Rugby league: Warriors coach Stacey Jones left lamenting side's Jekyll and Hyde act after latest loss

The Warriors were convincingly beaten by the North Queensland Cowboys in their round 23 NRL clash. Photo / Photosport

In a 25-round season, you wouldn't expect a coach to be left bemoaning his side's lack of desire and pride in the jersey after 23 matches.

However, in the antepenultimate game of their NRL campaign, Warriors interim head coach Stacey Jones was left to revisit a familiar tune after having to sit through his side's 48-4 decimation at the hands of the North Queensland Cowboys.

A week ago, against the Canterbury Bulldogs at Mt Smart Stadium, the Warriors looked like world beaters. But back on the road against a quality Cowboys outfit on Friday night, they were ravaged.

At times, the Warriors were up to the task. Trailing 12-0 after 10 minutes, they fought back into the match well and closed the gap to eight points at the 35-minute mark.

But from there, it was a painful watch for Warriors fans as the Cowboys began to score in bunches, often meeting little resistance on their way to the tryline.

"It was tough. It was a similar situation to what we were in two weeks ago; too many guys just didn't turn up," Jones lamented in his post-match press conference.

"We just didn't have enough players that wanted to play for the jersey. Attitude has been a word we've just the last couple of weeks and when things were tough, poor attitude came into the game.

"We probably had eight or nine blokes on the field that had a poor attitude and it showed what can happen. You have some blokes that have a dig, but you need 13 blokes on the field to work together and we didn't have that."

Captain Tohu Harris added: "It takes less than the eight or nine players that Stace mentioned; it's just one or two people in a particular set and then we're chasing our tails for the next few sets. It wasn't the same people every set; there were a number of us – myself included – that just performed poorly.

"We need to be better on the road. We seem like a completely different team at home, but we've shown we can put that effort in and have a good attitude; there's no reason we can't do that on the road."

In their matches on home soil - against the Wests Tigers, the Melbourne Storm and the Bulldogs - the Warriors were terrific for the most part, claiming two big wins and testing the high-flying Melbourne side.

But back on the road, their performances have been a shadow of those three matches.

It's something that hasn't been unnoticed by Jones, who said it simply wasn't good enough to only show up in your own stadium.

"This is the NRL. You've got to be good on the road. You've got to be better than that, and we're not. We've got two weeks to go to try and get something in the jersey and try finish the year off strong."

The Warriors have just two matches left to salvage some sort of positive out of the season, taking on the table-topping Penrith Panthers in Penrith next weekend before hosting the Gold Coast Titans at Mt Smart on September 3.