Cronulla coach John Morris has unloaded on his side, describing them as cocky, complacent and their 14-12 NRL loss to cellar dwellers Canterbury as the worst he'd seen by the club.
The last-placed Bulldogs shook off the loss of playmaker Kieran Foran to a hamstring injury to hold off a Sharks fightback at ANZ Stadium on Sunday and break a four-game losing streak.
While injury-plagued playmaker Foran did not return after leaving the field after 25 minutes, coach Dean Pay described his hamstring strain as mild and said he was a chance to turn out in their next match against Newcastle after next week's bye.
Foran fired his side to an early 14-0 lead, setting up tries for Will Hopoate and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak before leaving the field.
The Sharks - as has been their tendency over the opening 15 rounds - were atrocious in the first half but came storming back into the contest.
But, like they did in their last-start loss to Canberra in which they let the Raiders race out to a 20-0 lead, they left themselves with too much to do.
"One of the worst performances I've seen from this club," Morris said.
"Awful actually, 16 errors. We came here with a really good team on paper and a team that have been looking forward to making our mark on the competition.
"Off the pace from the word go, down 14-nil at the start, a shocking first 20 minutes yet again."
The Sharks looked set to steal it at the death when Jack Williams picked up a loose grubber and raced 80-metres before being cut down by Reimis Smith and Marcelo Montoya.
From there Chad Townsend rolled an ill-advised kick into the in-goal and Aiden Tolman, after running for 146 metres and making 32 tackles, was there to dive on the ball to cap his 250th NRL game.
The Sharks scored three straight tries to come steaming back into the contest but repeatedly shot themselves in the foot and Morris singled out his senior players for not stepping up.
Matt Moylan made six errors including three dropped high balls while Shaun Johnson failed to take the game by the scruff of the neck and made several key errors including kicking out on the full and getting caught with the ball on the last.
Fijian Test playmaker Brandon Wakeham, who was a late inclusion on the bench for back-rower Rhyse Martin, stepped up to guide the Bulldogs to victory after filling in for Foran.
"They've been busting their arses for quite a while and today they got a result," Pay said.
"We're a still a young rebuilding team and it's going to take some time but the effort was there. It's so pleasing for them."
