Veteran Canberra Raiders prop Dane Tilse says his team's credibility built up in the first two rounds of the season is now gone following their shock 22-20 loss to the Dragons.
The 30-year-old, who has witnessed both highs and lows at the Raiders in his decade with the club, was furious they couldn't follow up their solid showings against the Sharks and Warriors in the past fortnight against an under-pressure Dragons outfit – who outscored the Raiders 22-2 in the final 60 minutes of the game.
"It's a game we should've won that's for sure. I'm just filthy for the boys and we lost any credibility we started to get from our first two games of the season," Tilse told NRL.com.
"We flushed it down the toilet to be honest. We really wanted to get that first win on home soil and we just disappointed ourselves and the fans. We had a 15-minute period there before half-time where we were really loose defensively and I thought for the rest of the game we unravelled slowly.
"We couldn't stick our tackles and we gave away too many penalties and it just snowballed from there. The boys got comfortable and thought the win was going to happen but in the NRL you can't let that happen."
Tilse, who was celebrating his 200th game in the NRL, said the loss definitely took away from the sentiment of the milestone.
"I guess it does mate. I'm more disappointed that we lost a game that we should have won," Tilse said.
"The 200th game is something special but also something I look back on when my career is said and done. I'm just more worried about letting ourselves down. We started well in the first two weeks.
"The boys sort of said 'Let's do it for Tilsey' before the game because of the milestone but I wasn't worried about it to be honest, I'm just filthy that we chucked all of our previous good work away."
Despite bringing up a double century of NRL appearances, Tilse said he still had plenty to offer at the game's top level.
"When you first start out in first grade you probably never achieving what I have," Tilse said. "But once you start racking up season after season you slowly see those milestones come along. It's been a lot of hard work but I feel I have some good footy left in me."
