Peter Mata'utia has been sledged before but this was different.

"Hearing little girls wearing Knights jerseys saying we are losers, parents saying how much money they spent to bring their kids to the game … it hurts," Mata'utia said. "That shows how much we mean to the town as well."

With everything to play for – most notably a step towards avoiding a third straight wooden spoon – the Knights were humiliated 33-12 by fellow strugglers Wests Tigers at McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday.

"I'm trying to work it out myself," Mata'utia said when asked on Monday to explain the result. "We spoke all week about it being a chance to get off the bottom. There shouldn't be more motivation than that to win. We let ourselves down and they seemed to want it more than we did."