Cronulla have dealt South Sydney a reality check and reiterated their own NRL heavyweight status with a comfortable 27-12 win at Shark Park.
The depleted Rabbitohs had been the competition's surprise packet across an unbeaten opening fortnight, but were man-handled by red-hot Sharks halves Braydon Trindall and Nicho Hynes on Saturday.
For the first time in his four-game NRL career, Rabbitohs half Jamie Humphreys had no answers, with Souths clearly some way off challenging the big boys in Wayne Bennett's second stint as coach.
"We started badly compared to them," Bennett said.
"To our credit, these guys kept hanging in there and fighting, but there were a few opportunities and we didn't grab them."
Cronulla were near-perfect, racing to 20-0 by halftime before easing their foot off the pedal in the second half.
Hynes scored the opener inside five minutes, Trindall kicked two 40/20s, and the backline combined in an early contender for try of the season.
When Trindall crashed over on the left edge five minutes after the break, premiership fancies Cronulla were 26-0 up and looked unlikely to be chased down.
Trindall put the icing on the cake with a field goal in the final seconds.
"I'm pleased with everyone's effort, it's good to be back here and get one done at home," said Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
In the only sour note for the Sharks, forwards Braden Hamlin-Uele and Siosifa Talakai went off with knee and ankle injuries respectively.
"We're not sure of the severity," Fitzgibbon said.
Sharks hooker Blayke Brailey also came off late with a corked thigh.
Souths fullback Jye Gray could face scrutiny from the match review committee for laying the hip-drop-style tackle that sidelined Talakai and confounded Bennett.
"I'm not sure what a hip-drop is to be honest with you, and I'm not saying that sarcastically," Bennett said.
"It's a pretty confusing lot of rules around that. I'm not a real good judge of hip-drop tackles."
Hynes was the architect of the Sharks' early lead, first stepping inside Isaiah Tass to the tryline, then putting notorious hole-runner Briton Nikora through a gap.
The Sharks' attacking flair was on full show in their third try as Ronaldo Mulitalo scooped up a kick in the in-goal and broke past Cody Walker into the field of play.
He offloaded to quick-thinking Will Kennedy, who found Kayal Iro on the left.
Iro belted past Souths' club debutant Mikaele Ravalawa on a 75-metre tear as the Sharks went coast-to-coast in one of the best tries that will be scored this season.
Even the Sharks' errors turned to gold in the first half. The crowd groaned when Sam Stonestreet's pass hit the deck inside the Sharks' 20, but Kennedy cleaned up the ball.
The off-contract fullback put himself in the shop window, crabbing past Campbell Graham and triggering another long-range team try that he himself finished off.
After a superb first two games at Souths, Humphreys had a tougher time on Saturday, gifting the Sharks a repeat set with a high tackle ahead of their second try.
He threw a forward pass down the short side while the Rabbitohs were hunting their first points in the first half, and was moved to lock after the break.
"We were 20 points behind, we had to get some attack into our game," Bennett said.
"We could use it again, we may not use it again."
Humphreys bulldozed over from a quick tap in the final five minutes after Jack Wighton had scored the Rabbitohs' first with 12 minutes to play, but it was all too late for Souths.
