Valentine Homes' emergence as a bona fide NRL fullback will give Cronulla the attacking flare they missed in last year's doomed title defence, according to Sharks captain Paul Gallen.
Cronulla will enter the finals as the form team of the competition, having won their last four matches of the regular season leading into Saturday's qualifying final aginst the Sydney Roosters.
Finalists for the past four years, the Sharks are renowned as one of the toughest and grittiest teams in the NRL for their ability to grind out a win.
But a lack of points hurt them at the end of last season, and Gallen said Holmes would help ensure they'd be able to find them when needed with Holmes at the back.
"We should have beat the Cowboys in the semis but didn't. We're a consistent team but we've got to find a little bit more flair," Gallen said.
"I think we've found that the past few weeks with Val, we've scored over 30 points in the past few weeks.
"And if we can score over 30 points in a semi-final game you'd like to back us to win with our defence."
Holmes' battled with NSW fullback James Tedesco shapes as one of the most exciting of the opening weekend of the finals.
Dropped from his preferred fullback role after the opening round of the season, Holmes development in the No.1 jersey has been astronomical since Josh Dugan was injured before round 14.
In the 11 games since, Holmes has scored 10 tries, set up eight, made 19 linebreaks and broke through an average of four tackles per match - figures all reminiscent of Ben Barba's last year at the club in their 2016 premiership success.
All that is well up on the 20 games he spent at the back last year, where he scored just six tries and had five assists, with 12 linebreaks and three tackles busts per game.
"I think he's probably in the last six weeks got the fullback role down pat," Gallen said.
"It's been a work in progress for him for a couple of years now but he's starting to get that ball-playing right.
"It's great seeing him score tries, but I love seeing him set them up as well these days."
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