The worlds best cronulla sharks fan podcast

[Frank Discussion]

Love the podcasts.
I also respect anyone's opinion on who should be in the team of the half century etc.
I get the impression winning the comp has influenced a few selections and so it should but to me Steve Rogers is easily the best player to have ever worn the jersey.
No debate in my mind but I understand How the younger brigade rate Gal and ET above him.
Having said that they're wrong.

Absolutely winning the comp influenced a few positions. And not seeing a whole bunch of guys play in the flesh (like Sludge) totally influenced us, despite trying to be as fair as we could.

We were originally supposed to have Jon Docking in the Locker Room for this episode and were going to get his input on the older crew, but there was a last minute scheduling issue and we had to do it without him which was a hell of a bummer.

 

[coolumsharkie]

Sludge was an out and out freak. Saw him weave through a Newtown Jets defense from halfway with out a hand being laid on him once, it was a thing of beauty and the crowd let him know it too.

 

[bad boy bubby]

Sludge is number one with daylight / night time/ daylight behind, then the rest.
He went to the Goons as THE highest paid player in rugby league. Thats Thurston-Johns level to anyone that didn't see him play.

 

[Quigs]

That is where my dark cloud hovers re Sludge - going over to the Stains.

Sir Thomas is and always will be my fav. So many memories. Seeing him set upon Satts like a rabid mongrel dog in a fight to the death at Redfern Oval. He made us. He had no fear. A leaders leader. Its just a shame it took 50 years to final kill the witch.

 

[bad boy bubby]

That is where my dark cloud hovers re Sludge - going over to the Stains.

Sir Thomas is and always will be my fav. So many memories. Seeing him set upon Satts like a rabid mongrel dog in a fight to the death at Redfern Oval. He made us. He had no fear. A leaders leader. Its just a shame it took 50 years to final kill the witch.

Didn't Tommy go to Brisbane because it was a better offer?
Saints made Rogers the highest paid player in the game, pretty hard to turn that down.

 

[Quigs]

Didn't Tommy go to Brisbane because it was a better offer?
Saints made Rogers the highest paid player in the game, pretty hard to turn that down.

The League demanded (and in turn The Sharks capitulated) and wanted Tommy to take a big pay cut - from what I understand he just wanted to be on the same money he was on. If memory serves me correctly Sir Thomas was the last Captain Coach in the top grade.

He didn't leave the Sharks because of a bigger carrot he left a disappointed legend. We f**ked him over.

Testing the memory here again - also I believe that the Mighty Sludge also stated that one of his reason to go to the Dark side was a better chance of winning a comp. (a bit of the Fergo involved)

 

[Foz]

The League demanded (and in turn The Sharks capitulated) and wanted Tommy to take a big pay cut - from what I understand he just wanted to be on the same money he was on. If memory serves me correctly Sir Thomas was the last Captain Coach in the top grade.

He didn't leave the Sharks because of a bigger carrot he left a disappointed legend. We f**ked him over.

Testing the memory here again - also I believe that the Mighty Sludge also stated that one of his reason to go to the Dark side was a better chance of winning a comp. (a bit of the Fergo involved)

I dont remember that Quigs but think he said something like it was a childhood dream to play for St George.Makes sense he would've supported them as no Sharks when he was real young and St George were winning everything.

We all know Cronulla never had enough money to keep him.

 

[bad boy bubby]

The League demanded (and in turn The Sharks capitulated) and wanted Tommy to take a big pay cut - from what I understand he just wanted to be on the same money he was on. If memory serves me correctly Sir Thomas was the last Captain Coach in the top grade.

He didn't leave the Sharks because of a bigger carrot he left a disappointed legend. We f**ked him over.

Testing the memory here again - also I believe that the Mighty Sludge also stated that one of his reason to go to the Dark side was a better chance of winning a comp. (a bit of the Fergo involved)

Let me get this right, it was ok for Bishop to leave so he could stay on the same money but it was not ok for Rogers to leave in 1983 for more money?
Cast your mind back for a second to the 83/84 seasons. The club nearly goes under but for a loan from the NSWRL. Players are asked to take pay cuts to stay with the club. Other players like the Sorensens, Miller and Rowland Beckett join Easts because our club cant pay them.
So Tommy leaves because the club cant pay him what he wants and its ok, but its not ok for Rogers to leave when the club cant afford to pay him what he's worth, and cant even afford to pay other regular first graders?
Ok.

 

[Card Shark]

ET could've got a lot more $ elsewhere at times but stayed for 17 years...doesn't necessarily make him the best.

I don't hold a grudge against those leaving for much better pastures though, times were tough, as we all remember.

Love Sludge as he made me a Shark supporter, Tommy for his toughness, ET for his flair & Gal for commitment until the reward.

Nothing wrong with favouring any of those above others. They all deserve to share in the spoils of the premiership, as they all played a part in shaping the club imo.

 

[bad boy bubby]

ET could've got a lot more $ elsewhere at times but stayed for 17 years...doesn't necessarily make him the best.

I don't hold a grudge against those leaving for much better pastures though, times were tough, as we all remember.

Love Sludge as he made me a Shark supporter, Tommy for his toughness, ET for his flair & Gal for commitment until the reward.

Nothing wrong with favouring any of those above others. They all deserve to share in the spoils of the premiership, as they all played a part in shaping the club imo.

I have no problem with favouring one or the other, Cardy, hell some on here still support Nobby! My point is that both Bishop and Rogers left for the same reason, money.
I'm sure if the club had any at the time Rogers would never have left, and for whatever reason I'm sure Bishop would have stayed as well.

 

[Card Shark]

Didn't think you did mate.

Some hold a grudge against Matt Rogers for leaving for Rugby & returning to the Titans. He also had his reason for leaving, as he stated on the Sterlo show last year.

 

[Quigs]

BBB you might have read me wrong. I idolised Sludge as we all did. He was a legend. My only problem with him was him leaving to chase his dream with the Stains.
You know the story of Tommy. Was told on his way to Aus that he was going to go to East but they renigged and as history has it we won the lottery with him. He built the club.

How many times has Gibbo's comment "winning starts in the front office" been found to be true i.e. Our Lyall. Our mob has never known how the game was played or even learned how to play it. f**k the Stains were rorting the system way back when Frank Facer had players like Raper signed up as living at his address.

(Again from an ageing memory) Tommy was on x money as Captain Coach. A side he had coached from nobodies to their first ever Grand Final (1973) and nearly won it. The league introduced new rules about how munch you could pay players. Now just imagine how the "big boys" got around that ruling.

Would you take a paycut after taking your side from nothings to the top of the mountain? I think you'd probably expect a bonus or two.

Our mob wouldn't even know what a brown paper bag was back then, let alone what could go in it.

Tommy was rightly pissed off.

Now this is really testing my old memory. We also lost big Cliffy at the same time because (memory test) he had heard that Tommy was having problems with the club and was interested in becoming the new Captain Coach but Cliff only had one more year in him. He was told that Tommy would be resigned so he headed down to Wollongong as CC for his swansong season.

I was living down the far south coast of NSW the year Rogers went to the Stains. My best mate down there was a Stinking Stains supporter and he was in my house when the news broke on the TV that Steve had signed with the enemy. It was on WIN TV news out of Wollongfarking-gong I collapsed to the floor yelling and screaming with him standing over me laughing. I remember it well.

In my life I have only purchased one photo from a paper. It was the first local derby game and we won. It is a pic of the Sharks winger scoring with Sludge desperately reaching to stop him. I'll dig it up.

All was nearly forgiven when he (Sludge) came back home.

Found it

 

[Quigs]

Didn't Tommy go to Brisbane because it was a better offer?
Saints made Rogers the highest paid player in the game, pretty hard to turn that down.

(testing 'me' memory) Tommy accepted the Brissie offer after the Sharks IMO stuffed up completely.

Whats his face the QLD supremo - the bloke that got the State of Origin up and running came south with a bucket full of dosh. He also talked Satts out of retirement for one more year north of the Tweed. The Qld plan was to start getting big names to play return to the QLD league.

Both Satts and Tommy were assigned to Brissie Norths. The year of the photo says 1975 - I am not to sure about that - was it 74? (Anyhowse there is a young Big Darryl in that photo too.)

 

[Quigs]

Let me get this right, it was ok for Bishop to leave so he could stay on the same money but it was not ok for Rogers to leave in 1983 for more money?
Cast your mind back for a second to the 83/84 seasons. The club nearly goes under but for a loan from the NSWRL. Players are asked to take pay cuts to stay with the club. Other players like the Sorensens, Miller and Rowland Beckett join Easts because our club cant pay them.
So Tommy leaves because the club cant pay him what he wants and its ok, but its not ok for Rogers to leave when the club cant afford to pay him what he's worth, and cant even afford to pay other regular first graders?
Ok.

I am not too sure that the club was broke in 74 ... we did reach the GF remember. It was a NSWRL ruling I believe -re the player payments.

 

[carcharias]

When it it was all on the line only one man delivered

Gallen

Sludge made a couple of GF's
Et played in one


I also am of the opinion that Flano is the best coach we've ever had.

This crop is not even my favourite era of players either.

The peachey Preston ET era is my favourite
But they choked
ET in charge .

 

[Quigs]

Well Carch me ole chin wag.

I don't care anymore. We have finally won the f**ker and more importantly we won it while I still can find a pulse in my deteriorating carcus.

Lifes good now and there are so many Stains, Hartleys and Donkey fans wandering at large that I can bucket shit upon.

It doesn't get munch better than that. Oh except on the evening of the 2nd October 2016

 

[bad boy bubby]

Quiggsy, I was just in a mass debating kinda mood haha
I too idolised Sludge to the point where i went to every game he played at Jubilee, even when he was in 3rds and 2nds. I'd wear my Sharks gear from top to bottom plus have my flag. As soon as his game was done I'd leave.
In regards to Gal we have Ricky Stuart to thank for that. Gal has said numerous times that he was going to Manly until Ricky joined and asked Gal if he liked playing for Australia? (Stuart was coach of Australia at the time ) Gal said yes if course and Ricky quite blankly told him he wouldnt be in the national side anymore if he joined the Hartleys.

 

[Quigs]

Quiggsy, I was just in a mass debating kinda mood haha
I too idolised Sludge to the point where i went to every game he played at Jubilee, even when he was in 3rds and 2nds. I'd wear my Sharks gear from top to bottom plus have my flag. As soon as his game was done I'd leave.
In regards to Gal we have Ricky Stuart to thank for that. Gal has said numerous times that he was going to Manly until Ricky joined and asked Gal if he liked playing for Australia? (Stuart was coach of Australia at the time ) Gal said yes if course and Ricky quite blankly told him he wouldnt be in the national side anymore if he joined the Hartleys.

Were you the little Kent that started the undermining of the structural efficiency of the Jubilee Fence. That just didn't happen overnight. Just like whiteants.

 

[coolumsharkie]

The League demanded (and in turn The Sharks capitulated) and wanted Tommy to take a big pay cut - from what I understand he just wanted to be on the same money he was on. If memory serves me correctly Sir Thomas was the last Captain Coach in the top grade.

He didn't leave the Sharks because of a bigger carrot he left a disappointed legend. We f**ked him over.

Testing the memory here again - also I believe that the Mighty Sludge also stated that one of his reason to go to the Dark side was a better chance of winning a comp. (a bit of the Fergo involved)

Wally Lewis CC'ed the Gold Coast in the 90's ol' mate.

 

[Foz]

BBB you might have read me wrong. I idolised Sludge as we all did. He was a legend. My only problem with him was him leaving to chase his dream with the Stains.
You know the story of Tommy. Was told on his way to Aus that he was going to go to East but they renigged and as history has it we won the lottery with him. He built the club.

How many times has Gibbo's comment "winning starts in the front office" been found to be true i.e. Our Lyall. Our mob has never known how the game was played or even learned how to play it. f**k the Stains were rorting the system way back when Frank Facer had players like Raper signed up as living at his address.

(Again from an ageing memory) Tommy was on x money as Captain Coach. A side he had coached from nobodies to their first ever Grand Final (1973) and nearly won it. The league introduced new rules about how munch you could pay players. Now just imagine how the "big boys" got around that ruling.

Would you take a paycut after taking your side from nothings to the top of the mountain? I think you'd probably expect a bonus or two.

Our mob wouldn't even know what a brown paper bag was back then, let alone what could go in it.

Tommy was rightly pissed off.

Now this is really testing my old memory. We also lost big Cliffy at the same time because (memory test) he had heard that Tommy was having problems with the club and was interested in becoming the new Captain Coach but Cliff only had one more year in him. He was told that Tommy would be resigned so he headed down to Wollongong as CC for his swansong season.

I was living down the far south coast of NSW the year Rogers went to the Stains. My best mate down there was a Stinking Stains supporter and he was in my house when the news broke on the TV that Steve had signed with the enemy. It was on WIN TV news out of Wollongfarking-gong I collapsed to the floor yelling and screaming with him standing over me laughing. I remember it well.

In my life I have only purchased one photo from a paper. It was the first local derby game and we won. It is a pic of the Sharks winger scoring with Sludge desperately reaching to stop him. I'll dig it up.

All was nearly forgiven when he (Sludge) came back home.

Found it

There was about 3 men and a dog there.We were massive odds to beat them and we hung on to cause the boil over.
Had a few too many that day so no brain cells left to recall any of the game.
Sure as hell knew we won though.
It was a similar thing the following year when the Sorensons left and we beat the Queens at home again.Cant remember the exact years but early to mid 80,s.Bbb mentioned 83/84 so I'm assuming this is 83.

Does anyone remember the game Rogers beat Parramatta?What year that was.
I remember he scored a try and when he came back after taking the conversion the crowd stood as one to applaud him.Every time he touched the ball the crowd was on its feet.
The only thing I ever saw that matched his acceleration was Kingston Town.Absolute lightning off the mark.