'We were embarrassing': Sharks maul Raiders as Canberra blows big lead

He also threatened to wield the axe after the 36-22 loss that saw the Sharks come back from 18-0 down to win at Cronulla on Sunday night.

A disastrous 13-minutes at the end of the first half proved costly as the Sharks scored five unanswered tries in their come-from-behind win.

Everything looked like plain sailing for the Green Machine as they raced to a three-try lead, but things went south quickly when the home side finally got on the scoreboard in the 28^th minute.

Scores were level by half-time, with the Sharks running away with it in the second half.

Ronaldo Mulitalo scored a double for the Sharks, while James Schiller managed the same for the Raiders.

In further bad news for Canberra, Zac Hosking looks set to miss the Raiders' home clash against Parramatta next Sunday after potentially suffering a category-one concussion.

Corey Horsburgh struggled in his NRL return - although he had plenty of friends.

Cam McInnes led an understrength Sharks forward pack with an 80-minute, 150-run-metre, 47-tackle performance.

Stuart said it wasn't just the final hour that was the problem - he felt they barely played any good football at all.

"It wasn't the last 60 minutes - I think we probably played a patch of 12-14 minutes of half-decent football," he said.

"Outside that we were embarrassing. It was awful.

"We've changed a lot of those really bad habits that crept in there tonight and that's what I've got to deal with now and get it back out of us because we've started the season really well and that was dismal."

Rubbing further salt into the Raiders' wounds was the fact they were beaten by the aforementioned understrength pack.

Stuart said it was half a NSW Cup team and he was also disappointed with how his own reserves side had performed in their draw with Newtown on Saturday.

That doesn't bode well for bringing players back in, although Canberra captain Elliott Whitehead could overcome his calf injury to return.

Albert Hopoate might also be back from his second-degree barbecue burns.

Schiller perhaps staked a claim to keep his spot on the wing, scoring a brace, while Canberra's other winger Xavier Savage went from diamonds in the opening 27 minutes to producing several costly errors after that.

He scored a try, played a role in setting up another - but went to sleep to allow the Sharks to score before another error led to their go-ahead try.

Stuart said none of the Raiders players could hold their heads high after the game.

It wasn't a fitting celebration for evergreen Canberra fullback Jordan Rapana in his 200^th Raiders game.

"Yeah there might be changes. But it was a performance that every individual out there wasbelow par," Stuart said.

"Nobody was solid tonight, there wasn't a player in our team that was solid."

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After Schiller and Savage scored, Danny Levi darted out of dummy half to make it 18-0 before the Raiders' rot set in.

Sharks five-eighth Braydon Trindall dummied his way over to start their comeback before Cronulla winger Mulitalo scored in the corner.

Blayke Brailey levelled it at 18-all at half-time, before Sharks centre Kayal Iro got the ball rolling in the second half.

Mulitalo scored his second off a William Kennedy grubber, before Rapana put Schiller in for his second to give the visitors some hope.

That all ended when Sione Katoa crossed in the final minute to complete the rout.

AT A GLANCE

CRONULLA SHARKS 36 (Ronald Mulitalo 2, Braydon Trindall, Blayke Brailey, Kayal Iro, Sione Katoa tries; Nicholas Hynes 6 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 22 (James Schiller 2, Xavier Savage, Danny Levi tries; Jamal Fogarty 3 goals) at Shark Park. Referee: Todd Smith. Crowd: 12,692.