Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart has gone on the attack during the pre-season in a bid to reinvigorate 2008's most impotent NRL outfit.

Despite finishing the regular season level on competition points with minor premiers Melbourne and grand final winners Manly, no team struggled more than the Sharks in getting the ball over the line.

Their 75 tries during the regular season was the worst in the league, with even the Bulldogs - who won only five games all season - crossing for 78 tries.

"Obviously last year we struggled to score points until a few games at the back end," Sharks skipper Paul Gallen told AAP on Thursday.

"We've worked two or three times more on our attack at training this year, not so much plays or anything but our skill levels, being able to catch and pass under pressure, when to pass, when to run - we've done an enormous amount of work on that."

Whether that transfers to the scoreboard remains to be seen, with the full-strength Sharks squad getting their first chance to show their wares in Saturday night's trial against Newcastle in Cessnock.

Aiding Stuart's attempts to improve his side's offensive firepower has been the recruitment of attack-minded trio Trent Barrett, Reni Maitua and wide-running backrower Anthony Tupou.

But despite the presence of the new faces and the focus on attack during the pre-season, Gallen said the Sharks would continue to rely heavily on their defence.

"It's still going to be the same Sharks that it's been for the last few years - a team that's always in your face and one that tackles hard and runs hard," Gallen said.

"We probably don't have the likes of Billy Slater or Greg Inglis that can score tries out of nothing, we have to really work as a team."

A severely understrength Sharks side was thumped 40-16 by Gold Coast in Darwin last weekend, but with Gallen, Tupou and Maitua coming into the squad for the trip north on Saturday night, the clash against the Knights should give a better indication of exactly where the side is at.

"We've been working pretty hard on our attack but then we went up to Darwin on the weekend and didn't defend too well," Gallen said.

"We still have to tackle hard and be relentless in our defence - if we don't do that we're going to struggle to score points anyway.

"If we don't (defend better) this weekend I'm sure we're going to go back to bashing each other at training next week."

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