The Sharks' troubling decline in form has persisted at an inopportune moment, suffering a 38-18 defeat to Parramatta in Round 26, which dashed their top-four aspirations.
Cronulla was outclassed right from the start, finishing fifth on the NRL ladder and unable to improve their standing before the final round of the regular season.
Even when Parramatta played with 12 men for ten minutes in the first half due to Junior Paulo's sin-bin for a hip-drop tackle, the Sharks could not take advantage, remaining scoreless during that time.
The Sharks faced a similar penalty late in the game when Tom Hazelton was sin-binned for a hip-drop, but unfortunately, unlike Parramatta, they struggled under the pressure of being a man down.
In the closing minutes, young Eels hooker Tallyn Da Silva exploited gaps in Cronulla's defense twice, pushing Parramatta's score to 38 points.
Those two tries allowed Da Silva to make history as the hooker with the most tries in a single regular NRL season.
Frustration was evident in Sharks coach Fitzgibbon, who was seen punching the monitor in the coaches' box just after Hazelton's sin-bin incident.
Cronulla was significantly disadvantaged in the penalty count, conceding seven penalties while Parramatta was only penalised once during the match.