Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has not ruled out a comprehensive review of the entire football department after one of the pre-season favourites slumped to the bottom of the Telstra Premiership ladder on Friday night.
Magic Round may in time be remembered as the nadir of Cleary's tenure at the Panthers after his side were torn apart 30-4 by Wests Tigers, the two competition points out of reach after just 10 minutes when they trailed 20-0.
The 26-point loss saw Penrith fall below the Bulldogs on for and against with just two wins from nine games and left Cleary with more questions than answers as to how he will arrest the slide.
The failure of Waqa Blake to turn up to training on time and the injury to Hame Sele necessitated a pre-game reshuffle but Cleary said there was no hiding from the fact that the issues run much deeper.
Match Highlights: Wests Tigers v Panthers
"It's fair to say we're probably going to have to look at everything we're doing,” Cleary said.
"We're going to have to change something, whether it's personnel or something else.
“We've definitely got to make some changes because if we keep doing what we're doing… it's not good enough.
"We need to discuss this with players and staff over the next 24 hours and there needs to be some answers. That's what we've got to try and get to.
Cleary: You can't blame our position all on our halves
"When you're a third of the way through the season and we are where we are you've got to review what you're doing, certainly.
"There'll be some serious reflection and we'll talk more about it in the next 24 hours.”
The Panthers have a week to reverse their fortunes before hosting the Warriors and Cleary implored their fans – especially those who made the trip to Brisbane – to stand by them.
"Tonight was the worst that we've played and that first 20 minutes, you can't just walk by that, there's obviously some things we need to discuss,” Cleary said.
"But you get to the bottom of it and you can turn it around.
"We've got a home game next week and if I was a fan I'd be expecting a lot better than that.
"I feel for the fans. I feel for anyone that supports us when we toss up that.
"First and foremost we've got to do it for ourselves but the fans in particular need to be reminded why they want to cheer for us.”
