Lomax desperate for second taste of finals action

The now 22-year-old was pitched straight into the furnace while still a teenager in 2018, making just his second NRL appearance in round 25 and backing up a week later at a sold-out Suncorp Stadium in a stunning 48-18 win over the Broncos.

He played in front of another 50,000 strong crowd in week two of the finals as the Dragons were edged out of a prelim finals appearance by an Adam Reynolds field-goal.

It was a tough introduction to the finals cauldron, but Lomax has since learned the hard way that getting back there is even tougher.

The Dragons finished 12th in the two years that followed, seeing the end of former coach Paul McGregor's tenure, while an 11th placed finish last season was punctuated by eight straight losses to close the season.

They're walking an all-too-familiar finals tightrope this season, needing to win all of their remaining five games to guarantee a finals berth, but Lomax insists that fire still burns, with that fleeting initiation still vivid in his memory.

"It doesn't leave your mind, it's the best type of footy you can play," Lomax said.

"Everyone wants to play it. I've played 70-odd NRL games now and I've missed a fair few through injury and it's absolutely flown.

"It feels like yesterday I was debuting and it only feels like yesterday that I moved down to Wollongong.

"Your football career flies and there's a lot of players that go through a whole career and don't end up playing finals footy.

"Obviously finals footy is what everyone in the comp wants to play and we all want to be there for the last dance right at the end of the year.

"That's our focus. We're probably not as comfortable as most teams [in the race], we're sitting in that spot where we need to win most games, but we're going to put our best foot forward, that's for sure."

The Dragons face a huge task in knocking off Cronulla in Saturday's local derby to keep their finals hopes alive, having gone down to the equally high-flying Cowboys by 26 points last week.

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It continued a worrying trend of late-game fadeouts, with Anthony Griffin's side having conceded 104 second-half points in their past six games.

It's a trend they'll have to arrest to be any chance of knocking off the Sharks at home.

"The effort was definitely there [last week] and I thought we really played a tough gritty game of footy to start with," Lomax said.

"It just got away from us at the end there. They probably competed in the effort areas a bit better than we did and that was the disappointing thing.

"We need to be better in that regard because we've still got a few games to go and we're still pushing for finals.

"[Cronulla] have been playing outstanding, obviously Fitzy (coach Craig Fitzgibbon) has been a massive addition to their team.

"They deserve all the accolades they've been getting because they've been playing good footy. It's going to be a tough game for us this week but one we've been looking forward to.

"It's a local derby and one all the boys are going to be up for."

Lomax faces arguably the toughest task of any player on the park on Saturday, standing opposite Sharks wrecking ball Siosifa Talakai.

Talakai's resurgence has been one of the individual stories of the season, while his 22 carries for 231 metres last week played a major role in his side getting home against the Rabbitohs in golden point.

It potentially makes for a long night, but Lomax is relishing the challenge.

"I don't look at any opposition player any differently [to another]," Lomax said.

"Everyone playing NRL is so competitive and they want to win and they want to put it over their opposition player.

"He's obviously a strong ball carrier, he played Origin this year, so it'll be a good test for both of us. Good luck to him, he'll want to get one over me and vice versa."

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