The Penrith Panthers have made it a stunning 10 victories in a row, beating the Sharks 38-12 on Friday evening at Penrith Stadium.
It was another game where Penrith help their opposition scoreless in the opening 20 minutes of the match, and to make matters worse for Cronulla they were able to run in three tries of their own to ambush the boys from the Shire.
Viliame Kikau was put into a hole by Isaah Yeo and in close proximity to the line there was no one who was going to stop the big Fijian. An unsuccessful challenge from the Sharks in the 12th minute was immediately followed by Josh Mansour getting his first try of the night, going over untouched after being on the receiving end of a cutout from Jarome Luai.
Liam Martin was the standout in an already great side, and he stamped his authority in the 20th minute. He easily beat the defence of Moylan and Dugan (not for the first time) and linked up with Brent Naden to send the winger over.
The Sharks did well to make it some sort of an arm wrestle through Jesse Ramien, who crashed over from close range to make the margin 10. It looked as if that would be it for the half but right on the siren, Cleary did what he so often does and put in a pin-point kick which was taken by Stephen Crichton and grounded for Penrith's 4th try. That made the score 22-6 going into half time.
5 minutes into the second half, it looked like the Sharks would make some sort of a game of it when Hamlin-Uele got an offload away for Trindall, who appeared to toe it on for Jack Williams to score. The bunker would have none of it though, ruling correctly that Trindall had gotten a hand to it and therefore knocked on.
The Panthers stormed home with a wet sail from there, with Liam Martin bursting through again and this time scoring himself followed by tries to Jarome Luai and Josh Mansour again, and just like that Penrith were winning 38-6.
The Sharks were able to salvage a little respectability on the scoreboard, with Connor Tracey providing some flare with a scoot from dummy half with 5 minutes to go. That was all she wrote in terms of points, the final scoreline 38-12 in favour of the mountain men.
Next week, the Panthers are up against the Wests Tigers at home again, while the Sharks will be back at Kogarah against North Queensland.