Titans coach John Cartwright, who stepped down as Ricky Stuart's NSW Origin assistant to stand by his struggling NRL club last month, believes Cronulla skipper Paul Gallen is "in the zone".

Gallen smashed his way over for the two powerful tries in the Sharks' impressive 36-12 win over a despondent Gold Coast at Skilled Park on Saturday night before being given an early mark by coach Shane Flanagan for his effort.

Gallen drew high praise from Stuart and other rugby league luminaries like Glenn Lazarus after playing 80 minutes in the front row as the Blues levelled the interstate series in Sydney 10 days ago to set up a third game decider in Brisbane on Wednesday week.

Cartwright said Gallen had developed into "the most effective player in the game" with his recent performance in Origin II taking his confidence to an all-time high.

"Every now and then a sportsman gets in the zone," said Cartwright, who is in a different zone altogether with the Titans following their 11th loss of the season.

"He's in the zone and he's added a few strings to his bow."

Titans skipper Scott Prince said Gallen's Origin II heroics had boosted his confidence enormously.

The same, however, can't be said for Prince or the Titans who are going through a rough patch with no end in sight.

"It's a weird feeling (being at the bottom of the ladder)," said Prince, unable to put his finger on what is going wrong.

"It hurts, it hurts a lot."

Cartwright did his best to search for positives after another demoralising defeat, saying the club was going through something it had not previously experienced since entering the competition in 2007.

"You (media) can write what you like, I can see the effort being put in," he said.

"They don't deserve that (36-12) scoreboard but it is what it is."

The biggest home loss in the club's history was amplified even more with the rookie Gold Coast Suns playing an AFL game down the road and drawing several thousand more fans to their match, which they also lost.

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