For an event held outside, there was an awful lot of talk about what happens between four walls.

The location was Barangaroo and the time was very early for a Monday morning. But as the sun glinted off the water and the captains of each of the NRL’s top eight gathered under the warm embrace of the Crown Towers skyscraper, the setting was ripe for some lessons about what each team knew that the public did not.

“I think we have the confidence in our four walls to really go deep into the final series,” said Cronulla’s Blayke Brailey.

Considering Brailey did not know at the time that Nicho Hynes would escape any real penalty for a hip-drop tackle and be free to play in Saturday’s sudden-death clash with the Roosters, that’s a lot of confidence.

It is true that the Sharks have a 7-1 record since round 19, which is more wins than any rival during the past two months. But such a statistic is the sort of assumption only outsiders would make. The media, for instance, who were mustered to conduct interviews and clearly have a habit of asking questions about matters to which they are not privy.

Like Canterbury, whose convincing loss to those Sharks last weekend has left the impression that Cameron Ciraldo’s early season pacesetters are unconvincing in attack – and without Bronson Xerri – in a week when they go to Melbourne to face the Storm (similar injury and form issues notwithstanding).

NRL captains (back) Mitchell Barnett (Warriors), Nathan Cleary (Panthers), Stephan Crichton (Bulldogs), James Tedesco (Roosters), (front) Harry Grant (Storm), Adam Reynolds (Broncos), Joseph Tapine (Raiders) and Blayke Brailey (Sharks) launch the finals series in Sydney on Monday.Credit: Steven Siewert

“That’s the type of noise that we are hearing right now, we’re not good enough and things like that,” Bulldogs........

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