The Wests Tigers face the likely prospect of receiving this year's wooden spoon after letting a late lead slip against the St George-Illawarra Dragons on Sunday afternoon.
Despite heading into the sheds leading 16-6, the Tigers failed to maintain their composure, eventually falling 24-22.
A turning point in the game came with just seven minutes remaining when Tigers winger Junior Pauga touched the ball inside the 10-metre zone directly from a Dragons' drop-out.
The resulting penalty handed possession - and momentum - back to the Red V, where they would go on to score a try two minutes later before slotting the winning penalty goal.
According to Tigers interim coach Brett Kimmorley, it was basic errors - like Pauga's - that contributed to the narrow loss.
"[Pauga] is okay. Obviously, it's a tough lesson to learn," Kimmorley said.
"We'll support him and protect him.
"[But] there were multiple other things that happened today that allowed the Dragons an opportunity to play football and get better field position.
"A lot of those errors were core skill errors - not under pressure, not decision-making or anything like that.
"It was play-the-ball errors, pass errors, and drop balls.
"Core skills are something that I'm a big fan of. I said to the boys that you've got to have core skills and you've got to know the rules."
Match Highlights - #NRLTigersDragons 🎥
— NRL (@NRL) August 28, 2022
The Dragons rallied late to snatch a hard-fought 24-22 win over the Tigers! pic.twitter.com/SBiOqaopTn
Adam Doueihi - who was named Tigers captain in the absence of the suspended James Tamou - was similarly frustrated by the manner of the loss.
"We put ourselves in a position to win the game," Doueihi said.
"That repeat set, the dropout not going 10 [metres], and for us to have a player inside the 10 [metre zone] just doesn't make sense to me. But we want to move on from it.
"We've got a chance to sort of ruin Canberra's season next week if we beat them and push them out of the top eight."
Coming off a humiliating and record-breaking 72-6 loss to Roosters last round, Doueihi was pleased to see an improved attitude this week.
However, he is not looking forward to the prospect of finishing the 2022 season in last place.
With wooden spoon rival Titans claiming a win over the Knights in the later Sunday game, the point differential between the teams means that even a win is unlikely to be enough for the Tigers next week against the Raiders.
"[The wooden spoon] is not something you want next to your name," he said.
"It's disappointing - we've had a poor month of footy.
"We spoke about responding this week and I thought, effort-wise, this game was a million times better than last week.
"The boys are still fighting, we're still pushing.
"It's another game we should have won and it hurts not winning it."
