While former players have urged the Wests Tigers to revert to the infamous face-slapping days to revive their fading top-eight prospects, coach Tim Sheens has called on his players to lighten up as the race for the NRL finals intensifies.
Following their 28-point thumping at the hands of the Eels the Tigers are precariously placed in 11th spot on 24 points, two adrift of the all-important eight with three rounds remaining.
In a bid to promote Saturday's clash with the second-placed Sea Eagles, Western Suburbs Magpies duo Ray Brown and Don Moseley were on hand at Tigers training on Wednesday to re-enact the legendary pre-game ritual which saw players slap each other's faces with great gusto.
"I hope he (Sheens) has kicked some butt and I hope he has slapped a few faces just to get them geed up for these next couple of games because they have to win," Moseley, who made 47 appearances for the Magpies said.
"And this (game) up against Manly this week is just full on - they've got to beat them."
Sheens however was quick to distance himself from the trip down memory lane.
"I don't want to even talk about it to be quite honest," Sheens said.
But the straight-talking coach was willing to concede Monday's performance was far from acceptable.
"It was very disappointing and it was very unlike our game, it was probably the worst game we've played," Sheens said.
"That helped Parramatta they played well, they didn't drop any ball for the first 11 sets so they really put us under the pump."
"We made mistakes but more so we reacted poorly to the mistake and that's more the problem because making mistakes is part of football - it's how you react to them."
"So we've been really working on trying to relax the team and not get into that situation where you're trying not to lose."
Another loss will all but end the Tigers hopes of a return to the post-season but Sheens insists he is not looking beyond Saturday's must-win clash against a 'cranky' Manly side coming off consecutive losses.
"We're approaching it like we just want to win one game and you need to play well to win so we want to just play well and see where it falls from there," he said.
"We can't start worrying about what happens the week after and the week after that."