's just how strong he is. People don't realize because
sometimes you get on kick returns and stuff. He can
get manhandled by some of the bigger boys. But you
saw in that first ten minutes none of the attack
was out on the edges. He was just getting it
one off the ruck and just using his speed in
acceleration to get straight in between two defenders and getting
on quick play thea balls he's I mean, it was
a big reason him doing that. It not only causes
(38:16):
quick playables, but it also like you saw with Scott
Sorenson calls the head clash and he goes off category won.
He can't even play. He couldn't play the Grand Final
if they made it next week. That stuff is actually
really instrumental end up winning the game.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
It's funny, Cooper, and let people know that that's a
really it's a big thing. Is that when a player
gets a ball who has got express speed right, and
what they do is they run straight between two defenders.
Now that is it's testing. It's testing the metal of
the defenders, but also yourself. Now what I mean by
(38:52):
that is you are running in between two defenders right now,
what running between and copying two sets of shoulders on you,
You can actually get emptied out big time, really knocked around.
They hit you sweet. But it's also it's always testing
the mental toughness and the physical toughness and the defenders,
because when you run between a defender, if they just
(39:14):
get it slightly wrong, there's a fair chance they're going
to clash heads. Yeah right, and it's it's laying the
cards on the table and say, right, this is what
I'm going to do. Let's fucking see what you're going
to do. And he did that. That's when Scott Scotty
Sarenson got hit, got knocked out. That is for Reus,
that's him, that's his toughness and going right, I'm going
to do that, testing out the defense.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And he did.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
He did that all all afternoon. He was brilliant. Pain
Ass is just I guess to the point, mate, we're
pain Hass. If you if you just turned up and
you never heard of this bloke, pain hasse and you
watch the game. We've been speaking, we'd talk about him
for about thirty minutes now, just going mate, what about that?
But you expect it from him. But he did it
without Pat Carrigan being there. He went, He did it solo.
(39:58):
It was magnificent.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
What the in tensity of that game, particularly that first
ten minutes. It was State of Origin esque, particularly a
lot of the kick chases. I think the first kick chase.
They went down, ren I put up a bomb. Brendan
Peter Kura come from the left side and you see
those kind of kick chases in the Big in either
Big Grand Finals or State of Origin. He went through
and just leveled Dylan Edwards out yep, and those real
(40:20):
big hits off the plus one plus two when the
back three, the wingers in the fullback are coming out
of their own end. It was physical and I tip
my hat to Penrith because they copped a lot of
They absorbed a lot of pressure early, a lot of
physical pressure. Sorenson went off and they were actually in
a bit of sixes and sevens for that first ten minutes.
I was thinking that Broncos are going to score here.
(40:41):
They ended up holding them out, got a good stop
on the right edge, and then as soon as Penrith
went down to that end, they just went to work.
They It's a testament to that club and that culture
because they absorbed so much pressure. And then Nathan and
Iao went down that end, they went right and they
just they were all by the book. They just they
picked them apart and they set up that really nice
(41:01):
try for paul A Lamotti in the right side.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
If you have knock out a champion, if you're a
heavyweight box, did you get a bit knock at the
champion and you've got to beat the champion take the
belt off him. You've got to do something special. Yeah,
and they did that tonight made the Broncos beat Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah. Well, Penris attack, Penris attack was I would say
it was a lot better than Broncos attack. But Broncos
just they were just resilient. They hung in there. A
lot of their tries didn't come from a lot of
classy stuff. Their first try they were very lucky to
get that first try in the second half because they'd
had a really clunky set. Ben Hunt goes out the
(41:36):
wrong way, finds it to Adam Reynolds and it was
it was Catoni Stagg's who just said, there's nothing on here.
I'm just going to give ran On an option. He
pointed for the kick and a real good chase and
he ends up scoring the try. But their actual attacking
shape was very clunky. Wasn't actually that great.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
It's funny you say that, Coop, that is so true
because you look at the two sides, right, Penris are
just cold blow the killers and they just went to
bet their work with as they always do, with just
cold blooded precision. Where Broncos are I would say, far
more emotional team. Emotional teams, you know, and teams who
(42:17):
got emotional individuals. They tend to ride the roller coaster
a little bit and lead sometimes to inconsistencies. But that
was watching the tail of the tape. It was the
Broncos emotion that got them home. It was their emotion
that they just kept turning up and finding a way,
finding a way to stay in the contest. The emotion
that they just kept turning up in the fence. They
(42:37):
found a way to get to get down the other
end of the field, found a way to score reno
exhausted right hamstring gone, found a way bang knock it
over to win the game. It was always like I
think their performance was just built on raw emotion.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
This and I thought the Broncos back five were unbelievable.
I thought, well, they did it out of their own end,
particularly their their wingers. They did such a good job
out of their end. But my back fence player, for
that reason of emotion, it was actually Katony Stags. I
thought there was a lot of good players, but I
think if Catni Stags wasn't out there, I don't think
(43:13):
they win. I do not think they win. And it's
not because of the try they set up. But I
thought that that try that he called for for Rena
to kick to him, it was at a it was
a real turning point in their attitude what he did,
and it was it was a testament to his attitude
because everyone was kind of on the back foot waiting
for Reno and reeswas to do something, and he just went,
(43:33):
fuck that, I'm going to give him an option and
I'm going to chase this hard ends up scoring. But
even some of his carries out of the backfield, Katony
just really wound up and just get a one on
one with someone like his. His aggression and attitude I
thought just turned the tie.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Awesome, what an awesome player. And and kerp he Katoni's
Wellington boy, Wellington, New South Wales. It's really I spent
me and your uncle Joe, we spent a little bit
of time and the Nate Okwick that we went there
one year for about four or five days with Chop
Mundine and where's Patton and some of those boys, and
(44:09):
really it's a big indigenous community. There a lot of
great sportsmen that's initiate, but it's an area that has
a lot of challenges as well. And he's a Wellington boy.
Some great players coming out of that Wellington area, but
he's a Wellington boy. And Gordon told me when he
got picked up by the Broncos, he played for Redcliffe,
which at that point was their fooder club. And an
(44:32):
old bloke who'd been at Redcliffe basically you know, for
something like fifty years as an old old footy bloke,
said to good once he said, we've just got this
kid arrived at our club from Wellington. He said, I've
never seen anyone like him. Now, this is the blake
that's been at this proud like great club Wellington which
Arthur Boutsen have played at Welling at Redcliffe with this
(44:54):
kid that arrived at this Redcliffe club with great tradition.
This old bloke soon them all and said that kid,
I've never seen anything like it. And as far as
I would say physicality as an athlete, I love the
thing in the I've seen vision in the sheds when
he first come as young blaking at the Broncos and
they're all celebrating after win, and he literally in his
(45:14):
boots in the dressing room does a backflip lands and
then does the front lands.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
I haven't seen someone as individually athletic. I Reckon, I
remember KATONI stays two thousand and it might have been
twenty and eighteen that going back that far, I don't
think he played first grade yet. But we were the
Sunny Coast Falcons. He was playing for Redcliffe Dolphins the
Broncos Feeder YEP at that time, and he put three
tries on he was called a hat trick in the
(45:41):
second half against us, and was me and him are
the same age, but he was so so unbelievably athletic.
We were both about eighteen at the time, and he
looked made grown man, looked like kids out there. And
then there was even that highlight that he had against
the Dragons. I think it was like twenty twenty and
they gave him early ball and you and Akim was
(46:02):
opposite him, and you give him this fan and you
and Aiken, who's so strong for those that have played
against you and aken you and Aiken literally like nearly
flips on his head and does a backflip. He fends
him so hard ends up going like eighty meters and scoring.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Well, Katny Katney is indigenous, but he's also his memory
for his tongue as well. And it's like Tomata tah
Tamara was Indigenous but also was some oen. Yeah, fucking unbelievable,
Like unbelievable. That's two incredible.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Bloodlines, you know what I mean, like genetically Yeah, incredible.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Now look my back, my back fence player is it's
going to get on the losing side because I just
thought it was old school and I loved it. Liam
Martin were the one where Ezra come over and give
Nathan hit the rough and may he just come charging
over and just jammed Ezra from side on. That's how
it's supposed to be. Blokes like that protecting your halfback.
(47:02):
That's what the game has always been built on, the
big blokes protecting their playmate. I thought it was great.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Shout out to Green akin to a fish out of
that game. I thought I thought he did a great
job because would be very easy for some of the
rest to go, oh, you know, like because there's a
bit of push and shaf not much in it, like
a little bit of slapping and the other, but to
send someone off and I was going, I don't send
someone off in this game right now. He had a
good ability. Actually, Green Akins are just letting the game
flow and allowing them to be fatigued because we don't
(47:31):
have a great ending like that. If he doesn't allow
that game.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
I want to give a wrap to the referees. I'm
telling you right now, right Bill Harrigan was once in
a lifetime like as a faux referee, his temperament and
his ego to allow him to sort of even stand
over some of the greats of the game and hold
the game and he's in his in his fist. But
(47:55):
the refereeing these is, I'm telling you it's never been better.
They don't miss much, they don't and Mate, it's it's
it's one of Australian Australian sports favorite things, best Sports West,
best at that's referee bashing telling you, Mate, some of
the decisions today that he made on the run, we're
fucking outstanding. And I want to give the linesman of
(48:18):
a rap. When the Casey McClain intercept, like Casey McLain
that one where Reees Walsh was reesewalth through the ball
and the interceptor went and he was away and scored.
Now that wins the game. It was, mate, Casey was
one step off side touch. He picked that up. That
that is that is remark. That is remarkable, tear the
(48:41):
speed of the game. Now you look at how fatigue
the players get with the speed of the game. That
one referee, Mate, He's controlling everything out there. Mate, I'm
telling you, like, seriously, those blokes do a good job.
Speaker 4 (48:51):
That doesn't get spoken enough about. I reckon with everyone
talking about the new the new rules since COVID and
all the like. You know, the referees caught that much flak,
and they've caught flak for the entirety of the game's existence,
but the rules of only I've done nothing but get
faster and for a position where refs are got to
cover more k's and make these crucial decisions under pressure,
(49:14):
but more importantly or more dramatically under fatigue, it only
makes their job so much harder. You know, I'm surprised,
like people go, I don't know why they go to
more scrutiny. Yeah, I don't know why they go to
the video ref so much. Again, honestly, if I was
out there doing it like I'd be.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
I'd be losing a ship after it mate the mate.
It is like the speed of the game. There's so
many variables in rugby league as well. And and yeah,
it's I just want to give map. I thought that
his performance today was fantastic. And I think the I
think this refereeing crisis we are talking it is so
(49:51):
dramatically overblown. I mean, really that those those blokes and
the ladies in the game as well, who referee, they
do fucking outstanding his job, a job that has gets
very very few plaud it's mainly just almost always scorning criticism.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah, we've wrapped him enough. You do want to say something.
Let's say something bad about him as well.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
But I do want to Well, I know what green Akkins.
I know one thing I will say bad about that
was our your mother Trish, who can befriend anybody all
the time. After I did the commentary in the Vegas
that physit went down, she befriends green Atkins's wife, who
I don't know at the moment. I didn't know at
that time was his wife. Go on, so and so, oh, okay,
(50:32):
you're really nice to me, and I'm looking over the
shoulder and They've got all these fucking cocktails with green
Adkins's wife's friends and everything, and goes you pay I
fucking three hundred and thirty dollars US plus.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
Tip, did you timid.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Fucking fire it's made? It was basically three hundred fucking
three hundred thousand dollars Australian.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
One, last one, last round. I do want to tip
my hat to the Panworth Panthers club for five and
arowbits they were this year. And you know, there was
a part of me that they didn't want to see
him in the Grand Final just for just for different purposes,
just to see Storm not play Penrith, because that's that's
like groundhole day. But that club and that culture is
(51:16):
bloody amazing. And I particularly blokes like Nathan Cleary, who
a lot of teams they try to get one percent,
They try to get any edge they can one percent
better every day by bringing him breathing coaches, mental coaches.
But a bloat like Nathan Cleary, and he spoke about
it in the media and whatnot, even when he was
talking about how he's been reading up on the Samurai
(51:37):
shit like that, Like he's a bloke that a lot
of players go in and they'll the resources the club
applies to them, like recovery and mental coaches. They'll use
them when they're in the club, but when they go
home they have a breakaway from football. Nathan's the kind
of guy that as soon as he leaves the club,
he goes home, he'll do reading on his own and
try to try to learn from all these other avenues,
(51:58):
try to adopt all these different analogies lessons that he
can bring into his own game. I got to tip
my hat to him because they're an unbelievable playing.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
Squad, fantastic, mate brilliant. I thought they'd win the conferences
and went into the eight. I just thought they win it.
It's taken a very very special effort from a special
team to beat them. But they are class through and through, honestly,
And in the postmatch press conference, the way that Ivan
and Nathan, but I Evenant did the majority of the talk,
and the way he handled it, it's just a class act.
(52:27):
You wouldn't have known with Ivan whether he won or lost,
and he was very made. He was so gracious, and yeah,
the whole organization's class. Do you know how I love
my stuff and my reading. I wonder if Nathan would
be interested in my knowledge on the samurai. Probably not really, okay,
because do you know what happened to the samurai? Like,
(52:47):
so the samurai people might find this interesting?
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Yeah, they might.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
You know that you've heard the Yakusa.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yeah, they're a Japanese game, Yeah, the Japanese mafia.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
So it was Yakusa is is a dice game you play, right,
they play and the worst three when the dice roll
the worst, the worst three combination you can have is
ya ku za. That's where they got Yakusa mean bad, right.
So what happened was there's been evidence around this during
(53:18):
civilization for a long time human civilization. So the Samurai
were brought in as you know, when the wars were
going on, you know, you know, during the Edo area
with a showgun and whatnot. But what happened is when
those wars ended, right, and the samurai suddenly they didn't
need the samurai. They were like, well, what are we
(53:38):
going to do with our skills? What are we going
to do? And a lot of them formed mafia gangs
of type. Yeah, and when a lot of them started
the Yakusa because they had nothing else to do, and
the same thing happened with when you hear about pirates,
the pirates now, but people always think about pirates that
pirates were, you know, from the from the Caribbean and everything.
Now most pirates from England, from Bristol and England, because
(54:03):
what happened was England had this amazing naval fleet, but
after they finally beat the Spanish or Martyr, there was
nothing for all those young navy guys to do for
the naval fleets, so they all broke away and become pirateers.
So Blackbeard his real name was Edward Thatch. He was
a stand up guy from Bristol who was a naval
(54:23):
officer who became a pirate because he didn't have a
job anymore. So that for me is for you to
give to Nathan my history of the samurai.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
I'm pretty sure Nathan only likes things that lessons that
he can actually use for helpful for football. That's your opinion,
it's not my opinion. I think it's true a waste
of everyone's time.
Any feedback on my singing last week of Jerry Marsden
during the Pacemakers Never Walk Alone. Good feedback, solid feedback.
I don't think there was any feedback, right, Okay, no feedbacks,
good feedback.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
One person said he was so impressed that you were
able to learn how to sing out of your ass.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Okay, well I don't know who that person is, but
in your face, bro.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Because Starle Braithwaite and the Sweet Silver I'm trying to learn.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Piano man, piano man, Yeah, yeah, you heard of it?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Was that Elton John.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You know that's rocket Man.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, very close. Not physically welcome everybody where. We're better.
Review to the weekend's game, extraordinary games, particularly the second
the Sunday game, which we've just witnessed extraordinary. Cooper, We
are primarily lovers of the game, our family first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
We loved the game.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We love the game, and the game has never ever
been in a better spot. The game has never been better.
This final season, this final series, has been extraordinary.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I agree. I think the games have just been phenomenal.
And like I even I was saying this because I
was down in Melbourne last week watching the game. We're
going to talk about, but also watching a bit of
AFL and the AFL like the AFL is in a
good spot with what they've done. Entertainment, Snoop Dogg, things
like that. But I've watched all the AFL finals games
(01:36):
this year. The drama that we've had in the NRL,
every game, well most games, but particularly that Broncos Raiders
and then tonight that Broncos Penrith game. The games are
just pure entertainment, like there is everything. It's like it's
written on a script. It's that good.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
See it again, It's like.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It's written on a script. It's that good.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
A master of Snoop Yeah, smoothing there is that?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
What? I don't think that's a Snoop Dogg song.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Do you know in the movie in Old School, he
gets he's up there and he's got will get yeah
and he goes. I think, but I have a most
playing and that. I actually thought he was really good
at the Afield Green Final. And let's start let's start
with We'll start it with Friday. The temptations to start.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
With the game we've just seen stayed disciplined, but let's
stay discipline is cool.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So you went down, you went down, I went yeah
down last week? Yeah, yeah, yeah, what day did you
get down?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Wednesday? Wednesday? I went down there just to spect. I'll
tell you right now now there's a thing in at
Melbourne that Markey brentan all started calling me the rabbit's foot.
Who's Markey Brenttle is the assistant coach of Melbourne yep, for
those that don't know, because every time I go down
and the last couple of years, I've been down a
bit because just for what, go watch the boys play
(02:56):
keet behind the lads. Obviously I'm an old boy, but
I've got a lot of my old teammates still playing
in that team. And I've never been down, and they've lost, never,
not one. So call it a four leaf clover, call
it a rabbit's foot, call it whatever the hell you want.
But they are under no illusion down there that I
am not. I am the good luck charm.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Your great your influence is still felt in that club.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
And I said this to someone down there actually at
the game, because.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It was it was it, Craig, So you listen to me.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
There was someone in the Fiji Airways lounge that was there.
They asked, first of all, did you used to play
what are you doing in here? And then followed by
did you used to play at this club? Which I
said yes. They said how many games did you play?
I said about about nineteen. But the legacy that I've left,
they're starting to see the success of that now, the
pillars that I left at that club, both on and
off the field, the well that I dug, those players
(03:49):
are starting to drink from that well.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Drink. They are absolutely you know, the things that you
put in place. Your frustrations were that you were years
ahead of them as far as development, tactical sense, preparation,
all of those things. But now they're starting to understand.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I start, I finally understand what it must be like
for someone like Elon Musk. Yeah, right, when you are
so far ahead generationally than everyone else in your environment. Yeah,
they just can't understand what you're talking about. It's like
it's liking back to the future. He went back, and
you know, starts talking about things like the mobile phone,
the car, and they're like, what back in my day
(04:29):
when I was there, you know, And I know it's
only three or four years ago, but it's still a
long time in the context of the.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
When I was listening to a Fats Domino song today,
Blueberry Hill, and he was a man who was a
decade ahead of music at the time, and when he
brought out songs like Blueberry Hill, people so, what is
this what? And then it's later recorded as he's influence
over modern music, and I thought, I think exactly the
same as you.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And your mic just cut out for a second. It's
a right to give a big push in that. Do
you want to finish that turd of a thought that.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You yeah, are we okay? Now? Yeah? No, I was
just saying that, you know, Fats Domino brought out Blueberry Hill,
and people at the time went, what is this? But
it turns out that he was at least a decade
ahead of the music scene in America in the fifties
and the sixties. And as I was listening to that
song the other day, that wonderful song, Blueberry Hill, Fats Domino,
(05:24):
I couldn't help but think that you were the Fats
Domino of Melbourne Storm Rugby League. The things that you
put in place there that they those those poor players
at the time weren't ready for but now are able
to absorb.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I am now I'm now very disappointed I even told
you you might cut out in the first place. Maybe
that was God sending a symbol down it was supposed
to be.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
But you are the rabbit's foot, so you go. You
Actually I had fears when you tell me that you
stay at Harry Grant's place at the time. Oftentimes I think,
I don't know if that's a good idea, because it's
fair to say that your lifestyles are probably different these days,
probably complete polar opposites.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
No, not not as opposite as you think. See the
first time that we sort of did that a couple
of years when I stopped playing and I was like, oh,
I'll come down. He was like, come down, stay here,
and I was like, yeah, sure. I was always tiptoeing
around like on game day and that this time, no,
I was just a slob. I followed Harry's exact game
day routine. We got we got a coffee, we went
into the club. Did he did a little bit of
(06:23):
sort of pre habit on any niggles that he needed
to sort of fire up for the day, and he
did a bit of an ice bath and a spa.
I followed the exact same thing, even though I wasn't
even about to go and play a game. You're about
to go and sink.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
He was preparing himself for you were getting over a hangout.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
No, no, I was about to prepare myself to go
on the beers. So technically it was both of our
game days. And then we both went for a nap
about one thirty, and then we both woke up about
four o'clock and he was like, have you just like
followed my routine here today? And I said yes, But
you know what, it is very very nice and Dad Jackie,
you guys won't understand this, but to be an old
(07:02):
boy of a club who has so much success, because yes,
my opinion is neutral when it comes to who I
think is going to win the game, but when you're
an old boy of the club and you know that
your club's either going to be in a prelim or
a Grand final every single year, it is a nice feeling.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah. When I go to the nights old boys, I
look at the modern players to go, oh god, I
wish that you guys could have the same success that
I had. But anyway, yeah, I kind of digressed there
with the cover.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Hey, why we were on the topic of singers. Can
we actually talk about. I noticed Cooper was out, so
you can explain this to him what happened on your show.
We're filming it tonight. But last night on your show
with Brian Fletcher, you spoke about that young singer at
the Dolphins at the Dolphins home ground at the Queensland
Cup Grand Final.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
The Queensland Cup Grand Final was Billy Bears up against
the North. Anyway, pre game, they got this young fella out,
had this darling ice blue double breasted suit, had the
that the haircut that looked a class act handkerchief and
top pocket, et cetera. Anyway, he's still in the national
anthor and he's seeing his guts out, but unfortunately his
(08:09):
microphone just kept cutting out, none of them, like all
the players were laughing, but he was just anyway, the
wind was just blowing into his hair like anyway, I said,
I said, you know that poor bugger. I said, it
looks like a class actor. Said, let's get him on
the show this Thursday final show and he can like
basically do the national anthem to see at our season
and flesh goes, that'd be great and he said to
(08:31):
replicate the wind, I'll blow in his face and then
I had to go, and then Hammy was on and
my next comment was okay, Hammy, now grand Final head
to head. So it was sort of we just sort
of fumbled along there for a second, but nonetheless wonderful
viewing for the viewers. You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, And can you tell us the yarn that you
were saying about Snoop Dogg the other day? Remember, because
I saw Snoop when I was down there, I thought
it was Snoop there was. They were doing a p
asked where they had a Snoop Dogg impersonator going around
around Swan Street and Richmond, which is just around the
corner from where I was staying. I was having a
coffee and I saw him pull up in his like
low riding one of those high suspension cars that they
(09:13):
ride around in California in and he got out looked
exactly like him. It was a fake Snoop dog Everyone
was running around. He walked into a liquor land and
everybody was running in there to get pictures. They had
to break it to him later on the news that
because people were posting on their instagrams and that, but
Matt Snoop Dogg and people going this is crazy, wasn't
him looked just like I.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Looked like him. Yeah. Yeah, So the story was on
on Friday. There's a guy that myself, Letchenheini, deal with
a bit, Richie. He owns a number of pubs in
around western Sydney, and we'll sort of get there because
it's Grand Final coming up soon, a Grand Final week.
He was like, oh, boys, would you come out and
just do some favorite bit of a talk to some
of the locals. So yeah, yeah, So we got out there.
(09:53):
It was about I think about five hundred people. They
were having a bit of a lunch and we got
up there and did a bit of a routine and
a bit of fun. Anyway, it was like, oh, yeah,
rich what's happening? And well he looked very excited. He
said what's going on? And he goes, oh, mate, I
just threw threw a bit of bait out there, and
he said he took the bait. So what are you
talking about? He said, I've booked snoop tomorrow night after
(10:16):
the AFL Grand Final. What and he goes, yep, as
soon as when he does the Grand Final appearance, he
said he's going to jump on a plane him and
his whole crew. We're flying him here and he's going
to play the Bella Vista Hotel, the Bella Vista pub
Snoop Dogg.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, I've seen I saw some after you told me
that I saw some videos and yeah, he private jet
up or something. I said, Richie, what time was he
going to start? He said, starts at midnight? But anyway,
I said to Richie, had to go. He said it
was unbelievable. But he didn't get the little too. He
didn't start, he didn't study his giggle too. They must
kill it they, I mean they must when when a
big act like that comes out. They must really just cash.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
In those those big western Sydney pubs. Man, they are
just they are gold mineshmos. We should invest in a
pub'd love to. Yeah, well, speak to Richie. Yeah we
can do it. This is cy throwers a bone.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, it's more of an offair chat, but we should.
Let's just make sure that we flag this Friday night.
Let's get into the bit of the footy. Storm played
the Sharks. You, Matthew, were very bullish on the Sharks.
You thought the Sharks were going to get up by two, Yeah, yeah,
which they fought amicably. I thought. I thought a lot
of people are getting into them saying that they crumble
(11:23):
under pressure. But I think they've had pressure on them
the last two weeks before. They did a good job
with it. Then they just come up against a better side,
I think, more experienced in finals.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Finals football, it's about one of the primary corner cornerstones
is disciplined and Melbourne Storm that's why they're they're made
seventy Grand finals, they're in really big games. They are
very very disciplined. They don't beat themselves. Sharks the other night,
too many self inflicted wounds and like it was unforced
(11:55):
erarors like drop balls with no pressure on them. But
the big one, the big one was just given away
offside penalties. They gave so many offside penalties away. And
I think the one that probably the best example, which
is a symbolic of the whole performance, was very early
in the game, about three or four minutes in. Mate,
they start really well, the Sharks and they put the
ball right in the corner pocket and they've got the
(12:18):
they've got the Melbourne Storm trapped there and Mate, and
they give away an offside penalty like get behind the
referee and We spoke about when you are an underdog
going into these beat really big games, if you're going
to be a favorite, if you're going to be a
if you're going to cause an upset, you've got to
you've got to get off to a really good start,
and you've got to do a lot of things really
really good. They got off to a good start. They
(12:41):
got them trapped in the corner and they gave away
as simple offside penalty. One step ahead of the referee,
get behind him. So what happens there? Melbourne storm. That
next set they worked their way down the field. You
get a repeat set in the next set they score.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Yeah, that was the set Munster went down the short
side on fifth or fourth a tackle found Xavier Coats
and then they grubbed it in and then will Warbrigs
scores on the right hand in the right hand.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
There was so many penalties in that game, and I
know a lot of people have had a lot to
say about the penalty count, which warranted because I was
at that game and Jesus, it was slow. It was
a shit. I said to everyone, this is a boring
game to watch. The atmosphere was great at the standium,
but that first half, in a forty minute half of footy,
there was twenty two minutes of ball in playtime, which
(13:25):
is heart like. And then you look at that Broncos
Pendrith game on the other hand, that was so much
ball in playtime.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Cooper and I'm telling you, man, and we're going to
we'll touch more on this in the preview midweek, but
I'm telling you this is a huge factor going into
the Grand Fire in the fact that look at the
speed and the intensity of the day game Penrith against
Brisbane compared to the speed and intensity of the Sharks
(13:53):
versus Storm and on top of that they got two
days extra rest. Agreed, it's incredible advantage too.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We're not going to go too in deep, but there
is two schools of thought and in a sense where
Broncos are probably more battle hard and to a tough
game than Melbourne are. At the moment, Melbourne have had
kind of stop started games without Storm Bulldogs and then
Storm Sharks game where it hasn't been a high quality
match like the Broncos have been exposed to. But you
saw that how much fatigue was out in the field
(14:20):
and Broncos panel they were both out on their.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Feet in a hot, hot afternoon too correct Like it's
just there's so many factors there. But yeah, Coop Crnulla,
they were just and this final series more than any other,
I've soon seven tackle sets and errors are being punished
more than I've ever seen. Every seven tackle set just
about you know, becomes a tried and the other end
(14:43):
of the field. And in this game, every offside penalty
that Crnulli gave away Melbourne capitalized on in their score.
If they go into this game Cranulla and they just
go and they just changed that aspect of their game.
They are more disciplined as far as given away penalties
and just you know and unforced errors that in my opinion,
they probably win. But you know, the problem is sorry,
(15:06):
But the thing about it is Melbourne will not beat themselves.
They will not beat themselves.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And they we did speak last week about the inconsistency
of their spine this year and how the team sort
of played that Melbourne side. But I thought Munster Hughes,
Harry and Papenhausen Hughsey and perhaps coming back to that
side after having a few weeks out, they were unbelievable.
But Monster, I thought, that's as good a game Monster's
(15:33):
had since his Origin performance.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Well, let's talk with some of the individual performances there,
because we sort of spoke about the tail of the
tape and there were certain things in the game and
we'll talk about more in the preview, but there's certain
aspects of Melbourne's defense that going to work on their
left side defense is a little bit shaky, but we'll
do that in the preview. But individual performances, Yeah, firstly, Munster.
Munster for me is still number one when it comes
(15:56):
to big game performance. You know, if you look like
Nathan is incredible, but if you look at Munster at
every level Origin, you know, and and finals and Grand
Finals when he's in him, you know, like his impact is, oh,
he's always huge. And the thing about it is because
we spoke about this in the preview, Cornella, I'm sorry.
(16:16):
Melbourne been playing two narrow shapes for him too. Narrows.
They've been working sort of near post or midfield shapes.
It hasn't really been giving him space to move. They've
been they've been getting pressuring Hi from the inside and
the outside move. In this game, they played more width,
they moved the ball pass the far past, and opened
up the field, and you could see they couldn't like
(16:38):
the sharks, given the nature of how they got in
the ball. They had to just be passive on him,
which allowed for Master. That's all he needs, just a
little bit of time and goes there and away he went.
And that's that's he was. He was phenomenal. If he
wasn't setting them up directly. And what I mean by
that is like the little chip out of the top
for Paps to score. He was setting them up into,
(17:00):
which is drive through the line, get half through, play
the ball quick. Harry scoops and goes.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I want to actually, let's talk about that try. Just
brought up there with a little kickover for perhaps because
that was such a beautifully executed try. Harry gets out fine,
takes takes the marker out, Toby Rudolf as the marker
takes him out. But what I love about that, And
they've got to call the best part of that, those
three together, Munster, Papanells and Harry particularly perhaps perhaps is
(17:27):
very vocal with what he sees. So perhaps perhaps perhaps
was the one that he called. He told Munster, Kennedy's
in the line. They've got a call for when the
fullback comes into the line. So he was screaming that call,
that call, that call. So Munster instantly knows when when
the fullback or whoever, if somebody calls that, they know
instantly that the kicks on because the fullback's in the line.
(17:48):
And it's such a such a on the fly to
on the fly in late in the game when it
was going to be the it ended up sort of
being the deal breaker forum that sort of try but
to execute that under pressure off a quick player the ball.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
It was beautiful and you watch him coop. He's so
good at what I would describe as just finding a way.
Now what I mean by that is oftentimes you get
a person and say, okay, did little chip over the top.
Now what you do is you take the ball and
you keep your head down. And Munster got the ball.
He knew it was on. He just found a way
to kick it and get it.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
To the It was actually auly technique.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's an ugly technique. It was a half shank hooked it.
But that's the thing about Munster. He's very nature. The
nature of his game is he is unorthodox. He just
gets it done. Just on that I cannot believe that
teams will push their fullback into the defensive line round
halfway and expect not to be punished for it. It
(18:46):
just blows me away.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Well, you're told, you're kind of told in defensive systems
these days that when if if a marker or you're
in trouble, that fullback is told to kind of plug
on that short side. And it solves a hell of
a lot of problems in defense. And it needs to
be a healthy balance of you can't not do it
because teams are punished. You're with the ball with it,
but you have to have an ability to stop that
(19:09):
kick if you're going to be in the line.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I just can't particularly round halfway. I can't fathom. That
was about the thirty meter line, but yeah, thirty forty
meters out. I can't fathom why you would do it,
because I understand all those things of matching numbers. I
think I think that is the greater evil. Like if
I'm a player, if you're a playmaker out there and
you are thirty forty meters out and you are seeing
(19:33):
that the fullback is in the line and there's no
one out the back, and you don't kick it, shame
on you like, that's an opportunity you cannot miss. Yeah,
it's just so blatantly obvious. Yeah, anyway, but.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I think, I think, I think the bad teams probably
don't punish the good team like the teams who do
it enough, so they kind of get lulled into a
false sense of security that the full backs can plug
too many times in the line, and then when they
come up against a good spine who identify it, punished
for it. I want to can we quickly talk about
Jerome Hughes as well for a second, hughs He comes
(20:05):
back two weeks off the back of a four round
of broken forearm, gets surgery, and then any questions that
you had in that first twenty minutes that he may
have been carrying it, hiding himself whatever, were immediately just
proven wrong. As soon as Stefano gets that offload out
to him, he steps I think it was Tig Wilton
(20:26):
and then fends that that young lock that they've got
Jesse someone he's a good player to very very good player,
but fends him with that with that broken for yeah,
robo robo. But Hughsey. I thought Hughsey was unbelievable and
a lot of pressure like and he's one of Dally
and he's one of the best halfbacks in the comp
(20:47):
but I have no doubt a little bit of pressure
on his shoulders, not just with that injury, but with
the form of Jonah Pezzitt the week before as well.
Like and Hughes is a big game player, but to
have to have that pressure from a player underneath you
in that squad was there was a little bit coming
into this game with Hughes is a little bit underdone
(21:07):
with an injury. He had to have a big game
because you know they had a player there, Jona Pezant,
who could have played started in that side as well.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Coops, And you are exactly right, and people will listen
to that and go, oh, Coop's that's absurd. No, No,
it is true. Never underestimate people's insecurities. And I'm not
saying straight in security with your own, but it is true.
Champions always hear the footprints, always hear the footsteps behind him,
hear it coming. And I use the example all the
(21:36):
time with Munster in State of Origin when they lost
game one this year and I learned an interview with
him in the radio and they asked him, how did
you find out that you were going to be given
the captaincy by Billy Slater when Duc was dropped, and
he said, Billy called me and said can you come
to my room and I have a yandy about something,
And he said, I thought that I was about to
be dropped. Now that you're spot on about like the
(21:57):
drone thing, he's looking going the young guys, I mean,
and suddenly he's playing really good football and some people
can't help themselves too. Coop, Like Jerome would have been
places where people are going to go and just going,
oh hey, the new Blake. Jonah, he's gone, right, so
they don't really need you. He'd be copping that that,
And so I just think, Coop, he hasn't given like
(22:21):
people have really gone mate. Applauded for his performance and
what he under adversity, but not nearly enough. No, I
mean Shane Webb. He played in the Grand Final in
two thousand with a broken arm, but he broke it
five weeks earlier. Yeah, he played for Jerome twenty two
days earlier. He broke his arm and he's out there
fendom Blake's office, coring tries from forty five to fifty
(22:42):
meters out so fantastic performance. Blake. You mentioned before mate
two the two big boys two he Comic and Muther
and Stefano were fantastic. Firstly, Stefano man, my god. In
this sort of the back end quarter of this season,
he has been sensational.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Well, you know, I'm going to get to our back
fence player right now for me because a lot of
big game players in that storm side. I had Stefano
and we actually I watched it live, but I didn't
realize the impact he had in that first twenty five minutes.
His first twenty five minute stint was as good as
any front rower has had this year. Maybe not on
(23:19):
the stat sheet like but some of his quick play
thea balls that he generated for that side. And we
went back after the game, Harry, Wishy and I we
went back to theirs and rewatched it after the game.
The boys like to rewatch the game because he can't
sleep after it. And that first stint he had was unbelievable.
He got Billy Burns with a bump at one stage
(23:41):
to get this quick play the ball, and even blokes
like Fanilla Blake were really struggling to handle him. Yeah,
early the boys say he's got a bump. And when
I say a bump, let's use the example of like
when Tino how he runs at Yat, he really winds
up a bump, like you can see him winding up
five meters out and he gets his big bumpers up
(24:01):
and it's your job to kind of avoid his bumpers
or prepare for him. The boys say, Stefano, you can't
prepare for him because he's so powerful. He's bump and
he gets it up so late with off the back
of footwork that like he's very unassumingly strong.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, Harry said in Origin, like he flew out of
the line at one stage to try to get Stefano
who's playing his Wales, and even it even surprised him.
He's like, mate, he hit me with this bump and
it literally went straight through him and I couldn't prepare
for it. I thought he was unbelievable. I think the
last about seven weeks he's been close to the best
front run on the comp.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Well that that the Hugheses try. We're just talking about
you watch that, mate, he run there, he bumps off
a bare foot blokes. He just goes bump, bump, bump
and he goes halfway to his line, throws that bad hughes.
He's been a revelation in your old roommate mate two.
He coming Commuth. It was his best, one of his
best performances as a Storm player off the bench. He
just gave an enormous lifts to me.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
They need that. They've lacked that real impact off the
bench when they haven't had, like, you know, ever since
they lost like Brandon Smith. Obviously no Nelson this year.
That real punch off the bench where you have someone
that comes on and brings leg speed and a lot
of rock speed for you had too. He was unbelievable
(25:14):
on the weekend with that, the other Blake wanted to
give a big rap to it.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I thought it was his best game as an NRL player.
Will Wollbrick I thought Will was the week before he
had he had a mixed game the week before, had
some difficult periods, but all alls well, had ended well.
He finished the game well. But right from the start
of this game he was superb. He scored the first try,
but everything he did was high quality.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, and they trindle pepp at him. They had They
obviously had a game plan to bomb that side. With
Muller Talo coming through as an attacking threat, and he
put a lot of floaters up, a lot of torpedoes.
Brick didn't drop one. I think, man, what did you
make of that Shark's performance, because, like we just spoke,
we'll get a lot of raps to storm them. But
I like what the sharks. The Sharks clearly had a
(25:58):
game plan to get it Melbourne's left edge Munster, Jack
Haworth and Xavier Coachs and I thought they the two
tries that they scored in that first half once they
went down there, Nico found it out the back to
Kennedy who they jammed and he beat him with some
good footwork and found Katara in the right corner. And
then the next try he puts Billy Burns through a
hole in between Munster and jack Howarth. Yeah, and then
(26:20):
Katoa scores again. That's it's a it is looking at
Melbourne's edge defense. It is probably the the side where
they're going to get targeted a lot in this Grand
Final coming up that space between Munster and Jackie Howarth,
and I thought Sharks actually did a really good job
at exploding it.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, it's funny Coop that that left hand side. It
was it was probably not for Melbourne in your spot
on they're going to go continually. And it's funny because
both times both tries you were talking about were bad
decision making, but for totally different reasons. The first one
it was, it was they all went outside in in
(27:01):
uniform uniformally it was a bad decision collectively, just where
it rushed in past the ball and he shot it
through and little tunnel ball could tow it to score.
The second one, where Billy Burns went through and then
off to can Tell to score his second try, was
the fact that there was obviously a lack of communication
on Munster's inside and you see Muster sort of backing
(27:22):
off a little bit trying to buy time and that's
where they hit the short ball. So I don't know,
I don't know where the problem is coming from. But
Munster is the lynch pin in the middle and he's
either not getting communication from the inside or the outside.
But they've got a lot to work on there, because
that is Ruce Walsh, that's his favorite side, looping around
on that out side, he's very very good.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Especially with Adam Reynolds over and that attacking edge as well, well,
but who was your did you have a back fence?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I went to I just thought i'd like to his player.
And he's had a little bit of an up and
down season too, he but I thought off the bench,
he gave a lot of punch. Every time he got
the ball made.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
He was mighty Yeah, we'll get Stefano and two we
will get you those your gifts, your.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Gold plated cuff links. Yes, come to you.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
All right, let's get to that. Let's get to this
second game Sunday afternoon and those Sunday afternoon games. Let
me tell you something, those day Sunday games, it is
putting a lot of thought into the NFL's had to
go to a day Sunday Grand Final because I saw
during the week that Valandi's were saying the TV ratings
for those afternoon games. It's always been a TV thing
(28:29):
do it late at night. But the other games have
been breaking some records, and I.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Think I think soon the broadcaster will be online. Yeah,
they'll be on side. I would not surprise me even
next year that if Valandi's lent on Channel nine, they'd relent. Say, yep,
no problem, they can sell that to the advertisers. That
even if the ratings are slightly down, you've got to understand,
there's so many people sitting at barbecues, there's more eyeballs
(28:54):
on the game. It's just that people are watching collectively, right,
And the advertisers be that. So the very fact they're
saying this year, this final series, the ratings are up
thirty four percent, thirty thirty four percent, right, And and
the real big ones of the day games, now people
are watching you collectively your pubs and like say, you go,
(29:16):
my god, how many people are watching the game. Yeah,
So if it's you know, in that situation, the ratings
a go thirty four percent, and it's in day games
and people will be watching at venues, but the ratings,
the ratings could be up like sixty percent probably, yeah,
but it's the standard of the football. We had Hudson
(29:36):
Young on Tonight Show on Sunday Night Show, and I
was sitting there watching the game with him and we're
having to talk about the game, and I said to Hudson,
I said, I'm telling you, in mine, mine is a
life that has been wasted in rugby league. My life,
I said, but I'm telling you right now, the game
in my whole time in this sport. The game has
never been better, the players haven't have never been better,
(29:58):
every aspect of the game. The game is flying. It's
just incredible, and it just makes you as a regular person,
and I think a lot of listeners will back this
up with me. It makes you really proud to be
a regular league person when you watch a game. Some
of the games have been played in this final series
and the game we just saw just there. I just
thought both sides were incredible, the storylines going in and
(30:22):
the expectation of what the game could be. It lived
up to the billing in a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah, I agree, and I'm going to talk about some
of the players' performances and some of the big moments
from the game. But looking at the build up into
this game, we spoke about it, the X factor of
the Broncos up against the discipline and the absolute clinical
nature of Penrith Panthers. It was always going to be
a big clash and I always had the theory that
(30:49):
I mean at finals as luck and timing and everything
of who you get on the draw. But the only
team I thought that could beat Penrith were the Broncos.
I thought if Storm came up against Penrith, Penrith were
going to beat them because they play a similar style,
but the Broncos X factor and their physicality with boys
(31:09):
like Payne Hers and Xavier Willison, their big strong pack.
I thought really fatigued Penrith because by the end of
the game, and Penrith should have had him on the ropes,
like with how much footy they sort of started getting
down their end, how many chances Broncos gave them. The
Broncos defense on their line they were so resilient held
(31:31):
him out a lot of the time. But usually Penrith
would put teams to the sword with their attack. But
they were really disrupted. They were I haven't seen Penrith
look that tired in the last five years. Like they
fatigued very quickly and not quickly, but it was it
was a testament to how physical and quick the game was.
But there was a point there where Leam Martin and
(31:52):
Mitch Kenny both went off and in a very key
part of the thing, and I thought it must be
so much fatigue out there because you don't see that
those blugs come off in this moment extraordinary coop.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
There was a time Louam Martin stood up once and wabbled,
and I was with Hudson and I said, did he
get a headshot? And he goes, no, he's just fucked.
He's gone and made. And I'm going, oh my god,
Like Coop, if the first game we spoke about Melbourne
Storm Sharks was defined by Melbourne's greater discipline, then this
(32:22):
game was defined by Brisbane's desperation in their online defense. Yeah,
that's what one of them came. Because Coop at foot,
like Penrith in the first half, destroyed the Broncos with
the yardage game as they destroyed most teams without yard
and just dismantled him. And I must say, going in
at fourteen nil down, I actually thought the school line
(32:45):
it was in some ways flattered Brisbane. They were so
under the pump. And we'll sit there again with Hudson
and you just yeah talking And I said him, if
Penrith came out and score in the first five ten minutes,
I said, the flood gates can open. It's gonna be
a big score. He goes, Yep, definitely. Anyway, Buck of Mo.
They had so many opportunities to do that, Penrith, and
(33:08):
they just kept going and going and going, and they
just found a way to stay in the contest or
to defend their line. Yeah, it was. It was an
extraordinary defensive effort, Coop. And you said, Xavier Wilson before
Xavier Willison Lea Martin being gone. Xavier Willison, who has
played very little football player, he hit the wall completely right. Yeah,
(33:33):
And I said to the boys, haven't looked at Xavier here,
and he was. He played the ball and he put
his head in his hands and he actually turned and
looked towards the coach's box and just to say, fucking Madge,
you've got to take me off and go on. And
then about five minutes later scores the tryes the vital.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Drip his first stint. He was very gas Penrith did
a good job of actually identifying. There was a couple
of times there where you could see Nathan and Mitch
Ken in particular. Miss Kenny's got a good knack on
the field of he screams and he'll point the players
and say get at him. And he was pointing at
Zavi will listen a lot, tipping his forwards into making
him make tackles because he become really ineffective at points,
(34:13):
jumping off tackles and you know, just just not really
You're getting a lot of quick play the balls through him.
But his second stint with the footy mate he was,
he was a big game breaker for him because he's
got him a lot of quick play the balls.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Obviously scored seal the brought.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Him back into that game with that good try, But
some of his some of his balls.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Can you put our man up, Jack for a second,
because I want to ask him about his great mate
Adam Reynolds. Jack played with Reno and they remain good friends. Hey, Jack,
that must have been, like you, We're not a pressure
on rene Jack going into this game, given the fact
that you know they played so good without him being
in the side, and so you could see him finding
(34:52):
his way and you can see that the hamstring is
still not one hundred percent. But to nail that kick, yeah,
and that's just one of those moments that can define
your Yeah, your time at a club. He's had.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Renold's had a thousand, thousands of kicks, and a lot
of them have been high pressure kicks, and especially early
in his career there at Souse with.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Madge, he done some crazy kicks.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
But it's a crazy moment to think too, Like, don't
forget the fact that you know, the Penrith's first win
in their dynasty was against Sour Sydney, Renault's last game
for SOUS and he missed that goal. So I think
it was to level it that game. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And and then like to finish this full game run
to try and make five and he kicks the goal
(35:36):
to pretty much send him away in the last three minutes.
It's pretty it's a bit of a a It's a
huge moment for Reno and I don't know, I'm not
sure if it would have weighed on him too much
that kick back in the day, but I reckon it
would have regardless that if they win the Grand Final.
I reckon, I reckon it's probably relieved a bit of pressure.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
In his mind. Oh definitely, Jack spot on, Yeah, and
go on what you just said before, Matthew on a
pressure on Renner. You could you could see, And I
said it to Jack. During the game, particularly the first
sort of three quarters of the game, their attack was
really clunky. Their attack was really clunky between the communication
between him and Ben Hunt. Yeah, in particular, but it
(36:14):
was like they'd gone away what had been working for
them probably the last five weeks because they had Adam
Reynolds come back and they all looked to Reno for
you get us around the park, and Reno probably was
it actually slowed their attack right up because he was
always setting up saw a play for himself. When the
last sort of four weeks when they've been going well,
they'd just been playing footy, playing footy, playing footy, and
(36:36):
then ren b Reece Walsh or Ben Hunt or Billy
Walter saw something. Then they called the ball and on
and Reese Walsh. You could see him. He was hugging
that right side a lot, just hanging around Rena because
obviously he looks up to Reno and he's just following
Renau's lead. And it actually hindered a lot of his
attacking performance because he wasn't floating like he usually does.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
It's spot on Coop because when they lost Reno Magual, Okay,
what are we going to do here? Right, so they
had to fall back into a more reactionary style football,
watch and react. And let's not forget the fact that
lost Billy Wilders, right. Billy has been one of their
very best players. This year as far as impact, but
even when he went to six it was outstanding. So
to lose a player like that loves a big hole.
(37:16):
But then Renault comes back in, who is such an
influential player, He's naturally going to have his even if
he wants to take a back seat, not over play
his hands, he naturally his footprint will be on how
you want to play. And you can see it took
a long while from to really start to work it
out a little bit, but oh man, it was. It
was a great game of football. And may I tell
you what, I got so much respectful to Recee Walsh.
(37:38):
Reecee Walsh, Like you know he's a pretty boy, well
get that and all that sort of stuff. Mate, He's
he is fucking tough, mate. You look at her in
that first twenty minutes when the heat is one, he's
taken two and a set of six, he's getting jammed.
He's just he can't be discouraged. I've said it before.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
He's just how strong he is. People don't realize because
sometimes you get on kick returns and stuff. He can
get manhandled by some of the bigger boys. But you
saw in that first ten minutes none of the attack
was out on the edges. He was just getting it
one off the ruck and just using his speed in
acceleration to get straight in between two defenders and getting
on quick play thea balls he's I mean, it was
a big reason him doing that. It not only causes
(38:16):
quick playables, but it also like you saw with Scott
Sorenson calls the head clash and he goes off category won.
He can't even play. He couldn't play the Grand Final
if they made it next week. That stuff is actually
really instrumental end up winning the game.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
It's funny, Cooper, and let people know that that's a
really it's a big thing. Is that when a player
gets a ball who has got express speed right, and
what they do is they run straight between two defenders.
Now that is it's testing. It's testing the metal of
the defenders, but also yourself. Now what I mean by
(38:52):
that is you are running in between two defenders right now,
what running between and copying two sets of shoulders on you,
You can actually get emptied out big time, really knocked around.
They hit you sweet. But it's also it's always testing
the mental toughness and the physical toughness and the defenders,
because when you run between a defender, if they just
(39:14):
get it slightly wrong, there's a fair chance they're going
to clash heads. Yeah right, and it's it's laying the
cards on the table and say, right, this is what
I'm going to do. Let's fucking see what you're going
to do. And he did that. That's when Scott Scotty
Sarenson got hit, got knocked out. That is for Reus,
that's him, that's his toughness and going right, I'm going
to do that, testing out the defense.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
And he did.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
He did that all all afternoon. He was brilliant. Pain
Ass is just I guess to the point, mate, we're
pain Hass. If you if you just turned up and
you never heard of this bloke, pain hasse and you
watch the game. We've been speaking, we'd talk about him
for about thirty minutes now, just going mate, what about that?
But you expect it from him. But he did it
without Pat Carrigan being there. He went, He did it solo.
(39:58):
It was magnificent.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
What the in tensity of that game, particularly that first
ten minutes. It was State of Origin esque, particularly a
lot of the kick chases. I think the first kick chase.
They went down, ren I put up a bomb. Brendan
Peter Kura come from the left side and you see
those kind of kick chases in the Big in either
Big Grand Finals or State of Origin. He went through
and just leveled Dylan Edwards out yep, and those real
(40:20):
big hits off the plus one plus two when the
back three, the wingers in the fullback are coming out
of their own end. It was physical and I tip
my hat to Penrith because they copped a lot of
They absorbed a lot of pressure early, a lot of
physical pressure. Sorenson went off and they were actually in
a bit of sixes and sevens for that first ten minutes.
I was thinking that Broncos are going to score here.
(40:41):
They ended up holding them out, got a good stop
on the right edge, and then as soon as Penrith
went down to that end, they just went to work.
They It's a testament to that club and that culture
because they absorbed so much pressure. And then Nathan and
Iao went down that end, they went right and they
just they were all by the book. They just they
picked them apart and they set up that really nice
(41:01):
try for paul A Lamotti in the right side.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
If you have knock out a champion, if you're a
heavyweight box, did you get a bit knock at the
champion and you've got to beat the champion take the
belt off him. You've got to do something special. Yeah,
and they did that tonight made the Broncos beat Muhammad Ali.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah. Well, Penris attack, Penris attack was I would say
it was a lot better than Broncos attack. But Broncos
just they were just resilient. They hung in there. A
lot of their tries didn't come from a lot of
classy stuff. Their first try they were very lucky to
get that first try in the second half because they'd
had a really clunky set. Ben Hunt goes out the
(41:36):
wrong way, finds it to Adam Reynolds and it was
it was Catoni Stagg's who just said, there's nothing on here.
I'm just going to give ran On an option. He
pointed for the kick and a real good chase and
he ends up scoring the try. But their actual attacking
shape was very clunky. Wasn't actually that great.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
It's funny you say that, Coop, that is so true
because you look at the two sides, right, Penris are
just cold blow the killers and they just went to
bet their work with as they always do, with just
cold blooded precision. Where Broncos are I would say, far
more emotional team. Emotional teams, you know, and teams who
(42:17):
got emotional individuals. They tend to ride the roller coaster
a little bit and lead sometimes to inconsistencies. But that
was watching the tail of the tape. It was the
Broncos emotion that got them home. It was their emotion
that they just kept turning up and finding a way,
finding a way to stay in the contest. The emotion
that they just kept turning up in the fence. They
(42:37):
found a way to get to get down the other
end of the field, found a way to score reno
exhausted right hamstring gone, found a way bang knock it
over to win the game. It was always like I
think their performance was just built on raw emotion.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
This and I thought the Broncos back five were unbelievable.
I thought, well, they did it out of their own end,
particularly their their wingers. They did such a good job
out of their end. But my back fence player, for
that reason of emotion, it was actually Katony Stags. I
thought there was a lot of good players, but I
think if Catni Stags wasn't out there, I don't think
(43:13):
they win. I do not think they win. And it's
not because of the try they set up. But I
thought that that try that he called for for Rena
to kick to him, it was at a it was
a real turning point in their attitude what he did,
and it was it was a testament to his attitude
because everyone was kind of on the back foot waiting
for Reno and reeswas to do something, and he just went,
(43:33):
fuck that, I'm going to give him an option and
I'm going to chase this hard ends up scoring. But
even some of his carries out of the backfield, Katony
just really wound up and just get a one on
one with someone like his. His aggression and attitude I
thought just turned the tie.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Awesome, what an awesome player. And and kerp he Katoni's
Wellington boy, Wellington, New South Wales. It's really I spent
me and your uncle Joe, we spent a little bit
of time and the Nate Okwick that we went there
one year for about four or five days with Chop
Mundine and where's Patton and some of those boys, and
(44:09):
really it's a big indigenous community. There a lot of
great sportsmen that's initiate, but it's an area that has
a lot of challenges as well. And he's a Wellington boy.
Some great players coming out of that Wellington area, but
he's a Wellington boy. And Gordon told me when he
got picked up by the Broncos, he played for Redcliffe,
which at that point was their fooder club. And an
(44:32):
old bloke who'd been at Redcliffe basically you know, for
something like fifty years as an old old footy bloke,
said to good once he said, we've just got this
kid arrived at our club from Wellington. He said, I've
never seen anyone like him. Now, this is the blake
that's been at this proud like great club Wellington which
Arthur Boutsen have played at Welling at Redcliffe with this
(44:54):
kid that arrived at this Redcliffe club with great tradition.
This old bloke soon them all and said that kid,
I've never seen anything like it. And as far as
I would say physicality as an athlete, I love the
thing in the I've seen vision in the sheds when
he first come as young blaking at the Broncos and
they're all celebrating after win, and he literally in his
(45:14):
boots in the dressing room does a backflip lands and
then does the front lands.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
I haven't seen someone as individually athletic. I Reckon, I
remember KATONI stays two thousand and it might have been
twenty and eighteen that going back that far, I don't
think he played first grade yet. But we were the
Sunny Coast Falcons. He was playing for Redcliffe Dolphins the
Broncos Feeder YEP at that time, and he put three
tries on he was called a hat trick in the
(45:41):
second half against us, and was me and him are
the same age, but he was so so unbelievably athletic.
We were both about eighteen at the time, and he
looked made grown man, looked like kids out there. And
then there was even that highlight that he had against
the Dragons. I think it was like twenty twenty and
they gave him early ball and you and Akim was
(46:02):
opposite him, and you give him this fan and you
and Aiken, who's so strong for those that have played
against you and aken you and Aiken literally like nearly
flips on his head and does a backflip. He fends
him so hard ends up going like eighty meters and scoring.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
Well, Katny Katney is indigenous, but he's also his memory
for his tongue as well. And it's like Tomata tah
Tamara was Indigenous but also was some oen. Yeah, fucking unbelievable,
Like unbelievable. That's two incredible.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Bloodlines, you know what I mean, like genetically Yeah, incredible.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Now look my back, my back fence player is it's
going to get on the losing side because I just
thought it was old school and I loved it. Liam
Martin were the one where Ezra come over and give
Nathan hit the rough and may he just come charging
over and just jammed Ezra from side on. That's how
it's supposed to be. Blokes like that protecting your halfback.
(47:02):
That's what the game has always been built on, the
big blokes protecting their playmate. I thought it was great.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Shout out to Green akin to a fish out of
that game. I thought I thought he did a great
job because would be very easy for some of the
rest to go, oh, you know, like because there's a
bit of push and shaf not much in it, like
a little bit of slapping and the other, but to
send someone off and I was going, I don't send
someone off in this game right now. He had a
good ability. Actually, Green Akins are just letting the game
flow and allowing them to be fatigued because we don't
(47:31):
have a great ending like that. If he doesn't allow
that game.
Speaker 1 (47:34):
I want to give a wrap to the referees. I'm
telling you right now, right Bill Harrigan was once in
a lifetime like as a faux referee, his temperament and
his ego to allow him to sort of even stand
over some of the greats of the game and hold
the game and he's in his in his fist. But
(47:55):
the refereeing these is, I'm telling you it's never been better.
They don't miss much, they don't and Mate, it's it's
it's one of Australian Australian sports favorite things, best Sports West,
best at that's referee bashing telling you, Mate, some of
the decisions today that he made on the run, we're
fucking outstanding. And I want to give the linesman of
(48:18):
a rap. When the Casey McClain intercept, like Casey McLain
that one where Reees Walsh was reesewalth through the ball
and the interceptor went and he was away and scored.
Now that wins the game. It was, mate, Casey was
one step off side touch. He picked that up. That
that is that is remark. That is remarkable, tear the
(48:41):
speed of the game. Now you look at how fatigue
the players get with the speed of the game. That
one referee, Mate, He's controlling everything out there. Mate, I'm
telling you, like, seriously, those blokes do a good job.
Speaker 4 (48:51):
That doesn't get spoken enough about. I reckon with everyone
talking about the new the new rules since COVID and
all the like. You know, the referees caught that much flak,
and they've caught flak for the entirety of the game's existence,
but the rules of only I've done nothing but get
faster and for a position where refs are got to
cover more k's and make these crucial decisions under pressure,
(49:14):
but more importantly or more dramatically under fatigue, it only
makes their job so much harder. You know, I'm surprised,
like people go, I don't know why they go to
more scrutiny. Yeah, I don't know why they go to
the video ref so much. Again, honestly, if I was
out there doing it like I'd be.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
I'd be losing a ship after it mate the mate.
It is like the speed of the game. There's so
many variables in rugby league as well. And and yeah,
it's I just want to give map. I thought that
his performance today was fantastic. And I think the I
think this refereeing crisis we are talking it is so
(49:51):
dramatically overblown. I mean, really that those those blokes and
the ladies in the game as well, who referee, they
do fucking outstanding his job, a job that has gets
very very few plaud it's mainly just almost always scorning criticism.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah, we've wrapped him enough. You do want to say something.
Let's say something bad about him as well.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
But I do want to Well, I know what green Akkins.
I know one thing I will say bad about that
was our your mother Trish, who can befriend anybody all
the time. After I did the commentary in the Vegas
that physit went down, she befriends green Atkins's wife, who
I don't know at the moment. I didn't know at
that time was his wife. Go on, so and so, oh, okay,
(50:32):
you're really nice to me, and I'm looking over the
shoulder and They've got all these fucking cocktails with green
Adkins's wife's friends and everything, and goes you pay I
fucking three hundred and thirty dollars US plus.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
Tip, did you timid.
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Fucking fire it's made? It was basically three hundred fucking
three hundred thousand dollars Australian.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
One, last one, last round. I do want to tip
my hat to the Panworth Panthers club for five and
arowbits they were this year. And you know, there was
a part of me that they didn't want to see
him in the Grand Final just for just for different purposes,
just to see Storm not play Penrith, because that's that's
like groundhole day. But that club and that culture is
(51:16):
bloody amazing. And I particularly blokes like Nathan Cleary, who
a lot of teams they try to get one percent,
They try to get any edge they can one percent
better every day by bringing him breathing coaches, mental coaches.
But a bloat like Nathan Cleary, and he spoke about
it in the media and whatnot, even when he was
talking about how he's been reading up on the Samurai
(51:37):
shit like that, Like he's a bloke that a lot
of players go in and they'll the resources the club
applies to them, like recovery and mental coaches. They'll use
them when they're in the club, but when they go
home they have a breakaway from football. Nathan's the kind
of guy that as soon as he leaves the club,
he goes home, he'll do reading on his own and
try to try to learn from all these other avenues,
(51:58):
try to adopt all these different analogies lessons that he
can bring into his own game. I got to tip
my hat to him because they're an unbelievable playing.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
Squad, fantastic, mate brilliant. I thought they'd win the conferences
and went into the eight. I just thought they win it.
It's taken a very very special effort from a special
team to beat them. But they are class through and through, honestly,
And in the postmatch press conference, the way that Ivan
and Nathan, but I Evenant did the majority of the talk,
and the way he handled it, it's just a class act.
(52:27):
You wouldn't have known with Ivan whether he won or lost,
and he was very made. He was so gracious, and yeah,
the whole organization's class. Do you know how I love
my stuff and my reading. I wonder if Nathan would
be interested in my knowledge on the samurai. Probably not really, okay,
because do you know what happened to the samurai? Like,
(52:47):
so the samurai people might find this interesting?
Speaker 2 (52:50):
Yeah, they might.
Speaker 1 (52:52):
You know that you've heard the Yakusa.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yeah, they're a Japanese game, Yeah, the Japanese mafia.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
So it was Yakusa is is a dice game you play, right,
they play and the worst three when the dice roll
the worst, the worst three combination you can have is
ya ku za. That's where they got Yakusa mean bad, right.
So what happened was there's been evidence around this during
(53:18):
civilization for a long time human civilization. So the Samurai
were brought in as you know, when the wars were
going on, you know, you know, during the Edo area
with a showgun and whatnot. But what happened is when
those wars ended, right, and the samurai suddenly they didn't
need the samurai. They were like, well, what are we
(53:38):
going to do with our skills? What are we going
to do? And a lot of them formed mafia gangs
of type. Yeah, and when a lot of them started
the Yakusa because they had nothing else to do, and
the same thing happened with when you hear about pirates,
the pirates now, but people always think about pirates that
pirates were, you know, from the from the Caribbean and everything.
Now most pirates from England, from Bristol and England, because
(54:03):
what happened was England had this amazing naval fleet, but
after they finally beat the Spanish or Martyr, there was
nothing for all those young navy guys to do for
the naval fleets, so they all broke away and become pirateers.
So Blackbeard his real name was Edward Thatch. He was
a stand up guy from Bristol who was a naval
(54:23):
officer who became a pirate because he didn't have a
job anymore. So that for me is for you to
give to Nathan my history of the samurai.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
I'm pretty sure Nathan only likes things that lessons that
he can actually use for helpful for football. That's your opinion,
it's not my opinion. I think it's true a waste
of everyone's time.
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