round 25

Campbell's five-star showing in a 44-0 thrashing of the listless Warriors came with the same flair and flourish of his old man and club founding father Preston, and pushed the Gold Coast past the 11-point winning margin needed to pinch eighth spot from the Sharks.

A 16-0 halftime lead had the Titans already in the top eight.

Another five second-half tries when all the Warriors offered was scuffles and sin bins booked the Gold Coast's first finals berth since 2016 and a sudden death showdown against the Roosters.

Touted as an early contender for the premiership, Canberra must beat the Roosters on Thursday and hope the Sharks lose against Melbourne on Friday to ensure the simplest of passages to finals football.

Canberra and Cronulla could both lose, but The Green Machine would need the Storm to rack up a big score to bring them back into finals contention.

The Storm have rested seven players from last week’s loss to Parramatta against a Sharks side that’s in poll position.

“If you’ve earned the position of rest players this week, well good on you,” Stuart said.

The Seagulls raced away to an 18-0 lead after 29 minutes with tries to Samuel Meskell, Nicholas Harrold and Jayden Baker.

But the Hunters hit back with two tries in five minutes towards the end of the first half. The first was to captain and five-eighth Ase Boas, followed by fullback Stargroth Amean.

This brought the half-time score to 18-12.

Points were hard to come by in the second half with both sides only managing one try each.

The Seagulls found the try line in the 44^th minute through Tristan Lumley.

Marum said Wera will start in the centres with Willie Minoga moved to second rower. Moses Meninga will start at lock.

He added David Loko and Stanton Albert have been omitted from the side for the final round of the season before the finals.

Brandy Peter, Sailas Gahuna and young Muka Peter Kulu have been added to the extended 20-man squad.