The Bulldogs have run down a dogged Cronulla to eke out a 14-12 NRL win at a gloomy Toyota Park.

But the resurgent Dogs third-straight win may have come at a cost as interchange forward Kane Cleal was rushed to hospital with one of the worst broken jaws club medical staff had seen.

Down 12-0 at the break, the Dogs scored three unanswered second-half tries to scrape past a spirited Sharks side missing regular halves Brett Kimmorley and Adam Dykes.

The win lifted the Bulldogs to seventh on the ladder, while dropping the Sharks, who have now lost three straight and five of their last six, out of the top eight.

Cleal was injured in a seemingly innocuous Ben Ross tackle in the 46th minute, but coach Steve Folkes suggested that the NRL match review committee would be taking a second look.

"The club doctor Hugh Hazard said it's one of the worst breaks he's ever seen," a club spokesman said.

Cleal later underwent surgery at Baulkham Hills Private Hospital.

The club said he lost several teeth and had the right side of his lower jaw shifted backwards one centimetre.

The Bulldogs scored three tries to one with Andrew Ryan, Cameron Phelps and Daryl Millard all bagging four-pointers, and Hazem El Masri kicking one of three conversions.

Luke Covell bagged all of the Sharks' points through a try and four goals.

Folkes said he wasn't sure what to say at half-time to spark a revival, but whatever words he chose worked after a flat Dogs had walked through the first stanza without threatening.

"The first half was probably one of the most downbeat halves of football I've seen for a while," Folkes said.

"The crowd weren't into it at all, neither team seemed overly enthusiastic, we got ourselves into a bit of a hole.

"I was a bit lost as to what to say ... they were waiting for the guy next to them to do the job and you can't do that so that was the main focus of it, individually everyone needed to spark their own enthusiasm."

While the Dogs gate-crashed the top eight with the win, the Sharks' slump deepened further with their third straight loss - all by narrow margins.

"It's very frustrating, I think there's about seven or eight games now that we've lost by a couple of points ... statistically we've only had to score one more try a game and we're winning those matches," Sharks coach Ricky Stuart said.

But Stuart denied his side's confidence was dented and dared to talk positively about shaking the finals.

"If we make the semi-finals we've had an outstanding preparation and we'll do well," he said.

"If we don't make the semi-finals then we're not good enough this year."

The Sharks muscled up against the limp Dogs throughout a dour and conservative first half.

The home side dominated and provided one of the half's few attacking moments in the 10th minute.

State of Origin III man-of-the-match Greg Bird sent a beautiful cut-out ball to Covell who crossed untouched in the left-hand corner.

But after the break the Bulldogs launched a wave of five straight sets at the stolid Sharks and finally got on the board in the 57th minute when Willie Tonga produced a majestic one-arm offload to Ryan who scored, the conversion getting the Dogs back to 12-6.

They were in again five minutes later after a clever cross-kick from Sherwin found an unmarked Phelps inside the Sharks in-goal, the winger grabbing it on the full and touching down to make it 12-10.

The Dogs took the lead for the first time in the match in the 67th minute when Millard picked up the scraps from a Sonny Bill Williams offload and was awarded a try by video referee Phil Cooley.

The Sharks cruelled their final couple of chances - rare second-half forays into Dogs territory - with errors, but centre Ben Pomeroy prevented the scoreline getting any bigger by holding up Dogs five-eighth Ben Roberts in the final minute.

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