On the bright side, a Sharks win has kept us in the 8.
Strangely enough I was thinking the opposite. It keeps us technically in the 8 right now, but my long term prediction is that Warriors will still sneak into the finals and the Sharks, with their hard draw and all the ASADA dramas to the surface again, might have been the team we can hold out.
If you rule out everyone from 10th (Panthers/Titans) down, it means only one of Sharks, Bulldogs, Raiders, Knights and Warriors is going to miss out. And personally I thought the Sharks shaped up as the most likely if they had lost yesterday.
All will be revealed, but I'm not convinced just staying in the 8 for the moment will end up being the best result for us after round 26.
Either way we absolutely must beat the Sharks. With the Storm hitting top gear again and very likely to put the sword through us the following week, we can't afford not to grab the 2 points against the Sharks. 5 dropped points to the Dragons and Broncos in 3 games this season is very frustrating.