Three weeks ago Joey Leilua declared himself the best centre in rugby league.

“If you’re talking about who’s the best... you’re looking at him. I won’t sugar coat that, it’s not funny,” Leilua told foxsports.com.au.

But some pundits found his performance against Newcastle on Sunday a little comical.

The Wests Tigers recruit had a day to forget as the Concord club lost 42-24 at their spiritual home Leichhardt Oval.

Round 20

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Leilua made three errors and missed five tackles, and finished the game by getting in a stink with Knights hardman David Klemmer.

The fight occurred after Leilua’s younger brother Luciano whacked his forearm unnecessarily into the back of Kalyn Ponga’s head.

Leilua did have nine runs for 69 metres which included two tackle busts and three offloads. And often you can take the good with the bad with him, because that’s the player he is.

But Sunday’s effort left many people frustrated.

Fox League commentator Warren Smith was one Twitter pundit to call out the Tigers three-quarter.

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Joey Leilua - good buy.#NRLTigersKnights — Warren Smith (@WarrenSmithFOX) March 22, 2020

#NRLTigersKnights That was dreadful from #joeyleilua and on the back of his comments regarding player wages. Needs to be dropped next week. #weststigers — MattBradley (@MattBobBrad) March 22, 2020

Joey Leilua shouldn't be getting paid. Virus or no virus. Heartless #NRLTigersKnights — Peter Elder (@pelder90) March 22, 2020

Some fans were also a little bemused given Leilua’s comments last week about not wanting to take a pay cut in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.

Tigers coach Michael Maguire was livid with Sunday’s performance, and called out his right edge defence specifically.

Leilua is their right centre.

“Our right edge, yeah, we’ve got some work to do there,” Maguire said.

“The boys just have to find their shoulders.

“That comes back to attitude and understanding what your role is, all those sorts of things.

“But you’ve got to be strong in the middle to control the middle, and that plays a part in what happens on the edges.

“That was a disappointing defensive display and not what we’re trying to grow here. Moving forward we just have to work harder there.”

The Tigers next play the Buldogs on Sunday.