St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor slammed his side for taking the easy way out as the Dragons’ season officially hit breaking point following a disappointing 34-14 loss to Manly.
The Red V led 8-0 after 17 minutes before raising the white flag and leaking 34 points on a bleak day at Brookvale Oval.
The defeat was the Dragons’ sixth in seven games, leaving them a near impossible mission to make a late run for the finals.
McGregor has protected his team from criticism during the losing run and does have some excuses due to a large injury toll
But he took the gloves off after this latest capitulation.
“The Sea Eagles played the last 60 like we played the first 20,” he said.
“We were really working over the opposition and playing well and coming away with points and then we just went way from it.
“We were out-worked and over-powered.
“We don’t want to work hard enough for it. We want the easy before the hard.
“It doesn’t matter if they are young or old, you’ve got to want the hard first.
“We are not playing a complete game (and) it’s not good enough.”
McGregor didn’t absolve himself or his staff from blame.
He said: “I always say to the young guys it’s a really good opportunity to see what you’ve got and at the moment what we’re seeing is not good enough.
“And that’s including our staff and our coaches …we’ve got to educate better so they can perform better.”
The Dragons lost hooker Cameron McInnes after 20 minutes and it no doubt impacted on their performance.
And they are getting little value from some of their young players.
But, again, McGregor didn’t look for an easy out.
“When you are playing in the jumper and you’re in the 17 you’ve got to want the hard stuff,” he said.
“You’ve got to take them to defensive fatigue and we didn’t do that at all in the second half.
“We didn’t put them under any fatigue at all.”
It’s left the coach doing his maths to work out whether St George Illawarra are still in the hunt for the top eight.
“We came here to win and we didn’t. We’ve now got to win seven of 11 (to make it),” he said.