Melbourne have continued Cronulla's woeful record against fellow NRL heavyweights by dishing up nine-try thrashing as the Storm bounced back into form.
Embarrassed by last week's big loss to North Queensland, Melbourne responded to coach Craig Bellamy's demands to improve their defence by only allowing the fourth-ranked Sharks to cross twice in a 54-10 demolition job at AAMI Park.
"There's probably still a few things we can improve but we did a whole heap better, especially with our defence," said Bellamy,
"That's the thing that we really wanted to improve this week after last week, our defence, and we did."
The Storm did their former teammate Nicho Hynes's hopes of being named NSW Origin halfback no favours.
His final audition to replace injured Nathan Cleary fell flat with Melbourne's Queensland duo Cameron Munster and Harry Grant running rings around the Cronulla playmaker.
A series of errant passes and poor last-play options have provided plenty of ammunition for Hynes's critics, who say the halfback can't deliver under pressure.
And there's no bigger cauldron than Suncorp Stadium with NSW needing victory in Origin II to keep the series alive, particularly with Maroons livewires Munster and Grant controlling the action.
One spot ahead of fifth-placed Melbourne, the Sharks have only beaten Manly this season among teams in the top eight.
"We never really got into the fight, into the battle," said Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
"We were OK for the first set or two and then discipline cost us and then field position and then fundamental errors.
"I've seen a few of these game popping up lately and it's disappointing."
They looked a long way off the premiership pace with a lacklustre opening 40 minutes that left them trailing 34-6 at halftime with the home side running in six tries.
Prop Tui Kamikamica appeared to have fumbled the ball as he crossed in the third minute but the bunker had no issue and the Storm never looked back.
Grant collected a double, his second coming when he picked up the ball from dummy-half 10 metres out and ran straight through three Cronulla players to get the ball down.
Xavier Coates also scored twice within two minutes to end the half, Munster befuddling the Sharks defence with two dummies before finding his charging winger with a backhand flick pass.
Cronulla's only points of the half came in the eighth minute from Teig Wilton, when Ronaldo Mulitalo took a Matt Moylan bomb and was able to pop it up for his second-rower.
The Sharks' completion rate hovered at around 60 per cent and with a horror 56 missed tackles, Melbourne continued to keep their foot on the throat of their rivals,
They added three more tries while Cronulla could only respond with a 76th minute try to Mulitalo.
Storm skipper Christian Welch could be in trouble after he was sin-binned and put on report for his tackle on prop Royce Hunt, who was helped from the field with an ankle injury.
Melbourne second-rower Eliesa Katoa was also taken to hospital after he suffered from blurred vision following a cut above his eye.
