Finals-chasing Cronulla are wary of St George Illawarra’s back three, despite the Dragons losing fullback Josh Dugan for Saturday’s NRL clash in Wollongong.
The Sharks enter this weekend’s round in sixth, behind the Bulldogs on for and against and five points off the teams in third and fourth.
Only two points separate them from the ninth-placed Raiders.
“What Gal’s (captain Paul Gallen) been telling us is we’re not secure in the eight at the moment,” Sharks’ forward Andrew Fifita said.
“Maybe if we win this one on the weekend we’ll be secure in the eight,but our goal was we wanted to get into the top four and I still belive that we can get there.
“It depends on how Manly and Melbourne go. With a few losses for them, anything could happen.”
The 14th-placed Dragons are missing two of their strike players in NSW Origin representatives Dugan (thumb) and Trent Merrin,(knee), but the Sharks remain wary of a team that defeated them at Cronulla earlier this season.
The Dragons will have Jason Nightingale at fullback and Brett Morris on the wing, with boom youngster and NSW Origin under-20 star Charly Runciman shifting from centre to wing.
“Their biggest danger is their back three,” Fifita said.
“They are strong quality rep players. At the end of the day if we wrap them up, I reckon we’ll be fine.”
While the Dragons grapple with injury issues, Cronulla welcome back forward Anthony Tupou and winger Beau Ryan.
Wollongong product Ryan said the Dragons would obviously miss Dugan and Merrin, but had some good youngsters in addition to their dangerous outside backs.
“(Five-eighth Adam) Quinlan has been fantastic for them. I think Runciman is a player of the future,” Ryan said.
“Jason Nightingale and Brett Morris are two of the best outside backs in the game, so it’s still going to be a tough game.
“I’m sure they are going to be fired up, playing for pride, and a lot of guys in their side are playing for contracts.”
Morris expressed confidence in the Dragons’ youngsters to get the job done.
“We’re very fortunate at this club, we’ve got a lot of young players that are playing some good footy,” Morris said.
“It’s great for them to get their opportunity to come back into the side.
“They are always tough games against the Sharks. We’ve always had tough encounters and they always are pretty pumped up to play us, as we are with them.
“We always lift when we play the Sharkies, especially when we play at home.”