Cronulla hammered another nail into the Warriors coffin with the home side's finals hopes exhausted following tonight's 26-12 NRL defeat at Mt Smart Stadium.
The Warriors fourth-straight loss leaves them with little more than pride left to play for, as the inconceivable prospect of them winning their remaining five matches is unlikely to be enough to see them scrape inside the top eight.
Cronulla dominated the first-half to earn tries through centre Kurt Capewell and five-eighth Fa'amanu Brown while the Warriors crossed through centre Solomone Kata to trail 12-6 at halftime.
A Valentine Holmes penalty edged the Sharks further ahead early in the second-half, before a Bodene Thompson try gave the Warriors hope, but tries to wing Sosaia Feki and former Warriors back-rower Jayson Bukuya sealed the win for the visitors.
"Mixed. There was some really good stuff there," was coach Stephen Kearney's assessment.
"Our physicality, particularly with our defence was really good at times, but we just let ourselves down with our execution, which has been the story of the last month, where we worked ourselves back into a position against them and then we just lost our way.
"That's the really frustrating part."
The match saw players from both teams wearing dark green tape on various parts of their playing kit and strapping to show their support for the Rugby League Players' Association in their ongoing pay dispute with the NRL.
That silent protest proved to be the Warriors' biggest statement of the night, as they failed to build on the committed effort shown in their last-round loss to North Queensland.
The opening three minutes of the game epitomised their inconsistent season, with a strong first set in possession ruined with back-to-back penalties gifting Cronulla field position before Capewell scored off former Warrior Chad Townsend's grubber.
Cronulla's sharp start was contrasted by the Warriors who lacked urgency and accuracy on attack before hooker Issac Luke was denied a try by the video bunker at the end of the first quarter.
The Warriors continued to press and consecutive penalties put them back within attacking range but rookie halfback Mason Lino's inside ball failed to find Tuivasa-Sheck to let the Sharks off the hook.
"Too many of us were on different pages out there," said Tuivasa-Sheck. "You could see Mason wanted to go one way and Foz (Kieran Foran) wanted to go one way and it was hard for all of us as a spine in particular to connect.
"It's something we've got to keep building especially when we get put under pressure."
The tide looked to have turned when Kata stole an intercept to run 60 metres to score, but Cronulla hit back quickly in similar fashion, with Brown pinching a pass to run in their second four-pointer.
Errors and ill-discipline continued to hurt the Warriors in the second-half but three straight sets put pressure on the Sharks before Lino's short ball sent Thompson over.
The back-rower appears set for stint on the sidelines after departing at the end of the third quarter with a suspected torn pectoral.
Prop Sam Lisone also faces an anxious wait after being placed on report for a stray knee that resulted in Brown being carted off and taken to hospital with severe concussion.
The loss of their playmaker impacted little on the Sharks attack, with slick hands putting Feki over in the corner, before Bukuya bounced out of a tackle to dive in to effectively close the curtain on another failed Warriors campaign.
Warriors 12 (Solomone Kata, Bodene Thompson tries, Issac Luke 2 cons)
Sharks 26 (Kurt Capewell, Fa'amanu Brown, Sosaia Feki, Jayson Bukuya tries, Holmes 4 cons, 1 pen)
