Moylan fine with being overlooked for Sharks captaincy

As a former captain of Penrith, five-eighth Matt Moylan could have had every right to get his nose out of joint when he was overlooked for the Cronulla's captaincy but he was happy for Andrew Fifita to get the role. 

Fifita, along with Josh Dugan briefly as co-captain, assumed the on-field role in recent weeks when Paul Gallen, Wade Graham and Luke Lewis have gone down with injuries.

Gallen is hopeful of making a return for Sunday's clash with the Raiders but if his return from knee surgery is delayed, Fifita will lead the Sharks onto GIO Stadium.

Moylan, who captained Penrith before Peter Wallace assumed the role late in the season last year, said with the number of leaders at Cronulla he was pleased to not have the added pressure of captaincy but still feels a responsibility to lead the boys around the park as one of the key playmakers.

"I'm enjoying not having that role," he said.

"There's a lot of leaders here so there's not that added pressure of the captaincy but in saying that I'm still in a pressure role, playing in the halves, so I still have to have that leadership out on the field, which I still have to build and have a way to go there.

"He (Fifita) has had that opportunity one or two games before, he's filled in when Lewie went down when we played a game earlier in the year so he comfortable with the role and he's stepped up and done that for us for a couple of weeks."

After being switched between fullback and five-eighth in the early rounds, Moylan says he is now feeling comfortable in the halves and is confident of developing his combination with in-form halfback Chad Townsend.

"I did a lot of the pre-season there training at five-eighth so it's good to get that consistency going and playing in the same position," he said.

"I think it's building, our combination, but we can still improve."

With plenty of talk around Holden State of Origin selection, Moylan doesn't believe he will get a Blues recall because his form hasn't been up to scratch.

"It's always a goal but I think I've got to be playing a bit better footy here and that's my main focus. I still think there's a way to go, I still have to improve on a lot of things," he said.

"I just want to play good footy here and find consistency in my form and if that comes off the back of it obviously I'd grab it with both hands, but I'm not looking forward at that. There's a couple of errors that I'm making throughout the game so stuff I've got to tidy up and I'm working on that."