Andrew Johns summed it up with 20 minutes remaining. "This is horrible,"Â the eighth Immortal said of the Wests Tigers performance.
And horrible it was. The Tigers capitulated for the second straight week to suffer a humiliating 46-6 defeat to Canberra and leave the joint venture with more questions than answers.
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Raiders get their mojo back
The Raiders have returned to form with an outstanding attacking performance as the green machine dismantled a meek Tigers outfit 46-6 in Canberra.
When it goes bad, it's ugly - that's the problem for a club that still has no idea what the future holds given the uncertainty surrounding their coach and their four best players.
After an impressive round-one victory against South Sydney, fans feared the Tigers would struggle to find the money to keep them together.
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But after a horror fortnight, the question now could be: should they even bother investing in players who have shown they are consistently inconsistent?
"You sing their praises, the young players for the Tigers, but they have to find the fight," Johns said during Channel Nine's broadcast.
"When things go wrong, they have to hang in and not go for the pretty plays."
That fight was non-existent in Canberra on Sunday.Â
"Andrew, that's some of the best advice I've ever heard," Phil Gould said of Johns' comments.
"That is a really good point you make. They've got to learn to fight."
There is a suggestion the club is being held to ransom by the big four's agent, but you can't blame him for doing his job and trying to get as much money for his clients. He is not responsible for the future of the Tigers.
The club needs to make a decision. It needs to put its offer on the table, place a deadline on them and let the players make their choices.
If they don't want to play under coach Jason Taylor, the club needs to decide whether it is backing the coach or not.
If they want to leave, let them go. There is no point fighting to keep players who don't want to stay. There are enough players off contract for the Tigers to sign and be competitive next season.
But one way or another, the club needs to make a decision - and soon - and be prepared to deal with the consequences. The waiting game is doing nobody any favours. Clearly.
Asked if the uncertainty surrounding the future of the club was becoming a distraction, Taylor said: "Not at all".
"We had a really good week at training and were ready to go today ... we fell away - and that's not due to anything else that's going on when you're in the game like that. That's just about decision-making, particularly defensively. Then we needed to make better decisions with the ball, in terms of controlling it."
The Tigers started the season with a resounding victory over South Sydney that had fans thinking they were bound for finals football for the first time in five years.
That's the Wests Tigers for you.
Their inability to stem the flow of points before half-time once against cost them a chance at victory despite a strong start against the Raiders in the nation's capital.
"We had really good periods of defending our try line, particularly early in the game," Taylor said.
"Then we come up with defensive errors that are letting tries through in a fashion that is too simple. It's about us getting back in the fight and getting control of the ball so we can make opposition teams tackle us. You have to play some sets and make them tackle - but we just didn't do that."
Skipper Aaron Woods was a dejected figure after the match and admitted his team needed to learn to play tough.
"I thought we were good for the first 30 but silly errors before half-time letting in two tries back to back," Woods said.
"It felt like last week all over again. We're not good enough at the moment to get ourselves out of it. As a team we have to be tougher and stronger through those situations. We just have to work hard through the week and get over it."
The good news - they have seven days to turn it all around.
The bad news - they play the undefeated Melbourne Storm.
"We knew it was going to be a tough start to the season for us and that was compounded by the fact we played Penrith after they copped a big scoreline against them and Canberra the same," Taylor said.
"At least Melbourne had a win, hey?"
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