Moses Mbye concedes St George Illawarra are at risk of throwing away their NRL season, with the team at a crossroads and coach Anthony Griffin's job under threat.
Griffin's future remains firmly in the spotlight after the Dragons capitulated to their worst loss in Cronulla on Sunday night, only days after it emerged the club had told Griffin they were canvassing options for next year.
Questions have been asked about the Dragons' decision to extend Griffin's contract in February last year through to the end of 2023, after they missed the finals in his first year and before they finished outside the eight again last season.
The chief concern is that if Griffin is sacked in the opening months of this season, 2023 would immediately become a wasted year.
"We get to make that decision, if it's going to be a throwaway year or not," Mbye said ahead of Saturday's clash with the Dolphins.
"It's got to start this week. It is only early, we're only going into round five.
"But we are at a crossroads - you need to win more games than you lose to be in the mix come September.
"We are at a crossroads and this week we need to make a decision as a group what way we want to go, and that's just the reality of it."
The hooking utility has previously played in teams with coaches under pressure at Canterbury and Wests Tigers, and most Dragons players have been in a similar situation.
"Players are pretty resilient to that talk now. It's so common," Mbye said
"If it keeps going, results-wise, we've just got to address our performance.
"The noise around it is warranted. We've got 24-hour media coverage that we need to get content for.
"So I understand that it's going to be around, and until we win games it's just going to keep popping its head up, especially around the Hook (Griffin) situation."
Griffin is aided by the fact the Dragons have a relatively favourable draw in the month ahead, as the board weighs up his future.
But regardless, Mbye said Griffin could not be blamed for the team falling apart late against Brisbane and the Sharks in the past fortnight.
"As a playing group, we need to show some accountability," Mbye said.
"We're responsible for our results, the players are. The first two halves in the last couple of weeks have been proof that we're getting the right information.
"We're getting into arm-wrestles, we're sticking with the top sides. There's just something that we're not getting right come second halves."
The Dragons could have Jack de Belin back from a calf injury for that match, while the club on Tuesday completed the swap of acquiring young Manly forwards Viliami Fifita and Alec Tuitavake in exchange for Aaron Woods.
