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Fitzgibbon's Sharks hunting consistency

Jasper BruceAAP
Coach Craig Fitzgibbon has Cronulla fighting for a top-two finish to the 2022 NRL regular season. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)
Camera IconCoach Craig Fitzgibbon has Cronulla fighting for a top-two finish to the 2022 NRL regular season. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP

Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon wants to see consistency from the Sharks as the battle to secure the remaining top-two spot stretches into its final month.

For a second consecutive week, the Sharks led their opponents at half-time, only to invite them into the contest on the back of errors.

As they did against South Sydney the week before, Cronulla managed to hold on and defeat St George Illawarra, but Fitzgibbon said his side needed to iron the unpredictability out of its game when it meets Wests Tigers at Tamworth's Scully Park on Saturday.

If they lose to the Tigers, the Sharks will fall behind Melbourne and North Queensland in the race to join Penrith in the top-two and secure a home final.

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"We've been working on our consistency and we've managed to string a number of games together at the moment," Fitzgibbon said.

"But we also know every opponent we face is going to be a challenge, irrespective of position on the ladder.

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"We've come here to Tamworth to make sure we give the best account of ourselves and keep working on that consistency leading into the back end (of the season)."

The Sharks risk turning the football over with their expansive style of attack but Fitzgibbon said the slippery conditions forecast would not require a change of game plan.

"We seem to have had a lot of games in the wet this year, I think most teams have, but we've performed OK," he said.

"You have to be aware of the conditions and not chance your arm too much but we still need to play our style of footy."

Wests Tigers interim coach Brett Kimmorley confirmed Luke Garner would be a late inclusion for his side, having recovered from a neck injury.

Alex Seyfarth is likely to drop to the bench to accommodate Garner's return to the second row.

"(Garner) was 50/50 to play last week but we took the approach of resting him and making sure he was 100 per cent healthy for the next four weeks," Kimmorley said.

"He trained great this week so he'll look forward to being back in the side."

Just before Kimmorley was born in the mid-1970s, his father Des was captain-coach of West Tamworth, a local club which played games at Scully Park.

The town was also the birthplace of Kimmorley's brother Craig, who went on to play professionally for Newcastle, Adelaide and the Sydney Roosters.

Kimmorley said he was honoured to be coaching in Scully Park's fourth regular-season game of the NRL era.

"As a family, it's a pretty proud moment," he said.

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