Shane Flanagan has conceded St George Illawarra do not deserve to make the finals if they offer up any repeats of their 46-10 flogging from Penrith.
In front of their first sold-out crowd in Wollongong in 17 years, the Dragons turned in their worst performance of 2024 against the three-time defending premiers.
Out of the contest from the opening minutes, the Dragons too often opened up in defence as Nathan Cleary ran riot with three tries and two assists.
The Red V are not the first team to be dismantled by Cleary this year and they probably won't be the last, but their season is now under serious threat.
While St George Illawarra would have been able to enter the top eight with a win, they instead find themselves out of a finals-paying position entering the last six weeks.
Flanagan's men have Melbourne in Melbourne next Saturday night, and face Canterbury the following week before their draw opens up slightly.
But in reality, they now face an uphill battle to reach the club's first finals series since 2018.
"It's a race to the semis. We don't deserve to be there if we don't pick our act up and play better than we did today," Flanagan said.
"It was probably the worst performance of the year for us, with the circumstances around it.
"Really disappointing, it was a big day, beautiful day playing against the premiers. We got off to a really bad start. Everything they did well, we didn't do."
Flanagan will also now have to weigh up returning Tyrell Sloan straight back into the No.1 jersey, after dropping him for the game against Penrith due to his defence.
Sloan's replacement, Mat Feagai, was concussed following a head clash with Panther Daine Laurie, and could also face a ban over the incident.
Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Toby Couchman and Jaydn Su'A also all found themselves on report in the loss.
The Dragons' day was summed up in three Ben Hunt kicks that went out on the full, while Kyle Flanagan gave up possession before one Penrith try when he was ruled to have deliberately passed the ball into a defender at dummy-half.
"In that second half I really let us down with our kicking game and kept giving them more opportunities," Hunt conceded.
"They were definitely good, but we let them be good. We started pretty ordinary and kept giving them opportunities."
