It was difficult to determine which coach was more flustered and frustrated by their team's lack of intensity at EnergyAustralia Stadium yesterday.
After a see-sawing first half produced a 16-16 deadlock, a mostly tame Wests Tigers switched on to score four tries in a 17-minute period and overpower an equally timid Knights 38-26.
Neither Newcastle's Brian Smith nor Tigers mentor Tim Sheens, who have coached more than 1000 first-grade games between them, was satisfied with the dross dished up yesterday.
Sheens said the soft tries and sloppy defence from both sides was more akin to an under 20s match than an NRL contest.
Smith reckoned the game was there to be won but his team did not seem interested.
"It just felt like a game that if you could get your own stuff together, if we got our stuff together, we could have managed to win it," Smith said after the Knights, who have a bye next week, conceded more points and more tries (seven) than in any previous game this year.
"We lacked some intensity and we certainly lacked consistency within the game, and we paid a pretty savage price in the end.
"That's a blow-out score for us.
"We haven't had any of those this year, and that's very disappointing.
"Today we showed lack of effort on effort . . . and we just looked like a disjointed team at times."
Sheens said flashes of brilliance by skipper Brett Hodgson and returning superstars Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah were enough to secure the win, but he said the Tigers had lacked intensity since the opening two rounds.
"The two points is obviously good to have but we're not playing well and we're not playing with enough intensity," Sheens said.
"We've got to find some intensity in our game and some attitude to want to really make some sort of run at this year's play-offs," Sheens said.
"The amount of points scored today, the type of tries scored today weren't up to first-grade standard from both sides, to be quite honest. They were scored too easily.
"It's time to take stock of it, and the best time to do it is after a win. Generally after a loss everyone gets fired up and, 'Yeah, let's get out there and we'll be better next week.'
"We're playing Gold Coast this week in front of our home crowd at Leichhardt, and if we come out with that sort of attitude, they'll put 40 past us."
Even referee Sean Hampstead was critical of the defence, remarking, "Gee, wasn't that soft," as Knights dummy half Scott Dureau pushed over to score a simple try and give Newcastle a 22-16 lead 90 seconds into the second half.
Newcastle had a chance to extend that lead in the 46th minute when the Tigers were offside defusing a Chris Bailey bomb.
But Hampstead and his helpers missed it, Marshall kicked the Tigers out of trouble with a 40-20 a minute later, and from the next set Liam Fulton scored a converted try to level the scores at 22-all.
But Smith would not use refereeing decisions, senior players returning from injury, the absence of Danny Buderus, Ben Cross and Kurt Gidley, or any hangover from last Monday's draining away loss to Melbourne as excuses.
"In my opinion, today wasn't anything about anybody else except us," he said.
"If you want to play in big games and you want to be a big club, then you play in big games most weekends.
"Maybe we've got some people who are a little bit underdone . . . but I just think that collectively, as a unit today, we just didn't get that intensity and that steely resolve and that willingness to do a bit extra for your mates to keep the opposition at bay.
"When you do that, you run the risk of losing no matter who you play."
The Knights squandered a big lead but hung on to beat Wests Tigers 36-30 in the National Youth Competition curtain-raiser yesterday.
Halfback Luke Walsh and props Matt White and Sione Finefeuaki stood out as Central Newcastle beat Cronulla Cobras 40-28 in the NSW Cup game at Toyota Park on Saturday.
