Just when things could not have gotten any worse for the Eels, it has, with the side now suffering two humiliating losses in the past 2 weeks – with many questioning where to from here?
The Eels, who are yet to win a game in 2012 were booed from the field at both half-time and full-time, though by that stage, many fans had left.
It was a former Eel who caused all the damage for the Eels, with Etuate Uaisele scoring three times against his former club – all his tries off the back of poor defensive reads on the right fringe.
It was the same story as last week for the Eels, with pedestrian errors, silly penalties, and a general lack of support and go-forward from the forwards, that denied the Eels any sort of attacking momentum to penetrate the Panthers line.
With the pressure mounting on Stephen Kearney, Eels CEO Bob Bentley was asked whether Kearney’s job was safe, and he said:
“Of course it is, he’s the coach of the team.
“There’s no reason why it wouldn’t be.”
For Kearney, he was just lost for words after the performance, highlighting the lack of team cohesion between his players.
“I’m a bit lost for words,” he said.
“The disappointment for me is we were playing in front of our home fans – the performance was very, very disappointing, and that’s putting it mildly.
“The fans deserve a lot better than that.”
Eels co-captain Tim Mannah commented on the booing that came from some Eels fans, and said:
“Yeah it hurt, but I know where they’re coming from.
“I can understand their frustration, we’re feeling the same frustration.”
The only sour note for the Panthers, was a potential long-term injury to second-rower Nathan Smith, with Panthers coach Ivan Cleary lodging an official complaint about the state of the pitch.
“We got a bit sloppy ourselves … I thought we were in a position where we could really put them away but we didn’t necessarily do that,” Cleary said.
“We could have probably driven the knife in a little harder.”