Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett gave a frank assessment of his side's season-opening loss to South Sydney.
In an error-riddled 36-6 loss to the reigning premiers, the Broncos let the Rabbitohs off the hook with poor ball handling and simple mistakes.
Bennett has been blunt in his criticism of many areas of rugby league this week and it was veteran Sam Thaiday who was thrown into the spotlight after their season opener.
Thaiday gave away three penalties in the match, two deep in the Broncos' attacking half, and Bennett said the veteran's performance was "not acceptable".
"It's not acceptable from Sam, to be honest with you," he said.
"He's an Australian player, a 200-odd game player here and he just knows that stuff doesn't work."
Basic skill errors, such as a dropped catch from fullback Jordan Kahu, and a poorly executed cut-out pass from James Gavet, hurt, but it was discipline problems that Bennett said they needed to rid themselves of.
"You live with them, that's part of what you do," he said.
"That can be avoided. The other ones you've just got to get out of the team.
"You've got to have a team that's disciplined … and your best players and your most senior players have got to be responsible."
Thaiday wasn't surprised by Bennett's post-match comments, given he had heard them all at half-time, and didn't shy away from taking responsibility for that performance.
"He give me a bit of an earful at half-time, but that's just Wayne's way of trying to push me and motivate me to be better," he said.
"Those penalties I did give away were at critical times in the game and defending them, I let the boys down more than anything," he said.
The stakes are especially high for Thaiday, who is off contract at the end of the season and he said games like this opener would not help his cause.
"I'm playing for a contract in my own mind so I have to do everything I can to try and impress the coach," he said.
"Tonight probably wasn't a step in the right direction for me but I know what I have to work on now going into the Sharks."
Bennett spoke during the week about a desire to match the predictability of South Sydney and the success that runs through that team now showed the Broncos exactly the gap they must make up to compete with the competition's top echelon.
"Off the field we're doing everything right but we needed to come out here to find out where we're really at," he said.
"They'll [Souths] apply more pressure to us than any other team in the comp so in a cynical way I'm pleased we did play them tonight because at least we know our goal.
"The bottom line is they've been doing that for two to three years and that's the point I made about their predictability.
"We're predictable at being unpredictable. It drives a coach insane."
While there's plenty for the Broncos to improve on before their March 13 clash with Cronulla, Bennett showed after just one match that everyone will know where they stand and no one would be spared.
