Barba can sense that not only his teammates, but also the Sutherland Shire community, are still stinging from the ASADA investigation which threatened to derail the club this time last year.

Now sitting in fifth spot, and almost guaranteed a finals place, Barba said there had been talk about repaying the Cronulla faithful who stuck by the side through the turbulent period.

"After seeing what this club has gone through – obviously I wasn't part of it -  but just hearing the stories of what happened and all the guys got suspended and losing Flanno [Shane Flanagan] as a coach, was a pretty tough time for the club and the fans at Cronulla," Barba said. "Just seeing the buzz around the boys and being out locally in Cronulla and seeing how hyped up everyone is is pretty special.

"As players we know we are trying to do it for the shire as a whole. We love the fans that come here, they get us home in some games.

"It's been spoken about [performing for the fans] a little bit. First and foremost it's about us as a playing group. We've brought in myself and other guys and our goal was to get this side back into the finals. It's not done yet but we're not far off.

"We have a few more games to put together and hopefully we can get in the eight somewhere and give this competition a good shake."

After a disastrous start to the year where they lost their opening four games, Cronulla have responded by winning seven of their past eight matches.

They have beaten the Roosters twice and claimed the scalps of other top four teams North Queensland and South Sydney.

They beat the Cowboys minus Johnathan Thurston, who will be on hand when the Sharks host North Queensland on Saturday.

"He is worth about 30 points," Barba said. "We've backed our defence the last few weeks, I think that's what has got us home. We're going to do our video and watch him. They have a great side across the park.

"The fact we've won seven of our past eight games shows we are capable of winning games.

"At the start of the year we just needed that win to get the belief that we could put good performances together. They've come a lot lately. Hopefully we can get another one on the weekend and aim for that top four."

The Sharks have the advantage of having four of their last five matches at Remondis Stadium. Barba said belief had been the biggest reason behind the squad's turnaround.

"We know we have a capable side here of winning some big games," Barba said. "At the moment we're not talking semi-finals, we still have to win a few more games to definitely cement our spot in the eight and we have some hard games coming up.

"We're just believing in ourselves and our coach and what we're doing here and I think that's what's getting us home in the end."