Gold Coast Titans skipper Tino Fa’asuamaleaui has conceded he is willing to wear the brunt of the blame after his side's latest fadeout during their ninth loss for the season.
Despite holding a 24-4 lead over Brisbane at the half, the 2021 finalists put the cue in the rack early, coughing up 31 unanswered points after the break, seeing the gap between them and the eight grow ever wider.
Though able to enter the sheds with the lead - despite losing both Sam McIntyre and Esan Marsters to the bin - the Titans' lead was chipped into by a Te Maire Martin try in the 53rd minute before all hell broke loose.
Still leading by 14 points as he and his troops trudged back to the middle of Suncorp Stadium, Fa’asuamaleaui's mind had clearly faded, given his desire to see Jamayne Issako take a short kick-off instead of sending it into the Bronco's in-goal.
What ensued was akin to a Benny Hill scene sans the frantic and familiar tune, with Jordan Riki running off a quick collect and crossing the chalk for the home side's second four-pointer in less than 60 seconds.
Justin Holbrook's men completely capitulated from this point on, with Kevin Walters' charges taking a stranglehold of the fixture, posting another three tries before the bell.
Speaking in the aftermath of the embarrassing, yet almost predictable defeat, Fa’asuamaleaui claimed that his call to Isaako was the wrong one and that he required consulting of the rulebook.
“I stuffed up. Jamayne wanted to go long, and I thought there was an opportunity to go short,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.
“I didn’t understand the rule of it going over the 10 and where to grab it, and then missed the tackle. I put my hand up for that, I let the boys down and failed them.
With the semantics of the ruling obviously confusing him, Fa’asuamaleaui, once again, was willing to act as a lightning rod for the sparkless second half.
“I didn’t understand the rule,” he added.
“Before you know it, they’re under the posts. I put my hand up for that, it’s unfair on the boys.”
Sitting beside the former Storm second-rower, Holbrook was fuming with the fadeout built off the back of poor decision-making and ill-discipline.
“I just can’t get over this quickly,” Holbrook said.
“As I said, a great week, we prepared well. We’re out there, we’re in complete control of the game at 18-0. We should have kept going that way.
“Then we fumble our way to a couple of reckless sin bins. I could easily be rapping the boys, then we just completely lose our way then can’t settle it down, can’t get it back. We need players on the field that can get that sorted.”
However, Holbrook wasn't willing to add to any Fa’asuamaleaui pile-on.
“I’m not here blaming Tino, I’m blaming our whole side,” Holbrook said.
“Blokes can go to the sin bin, things can happen on the field. You can hit high tackles and all that s***.
“Our two sin bins were just dumb, we’re in complete control of the game.”