The Australian media are twisting the knife into the New Zealand Warriors, labelling them "the biggest disappointment in rugby league this year".
Fox Sports handed out that unwanted accolade to Stephen Kearney's side on the back of their latest loss to NRL cellar-dwellars the Newcastle Knights.
Fox produced a scathing assessment of the Kiwi franchise.
"Forget Newcastle and forget the Wests Tigers. They might be anchoring the NRL table but they're not the biggest disappointment in rugby league this year. That honour goes to the New Zealand Warriors," their story began before they flung a stiff-arm at the Mt Smart outfit.
"We know Gold Coast has slipped following its 2016 heroics, the Bulldogs' attack is woeful, the Tigers have been a basket-case off the field and the Knights have won just four games all season, but still Warriors fans have more reason to cry foul than anyone else."
Fox Sports league correspondent James Matthey expressed bemusement at the Warrior's ongoing struggles given their talent.
"Sitting 12th with seven wins from 20 matches, so much more was expected of the men across the ditch. Their spine — comprising the four most important positions on the field in fullback, halfback, five-eighth and hooker — is full of internationals.
"Roger Tuivasa-Sheck became the club's No 1 in 2016 after it signed him on a deal reportedly worth more than $800,000 a season. Halfback Shaun Johnson has played more than 20 tests for the Kiwis, rake Issac Luke boasts more than 30 international caps and guided Souths to a grand final in 2014 and Kieran Foran wears the No 6 jersey. On paper, it's one of the strongest spines in the competition."
Matthey said the Warriors simply weren't getting value for money from their star players.
"That's a helluva quartet to snare under the constraint of a $7 million salary cap, but their performances haven't matched the pay cheques," Matthey wrote.
"Tuivasa-Sheck has largely been impressive at the back and Foran's impact on the team was noticeable in the early stages before dropping off. But Luke hasn't come close to replicating the form that made him one of the competition's leading dummy-halves at the Rabbitohs and Johnson has too often drifted in and out of games."
While he acknowledged Johnson's serious knee injury was "a mitigating factor in the club's late-season slide, it can't be used as an excuse for the mediocrity of the entire year" ... because "the rot started well before" the July injury.
Fox Sports said the Warriors being carved up by Penrith's teenage halfback Nathan Cleary in Round 19 "single-handedly showed just how low the Kiwi club had sunk".
They seemed to be lost between recruiting high-paid imports and developing from within.
"What really boggles the mind is the amount of talent the Warriors have in their under-age set-ups. They've won three Holden Cup under-20 titles in nine years but that talent clearly isn't being nurtured properly," Matthey noted.
Photo by: Getty Images: Caption: The impact of Kieran Foran, left, on the Warriors has dropped off as the disappointing season has progressed, according to a new view in the Australian media.