Key three: Cronulla cripple Titans' finals run in shutout
A red-hot Cronulla Sharks have made the Titans' finals even tougher with a dominant 44-0 win at Cbus Super Stadium on Friday night.
Leading from start to finish in front of a 13,287-strong crowd, it was a complete performance from the visitors who silenced their critics to keep their top four hopes well and truly alive in the showing, even overcoming a number of injuries including to their primary halves pairing.
It makes Gold Coast's finals bid extremely tough in the final month of the 2024 season, but still not mathematically impossible should they win their last four games and have results go their way.
Needing to reset before facing the Dragons in an all-important game for not only the Titans but for Kieran Foran who will celebrate his 300th NRL appearance, they may be without Moe Fotuaika who was sat down for 10 minutes for high contact in the 18th minute.
Match: Titans v Sharks
Round 23 -
home Team
Titans
13th Position
away Team
Sharks
4th Position
Venue: Cbus Super Stadium, Gold Coast
Here are the key talking points:
Cronulla up, up in effort areas
The Sharks arrived to Robina as the outsiders but didn't show it with a complete performance in the important clash for both teams.
Wanting to seek revenge from their Round 18 loss to the Titans, they rolled through the middle to dominate the opening half of the contest, shell-shocking the home side which made the task all too difficult to recover from.
Whilst the key stats were closer than the scoreline, Cronulla's effort areas and enthusiasm was far superior than the home side, which showed with the 46-0 scoreline.
Led by an exceptional performance from Cronulla forward Jack Williams, who notched up 220 running metres and 31 tackles, it laid the platform for their pack who monstered in the middle with an average set distance of 44 metres - 10 more than the Titans.
Whilst the team stats show a closer game than what the scoreline reflects, the one category not measured is effort areas, which is what Cronulla won comfortably on Friday night.
Finals now difficult, but not impossible
The heavy defeat has put a massive speed bump on the Titans' finals chances, but hope shouldn't be completely lost on the cause in the final four games.
With the run home against the Dragons, Roosters, Knights and Panthers all must-win clashes to be any prospect of playing past the first week of September.
They'll also need to bank as many for-and-against points as possible with the 34-0 loss dinting their current differential, and rely on other top eight contenders such as the Sea Eagles and Dragons to drop games in their finish.
Given the circumstance, it sets up an all-important clash for the Titans against the Red V in Wollongong, needing to win and win well to keep the very faint flicker still burning.
Fotuaika to wait his fate
Moeaki Fotuaika will await the verdict from the match review committee after being sin-binned for a high tackle in the 18th minute.
Making accidental contact on Sharks No. 9 Cameron McInnes, Fotuaika was marched after intervention from The Bunker - which proved costly in the stint on the sidelines, conceding two tries in the 10 minute period.
Fotuaika binned for a high shot
The Titans enforcer has prior form with the Judiciary in the last 12 months, having been fined once already this season alongside being sent off in last year's Round 23 clash which coincidentally was a Friday 6pm at home.
That saw him miss a match for that charge in 2023; although hopes fate won't repeat itself this time around.
