Cameron McInnes says the Sharks owe it to Matt Moylan to show improvement against the Sea Eagles on Sunday, after the five-eighth was punted from the side following last week's loss to the Warriors.
Moylan has been dropped in favour of Braydon Trindall for Round 21, after he missed six tackles as part of a left edge which leaked a number of tries in the 44-12 loss in Auckland.
But McInnes said Moylan is just the unfortunate casualty for a team-wide problem, which must be fixed ahead of taking on Manly.
"It's not just on 'Moyza', a lot of things happen before plays get to him on the field," McInnes said.
"It starts with me as a middle and not doing my job well enough, and I take some responsibility for that, as we all do.
Someone wore it for our performance, and us that have been given another opportunity need to make sure that we don't let him down as well.
Cameron McInnes
"Decisions need to be made and that's never easy because it's a team game; it's never one individual.
"But we need to respond, we need to do something different with our defence to make sure that we're doing the right things.
"It's not easy and it's not nice, but it's all of us."
Warriors v Sharks- Round 20, 2023
With defeat in Round 20 Cronulla dropped from third to sixth on the Telstra Premiership ladder and they now sit just one win clear of the ninth-placed Cowboys, who are the competition's form team with five-straight wins to their name.
It also continues a worrying trend this season for the Sharks, which has seen them win just one of seven games against current top eight sides.
But McInnes denied the club has an issue when it comes to performing in big games.
"I don't necessarily think it’s anything to do with that, I think it's moments in games when things don't go our way and we're not responding quick enough," he said.
"That wouldn't matter where the team was situated on the table. I don't buy into that as much as it is us not being able to back up from adversity.
"That’s the biggest thing for us, being able to hold our gloves up in those situations.
"Just going off the weekend there were periods in the game that went well, the scores [from the Warriors] came in waves there a little bit and there were 10-minute periods where we weren’t resilient enough."
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The Sharks have another two forced changes for the match at PointsBet Stadium, with back-rowers Teig Wilton (knee) and Wade Graham (toe) unavailable.
That sees Jesse Colquhoun come into the starting side while Connor Tracey joins the squad at centre, with Siosifa Talakai reverting to the interchange.