The Warriors will be missing key off-season signing Brett Seymour for six weeks due to a broken thumb.
The halfback Seymour missed his new club's win over his old side the Sharks on Saturday night, the Warriors' maiden win of this year's National Rugby League season in their first home game in Auckland.
The 30-16 victory over the Sharks at Mt Smart Stadium improved the Warriors to one win from two games and also extended Cronulla's losing streak to a sorry dozen matches.
The Warriors winger Manu Vatuvei bagged a tryscoring hat-trick while hooker Aaron Heremaia scored the opening try, Simon Mannering also scored on his debut as skipper and prop Sam Rapira sealed the victory when he forced his way over with six minutes to go.
But, mirroring last week's collapse in the loss to the Titans, the Warriors ran out of steam toward the end of the first half, allowing Cronulla to close the gap to just two points at the break before coming back strong in the second half.
The Warriors travel to Brisbane next weekend to tackle the Broncos, while the Sharks host fellow winless cellar dwellers South Sydney.
In other results on Saturday, the North Queensland Cowboys came back from 14-0 down at half-time to beat Penrith 28-20 in Townsville, while the champions Melbourne notched an unconvincing 20-14 win at Newcastle.