There is no guarantee the St George Illawarra Dragons will play finals football this season, but two of their last three performances have proven beyond all reasonable doubt they won't exactly be striking fear into the hearts of top eight rivals if they do.
The bottom line is this: if the Dragons are going to be anything more than cannon fodder come the knockout rounds, they need to find a way to be built different - and far more consistent - in a hurry.
The last four weeks have resembled a roller-coaster for the Dragons.
Stretching the memory back to Round 22, and the Red V managed a victory over the Melbourne Storm in stunning circumstances. It was the Red V's first win in the Victorian capital for 25 years and understandably got the club's fan base excited.
Round 23 saw a loss to the Canterbury Bulldogs at a sold-out Kogarah. In truth, you could have been forgiven for thinking it was a Bulldogs' home game, such was the extent the Dragons failed to bring their own fans into the game.
Then, Round 24 was a big win over the Gold Coast Titans in a windy and miserable Wollongong. A poor crowd could have been explained by the weather conditions, but after a shaky start, the Dragons looked at their best.
Then it was onto Round 25, where one of the poorest showings of the first season under Shane Flanagan took to the fore at a sold-out Wollongong as the Dragons crumbled against a Sharks side which frankly wasn't that good until the last half hour of the contest.
And so the last four weeks for the Dragons have been win-loss-win-loss. That, in a lot of ways, has summed up the season for Flanagan's side, though.
The last time the Dragons broke that trend was in Round 13 and 14 when they beat the Penrith Panthers and Wests Tigers back-to-back.
Since then, they haven't won or lost two in a row.
It's something Ben Hunt was only too ready to acknowledge after the loss to Cronulla.
โThe big concern for me is why can't we do what we did last week consistently? One week on, one week off,โ The joint venture's captain said during the post-match press conference on Sunday evening.
โWe need to win to get ourselves into the finals, so we need to sort it out.โ
On one foot, the consistent inconsistency is what has kept the club in the mix for the finals and what will, some would argue at least, provide the Red V a chance of doing some damage if they can string things together, but it's also the way they have lost two of their last three games which will strike as alarming.
It has been all effort.
The Dragons have been out-energised, out-enthused and, particularly against the Sharks, lazy.
That's the only word that springs to mind to describe the performance. Their line speed was the greatest indicator of that as time and time again, the Sharks, who, again, weren't all that good, were allowed to run at the Dragons.
When the Dragons have been at their best this season, as they were during that famous win against the Storm a month ago, they have played with aggression, intent and a line speed that told their opposition they were going to get in the face from the first minute to the last.
That has been criminally lacking against the Sharks and Bulldogs in weeks since, and once you combine that with sloppy execution (14 errors against Canterbury and 13 against Cronulla), you're simply never going to challenge teams bound for the finals.
In the game against Canterbury, the Dragons had just 44 per cent of the ball and completed at 69 per cent while running for over 500 metres less than their opposition. It was a similar tale of woe against Cronulla with 45 per cent of the ball, completing at 71 per cent while they ran for over 600 less metres and lost the line break and tackle break counts by significant margins.
All of that was set in stone by their lack of energy and effort both on and off the ball, and that's where it will start if the Red V are going to not only qualify for the finals over the next two weeks but then do anything once they get there.
One of the issues for the Dragons all year has been the inability to flip the tide when the going gets tough. There are countless examples.
Two matches against the Sydney Roosters, one against the Bulldogs early in the campaign and a handful of others. In part, their inability to flip the tide explains their awful for and against, which could yet cost them a spot in the finals without two wins back-to-back against the Parramatta Eels and Canberra Raiders as the regular season comes to a close.
But it's their inconsistency from week to week that threatens to make them cannon fodder in the finals.
To be anything other than that, they need to find their best for more than a week at a time for the first time in three months.
Do that, and they will be a difficult opposition come September. They proved that with the win over the Storm.
But it's time for the Dragons to be built differently, and it starts with effort. Effort and energy. Do the little things right, and who knows?
You know what else is Built Different? The PointsBet App!
No!
Surprised if they make it past the first week, that is, if they make the finals to begin with.