They were utterly pathetic. They played like they’d only just met each other in the car park before the game. They played like half the team had no idea what the game plan was. They played like they just don’t care.

They certainly didn’t play like a team who had a top four spot waiting for them if they beat a side coated in turmoil and languishing at the bottom of the ladder.

They didn’t play like a team who desperately needed a strong win to get everyone off their backs.

Incidentally, I’ll excuse Kyle Stanley, Jason Nightingale and Dean Young from this castigation. Stanley was easily our best player, Nightingale second-best and Young stands out because he’s now the only player doing all the little things, all the one percenters that everyone in the team used to do.

I’ve tried to come up with excuses to make everything all right. They’re in a heavy training cycle ahead of the finals. They know they’re going to play the finals and are just killing time til September. Or struggling for motivation until then. Or that they yearn for the big stage, playing important games where they can lift to their best (citing the June win against a high-flying Manly as proof).

But I don’t buy any of it any more. There is just no way to sugarcoat or put a positive spin on what’s happening with the Dragons.

Right now, we’re just pathetic.

To let cellar-dwellers with nothing but pride to play for get out to a 10-nil lead is pathetic. To let Jason Ryles stroll over to score through a gap big enough to drive a truck through is pathetic. To whinge and cry every time the ref penalises us (hello, Darius Boyd) is pathetic.

To look at everyone else to try and do something rather than just doing it your bloody self is pathetic.

And don’t get me started on the coach who has publicly wiped his hands of any responsibility for the situation.

My God, this Friday’s match against the Storm is going to be a bloodbath.