The Gold Coast Titans players have had some "truth sessions" this week but veteran fullback Michael Gordon insists the club is not in crisis.
The 54-8 drubbing at the hands of the St George Illawarra Dragons last week has many pundits wondering whether the Titans are set for another poor season under new coach Garth Brennan. But Gordon said he had been around long enough to know having 50 points scored against you in round three is not the death knell for a season.
"It was obviously a disappointing game on the weekend but it is not panic stations," Gordon told NRL.com.
"I don’t feel like we are in crisis, but if we dish up anything like that again we'd need to address it straight away.
"Everyone was clear about what went wrong and how to fix it.
"I know every time I've been in a side that has been beaten like that the focus the next week at training is pretty easy.
"Generally the team rarely backs up with another performance like that. We'll turn up ready to play this week."
As the fullback Gordon's role is to marshall the troops in defence with talk.
Broncos v Titans - Round 4
"Once you start getting scores like that and are behind the posts the talk becomes meaningless after a while," he said.
"It is a hard one during a game, but once you sit down and analyse it with the group you can pinpoint where things went wrong."
There has been plenty of that this week. Brennan has had a serious truth session with his men behind closed doors where the microscope was put on everything. It was not just one or two who needed to be pulled into gear ahead of Sunday night's Telstra Premiership clash with the Brisbane Broncos.
"The coach put everyone on show, not just one or two, because everyone had poor misses or reads in the game and when that is happening it is never a good thing," Gordon said.
"Everyone took their medicine, as you do."
"We are people who take a lot of pride in what we do and that wasn't acceptable on the weekend but I'm confident we will be a lot better."
The 34-year-old said he was relishing the challenge of helping the Titans rebuild the club under Brennan.
He lives in the Northern Rivers of NSW where he played his junior football.
"I'm signed for two years and I plan on fulfilling that," he said.
"The motivation to come here was that it was a chance to come home and play in front of my friends and family.
"I was signed at the Roosters for another year and could have quite easily stayed down there with a potentially premiership winning team, but I was excited by the challenge of coming home."