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Cronulla coach John Morris is careful not to underestimate Gold Coast in Saturday's NRL match at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.
Cronulla coach John Morris says Gold Coast will jump a few teams at the back end of the NRL season, but is confident it won't be the Sharks on Saturday.
Despite not getting the results, the Titans have vastly improved under new coach Justin Holbrook this season and as well as a win over North Queensland, pushed both Sydney Roosters and Penrith over the last three weeks.
And after a tight loss to Parramatta in horrendous conditions last week, the Sharks need to bounce back to stay inside the NRL's top eight.
The Titans have only won four games this season but will pose a threat to semi-finals chances to any team that dare underestimate them.
"I know Justin and he's a great character and he's got all those young guys buying in," Morris said on Friday.
"He's got Ash Taylor playing well and playing a nice brand of footy, they like to move the ball around and they like to shift the ball around as much as anyone in the competition.
"They've got strike all over the park, they've got good kickers of the football and some grunt in the middle with Jai Arrow and those sorts of guys who can get them going forward.
"They're a well-balanced team and I think they're really going to jump into a lot of sides over the remainder of the competition."
The Sharks are sitting eighth on the NRL ladder and need to make a run over the last seven weeks to separate themselves from a log jam of teams in the middle.
For the Titans, the return of AJ Brimson has sparked their attack over the past fortnight but coach Justin Holbrook wants to build more cohesion with the spine.
"Ash and Jamal (Fogarty) have got a few games under their belt now," Holbrook said.
"Corey (Thompson) filled in for us really well at fullback but AJ is probably our best player to be honest with you so to have him back and to have those two halves working with him that's the strength of every side isn't it - the spine and how they play."
STATS THAT MATTER
* The Sharks have scored the most tries in the NRL (4.5 per game) while the Titans are averaging the equal second-fewest (2.5 per game along with the Broncos), only the Bulldogs are scoring less (2.1 per game).
* The Titans have won just one of six matches as the away team this season (round 7 against the Broncos).
* Cronulla are missing the most tackles in the NRL (30.1 per game).