Take a deep breath as you wake up this morning, then get up and get your colours on because we've finally reached that day of the week we all wait for. That's right, it's game day my fellow members and fans!!! Tonight, we take on the Sharks in what is a massive game. A very significant one for our Season as the consequences of the result in this one could be massive. It is a game that will potentially decide our coach's future, and this could potentially be Season defining. There's a lot on the line tonight.
This is one of the more somber build ups to a game I can remember and I must be honest, I'm not feeling super confident about this game. In fact, I'm quite concerned. I just feel really strange about this game day. Normally I wake up super pumped, excited and nervous and that feeling builds as you get closer to kick off, but today I just feel very neutral and flat. Kind of emotionless. I think that's because I know what to expect now and it's not going to be a pretty watch I don't think. I also think that the whole JD situation is playing its part in that. Like, I always want to win no matter what, always, but the coach needs to go and if we do win, does that mean he doesn't go? It's a weird situation and a weird feeling. I don't know.
What I do know is that Cronulla are going to come into this game as very strong favourites and rightly so. They come in with so much confidence, they're playing pretty solid Footy at the moment and on paper, the sides are pretty even, but on form, it's not even close. They are far, far more in form right now and I'm sure the Sharks will smell blood in the water and will be ready to inflict further pain on us. They have a much more in form forward pack, lead by Cam McInnes and backed up by some quality forwards in Wilton, Nikora and Hazelton. Then, they have a far more potent backline than us and if we don't sort our shit out, Mulitalo, Katoa, Kennedy and Ramien will tear us apart on the edges. Then, the scariest part is their halfback, Hynes. I'm having nightmares just thinking about what he might do to us. Jeez, this will be tough tonight.
In saying that, our side is capable of getting a famous win tonight. If we could somehow do it, it'd go down in history as one of our best ever given the circumstances. This is the kind of game where I just want to see a response. I'm burning for the boys to finally wake up, say 'enough is enough,' and just go out there and play our Footy the way we know we are capable of playing. Show us some grit, show us some friggin pride, show us some resilience, show us some want and some effort; heck, just show us something tonight please boys!! The biggest thing is errors. We have shown in 2024 that when we respect the Footy, keep our focus and hold it, we can compete and be in games up to our eyeballs so that is the key today. Just hold the friggin ball and complete! We cannot gift this Cronulla side opportunities and we cannot make it hard for ourselves. This is all about working yourself back into form and if you keep dropping the ball, you give yourself no chance to do that. It sounds so simple, but our boys have so far shown a complete lack of ability to do that so I'm not confident they can. I feel like I've said the same thing every game and it just doesn't happen.
This is probably the first ever time I've written a game day morning preview and not been hyped or even somewhat excited, but I guess it just shows the current predicament the club is in. I still back our boys all the way, and I will do that til the day I die no matter what. Come kick off tonight, I'll be screaming at the TV and baying for a win. But I'm just not confident today, I'd love the boys to prove that wrong.
Have a crack lads!
Glory, Glory.
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