Coincidence or catalyst? Either way you look at it, South Sydney winger Nathan Merritt has not scored a try since blowing up over his NSW City Origin snubbing two months ago.

Last year's leading NRL tryscorer bagged seven tries in the opening seven rounds of the competition but still missed out on City selection, to current NSW winger Jarryd Hayne and Bulldogs sharpshooter Hazem El Masri.

He publicly claimed racism was one of the reasons behind his snubbing, but since then he has hardly proven the selectors wrong, failing to cross the line in a six-game tryscoring drought.

And Merritt's version of white line fever has coincided with the Rabbitohs' slump, with just one win in the past six weeks and no tries last week in their tough 14-2 loss to Manly.

But South Sydney coach Jason Taylor is confident the Rabbitohs' misfiring attack will click into gear in the near future, hopefully by Sunday afternoon when the Bunnies host Cronulla at Telstra Stadium.

"We've just got to keep working hard at that stuff," he said.

"We are really heading in the right direction but we've got to learn faster. We're just not finishing off the breaks we are making and we have to compete with the top teams.

"(But) we're improving each week.

"It takes time but it's got to happen now."

Cronulla, too, have problems with their attack.

They failed to cross against the New Zealand Warriors last week and coach Ricky Stuart has identified offence as an area of their game that needs to be addressed immediately if they are to develop into contenders this year.

The Sharks will be buoyed by the return of centre Fraser Anderson after a dislocated shoulder suffered in round 12 while in-form forward Lance Thompson is back after three weeks on the sidelines with a knee problem, compensating for the loss of suspended NSW Origin prospect Paul Gallen.

Adding further ammunition to the Sharks' fire this week is the Cronulla players still smarting over their round three loss earlier this year to Souths.

That 26-16 defeat remains the heaviest of Cronulla's season and the Sharks would love nothing more than to return the favour at Souths' home ground.

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