The football field proved a place of solace for Cronulla, with the drugs scandal which intensified during the week put to one side yesterday in a 38-10 drubbing of Penrith at Remondis Stadium in Sydney.
With 10 players this week receiving notices from the NRL to organise interviews with ASADA,the investigation into the club's 2011 supplement programme again hit home, with the Sharks coming into the game on the back of a 40-0 hiding by Sydney Roosters last weekend.
But it was put to one side on the back of a Todd Carney masterclass, the Sharks No6 looking fresh after being ignored by NSW Origin selectors, scoring 18 points on his own as he carved up a Penrith side which is losing touch with the top eight.
Making defeat worse for the Panthers was the man deemed surplus to requirements by coach Ivan Cleary - fullback Michael Gordon - scoring a double for the home side, his first coming off a deft inside ball from another former Panther, Wade Graham.
The damage was done over the opening 40 minutes when the Sharks ran in three tries to hold a 20-0 lead at the break, Gordon's opener followed by a individual effort from Carney who dummied and danced past a pair of defenders.
The Panthers seemed out of ideas other than for Luke Walsh to kick to the corners.
The Roosters kept the pressure on table-toppers South Sydney with a hard-fought win over in-form Newcastle at Hunter Stadium.
The Knights went into the game on the back of three successive wins but had no answer to a Sonny Bill Williams-inspired side who now sit two points behind Souths.
SBW's fellow Kiwi Shaun Kenny-Dowall opened the scoring for the visitors after 18 minutes only for the Knights to hit back almost immediately when Darius Boyd ran the ball 80 metres after defusing a Mitchell Pearce bomb.
The remainder of the opening stanza was something of an arm wrestle that saw Williams placed on report for a shoulder charge to the head of former Rooster Willie Mason, who later limped off with a suspected torn calf muscle.
But the Roosters restored their lead on the half-hour mark when Michael Jennings picked off a Jarrod Mullen pass intended for Dane Gagai and charged the length of the field to score.
James Maloney added the extras to give his side a 12-6 lead at the interval.
The second half followed a similar pattern with little to choose between the sides.
Former Knights junior Boyd Cordner iced the result with a darting run to the line before Williams added some extra gloss with a one-armed lunge on the final siren.
