NZ Warriors chief executive Cameron George has apologised to the club's fans, after the chaotic 44-0 defeat to Gold Coast Titans to close their 2021 NRL season
With playoff hopes already extinguished and nothing but pride to play for, the Warriors simply capitulated in farcical fashion.
Down 16-0 at halftime, the Warriors fell apart in the second half, losing all composure, as Jazz Tevaga, Matt Lodge and Kane Evans were all yellow-carded within two minutes for attempting to pick fights with their opposition.
Late in the game, the Warriors played with 10 men and the Titans exposed them to storm past Cronulla Sharks into the top eight.
All up, the Warriors leaked eight tries and were held scoreless - their most comprehensive defeat this season.
Fronting media, their boss has apologised profusely for the trio's conduct, and assured that internal action will be taken against Tevaga, Lodge and Evans.
"The emotion spilled over, there's no excuse for it," George says. "There's nowhere it should have come from.
"We, as a footy team, footy club have always and continue to conduct ourselves in the best possible light, in the best interest of the game, our club, our brand, our partners and our fans.
"We've worked really hard on that and to have X amount of moments where we've let ourselves down in that regard, there's no excuse for it.
"I apologise to everyone in regards to our club for that and I want to make it very clear that we will be addressing that internally this week."
George also apologises for the manner of defeat, which suggested the team had downed tools, with nothing to play for in their final game.
"It was extremely disappointing," he says. "I sat there lost for words.
"We need to accept that it fell well below a performance we've grown to expect in our group this year.
"I know it was our last game, I know there wasn't something to play for in terms of the ladder, but there was an awful lot to play for in terms of our pride, our club, our jumper. That was let down yesterday.
"The coaches were very honest with their assessment of it as well, the players need to be and we'll make sure that gets addressed this week.
"All in all, [I'm] extremely disappointed, hence why I'm here today to front up for it.
"It's not our club, and we've got to make sure we go away and never see that sort of conduct or performance again."
George has specifically addressed the future of Lodge. Since his arrival from Brisbane Broncos mid-season, the forward enforcer has been banned twice by the NRL's judiciary, with Sunday's events likely to see him suspended again.
In 2016, Lodge, 26, was arrested and charged with assault in New York, after he threatened two German tourists and chased them into an apartment building.
He proceeded to break into an apartment and destroy furniture, before Police intervened.
Lodge's disciplinary record persuaded the Broncos to part ways with him, even taking on some of his salary to sweeten the deal for the Warriors.
But George remains confident Lodge will become the player - and the person - the Warriors want and need him to be.
"The matter we need to address with him is that disciplinary record," George adds. "It's pretty black and white with me in terms of how we move forward with this.
"We'll have a chat to Matt, we'll have a chat to other players about their records, about what happened yesterday.
"We'll make sure that we'll do everything we can to tidy that up. They're here to do a job and we expect them to get that job done, not spend more time on the sidelines than they do on the field."
The result saw the Warriors finish the regular season in 12th place on the NRL ladder, missing out on playoff football by two wins and four points.
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