Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan hopes critics will take his team seriously after they became the first side to beat the Melbourne Storm this NRL season.

The Sharks are third on the ladder and equal on points with second-placed Brisbane following the 12-10 victory at Toyota Stadium.

The victory was made even more impressive by the fact the Sharks did it without inspirational leader Paul Gallen who sat out the match with a knee injury.

Stand-in captain Jeremy Smith was the hero when he barged over from dummy-half and carried several Storm defenders over the line on the last tackle to score the match-winner nine minutes from fulltime.

“The determination for that try … that was the match changer,” Flanagan said.

In an incredibly tense game, Melbourne star Billy Slater was sent to the sin bin in the 55th minute for a professional foul similar to the one that had him binned while playing for Australia recently.

He was ruled to have taken out Sharks halfback Jeff Robson in the in-goal as the No.7 chased his own kick.

“Finally I think a lot of people will stand up and take a little bit of notice that we can play football and we are a good team … to do it without Gal … the defensive effort was outstanding,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan, who just five days ago was operated on for a twisted bowel, said the Sharks had a clear plan to stop Melbourne.

“We just tried to play Melbourne at what they’re good at … they are patient, well-drilled and they’ve got structures in place in offence and defence and we tried to do that as best we could, matching them in those areas,” Flanagan said.

“And I think we did that especially defensively … we weren’t that good in attack to be fair.”

Storm coach Craig Bellamy copped the loss on the chin but questioned the decision to put Slater in the bin.

“I thought it was a really tough call actually but at the end of the day it didn’t really do any damage. They didn’t score any points during that 10-minute period,” he said.

“We were sideways all day. I’m not sure why we were like that … whether a little bit of their defence caused that I’m not quiet sure.”

Melbourne led 10-6 at halftime with tries to Dane Nielsen and Matt Duffie while the Sharks managed one try before the break to winger Isaac Gordon.