This was the first match played between the Sharks and Penrith at Jubilee Stadium, with the Sharks shocking record at the Kogarah ground blowing out to 12 wins from 38 played with a 56-24 thumping at the hands of the Panthers.
It was a miserable day for the Sharks, who lost prop Andrew Fifita with a hamstring injury at half-time after the Panthers had raced to a winning 26-0 lead in as many minutes before the home side wrestled back the momentum late in the first half.
Since losing to the Dragons in round five, the Sharks had put together three straight wins to get themselves back in finals contention before playing a Panthers team which coach Morris said would 'test' them.
The Sharks were under no illusions as to the task confronting them against a Panthers side which was sitting in second position.
John Morris spoke of the Sharks getting off to a fast start being a formula for success and having scored the opening try in their past five straight matches.
But every time the bell rang in the first 20 minutes the Panthers scored, punishing the sharks where it hurt the most -on the scoreboard and after 15 minutes it was 16-0 and the Sharks looked gone.
Mistake after mistake was punished and the Jubilee curse came back to haunt the luckless Sharks as their limited attacking raids were thwarted.
With 16 mins remaining in the first half the stadium lights came on but it was too late for the Sharks to open their eyes leaving it 20-0.
Andrew Fifita did make a difference when he finally got on and Cronulla got the ball with 11 minutes to go in the half and with the bells ringing in their favour hammered the Pink line but couldn't crack it wasting another captains challenge in the process.
Running forward Siosifa Talakai really put it to the Mountain Men and was a handful every time he touched the ball and with the Sharks putting pressure on the Penrith defence they started to crack with Briton Nikora hitting the line with four minutes in the half leaving it 26-6.
Penrith were fraying at the edges and the Sharks looked like a different team with some good work by Brailey seeing him also cross with seconds to go leaving it a 14 point lead.
The Sharks had to score first and when first half hero Talakai went off the heat also went with him and Penrith touched down in the corner pushing the score out to 30-12.
The Sharks looked interested in attack but not in defence and when James Tamu got sin-binned it was their chance but no one was home to collect a Townsend grubber kick into their in goal and the moment was gone and Penrith made another six points .
In a game that started to resemble a game of touch Cronulla's Jesse Ramien stormed over leaving it 36-18 but it was too far away and the game was gone with Charlie Staines stamping himself as the next young star off the Penrith production line after scoring four tries in his NRL debut and leaving the Sharks with no excuses.
It was another game to forget for the Sharks with the Panthers inflicting the heaviest defeat in John Morris's coaching tenure at Cronulla.