The Cronulla Sharks have jumped up to second place on the NRL ladder after dismantling the St. George Illawarra Dragons on Thursday night.
As for the Dragons, the result leaves them at the bottom of the table as they look to avoid the first wooden spoon in the joint venture's 24-year history.
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Sharks vs. Dragons score: Cronulla dominate against struggling Red V
It was the Dragons who were the unlikely first try-scorers at Shark Park on Thursday, but the home side levelled things up within a matter of minutes via Nicho Hynes.
This tussle continued for the early stages of the first half before Cronulla tore the game open, going into the sheds up 24-10 after cult hero Tom Hazelton found the line.
Tyrell Sloan scored a stunning length-of-the-field try to bring the Dragons back within touching distance after the break, but a five-try Sharks onslaught followed.
Ronaldo Mulitalo and Briton Nikora both bagged doubles as Cronulla secured their biggest-ever win over their local rivals, a 52-16 thrashing.
Match Highlights 🎥 - #NRLSharksDragons
— NRL (@NRL) June 29, 2023
The Sharks unleashed their full array of attacking weapons in a massive win over the Dragons! pic.twitter.com/cv0BW3BNw1
'It seems like we’re getting worse': Ben Hunt makes damning assessment
Hunt did not mince his words following his side's heavy defeat, highlighting the club's regression this season.
"Not good enough really ... Where do we go from here? It seems like we’re getting worse," Hunt told ABC Radio post-match.
"We can’t keep going down this path."
On top of the overall team showing, Hunt delivered a relatively underwhelming performance himself.
His quick-thinking pass to a rapid Tyrell Sloan that led to a try was a highlight, but outside of that, the halfback had a minimum impact.
On top of that, he failed to find touch with a penalty kick and admitted after the game he needed to be better.
Hunt also stated that his future in the Red V has not been discussed since meetings earlier in the week.
“That [failing to find touch] was a big error from myself,” he said.
“[My future] hasn’t really been spoken about at the club. We had a good week at training and a good week in the meetings and no one had been talking about it.”
Dragons interim coach pleased with 'brave' effort
The scoreline wasn't pretty, however, Dragons interim coach Ryan Carr had some positive words for his team after the match.
He felt his team showed good character early on, but primarily struggled with containing the Sharks and their several six-again calls.
"I thought we were really brave for long periods there but then we had one set inside their 20 within the second half and we came up with a bad play there and they picked the ball up and made a line break off a kick and that turned the momentum," Carr explained.
"You give any NRL team 60 play-the-balls inside your 20 and I reckon there is going to be some points scored. It's [a] fact.
"The six-again calls were seven to one [against us] so that's going to make it hard for us too. I just couldn't visually see that we were that much worse."
