The Wests Tigers were the feel good story through the first two months of the 2026 NRL season.
It didn't matter who you support, it was tough not to feel a tiny bit of happiness for a club and a fan base who hadn't tasted finals since 2011.
That's a decade and a half without finals.
They started their season with five wins in their first seven games, and the Benji Marshall rebuild was in full swing. They looked like a team who were going to play finals, with the only question being whether they might be able to force their way into a double chance.
It wasn't as if they beat nobodies either. Yes, the Cowboys are up and down, and the Eels on Easter Monday wasn't exactly a spectacle of rugby league, but getting the better of the Rabbitohs in Gosford, the Warriors in Auckland, the high-flying Knights by 20 at Campbelltown, and then last year's premiers the Brisbane Broncos, before they knocked over last year's minor premiers the Canberra Raiders should have meant good things for the club.
But then, and I'm not about to get into the media circus that surrounded that game at Leichhardt, the team's form exploded. The bubble burst, and suddenly they looked more like the multi-time wooden spooners of this decade, and not a team who had turned a corner.
That's not to say the playing group read into their own press, or weren't unlucky with injuries, but the combined stats since that night at the eighth wonder, as the locals call it, has been nothing short of a disaster.
52-10 against the Sharks, 44-16 against the Storm, 46-18 against the Sea Eagles, a narrow win 22-16 against the Bulldogs after the bye, and then a 68-0 pasting at the hands of the Panthers on Sunday afternoon.
That's four losses in five games, and a combined scoreline that reads just 66 points for, and a staggering 226 points against.
A negative for and against of 160 in just four weeks.
It simply doesn't matter how many injuries you have - that sort of record is, to put it nicely, pathetic.
It's a view coach Benji Marshall seemed to share during his post-match press conference on Sunday afternoon, labelling his side embarrassing and the performance unacceptable.
“Yeah, it's embarrassing … their performance was unacceptable,” Marshall told reporters.
“Everything in our game that we could possibly get wrong, we got wrong.
“It looks like with the scoreline that we're not trying … we were so dumb with the ball, and we can't defend our areas.
“We're tackling so much, then we get brain dead.”
Marshall not mincing his words likely puts a number of his players on notice, with plenty more key faces to return over the coming weeks.
The coach, aggressive with his selections and recruitment alike, has not been scared of dropping players after losses this year, and Tuesday afternoon's team list for their clash against the Gold Coast Titans will now carry plenty of intrigue.
Marshall admitted as much when quizzed, saying he was going to "have a look" at his line-up.
And he might need to.
Mathematically, the now tenth-placed Tigers are a long, long way from out of contention for the finals. They are, as it stands, equal with the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
But at this time of year, the ladder is murky.
They have had two byes, whereas the Cowboys ahead of them have only had one, and the Storm behind them have had zero. In fact, the Broncos, Raiders, Bulldogs and Eels who are all in mathemtical if not realistic contention have all had only one bye, which means they have a couple of free points to come that the Tigers don't have.
Either way, there are 12 games to go and it's not panic stations for the Tigers.
What is panic stations though, is their form line.
The Titans are, despite beating the Broncos in a shock upset over the weekend, not playing well. They have just three wins from their twelve games, but if there is a credit that can be applied to Josh Hannay's side, it's that they are making sides earn their wins.
They have the best for and against of every side in he bottom five, and also have conceded less points than every other team currently outside the top eight, as well as the Knights, who are inside the coveted top eight.
Given it will be a tough contest against the Titans, and the fact they have lost four of their last five, it feels like must-win.
For a club who forgot how to win for a long, long time, going back down that greasy pole is not a good direction.
That is exactly where they are heading.
Every club has injuries, every club can find excuses, but the hallmark of sides who are going to be in the mix for a premiership, or building towards one in the coming years is that they don't look for excuses.
Benji Marshall certainly isn't, at least in the words he speaks in public, but the playing group played like it would be the excuse on Sunday.
Like conceding 68 points was a foregone conclusion from the moment they arrived at the ground.
Don't mistake it, another loss to a side below them on the table and at their spiritual home of Leichhardt Oval would be horrific for the Tigers and their finals chances even at this point of year.
After the Titans, they play the Dolphins who can put on points in a hurry, and then the Knights away before they travel to Kogarah to play the Dragons.
Their run home is tough. The Warriors, the Raiders away, the Roosters, the Cowboys away and Panthers again all feature.
Simply put, the time for excuses is over.
The Tigers must win against the Titans next weekend.
