The pressure of six losses finally took its toll on Stephen Kearney on Sunday, the Parramatta coach admitting he's fed up with his team's performances after watching them lose to Cronulla 24-18 at Toyota Stadium.
The Eels genuinely looked in the contest right up until the final whistle - largely because of an outstanding game by fullback Jarryd Hayne - but Kearney admitted it was difficult to find positives after yet another defeat.
That they were still a chance to force extra-time until the last play of the game didn't impress the coach either.
"In terms of being proud of them in defeat ... I'd love to be sitting here and telling you I am. But I'm not," Kearney said after the match.
Hayne did everything he possibly could to haul the Eels back into the game after they'd fallen behind 18-6 in the first half, with the Sharks scoring through Matthew Wright, Jason Bukuya and Ben Pomeroy.
The 24-year-old, having scored the opening try of the match, turned provider by executing a magnificent flick pass for Cheyse Blair's try and then levelled the scores at 18-18 right on halftime when he completed his double.
While Hayne was brilliant, Kearney said he remained disappointed with the output of most of his squad through the first seven rounds of the season, suggesting there were only half a dozen who could be proud of how they've performed.
And that short list does not include high-priced recruit Chris Sandow, who was hooked with ten minutes to play as he struggled with a shoulder injury.
"With the game in the balance and the situation that it was, I wanted to make a call to pull him off," Kearney said.
"He was carrying an injury and he'd been down on the ground a couple of times with it.
"... He's probably part of a team that is struggling for a bit of form at the moment.
"I'm disappointed in how the whole team is going and obviously Chris is a part of it.
"He can contribute a lot more to the team than he is at the moment.
"It's not just him. We're a team here (and) we're battling at the minute."
Cronulla defended grimly and had enough class to get over the line thanks mostly to five-eighth Todd Carney, who threw a perfect cut out pass for Stewart Mills to score the only try of the second half, ensuring the win.
Cronulla moved into the top four with their first five-game winning streak since 2008, but skipper Paul Gallen is demanding more.
"It's not really an outstanding thing to our playing group," Gallen said.
"We knew from our pre-season ... we'd be in this situation and now it's just up to us to start to handle it."
Eels skipper Nathan Hindmarsh was equally downcast about the game, lamenting their inability to score at the end when they had countless sets on the Sharks tryline.
"It is two weeks in a row where we've lost games we easily should have won," he said.
