Tom Petty and the Flat Trackers

A little while back I wrote about how narratives can be so easily formed and yet so depressingly hard to shift.

That came after the Broncos travelled to Sydney and outlasted a disjointed Cronulla side at Shark Park, a team that doesn’t travel well against a flat track bully that can’t beat top teams.

Since that game, the Broncos have won four out of their last five (surprise loss to the Titans aside) and have firmly positioned themselves inside the top four and the double chance that comes along with it.

Meanwhile, the Sharks have been, in the immortal words of our late great titular character Tom Petty, FREE FALLIN.

Ok not free falling as such, having pieced up the Bulldogs, Dragons and Tigers since then, but that’s kind of the point. We know the Sharks can shitmix the dregs of the competition.

Conceding a fifty burger to Melbourne and 44 to the Warriors are less than ideal for a team with contending aspirations, irrespective of the games being away, but both those sides have legitimate top four hopes, so as bad as it is, it can somewhat be explained.

Letting the travelling Isaac Moses circus from the northern beaches run out to a 30-0 lead in your own construction zone home is the final straw.

Every low is a new low until the next new low hits, and then you find yourself convincing yourself that this is as bad as it gets and the only way is up, and then you sink even lower, and the cycle continues in perfect abject miserable symmetry until you’re left wondering which fringe reserve grader is the long lost Messiah.

That nadir was meant to be off the back of a gashing across the ditch to a rabid Warriors side in front of a vociferous and bouncing Mt Smart (I am NOT calling it Go Media Stadium fuck off).

The Sharks fans had had enough. While last year the scathing deficiencies of some of the elder statesmen were glossed over because of a lilypad draw on the way to a mirage of a top two finish, this season’s reality has outlined the facade in stark terms.

Matt Moylan, providing as much resistence down the left edge as a creaky saloon door in a windy Kansas town in 1865, along Route 66, colloquially and disdainfully known as the Moylan Highway, providing easy and direct passage to the try line for weary travellers.

Wade Graham, club legend and premiership hero, yet offering all the mobility and impact off the bench of a slightly agitated pensioner when the market is out of fresh mangoes.

Those two have copped the majority of the brunt, but the issues lay further reaching than the brothers grim.

Look at the spine for instance. Outside Nicho Hynes (who himself has had a real rough go of it over the last couple of months), are you really confident and assured in any of the positions moving forward?

Outside of Moylan, the Sharks have Braydon Trindall, who started at six yesterday in the defeat to Manly after the gallows swung for Moylan. Calls for change felt largely borne out of addition by subtraction rather than any real belief in Trindall being the man to turn things around. Coaches have favourites, to be sure, but there’s a reason Trindall is a career Newtown Jet to this point. His fifth tackle options were clunky, his defence only looked better because the baseline for that spot was so low to begin with, and outside of the occasional rare flashes, a lot of his play was aimless and sideways.

Blayke Brailey is a hooker I’ve had a bit of time for over the years, a player a few years ago who I thought showed signs of some real craft around the ruck. However, it just looks like he hasn’t really kicked on to the level I thought he’d get to, and while he remains a perfectly serviceable first grade player in a position so many teams neglect, he’s very much become a “line and length” player, the same monotony every week.

Lastly, Will Kennedy, who was the subject of a bit of a pseudo-bidding war earlier in the seaosn before the Sharks re-signed him. Like the others on this list, his talent is undeniable, and he’s a great story having worked himself up from reserve grader to proven first grade fullback capable of chiming into the attack on either side and linking with nice touches, but he also goes through large patches where his decision making is unconvincing and his involvements sputter the attack. The kick for himself in the dying embers against Manly a real headscratcher where there appeared to be an overlap left.

Now Trindall, Brailey and Kennedy are all capable and fine first graders. On their own they would be a very nice complimentary fourth piece in a spine to really tie it all together, but the Sharks carrying three players with a seemingly limited ceiling as a unit overall only serves to add to my dim outlook moving forward.

The spine isn’t alone though, and the forward pack isn’t blameless in this slip. Take a look at the starting pack from yesterday’s game, minus the hooker.

You look at that collection of big men and tell me the first word that comes to mind.

For me? Indifferent.

I mean, for Cameron McInnes, who I didn’t even include in the washed spiel earlier because I ran out of characters, to lead all your forwards in run metres at 156 from 20 runs, is genuinely embarrassing, and only Nikora also cracked 100 (well he got 100 exactly so, hardly cracking).

Also it isn’t like there’s mass casualties and a horde of players awaiting a return in the Shire. Teig Wilton, maybe their best forward over the season, suffered a knee injury last week that has seen him ruled out for the remainder of the year but other than that, the ward is Braden Hamlin-Uele and that’s it.

I haven’t even mentioned Siosifa Talakai yet either. I’m not sure what took so long, but I never really liked him at centre, and I never liked that that decision seemed to be made after one game dominating Morgan Harper of all people. He was meant to be on the bench before being a late out (not sure if injured), but I do like him better as a middle forward, and considering the other Sharks options at lock are Dale Finucane and Cameron McInnes, Talakai is a much needed fire to their melting ice.

Briefly on the actual game yesterday, it was a disgraceful effort from the Sharks. The Moylan Highway was in full effect despite missing its ringleader, with Tolu Koula and Jason Saab made to look like prime Inglis and Folau down Manly’s right edge, while the Sea Eagles pack comprehensively monstered Cronulla where it mattered.

I want you to read that last part again and just take in how insane that is.

A Manly forward pack carrying both Aaron Woods and Matt Lodge off the street in 2023 veritably bitched Cronulla, that is embarrassing and should be grounds for righteous condemnation and marching through the streets Game of Thrones style.

Manly had four forwards run for over 100 metres (Haumole Olakau’atu, Jake Trbojevic, Sean Keppie and…Matt Lodge), while Aaron Woods chipped in with 92 himself. Woods and Lodge gained 246 metres combined on over 10 metres a carry. For a Sharks team that thinks they belong at the pointy end of the ladder that is deeply unserious.

What worries me most though about the Sharks is how they’ve committed to this build. The entire Sharks roster is already signed up for next season except Graham and a couple of reserve graders in Jayden Berrell and Mawene Hiroti.

Look ahead though, and all these guys are signed through to the END of 2025.

Blayke Brailey, Braydon Trindall, Briton Nikora, Cam McInnes, Dale Finucane, Jesse Ramien, Nicho Hynes, Oregon Kaufusi (mutual option), Ronaldo Mulitalo, Royce Hunt, Sam Stonestreet, Sione Katoa, Siosifa Talakai, Teig Wilton, Tom Hazleton (club option) and Will Kennedy.

That’s a heavy commitment to the bulk of the main contributors to a heavily capped mediocre roster, there’s little scope for growth and purchasing from the outside.

The Sharks have committed to this, for better or worse.

And it's a long day livin' in Cronulla
There's a highway runnin' down the left edge

And I'm free
Free fallin'
Yeah, I'm free
Free fallin'.

**

A FAVOUR TO ASK

With Twitter sucking the proverbial right now, it’s getting harder to get these articles out there and seen outside of the circles I already travel in. If you do enjoy these and know someone else who might, please consider passing it along.