Who would you want wearing the No 7 jumper in a game of real-life NRL survivor – Jamal Fogarty or Nicho Hynes?

That’s the uncomfortable question heading into Saturday’s elimination semi-final between the Raiders and Sharks.

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While both playmakers have contributed more positives than negatives to their respective teams over the course of the season, there is also no ignoring Fogarty and Hynes have unenviable records when it comes to owning clutch moments in their biggest games of recent years.

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And that is why I found Fogarty’s assessment of his own inability to ice some big moments in last week’s heartbreaking loss to the Broncos particularly refreshing this week.

Especially when it came on the back of Hynes’ well publicised complaints that he and the Sharks don’t get enough respect for what they’ve achieved.

At least Fogarty was taking ownership about the missed conversion and field goal attempt which was crucial in the extra time loss to the Broncos.

“Obviously I could have executed a couple of kicks a lot better, especially that goal kick that I missed that Strangey (Ethan Strange) scored, that could have put us up by four,’ Fogarty told the SMH.

“And then the two-point field goal doesn’t come in range for Reece Walsh and obviously, we know what happened after that.”

In comparison, Hynes lashed out at the so-called lack of “respect” afforded to him and the Sharks despite playing finals for the past four straight years.

“Nobody gives us a chance – ever,” Hynes told the SMH.

“If we win, it’s about how they (the other team) were injured, or how they’re players are missing, or they didn’t play well.

“We’ve been to the finals four years in a row, and still nobody gives us a chance … I just don’t think that we get any respect – ever.”

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The issue with Hynes’ complaint is that in the Sharks’ last 13 finals appearances since they won the comp in 2016, they’ve won only three of those games.

They have also lost seven straight week one finals before the win over the Roosters.

So, while some have labelled Hynes’ comments as honest, I called them “delusional” on NRL 360 during the week given even the Sharks’ most passionate fans would struggle to block out the last eight years and just forget it ever happened.

What’s more, I haven’t heard a single person this week say they don’t give the Sharks a massive chance of upsetting the Raiders on the back of what in happened in Canberra last week.

The Sharks were also given huge ‘respect’ for the gutsy win over the Roosters, as well as a dominant victory over the Bulldogs in the final round of the regular season.

Yet if we are being brutally honest, we also can’t overlook that while Hynes put in a fair individual performance against the Roosters last week, he hardly set the world on fire.

And without question Braydon Trindall was the dominant playmaker in that win.

That is why many have already identified that if the Sharks are to now go to the next level against the Raiders, Hynes needs to do more than he did last week.

Which in no way is a lack of respect directed at Nicho or the Sharks.

But it is the uncomfortable truth.

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WILL BULLDOGS (OR TIGERS) GET LAST LAUGH ON GALVIN SWITCH?

They don’t say ‘be careful what you wish for’, for no good reason.

And the rollercoaster ride Lachlan Galvin has been on this year is a classic example.

While Galvin certainly got his wish to leave Wests Tigers to join the Bulldogs midseason, we are about to find out if it ends in a dream come true.

Or will Tigers fans end up getting the last laugh on the most controversial mid-year switch in rugby league memory, if the Bulldogs are bundled out of the finals backdoor come Sunday night?

When Galvin walked out on the Tigers back in June, he said his move was designed to “get me out of my comfort zone”, and “would probably be the best thing for me”.

Three months on we can safely say Galvin is well and truly out of his comfort zone.

But has it really been the best thing for him, or the Bulldogs, is another debate entirely.

While Galvin would not have been a part of playing finals had he stayed at the Tigers, it hasn’t exactly been what you’d call a cruisy adjustment for a young man who only turned 20 back in July.

And the expectation is it will only go up a notch this weekend with the Panthers planning to give Galvin another special reception by pinning a huge target on the inexperienced playmaker to try and expose some defensive deficiencies that the Storm also attacked last weekend.

Make no mistake, how Galvin aims up when he lines up directly opposite the NRL’s champion No 7 Nathan Cleary will go a long way to determining if the Bulldogs make it through to the preliminary final.

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There is no question the resolve in the Bulldogs should ensure they at the very least make a tough game of this.

And plenty of good judges are saying it would not surprise if the Dogs were to shock the Panthers and live to fight another week.

But one way or another, the guarantee is Galvin will continue to be the main storyline in respect to the Bulldogs long after fulltime.

If the Dogs do go out of the finals in straight sets, the fallout will be massive among their army of blue and white fans given the fact they led the comp for much of the season when Toby Sexton was halfback and Reed Mahoney was starting hooker.

Yet if the Dogs do win, it would go a long way to at least trying to justify the decision made by Cameron Ciraldo and Phil Gould.

THE NEXT OBVIOUS QUESTION

Victory would also create another selection conundrum for Ciraldo next week if inspirational skipper Stephen Crichton is fit to take on the Broncos.

That would leave Ciraldo with the tough choice of either having to change a winning halves combination of Gavlin and Sexton to move Matt Burton back to five-eighth, or alternatively Burton could stay in the centres to partner Crichton.

But the next obvious question is where would that leave Bronson Xerri.

Every way you look at it, the Galvin experiment just continues to create more drama by the week.

Yet the biggest question of all still to be answered is whether it has made the Bulldogs a more dangerous football team as was promised upon Galvin’s arrival?

Right now, most would confidently say not.

But bowling the four-time premiers out of the finals race would no doubt swing the conversation yet again.

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ALL EYES ON SHARKS’ CHIEF ANTAGONIST

It will be fascinating to see how the referee and bunker react the first time Ronaldo Mulitalo gets up in someone’s face if the Sharks’ chief antagonist forces a mistake or pulls off a big hit against the Raiders.

Should it result in a sin bin as it did with Hudson Young last week, or will it require one of the Raiders players to head butt Mulitalo to get some justice?

If it doesn’t at least result in a penalty, you can only imagine what the reaction will be from the Canberra crowd.

While I don’t know of anyone who’d not consider it overboard to see a player sent off for 10 minutes for ‘celebrating’ an opposition player’s mistake under normal circumstances, the fact is the NRL drew their line in the sand with Young’s sin bin, and the ensuing penalty that went against the Raiders.

Surely they can’t now back track from the precedent Ashley Klein has set _ or can they?