A frustrated Michael Maguire has challenged his embattled Wests Tigers outfit to "look in the mirror" and "harden up" or risk watching another season fall by the wayside.
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Maguire has launched a scathing assessment of his side following a 20-12 defeat at the hands of the Canberra Raiders at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night.
The defeat leaves their season hanging by a thread and the seething coach says his side must find the desire they need to turn their faltering campaign around.
"They've got to look in the mirror and find it," Maguire said.
"It's pretty straight forward really. At the end of the day I have come to the club to change it, and I want to see the change.
"I've seen some really good stuff since I've been here, and we've got a bit of a habit at the moment where we just give games away and it's not acceptable.
"We all need to make the change."
It comes after the Tigers let the Raiders off to a flyer in a clash which could have seen Wests force their way up to ninth on the table.
The Tigers were forced into a reshuffle during the first half when they had two players forced off for head injury assessments, which Maguire says is little more than "a good excuse" for another defeat.
Now the Tigers coach is prepared to give untested rookies an opportunity in search of an answer.
"We've got to be a lot harder as a team, simple as that," Maguire said.
"We've been talking about patches over the past couple of months and it seems to be a recurring piece in this team at the moment. I'm annoyed with having to be in that situation.
"We shouldn't be in that situation, simple as that. If we're going to change as a club and a playing group, we need to harden up as a group.
"I don't normally talk about the team externally, but I'm really annoyed with where we are at this present moment."
The Tigers will now set their sights on a clash with the Newcastle Knights next week, who themselves are desperate to rebound from a thrashing at the hands of the Sydney Roosters.
"Did you see what just happened out there? It's irrelevant what happened to Newcastle," Maguire said.
"If we're not hurting more than they are, we need to have a look at ourselves."
Caden Helmers
Caden Helmers is a sports writer for The Canberra Times.
Caden Helmers is a sports writer for The Canberra Times.
