Cronulla five-eighth Todd Carney breaks free during the Sharks' demolition of Penrith at Remondis Stadium yesterday Picture: Brett Costello Source: DailyTelegraph THE last time Cronulla players were called in for ASADA interviews, the pressure was showing. The club was outgunned by Canterbury in Gosford to make it four consecutive losses and coach Shane Flanagan let rip in the post-match press conference. Fast forward three months to the very day, and things have changed. The Sharks might be about to start the interview process again but now they are handling it better. Yesterday's 38-10 rout of Penrith at Remondis Stadium reinforced that notion. "We're dealing with it as a club and obviously Noycey (football manager Steve Noyce) is dealing with it," Flanagan said. The players are concentrating on what we need to do -- train and play footy. That's what we'll do. There's six weeks left in this competition and we'd like to think that we can play in the semi-finals and that's our focus. It would be hard to rule the Sharks out of calculations after yesterday. The club was coming off a 40-0 loss to the Sydney Roosters that had raised legitimate fears about their finals hopes. Then came the news that ASADA interviews into alleged doping offences in 2011 would be back on the table from August 1. The Sharks managed to shrug off both concerns in their way to blowing Penrith off the park. They started slowly. It took until the 17th minute for ex-Panther Michael Gordon -- who had a field day against his old club, scoring two tries -- to slice through the Penrith defence and score off a great inside ball from Wade Graham. The home team continued to tighten the screws -- with five-eighth Todd Carney overcoming a sternum problem to excel -- to take a commanding 20-0 lead into the break. Any hopes of a Panthers revival were snuffed out by Gordon in the second half when he found a yawning gap in the Penrith goal line defence to grubber kick ahead for himself, regather and score untouched under the posts. The result helped Cronulla into sixth spot and at the same time sent Penrith's finals hopes into freefall. Things will only get better for the Sharks with Paul Gallen expected back for Saturday's match against the Warriors while Luke Lewis could return the week after. The only hiccup is the ongoing ASADA probe. Even today the club is expected to announce that head trainer Mark Noakes -- who was one of four officials sacked for failing to report to the board about alleged doping offences -- will be reinstated. Noakes has dropped industrial action against the club for unfair dismissal but it is believed his reappointment has polarised some directors on the new board who believe the club would have been better off waiting for the ASADA process to finish. The club will not have to front for interviews when they recommence on Thursday as the club goes to Auckland on Friday for the match against the Warriors. But up to 10 players will be affected after that in a process expected to take at least a month. Gordon said the appointment of Noyce as football manager -- he came in after the four officials were sacked and chairman Damian Irvine had stood down from the board -- had eased the burden on players. "I think that was one of the first things Noycey did when he came in," fullback Michael Gordon said. He said, 'I'm the quarterback, this is my play, don't worry about it, I'll take care of it.' For us new blokes it wasn't really an issue but I'm sure all the other blokes really appreciated it. Noyce -- who is in line for the chief executive job when caretaker boss Bruno Cullen walks away -- dismissed the "quarterback" compliment yesterday, saying the club was simply trying to overcome off-field distractions to focus on the finals. "I'm not sure what happened before I got here and I'm not the great white hope, either," Noyce said. I can only imagine early on it must have been really tough when it first hit -- and it's still tough . . . especially for a couple of guys, but you've just got to stick together. Cronulla 38 Penrith 10