Penrith coach Ivan Cleary has promised to launch an investigation after the Panthers' NRL season slumped to crisis point following their 30-4 Magic Round thumping at the hands of the Wests Tigers.
The flogging all but ended the Panthers' finals hopes as they provisionally slumped to last spot following the six-tries-to-one carve up at Suncorp Stadium.
After coming into 2019 highly fancied for the title, they now require 10 wins from their 15 games to make the top eight, piling pressure on Cleary who returned to Penrith after a bitter split from the Tigers.
A dejected Cleary was short on answers post-game but promised to get to the bottom of it - leaving the door open for changes to his 17 and football department.
"There's more questions than answers," Cleary said.
"It's fair to say we're gonna have to look at everything we're doing.
"There needs to be some serious reflection and we'll talk more over the next 24 hours."
Many of the 35,122 in attendance hadn't even taken their seats by the time the game was as good as over at 24-0 after 18 minutes.
The Tigers led 26-4 lead at halftime but failed to go for the jugular in the second half, partially due to the wet conditions in the final 40 minutes.
The flood gates opened in the fourth minute when James Maloney - the most penalised player in the competition - was pinged for a flop and off the back of it Moses Mbye went over after Brooks sliced through.
Cleary made the brave decision on game eve to drop right centre Waqa Blake after he missed training, with Tyrell Fuimaono taking his spot in the backline.
And the Tigers exploited the lack of cohesion caused by the reshuffle, running in back-to-back tries down their left side through Brooks and Esan Marsters.
Cleary reacted by switching Fuimaono to the opposite flank and after a Benji Marshall 40-20, the Tigers stripped them for numbers down the Panthers' left edge and went over through Corey Thompson to make it 20-0 after 13 minutes.
The Tigers had stars all over the park - Robbie Farah once again turned back the clock with a vintage display, setting up Luke Brook's sixth-minute four-pointer.
Marshall, in his first game back from a hamstring injury, was also influential while halves partner Brooks scored one and set up another two in a standout display.
Skipper Moses Mbye pulled off two second-half try-savers on Josh Mansour.
After being flogged 51-6 by Parramatta and 42-12 by the Sydney Roosters in the last three weeks, it represented a big bounce back for Michael Maguire's side.
"We took a fair bit out of the last three weeks," Maguire said.
"I thought our first-half was strong, we probably let ourselves down with a little bit in that second half with how we were building pressure. But they're the things as an organisation we need to improve."