It was a difficult - but not unexpected - start to Stacey Jones' tenure as the New Zealand Warriors' interim head coach.
His side got out to an early 12-0 lead, but eventually fell 38-16 to a superior Cronulla Sharks outfit on Sunday night.
The Warriors legend and former club captain was frank in his assessment of his team's performance, highlighting the tendency of players to fall back into bad habits.
"We got off to a good start, and then it was a familiar outcome," Jones said.
"We make an error, and then our resilience to defend that was not there.
"It's as simple as that. That's where we need to get better.
"I spoke to the group earlier on ... I said we've got to fix up some effort areas - being resilient and having some steel - and we got the same [dissapointing] result tonight.
"We just sort of fell back to some habits that we've got to get out of this team right now."
#NRLWarriorsSharks Match Highlights 🎥
— NRL (@NRL) June 12, 2022
Wingers Ronaldo Mulitalo and Sione Katoa bagged five tries to swim to victory, 38-16 against the Warriors! pic.twitter.com/T9f47YqFju
Jones also spoke regarding Shaun Johnson's form so far this season.
He acknowledged that the experienced playmaker hasn't been at his best in 2022, but emphasised that he will work to get his side's No. 7 back on track.
"Obviously, Shaun's been struggling ... but he's the first one to put his hand up and [acknowledge] where his game is at," he said.
"We'll try to simplify things for him and try to make it better.
"But he's not the Lone Ranger. There are a few other guys in there that need to perform as well, but we'll certainly be looking at Shaun's performance again closely and see what we need to do."
As for Jones' short-term goals at the club, he just wants one thing. Wins.
"I want to win some footy games. I just want to win," he said.
"I want to compete every week ... but I want this club to win some footy games.
"And if we do that, then we're going to have fun doing it ... but to [have fun] we have got to get some wins on the board, and it's hard work."
