Myles happy focus is on Sharks

Gold Coast have put aside a big week of off-field drama and shifted focus to Saturday's opponents Cronulla.

Gold Coast Titans NRL captain Nate Myles.

Captain Nate Myles says Gold Coast have put aside a week of off-field drama to focus on Cronulla. (AAP)

Despite Gold Coast's soap opera NRL campaign enduring another week of off-field drama, captain Nate Myles says the focus is firmly on Saturday's opponents Cronulla.

Last weekend's 56-16 thrashing by Canberra has almost been overlooked in this week's build-up following Myles' announcement he will join Manly at season's end.

That re-ignited the debate over whether star recruit Daly Cherry-Evans would renege on his deal with the Titans to stay with the Sea Eagles and play alongside good mate Myles at Brookvale Oval.

It's a familiar scenario for the Titans, who have been battling off-field dramas in various issues throughout the season.

Myles says there's no worry his decision is going to distract him or his teammates against the Sharks.

"I am focused on tomorrow's game. I know the boys are," he said.

"Everyone's looking forward to it."

The Titans are chasing back-to-back home wins for just the second time since the middle of 2013 against a Sharks team which has a horrible record on the road in recent times.

Coach Neil Henry has picked the same team which was mauled by the Raiders and has expressed his hope their desire for redemption will deliver a much improved display on Saturday.

"It was a little bit embarrassing in a lot of departments last week," Myles conceded.

"We need to bounce back. Defence is where we start and we go from there."

The Sharks make their first trip to the Gold Coast in four years without Anthony Tupou, whose broken jaw suffered in the dramatic loss to the Warriors will sideline him for a few weeks.

David Fifita will make his return from a fractured leg in his place while Michael Gordon makes his return on the wing in place of Mitch Brown.

The Titans' big loss to the Raiders mean they come into this game with the worst defensive record in the NRL and Henry knows they'll need to improve with the Sharks containing multiple attacking options.

"They've got some dangerous players," Henry said.

"(Ben) Barba at the back. Valentine Holmes has got good speed with Gordon on the wing as well and Jack Bird's been fantastic, he's a strong carrier of the ball.

"(Andrew) Fafita, well, we saw the try he got last week as well.

"There's a lot of threats in their team and we need to be a lot better than we were against Canberra."

TITANS v SHARKS - Key stats

- The Sharks have scored the first try of the match in all three of their wins this season, but have conceded the first try in all six losses.

- The Sharks have the second best completion rate in the NRL this season (77.7 per cent) while the Titans have the worst (68.3 per cent)

- This will be the first match between these two sides on the Gold Coast since 2011. The Titans have won three of the four encounters on the Coast against the Sharks.


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Source: AAP


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