SOUTH SYDNEY coach Jason Taylor last night insisted the Rabbitohs had not given up on making the top eight, but admitted it would be difficult for his side to win all of their remaining seven games.

Wests Tigers ended Souths' five-game winning streak with a gutsy 36-12 victory at ANZ Stadium yesterday. And, with Tigers coach Tim Sheens conceding Melbourne and Manly were on a "different level" to the rest of the competition, the fight is now on for the other finals berths.

Cronulla (28 points) are guaranteed a place in the play-offs after Saturday night's 16-13 win over Newcastle, while Sydney Roosters (26) should also be safe despite yesterday crashing to an upset defeat for the second consecutive week, this time in Canberra.

But behind them the battle has intensified after wins for Brisbane (23), Penrith (21), the Raiders, Tigers and Warriors (all 20) over the weekend. St George Illawarra and the Titans are both on 22 points, but the Dragons have the opportunity to regain fifth place when they travel to Melbourne (26) tonight, while Newcastle and Parramatta are also still in contention on 18 points - two points ahead of Souths.

Sheens indicated he had rated his side's hopes of featuring in the finals slim if they had suffered a fifth successive loss yesterday, revealing that he planned to begin experimenting with players from the club's under-20s team. However, Taylor refused to concede the Rabbitohs' season would end in seven weeks.

"Before today started I don't think that we were ever going to win every game between now and the end," Taylor said. "That would be nice, but we're not going to start worrying about whether we can make it or not.

"We're just got to keep taking it one game at a time because there are so many teams in that area and so many teams that play each other so I don't know how it's going to end up. [But] we certainly won't be giving up."

Yet even if Souths were to scrape into the finals, Sheens warned that they - and any of the other teams vying for the top eight - would need to significantly improve to prevent the grand final from being a rematch of last year's premiership decider between the Storm and the Sea Eagles.

After suffering three losses in their opening five matches, the Sea Eagles have been beaten just once since, while the Storm came through Origin not only unscathed but with some of their star players hitting top form and are now focused on becoming the first club to win back-to-back premierships since the Broncos in 1992-93.

"I'm not taking anything away from Souths but there are two levels in this competition and we played one level last week [against Melbourne]. Them and Manly are setting a different level than the rest of us," Sheens said. "We've got to come up to that level and we can on our day … but doing it week in and week out is the challenge."

Meanwhile, the Sharks are set to receive a double dose of good news ahead of Friday night's trip to Brisbane, with captain Paul Gallen likely to escape any further action over a high tackle on Knights winger Cooper Vuna, and fellow NSW star Greg Bird tipped to return from the knee injury that sidelined him from the Origin series decider.

The Titans are sweating on today's meeting of the match review committee after five-eighth Mat Rogers was reported for a high shot on Panthers rookie Lachlan Coote. After being suspended for six matches earlier this season over a dangerous throw, even a low grade careless high tackle charge would force Rogers to miss Saturday night's match against the Raiders.

In injury news, Newcastle halfback Jarrod Mullen will miss up to six weeks after suffering a hip flexor injury against the Sharks, but his absence should be offset by the return of hooker Danny Buderus in next Sunday's home clash with Souths.