Cairns coach Aaron Fearne was baffled by the Taipans' disastrous first-half effort in Friday night's 17-point loss to the Illawarra Hawks in Wollongong.
The Taipans could have climbed to second spot with a win over the Hawks but fell into a 20-point hole at half-time and trailed by 26 in the third quarter.
Despite cutting the deficit to six with four minutes remaining, they were overrun by the home team over the closing stages and dropped to fifth with three games remaining.
Fearne is banking on a much-improved performance in Sunday's home meeting with Perth.
"When you're playing for second spot, a playoff spot, a home final - all those motivating factors - you should be jumping out of you skin to play in a game like that, and that first half just wasn't good enough," Fearne said.
"I'm not going to sugar-coat it to make it sound like it was a great second half. That competitive fight, that intensity, that physicality and energy has to be there from the jump-ball and it wasn't.
"Even if we'd lost, at least come out and play with that desperation. I'm lost for words with that and that's really disappointing. We're going to have to have that desperation on Sunday."
Fearne hinted at a line-up change for Sunday's clash.
"There's no time to mess around and try and make everyone feel rosy," he said.
"It's desperation time and you've got to bring it. If you're not, we'll find a guy that will.
"It doesn't matter what the game plan is if we don't play hard enough and I'll never complain about my team if they give it everything."
Second-placed Illawarra moved a step closer to a semi-final berth and face a Monday night road game against Melbourne United.
"The experts out there tipped us to come last or second-last, so we know that and it inspires us," Hawks coach Rob Beveridge said.
"We're a small regional team against the powerhouses. Our goal is to make playoffs and I'm not going to let these guys lose focus on what our target is."
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