Tigers coach Benji Marshall didn’t miss his side following their embarrassing 68-0 loss to Penrith, delivering a scathing assessment which included the adjectives ‘brain dead’ and ‘dumb’.
Marshall’s men were blown off the park at CommBank Stadium. The ugly afternoon began early and the Panthers didn’t relent until the full time buzzer, with Penrith recording their biggest ever win.
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The Tigers made several soft errors early on, and the classy Panthers took full advantage, running in six tries in the first half.
Penrith didn’t take their foot off the gas in the second forty, putting on another six tries all while keeping the Tigers scoreless resulting in the fifth-biggest margin of defeat in NRL/NSWRL history.
In all, the Tigers missed 52 tackles while allowing the Panthers to record a staggering 16 line breaks.
“Yeah, it’s embarrassing … their performance was unacceptable,” Marshall said.
“Everything in our game that we could possibly get wrong, we got wrong.
“It looks like with the scoreline that we’re not trying … we were so dumb with the ball, and we can’t defend our areas.
“We’re tackling so much, then we get brain dead.”
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Marshall also apologised to the Tigers’ loyal fanbase, many of whom stayed for the entire 80 minutes.
“I don’t usually apologise to our fans and members but that performance was just unacceptable,” a deflated Marshall said.
“I’m actually surprised they stuck around as long as they did today, because it was clear to me from the start, we weren’t there.
“You have to take accountability for your performance.
“If you flush it, then you’re saying that what happened today, we’re prepared to just put under the rug and accept it’s OK”. It’s not.”
The Tigers have been one of the worst hit clubs by injury this season, with several first choice players out.
However, that won’t stop Marshall consider shaking up his line up.
“We’ll have a look,” the Tigers coach said.