diff --git a/shell/config/pagination-table-headers.js b/shell/config/pagination-table-headers.js
index 681d8ea770..c2bbf9d5a9 100644
--- a/shell/config/pagination-table-headers.js
+++ b/shell/config/pagination-table-headers.js
@@ -33,11 +33,10 @@ export const STEVE_ID_COL = {
 };
 
 export const STEVE_STATE_COL = {
-  ...STATE,
   // Note, we're show the 'state' as per model, not the 'metadata.state.name' that's available in the model to remotely sort/filter
-  // Need to investigate whether we should 'dumb down' the state we show to the native one (tracked via https://github.com/rancher/dashboard/issues/8527)
-  // This means we'll show something different to what we sort and filter on.
-  sort:   ['metadata.state.name'],
+  ...STATE,
+  // non vai sort works on colour --> name. the best we can do here is error --> transitioning --> name
+  sort:   ['metadata.state.error:desc', 'metadata.state.transitioning:desc', 'metadata.state.name'],
   search: 'metadata.state.name',
 };
 
diff --git a/shell/plugins/steve/steve-pagination-utils.ts b/shell/plugins/steve/steve-pagination-utils.ts
index dcd764f44b..b5d471b7b2 100644
--- a/shell/plugins/steve/steve-pagination-utils.ts
+++ b/shell/plugins/steve/steve-pagination-utils.ts
@@ -229,6 +229,8 @@ class StevePaginationUtils extends NamespaceProjectFilters {
       { field: 'metadata.namespace' },
       { field: 'id' },
       { field: 'metadata.state.name' },
+      { field: 'metadata.state.error' },
+      { field: 'metadata.state.transitioning' },
       { field: 'metadata.creationTimestamp' },
       { field: 'metadata.labels', startsWith: true },
     ],