Little brother stood tall at Toyota Park as Cronulla made St George Illawarra pay for a horrendous performance with a record 40-4 hammering of the Dragons in their NRL local derby.

The Sharks ran in seven tries to the visitors' solitary four-pointer as fullback Brett Kearney grabbed a hat-trick for the home side, the Dragons turning in their worst performance of the season as they crashed to just one win from four matches ahead of a date with premiership favourites Melbourne on Saturday.

The Sharks meanwhile are back in the top eight after their second win of the season and biggest ever over the Dragons, the win going some way to erasing the memory of last week's poor display against South Sydney.

"I was really disappointed because we were a better footy team than what we showed last week and this week we showed that we've got a bit of football in us," Stuart said.

"It's all mental because they don't get any fitter or stronger in a week.

"You've got a healthy attitude you've got a pretty healthy performance ... most football teams are pretty similar in the strength and their fitness, it's a matter of how you turn up on the week.

"We didn't allow them to play football tonight and I think when you play like that it's a pleasure to watch from my point of view."

The view would have been markedly different for Dragons coach Nathan Brown who watched his side complete only 18 of 31 sets and miss a whopping 46 tackles compared to just 14 for the home side.

The loss left the Dragons in a similar hole to which they have found themselves in recent years, but there are no Trent Barretts, Luke Baileys or Mark Gasniers to save them this time around.

"It's a similar situation but a different group of players," Brown said.

"The ones who are mentally strong and the ones who are going to develop into good first graders will get through the tough times and get some good education.

"We've got some players who just don't understand what effort's required to win a first grade game.

"Obviously our ball control was horrendous, it doesn't matter who you play, you keep turning over that ball you wear yourself down defending."

Both sides started positively as they traded tries in the opening ten minutes, David Simmons' one handed grab of a Kimmorley chip for the first a prelude of the sort of night the Sharks were going to have.

The Dragons responded when Josh Morris chased down a perfectly weighted Ben Hornby grubber, but that was the end of the section for the visitors who capitulated in a haze of dropped balls and needless penalties.

Bird showed good strength to beat a couple of defenders before popping a short ball for Kearney to score his first of the night before centre Ben Pomeroy bagged the first of his two tries in the 24th minute.

Bird punctuated a strong game with a stunning shoulder charge which cleaned up Josh Morris just after the restart, Pomeroy making up for a couple of botched tries in the opening half to beat four defenders in a powerful 30 metre run to the line.

Kearney joined him in the double club when Dragons skipper Hornby fumbled a Brett Kimmorley kick as he crashed into the uprights and it finally turned into a rout when he crossed for his third of the night just after the hour when he swooped on a Kimmorley kick charged down by Matt Cooper.

Dragons prop Jason Ryles left the field late with a damaged shoulder but club officials are confident scans on Tuesday will clear him of any long term damage.

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