A string of close losses early in the season might have derailed a lesser group, but the Bull Sharks have shown resilience, belief, and a growing sense of purpose.
After dropping several matches by the narrowest of margins, they’ve now rebounded with two strong wins and climbed into the top four — a promising sign as the competition approaches its midpoint.
Behind the turnaround has been a shift in decision-making, renewed energy, and a strong focus on doing the basics well.
While the forwards don’t boast the size of some of their rivals, their aggression, mindset, and a game plan designed to complement their physical profile have helped them punch above their weight.
Momentum is building, and so is confidence. There’s a better feeling around the club, and belief that the lessons learned in the early weeks are starting to pay dividends.
With another big challenge looming against a physical Norths outfit, Summer Leury sat down with coach Mick Heenan to get his take on the season so far, the emergence of new talent, the response from the leadership group, and what it will take to keep climbing the ladder.
Those close early-season losses — what went wrong?
“For three out of the four losses, we had really good effort and energy. The guys tried their guts out, but we just made some poor decisions. So, our decision makers let us down in those games and that was probably the difference between winning and losing.
We were encouraged by the fact that we weren’t far away but frustrated that we didn’t get a few key things right on the day.
The game against UQ where we lost by two points, that was the game I was really disappointed about, the effort was probably missing that day.”
What sparked the turnaround in the last two wins?
“Our decision making has been better. The best performances were against Souths and Sunnybank. Against Sunnybank we had a comfortable win, we made some good decisions and the energy was good. Souths saw us get out to a good start and Souths are a good team, so it was good to get that one under our belt.”
Has the mood shifted after those wins?
“Reserve grade had their first two wins in the last two weeks and Colts 1 have had a good win so there's a better feeling around the club.
The group of players that we’ve got turn up every Tuesday and Thursday with a real thirst to get better. Even last year when things weren’t going well, they’d turn up every week and really try their best to improve themselves. It’s a really great quality and I think it stood us in good stead, because when you have a series of close losses it can be really heartbreaking, and it can really test your character, and the guys have gotten through that.
We’ve spoke a lot about trust this year, the whole idea that you don't need to try and force big plays you just need to trust your teammates to do the basics well and that, that will be enough to get us home. That's been a real theme this season and has been steadily built.”
Is scoring power giving you a bonus point edge?
“The bonus points are a feature of every rugby competition across the world, the reality is that every loss we’ve had we’ve picked up a losing bonus point, we’ve also picked up four try bonus points.
You want to be in the top four or close to it by halfway through the season, so it's a good starting point for the rest of the season.”
Your pack isn’t as big as some, how have they managed to have such an impact ?
“We are never going to overpower teams, teams like Easts and Wests rely on their physicality. Norths have got some really big boppers out there and they just try and roll over teams.
We’re never going to be that. We don't have that profile of players, so we've got to do things a little bit smarter, we've got to move the ball and we've got to just be more aggressive with our physical contacts to make up for our lack of size.
Aggression and mindset is important going into these games because technique and aggression will always win out over size if they don't have the same mindset.”
Has anyone surprised you this season?
“Dion Samuela has been someone who has really stepped up this year. He had a year off last year and started in reserve grade but forced his way into first grade and hasn’t looked back.
He’s got excellent passing skills from his representative touch footy days, he's a really good kicker and his footwork is outstanding. He’s got a lot of raw material there that I probably didn’t appreciate in the preseason.”
Have your leaders stepped up under pressure?
“They’ve responded really well and in a mature way. Our leaders had a poor game against Brothers, what could have been a really fantastic win for us against the two-time defending premiers, we let slip through our fingers with some poor decisions.
It was a frustrating day out and I think there was a bit of a penny drop moment when we’d really been the one who contributed to our own demise with some dumb options which we took on the day.
No one is ever going to perfect out there, everyone makes errors and poor decisions, it's just the nature of human beings when they're placed under pressure. What we can hope is that the players learn from their errors and try and get better every week.”
How are you finding your second season at the club?
“I love it down here, they’re just a good, honest, hardworking group of guys that also know how to have a bit of fun. I appreciate their attitude to training and consistency of effort at training... but I’d like a bit more consistency at games. The things that I’m seeing at training every week, we are going to end in a much better place than we did last year.”
You’re now fourth — how do you stay there?
“I think we are getting better every week. The guys have good attitude around taking onboard feedback and understanding what the big rocks are that we need to shift every week. I just think with the guys’ attitude and their real focus on trying to get better we’ll end up there.
It’s a big game this week against Norths, they’ve been going reasonably well and are a much-improved side. We need to front up this week.”
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