SYDNEY - No longer haunted by the prospect of a season-long battle to avoid the NRL wooden spoon, Cronulla gave their long-suffering fans something to cheer about on Saturday night with a convincing 26-6 win over Newcastle at Toyota Stadium.
With Melbourne already consigned to the unwanted piece ofkitchenware after being stripped all their 2010 points when busted for rorting the salary cap on Thursday, the Sharks played with a freedom not seen in recent years to run out five tries to one winners.
While last place may be out of the question, this was not a performance to indicative of a push for a finals berth either, with the second victory from their last 17 matches confirmed when Tim Smith touched down following a John Morris kick 14 minutes into the second stanza.
The 16-0 lead was always going to be enough against a poor Newcastle side which rarely looked like scoring until Junior Sa'u crossed right on fulltime.
The Knights' frustrations were summed up when skipper Kurt Gidley angrily tossed the ball away following an unforced knock-on nine minutes from time.
The Knights actually had the best of the early opportunities only for Sa'u's final pass to dribble forward, fullback Nathan Stapleton then putting the Sharks on the front foot with a scintillating 70 metre kick return.
Three straight sets on Knights line went unrewarded but Dean Collis finally got Cronulla on the board when he brushed past Sa'u and stepped Cooper Vuna to go over out wide.
While Sharks coach Ricky Stuart would no doubt still have the odd nightmare about an infamous intercept pass during his reign as NSW Origin coach a few years back, there was only smiles this time around as a Jarrod Mullen floater found Isaac Gordon who raced 40 metres for a 10-0 halftime lead.
Smith's second half try was just reward for an instrumental display, the Sharks then turning it on for the 10,662 fans with two tries in the final ten minutes to Gordon and former Knight Kade Snowden put the visitors away.
Compounding the loss was the sight of Ben Cross being stretchered off midway through the second period, the hulking prop complaining of pins and needles in his neck after getting his head in a bad position when tackling Luke Douglas.
