A crowd of over 10,000 at Toyota Stadium witnessed another convincing home performance by the Hisense Sharks, with Ricky Stuart's men producing a 26-6 thrashing of the Newcastle Knights in damp conditions on Saturday.

It was the first game back at home for the Sharks since their breakthrough Round 4 victory over the Eels and the loyal locals were treated to an almost identical performance as the inspired Cronulla outfit dominated for the majority of the match.

The Sharks made four line-breaks-to-nil in the first half to skip out to a 10-0 lead at the break before reverting to the hard yakka in the second stanza to shut their lifeless opponents out of the game.

Half-back Tim Smith was the Sharks' best, scoring a try, setting up two others and keeping the Knights on the back-foot with his astute kicking game.

Despite losing quite comfortably to the Broncos last week, the Sharks did show plenty of enterprise in attack during the second half of that match and they were obviously intent on carrying that forward into the early stages of this game.

The Shire boys made several breaks early on but could not get the ball over the line until the 20th minute when centre Dean Collis made the most of his shock early return from an ankle injury.

Collis, in just his second NRL appearance for his new club, took a long pass from Smith then displayed a combination of strength and footwork to bump off a couple of defenders to put the ball over the line, giving the Sharks a 4-0 lead.

Young winger Isaac Gordon obviously gained plenty of confidence from his impressive debut in Brisbane last Sunday, flashing through and intercepting an ill-directed long Jarrod Mullen pass to race 40m and post the Sharks' second try in the 31st minute.

Full-back Nathan Stapleton landed easy conversion from in front to give Cronulla its handy 10-0 half-time lead.

With light rain falling, the second half was always going a grinding affair, but that would only prove to be in the adaptable Sharks' favour.

The hosts extended their lead in the 53rd minute when a perfectly-weighted John Morris grubber bounced up for Tim Smith to leap into the air and claim his third try in as many weeks.

Stapleton converted and the Sharks' were on track for their second win of the season at 16-0 in front.

The result was sealed in the 69th minute thanks to a superb pass from Smith that found the chest of centre centre Taulima Tautai, opening up a path for Gordon to cross in the corner for his second try of the match.

The crowd were warming their voices up for another rendition of Up, Up Cronulla when prop Kade Snowden grabbed a well-deserved try under the sticks in the 74th minute.

Newcastle prevented a shut-out right on full-time when centre Junior Sau cruised over.

Cronulla Sharks 26
Tries: Gordon 2, Collis, Smith, Snowden
Conversions: Stapleton 3

Newcastle Knights 6
Tries: Sau
Conversions: Gidley