The drought-breaking 2016 premiership is the bar, but Sunday’s victory over Canberra will go down as one of Cronulla’s bravest in recent memory.

Coach Shane Flanagan heaped praise on his wounded team to overcome a deficit on the road to claim a fourth straight win.

If already missing prime movers Josh Dugan, Luke Lewis, Wade Graham and Paul Gallen wasn’t enough, Andrew Fifita barely trained in the lead-up to the match.

The stand-in captain has been struggling with knee bone-bruising, but he played all 80 minutes to set the standard for his team in a coming-of-age performance as a leader.

Fifita ensured Valentine Holmes, James Segeyaro and first-gamer Jack Williams all lifted to reel in the Raiders’ 16-8 halftime lead.

“It was definitely the bravest win of the year for sure,” Flanagan said.

“We were struggling just to get a team to come down, to tell you the truth (because of injuries).

“There might be a bit of footage – I told the cameraman not to film him when he was warming up – but he (Fifita) looked like me warming up.

“He did a really good job to get to the game at all and it’ll take a couple of weeks for that bone bruising to go away.”

After slipping to a 2-4 record, the Sharks are a game clear inside the top-eight ahead of hosting 13th-placed Canterbury on Sunday.

He was a late withdrawal against the Raiders, but 310-game veteran Gallen is almost certain to face the Bulldogs.

Lewis, Dugan and Graham are at least another week away from returning.