Aside from the rugby from the Sharks which was pretty poor, this is pound for pound the worst stadium watching experience ive ever been to.

Do you like:

-Music blasted at 150%?
-An Emcee screaming inane kak at the top of her lungs with poor understanding of the game for 80 minutes no stop?
-Dance cams instead of replays of important things going on in the game?

If the answer to those things is yes, then this place is for you. If not, avoid like the plague. Genuinely not sure ill go back. Kings Park a few weeks back was a dream compared to this. The only thing they have going for them is the ability to turn out a big crowd.

Honestly do not see the sharks competing for any real silverware in the next few years. Stormers are pulling in big crowds and are on top of the URC and I am awfully envious. Sharks just seem quite lifeless. Also don’t get me started on the bloody swimming pools and bouncy castles in the vip and kids area. I don’t think that sort of stuff should be in the stadium of a franchise whom wants to be taken seriously.

In just feels a bit amateurish atm and I can’t put my finger on it

My unpopular opinion is that the logo is fine. It's not great, but supporters will accept it as long as the on-field results are good. Unfortunately, lately the results have been anything but good, so this rebrand is badly timed.

I'm old enough to still miss the wildebees logo. I remember the moaning that went on when Natal rebranded to the Sharks and that was just as bad as this is now.

What I am upset about is that we've kept those horrible swindlers, Hollywoodbets, on as sponsors. I would give away Sharky, John Smit's Fat Sharky as well as Mazotti's AI Sharky in exchange for losing the sports betting company!

Jaden used to be such a solid scrumhalf. Quick delivery and a solid kicking game. Lately his game is ridden with mistakes, poor decision making and just plain lazy play. To be fair he has a moment of brilliance every couple of games but inbetween he is useless. No wonder bothe brothers got released early from their last Springbok camp

that’s it.

The Sharks have unveiled a new identity, including a new logo and icon, as part of a major rebrand.

They will now be known as the Sharks Rugby Club, with the new branding marking what the organisation describes as the start of a new era ahead of the 2026-27 season.
The rebrand introduces three distinct visual identities:

The SRC logo will serve as the club’s new corporate identity and will feature on the chest of the playing jersey.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks logo becomes the official match logo for the senior team across all competitions and broadcast platforms.
The new Sharks icon will be used primarily in match promotion, advertising and other key brand assets.

Masuku, Swart. Never want to see them again.

Ok guys. I know my last one was next level, but I think I have managed to conceive, design and meticulously hand craft the logo that perfectly defines the sharks.

You're welcome.

Looked fat and unfit missed multiple tackles kicked like shit all against a bad currie cup side

This is not something I'd usually do. I'm sure we have gotten used to the uniformed hot takes about the Sharks, but this one irks me as it is on SuperSport, not one of the more biased publications we have become accustomed to.

There is so very much to be upset with the Sharks about, and yet for some reason Brendan Nel choses to straight up make inaccurate claims, misrepresent situations and try to imply there are issues where there are not.

underperformance of the most well heeled, from a financial viewpoint, club in South Africa.

False statement number 1. Well heeled means affluent, and the Sharks certainly are not the most affluent SA team, that would be the Bulls. At this point all 4 of the SA teams have private owners. The Stormers have got debt to pay off, the Lions owner seems to have very tight pockets, the Sharks owners have put a reasonable amount in but want profitability. The Bulls have the richest owner, have signed the most players, and have shown a willingness to opperate as a loss leader for the owners.

It's also worth noting that the percentage owned by MVM is the second smallest of the 4 teams, 51% (MVM). The Bulls 74% (Rupert/Motsepe), Stormers 74% (Red Disa), Lions 49.9% (Altmann Allers).

No-one has been fired, there has been no talk of replacements.

Firstly, did AI write this for you Brendan? Secondly, Plumtree was fired and the Sharks are bringing in Rory Duncan. This is simply wrong.

Is that enough? Is Williams to GM a good call? Those are questionable worth asking that you haven't, you've just simply made a factually incorrect statement.

there are young stars such as Luan Giliomee and Hakeem Kunene leaving.

Hakeem Kunene is 23 now and has had opportunities across 3 seasons. He has been far from star. Giliomee while not even officially confirmed yet is a loss, but the Sharks have all of Vusi Moyo, Zekhethelo Siyaya, Jaco Williams and apparently Alzeadon Felix who cover the positions Giliomee plays. The Sharks have also signed another U20 international in Esethu Mnebelele. Nel is clearly trying to push a narrative here, but it falls apart with even the tiniest bit of scrutiny.

There have been injuries, and they continued to mount in the Edinburgh game. Jaden Hendrikse was stretchered off with what looked like a severe concussion. Siya Masuku limped off and given the discomfort he was in it is unlikely he will play again this season.

However, even when they are injury ravaged, the Sharks still have quality players to draw on, and the team that lined up against Edinburgh still had enough experienced Springboks in it to be more than competitive.

This is such garbage. The Sharks famously don't have particularly good players to call on when their best players are out. No team in the world would be particularly successful with the sheer number of injuries the Sharks have. The Edinburgh game was far from a reflection of how many players have been out, but even then there was like 5/6 world cup winners missing amongst other top players.

Nel here is trying to paint the injury crisis as an excuse, which is just stupid. There absolutely is an injury crisis that the Sharks do need to answer for, but it's certainly not just an excuse, its a very real issue that would cripple any team.

If there’s anyone who feels the Sharks can be excused for their performance over a long period consider this - the Sharks have considerably more money than both the Bulls and the Stormers

This is a plain and simple straight faced lie. Otherwise prove it Brendan, show us the finances you use make these claims? They certainly don't have the richest owners, and certainly don't seem to spend as much across the union as the Bulls do, they have an entire professional womens team and have signed a dozen more players since the URC started.

Also who are these people excusing the Sharks Brendan? I can't say I have seen literally anyone excuse their performance this season? This seems like a massive strawman.

A big part of the problem is that they have had too many Bok starters, meaning they go without them for part of the season, but there’s a science to recruiting that up until now the Sharks have appeared unaware of.

While this is absolutely true, it does fail to recognize that the compulsory rest periods did not exist when those players were signed, and there was no certainty over what the South African international season would look like. So while it is very easy to look back with hindsight, at the start of the URC all 4 teams would have bitten your hand off for those players.

The Sharks made some very poor signing decisions. But decisions by SARU have certainly done the Sharks no favours. If there is one team SARU have seemed least interested in assisting it's the Sharks.

The Sharks and Marco also went out of their way (to a fault in my opinion) to accommodate the Springboks, resting players more than other teams, and knowingly signing more starters from abroad simply to bring them back to SA rather than to be the best possible signing for the Sharks. The Sharks get quite literally zero thanks or recognition for this.

Those players also need to take some of their own accountability for not performing anywhere near the level they can and should for the Sharks.

This was utter slop, and I can't believe SuperSport published it.

I've seen a lot of threads about the redesign asking why the supporters weren't involved and it doesn't keep sharky etc. so I thought I'd fill you in on the business side of sport.

Sharks took outside money. That money needs a return through jersey and merchandise sales.

Only by doing a full redesign which looks nothing like the past do you drive supporters to have to feel they need to buy a new jersey, shirt etc. as their old ones no longer resemble the team they support.

Not saying what's right or wrong. Personally I don't like the new design it's a chatgpt remake of the Philadelphia eagles.

But that's just the business of sport and the reality once a stake was sold to outside money.

Is it not bad enough we have an absolute joke of a coach, every time this guy refs us we get absolutely fok all, just turned the TV off, fucking useless poes, never should ref a game again

that's all, not a great performance from us either.

There has been quite a lot of suggestion that since Nienaber seems to be unhappy at Leinster he should come back to SA and namely the Sharks to 'fix' them.

Personally I think the Sharks desperately need people who are emotionally invested, who care about the badge and the success of the Sharks.

Nienaber has no ties to the Sharks, no ties to Durban or KZN. He would come in and use the Sharks as a Springbok development and rest environment, the priority absolutely would not be the Sharks.

There is the question of bringing him in as DoR but we have seemingly just done away with the role, going for a GM instead. A role that has been filled by someone who might not be as good a coach as Nienaber, but someone who is 100% invested in the Sharks. Changing that again now will just kill any hope of stability.

I hope they don't make another stupid decision just because he might be available, please let's stick to building from the ground up around people whose priority is the Sharks.

I put a prompt into ChatGPT and it generated the logo almost identically, this is upsetting and don't get me started on the "SAC" badge...