The South Sydney Rabbitohs' season went from bad to worse on Saturday afternoon as they slumped to another disappointing defeat, falling 30 to 4 against the Newcastle Knights.
Coach Wayne Bennett didn't pull any punches at the post-match press conference, as he delivered a brutally honest critique of his side's performance.
When asked about his thought's on the effort his team turned out, Bennett was blunt in his analysis.
"Not very good," he said.
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It would be easy to write off the performance because of the slew of injuries that have devastated the Rabbitohs roster, but it wasn't so simple in they eyes of Bennett.
"We use it as an excuse, we're not going to get any better or improve ourselves," he said.
The team's attitude was Bennett's primary concern, he was unequivocal in his critique of the mentality of his players.
"Of course it is [an attitude issue]," he said.
"They all get well paid, they all think they want to be first graders. Well, they got to play like first graders. It’s as simple as that."
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A lot was made of the inclusion of English playmaker Lewis Dodd, after he was brought over as a marquee signing from the Super League, but was yet to start until round nine.
"Like a lot of other players out there, wasn’t at his best," said Bennett of his new five-eighth.
Despite the losing streak, Bennett believes that Souths' fans can cling to their side's resilience once they've already put themselves at a deficit.
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"They’ve got a team that won’t give up, that’s what they can take away from it," he said.
"We’ve been in this situation two or three times in the last month and we could’ve been beaten by 50 or 60 points,"
"At times we deserved to be beaten by that, but they will hang in and keep fighting back."
With the pressure mounting and their finals hopes slowly fading, South Sydney host the Brisbane Broncos next week. Their backline star Latrell Mitchell is expected to return, as they look to revive their season.