After one of the toughest weeks in the club's history, Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart could do little but praise the character of his squad after the Sharks proved their premiership campaign remained right on track with a 32-6 thumping of Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval on Friday night.

Following a week which began with the news Test star Greg Bird had been arrested over his alleged involvement in a glassing incident at his Cronulla home, the Sharks were always expected to come out of the blocks with a bang.

But it was the precision and flair of their opening 20 minutes as much as the effort which delighted Stuart as the Sharks raced to a 20-0 lead via tries to Misi Taulapapa, Luke Covell and Fraser Anderson to blow the Tigers away.

"We had to work hard this week on our mental approach," Stuart said.

"I can talk it all I want but the players have got to action it and they did. I think the start of our game tonight won the game for us ad it was a credit to them how they bounced out of the blocks.

"They're a tough bunch of blokes, I'm very proud to be involved with these blokes at the moment and we're going on a little journey here and we're the masters of that destiny."

But the five-tries-to-one win may have come at a high cost with Gallen put on report for a 58th minute high shot on Ryan O'Hara, the fiery backrower catching O'Hara around the chin after racing up out of the line.

With Bird not expected to be seen in a Sharks jumper again this season - if ever again - the Sharks could ill-afford to lose another of their stars if they are to make any impact in this year's finals series, which begin in a fortnight's time.

Gallen was adamant first contact was made with O'Hara's chest.

"I didn't think there was too much in it, I'm pretty sure I hit his chest or ball first," Gallen said.

The win lifted the Sharks level with ladder leaders Melbourne on 36 competition points, but the performance would have given Stuart little guide as to his side's finals credentials.

The Tigers offered little resistance, especially over an insipid opening half hour, in what proved to be an unfitting home finale for veteran fullback Brett Hodgson.

"Realistically we should have won the game tonight, we're a semi-final team, we're coming in the top three," Stuart said.

"(Tigers coach Tim Sheens has) got a lot of troops there who are injured, he's got a lot of people that are out, we would have been very disappointed if we'd come out and didn't win."

Tigers five-eighth Benji Marshall conjured up a try for Bronson Harrison late in the first half, but the Sharks did their best to take the life out of the game in the second half as halves Brett Seymour and Brett Kimmorley looked to find touch at every opportunity.

It killed off not only the game, but also the Tigers, Seymour pouncing on an O'Hara dropped ball who no-one wanted to pick up before racing 30 metres to put the game beyond doubt 13 minutes from time before Brett Kearney picked up a late four-pointer.

"The first 30 minutes we did everything wrong we could do wrong, but we hung in," Sheens said.

"We came back out in the second half and showed plenty of spirit, Cronulla were just clinical and waited till we made mistakes, and when we made the two mistakes they scored."

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