A promising start quickly turned into a nightmare for Junee, who need to regroup following a 38-point thrashing by Gundagai on Sunday.
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The Diesels have one more chance to make their way into their first grand final when they tackle Southcity at Alfred Park.
Junee was on top early playing without suspended prop Patrick Sagigi, and injured captain-coach Matt Hands, but fell away in embarrassing fashion.
After establishing the lead, the undermanned Diesels had not answers for the Tigers’ attack.
Hands, who hasn't recover from a quadriceps injury, doesn’t believe the club’s injury concerns excused how they unravelled after going into half-time down 18-12.
“It was a bad week to have the niggles and the problems that we did but in saying that it was no excuse,” he said.
“We came out and stuck with them in the first half and that second half was real disappointing.”
Hands is looking to “go back to the drawing board” as he prepares to take on the Bulls but is optimistic the Diesels can regroup and make a play for the title they last won in 1986.
Junee scored a two-point win over Southcity last week and Hands doesn’t believe loss to Gundagai will affect his team’s mental approach.
“We have plenty of experienced players there so mentality I don’t think it will affect us too much but the physical (side), we have to get a few fellas do the right thing to get themselves right for next week,” he said.
