Wests Tigers prop Stefano Utoikamanu agrees with criticism from club legend Benji Marshall that their round-two loss to Newcastle "wasn't first-grade standard".
The Tigers suffered a humiliating 26-4 loss to the Knights on Sunday to start the season with two defeats and invite fresh scrutiny over the future of head coach Michael Maguire.
The defeat was made even worse on Tuesday night with five-eighth Jackson Hastings failing in his bid to downgrade a dangerous throw charge at the judiciary.
He will cop a three-match ban with the Tigers now likely to play Jock Madden in the halves.
Unlike the week prior in their gutsy 26-16 defeat to Melbourne, the Tigers were accused of lacking effort against Newcastle.
In a stinging critique Marshall, who steered the joint venture to their sole premiership in 2005, described the Tigers as "terrible" and claimed Maguire's side played like reserve graders.
Utoikamanu agreed with those views on Tuesday and said the Tigers only had themselves to blame.
"I think there's a bit of truth in that," Utoikamanu told AAP.
"We as a group can definitely play better. If you want to play first grade you can't be making 20 errors in a game and completing at 60 per cent.
"We definitely have good standards and we didn't hit those on the weekend.
"It's frustrating because we put in a lot of work and it's s**t when we don't perform.
"It hurts that Benji says that but there's some truth in it to be fair."
There is a chance to put that right on Friday when the Tigers face the equally hapless Warriors at Campbelltown.
The outcome of the Warriors game could have a big impact on Maguire's future given the Tigers' fixture list pits them against Gold Coast, Cronulla, Parramatta and South Sydney in the next four weeks.
Utoikamanu, however, said it wasn't Maguire who was dropping balls and making poor decisions in defence.
"It's a bit far fetched trying to blame the coach," he said.
"You've got to look at the players first. Madge is doing everything for us and puts in a lot of work for us and I really appreciate that. If we don't perform then it's on us.
"As a playing group you've got to be smart enough to know what's going wrong. Everyone knows the answer we've got to put it into work."
In some bright news for the Tigers, the younger brother of Manly hooker Manase Fainu was given a tour of the club's facilities on Tuesday.
Sione Fainu is a 20-year-old prop who played for the NSW under-18s side in 2019.
