Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart slammed his team as "leg-less" and "embarrassing" after their 24-12 NRL loss to the Bulldogs at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.

It was the first time since 2007 the Sharks have lost three straight games and Stuart was furious his side routinely dropped the ball on early tackles as the Bulldogs raced to an 18-0 lead.

Cronulla fought back with tries to Anthony Tupou and Paul Gallen to trail 18-12 eight minutes into the second half, but the Bulldogs closed the result out with a try to Josh Morris in the 72nd minute after three earlier efforts were denied.

The final scoreline did not reflect how much better the Bulldogs were but Stuart wished it did.

"It was unacceptable," said Stuart.

"That was absolutely embarrassing today, we were leg-less.

"They had a great opportunity to score another four or five tries on us and I wish they had to jam it right up us to teach us a great lesson."

Skipper Paul Gallen labelled the performance "crap" and felt the players were carrying a poor attitude from training into the game.

"We drop the ball at training and we don't seem to care," said Gallen.

"We are probably carrying that attitude into a game.

"It is unacceptable to toss crap like this up, it was ridiculous that first half."

The Sharks have just six days to turn it all around before a home clash with win-less Canberra next Saturday night.

Stuart said the poor attack is "not easy to fix" but was adamant the Sharks could re-group in time to keep their season afloat.

"I'm up to my head in this as much as the players are," he said.

"That's the way we confront all things at Cronulla, as a group. We will work hard to fix it as a group.

"It's only the fourth game of the year. We have got to get better and get better very, very quickly."

Bulldogs coach Kevin Moore agreed his side should have belted the Sharks but remains happy with their progress after just four games with a new team.

Hooker Michael Ennis carved up Cronulla in the first half, having a hand in first-half tries to Goodwin (fourth minute), Hazem El Masri (10th) and Andrew Ryan (23rd).

It was a deserved victory for the Bulldogs as they moved to three wins from four games - although they have lost two competition points for having 14 men on the field in the round two win over Penrith.

The Dogs failed last week to have the penalty reduced, but may yet take their appeal further and try to get the points reinstated.

"I thought there was two or three things that went against us that could have made the scoreline blow out a little bit," said Moore.

"We probably should have put another one or two tries on. They're the areas we are probably not totally clicking together but that will come.

"We are really happy. It's a very good start to the year. We're a new side and we've won three games out of four. A 75 per cent success rate is terrific and I think we will get better and better."

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