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Cronulla will go with rookies Connor Tracey and Braydon Trindall in the halves against North Queensland, with Matt Moylan dropped and Shaun Johnson injured.

Shaun Johnson's groin injury hasn't saved Matt Moylan from the axe with Cronulla to play NRL rookies Connor Tracey and Braydon Trindall in the halves against North Queensland.

Johnson was ruled out on Friday after being injured in training on Wednesday, prompting the eighth-placed Sharks to recall Trindall back into their squad.

There had been a thought it could mean a reprieve for Moylan, who was dropped after missing seven tackles in last week's loss to Penrith.

But desperate for Cronulla to show signs of improvement before the finals, coach John Morris stuck to his guns and left Moylan out of his 19-man squad.

Speaking before Johnson's injury was confirmed, Cronulla coach John Morris said he needed to take a "stand" on the out-of-sorts Moylan.

"'Moyza's got a few clear parts of his game he needs to work on," Morris said.

"He's had three games there, that by his own standards, haven't been good enough.

"He's had another interrupted sort of year and that's affected his confidence.

"His body hasn't quite allowed him to play how he would like to play.

"I just need to make a stand for what we need to do in defence and Moys had a couple of mishaps last week."

A win on Saturday will go a long way to landing Cronulla in the finals, but captain Wade Graham conceded this week things had to change to avoid just making up the numbers.

The Sharks are still yet to beat a current top-eight team and desperately want improvement in the next month.

Moylan's demotion was seen as a line-in-the-sand moment.

And Morris suggested the former NSW State of Origin representative could learn from some of rugby league's greats in how to deal with the blow.

"All players face adversity throughout their career," Morris said.

"I look at other key players across the NRL who have been put out this year; Benji Marshall's a really good case in point.

"(Marshall) got put out of the team and put his hand up for what he needed to work on, was really positive in the background.

"He's come back in and playing good footy.

"I know (Moylan) will do that, it's just how he responds to it."

Meanwhile Cronulla are still hopeful of Andrew Fifita overcoming a finger injury to play, with the star forward training confidently on Friday.