Cronulla have work to do leading into next week's elimination final after slogging their way to an unconvincing 26-18 final-round win against Newcastle in the Hunter.
Despite racing out to an 18-0 lead, the Sharks were pushed all the way on Sunday but eventually prevailed for a hard-fought second win in three weeks.
Shane Flanagan's fifth-placed side now await the winner of the St George Illawarra and Canterbury game to decide whether they face Penrith or North Queensland in week one of the finals.
Sharks skipper Paul Gallen was easily his team's best, warming up for the business end of the season with a trademark 249 metres and seven offloads.
Knights forward Lachlan Fitzgibbon impressed with two tries, although he suffered a compound finger fracture in the second half and failed to return.
His efforts also weren't enough to stop the Knights from finishing with their third straight wooden spoon in front of a crowd of 20,535 on their annual old boys' day.
The visitors were leading by six when James Maloney slotted over a penalty in the 44th minute, before Gallen offloaded for Jesse Ramien to score on debut.
Danny Levi responded in the 61st minute but that was as close as the Knights got as they finished the year with three straight defeats.
Cronulla were set for a cruisy afternoon when they shot out to an 18-0 lead inside 20 minutes.
Valentine Holmes started the surge when he caught defenders napping out of dummy-half in the sixth minute, before Chad Townsend sliced through some poor defence in the 16th.
Jayden Brailey made it a three-try advantage four minutes later, but the Knights made it a contest with consecutive Fitzgibbon tries to finish the half.
First the lanky second-rower hit a hole off a short ball from debutant Tyrone Amey, and then he cut the deficit to six when Danny Levi found him minutes before the break.
His two tries lifted him to eight for the season – the most by a Knights forward since Danny Buderus in 2003.
CRONULLA 26 (J Brailey V Holmes J Ramien C Townsend tries J Maloney 5 goals) bt NEWCASTLE 18 (L Fitzgibbon 2 D Levi tries T Hodkinson 3 goals) at McDonald Jones Stadium. Referees: Henry Perenara, Jon Stone. Crowd: 20,535.Â
AAP
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