Under-siege Wests Tigers skipper Robbie Farah was a no-show at the post-match press conference on Monday night, leaving coach Mick Potter and 150-gamer Keith Galloway to answer to reporters after the team's 28-6 loss to the Storm.
Eight days after being accused of saying Potter couldn't coach it was the second time in a week Farah failed to front up to the media, having missed the traditional captain-coach opportunity on game eve.
He was also granted leave to skip training on Wednesday.
Asked on the whereabouts of his captain after the game, Potter said: "I don't know, mate. It's Keith's 150th, so thought you might want to talk to Keith. You don't like Keith?"
To which Galloway quickly responded: "Nah, it's all good. You can wrap it up if youse want."
Pressed again on Farah's absence, Potter couldn't explain his dummy-half's no-show.
"I don't know mate, I didn't allocate the duties," he said. "It's not my job. It's one of my jobs I don't have to worry about, someone else does that job. I don't have to worry about it."
Potter was more forthcoming in Farah's on-field performance, of which the NSW hooker tallied just 74 metres – almost half of his total against the Dragons a week ago – and 35 tackles in a typically dogged 80-minute performance.
"I thought he was good. I thought he tried really hard. He never gave up," Potter said.
"His defence was good, and he was just a little frustrated at the way the game was pretty slow when we had the ball.
"It was frustrating for him, he couldn't get out of dummy half perhaps like he would've liked to. They were just a bit better than us defensively."
By "a bit better", Potter was referring to Melbourne's renowned ability to slow down the middle, a strength that increasingly frustrated the home side into penalties.
"Good luck to the other team, if that's the way you're allowed to get away with it," he said.
"You've got to bend the rules as much as you can, it was slow rucks all the time. Frustration came out at the back end of the half there. That's just the way it went and they got better of us."
Potter admitted he was getting irritated by the intense media focus on the club over the past week, but was determined to move on.
"It's good that you guys want to talk about the game and we want you to talk about the game because we want the game to have a big profile," he said.
"But we want you to talk about good things, and it seems to be real easy to tip in and talk about other things than the game itself.
"For a fan – I really like the game – I think that should be spoken about moreso. It just becomes tiresome, really. I don't know if the fans really want to hear that stuff or they just want to move on.
"For me, I just move on. I have to get on with now, because I can't waste my time on getting distracted by that sort of stuff. I got a job to do every week and this week's a short week. I won't have time to be worrying about what you guys write and what you report. I'll be getting on with preparing for North Queensland."
The Tigers have just three days to recover before flying to Townsville where they'll take on the in-form Cowboys. Potter said it was doubtful young halfback Luke Brooks would return from injury, nor would the hamstrung Pat Richards.
