Wests Tigers coach Ivan Cleary admits his team are quickly realising the cost of their renaissance as an NRL force after their frustrating two-point loss to Parramatta.
The Tigers held the lead on three occasions at ANZ Stadium but allowed the Eels back into the contest with a series of turnovers and penalties before eventually falling 24-22 on Sunday.
"It was a frustrating game to watch. I don't normally get that frustrated, but tonight was frustrating," Cleary said.
"We just didn't get any rhythm pretty much the whole game
"Any time we got some ascendancy, we just give it straight back with either an error or penalty or something.
"It just went like that the whole game and then the clock ran out."
It was the first time this year the Tigers has suffered back-to-back defeats and resulted in them dropping out of the top four for the first time in a month.
However, Cleary believes there is a silver lining in their sudden downturn in form, which has come without injured marquee signings Russell Packer and Josh Reynolds.
While adamant his team have rapidly grown in confidence on both sides of the ball this year, they're learning the consequences of failing to consistently re-produce their efforts.
For the first time this year, he conceded the club hadn't planned for their early-season achievements.
"It might be just dealing with a bit of success, probably more than we envisaged," Cleary said.
"When you've got the ascendancy, you've got to be better at it.
"We're obviously a learning team and still growing. Tonight's another one of those.
"I feel like the confidence in the team's growing, in terms of what sort of football we can play.
"We've just got to learn to basically do that once we're actually in control."
