South Sydney coach Michael Maguire was gutted by the "garbage" his team produced following the Rabbitohs' 30-22 loss to the Wests Tigers on Thursday night.
The club's fourth-consecutive loss demonstrated again the poor attitude that Maguire's men have displayed for the most part in season 2016.
Down 20-0 in as many minutes, Maguire – noticeably more agitated than any post-game conference he's done previously – didn't beat around the bush when he attacked his own players' commitment.
"We need to sort out the players' attitudes very quickly. To have simple tries scored against us like that, I thought our defence was very ordinary," Maguire said.
"Our players, and I don't normally make comment about it, but we need to make sure we're a lot better than that or we're going to end up staying in exactly the same place as where we are right now.
"After 20 minutes, that's not acceptable at this club. We need to make sure we're accountable for what we put out there because it was garbage really.
"People didn't want to put their bodies in front, plain and simple. We have a team there where they commit throughout the week but they have to commit through the 80 minutes too and they didn't do that."
Maguire's tirade didn't end there after he said the Rabbitohs' current state is unlike anything he's ever experienced throughout his tenure as coach of the historic club.
"We need to have a real hard look at ourselves," he said. "We're going to have to be honest and brutal about what's going on out on the field."
Five days after they were beaten 60-6 by Canberra, the Wests Tigers were without senior forwards Aaron Woods and Tim Grant and lost five-eighth Mitch Moses mere minutes before kick-off.
Maguire said if his players were complacent about the Tigers' posed threat then they certainly learnt their lesson.
"Every game in the competition, if you don't turn up as shown then you're going to get beaten," Maguire said.
"Whether or not [there being no Woods, Grant or Moses] changes your attitude about what to expect, well then that's exactly what I'm talking about it. We have to turn up committed to every game and we're not doing that at the moment."
Currently 12th on the NRL Telstra Premiership ladder, Maguire hasn't given up on a finals berth yet despite the Rabbitohs' poor 3-6 record.
"We can definitely turn this around. I have a lot of belief in this group but we're just not reaching our potentials at the moment. It's all the small areas of the game where you have to commit your body," Maguire said.
"We have a choice to make about being committed to everything we're doing to be able to turn things around. I have a quality squad and if they can do the hard work we all know we have to then things will turn around very quickly."
