Gal: Danger for breakout star as 'big dollars' await

Braydon Trindall had the best game of his career the other night and it's been a long time coming for the Sharks playmaker - but now he needs to back it up. He has bided his time. He has done the hard yards to get to where he wanted to get to. But now, it's a matter of him playing good every week. It's not hard for someone to have a good game - he had a great game the other day - but the challenge for him is to play like that more often than not. When you talk about the Johnahan Thurstons and Cameron Smiths of the world, they used to do that every week and to be a good player, that's what you've got to do. He's a hard worker and he obviously had an off-field problem this year, but to his credit he put his hand up straight away and accepted responsibility. It was an unfortunate incident and the situation he put himself in wasn't right - but he's gone back to being who he is. I can't say that indiscretion has changed him. He has always been a guy who works hard, turns up to training and does his job every week. Since he's come back, he has played good footy and it was good to see him have a breakout game the other night. To expect him to play like that every week might be a big ask, but getting him to play near that standard on a consistent basis is the challenge for him. The next issue for the Sharks will be whether they can retain Trindall beyond next year. Any playmaker who comes off-contract is probably a concern, because there's not a lot of good ones around. The timing of that game he played is pretty good for him, but anyone can play a good game and the challenge is to back it up. If you want to be an elite player and earn the big dollars, you've got to play good every week. I'm not sure what he's thinking about where he wants to be in the future, but the Sharks have been pretty good to him for a long time and stuck by him - he was back at the club when I was playing. I'd imagine he is pretty tight with the Sharks boys and everyone at the club, so I hope he stays. As for this weekend's prelim final against the Panthers, if they can play like they did on Friday night in the first half, they can beat anyone. They just need to find that consistency for the 80 minutes.