League: Geyer slams complacent Kangaroos

Former Kangaroos hardman Mark Geyer says "a lot of pride went down the toilet" after an over-confident Australia paid the price for underestimating the Kiwis in Saturday's shock 28-38 Tri-Nations league loss.

Geyer said the world champions were guilty of believing their own hype before being upset at Telstra Stadium.

"Whether they were thinking about end of season trips I don't know, but putting that Australian jersey on is the biggest honour in the game and I don't think they appreciated it," Geyer said.

"They probably should have won by 30 if every player applied themselves. Every player last night only played at 75 per cent of their capabilities.

"It shows that sometimes the Aussie side can get caught up in this invincible tag.

"The players say they don't read the papers - trust me, they all do -- and when you read you've got a gun side put together, subconsciously you lapse into a bit of complacency.

"Every Australian player last night was in that mode."

However, Geyer was confident the Kangaroos would have their attitude right for Friday night's return clash in Auckland.

"A lot of pride went down the toilet drain last night. They were all filthy on themselves that they did take this Kiwi side too lightly and I bet it won't happen again."

Geyer accused the Australian selectors of mistakenly overlooking several in-form National Rugby League (NRL) grand finalists from the Wests Tigers and North Queensland and that changes were required for the return clash.

"When you pick a test side so close to the end of the season you need to choose predominantly players that have played all the way through," he said.

"At least half the Australian side should be made up of Cowboys and Tigers.

"I'd like to see Scott Prince get in somewhere. I know (John) Skandalis didn't make the squad but they could have used his go-forward and enthusiasm."

Backrower Craig Fitzgibbon agreed the it was time to restore pride in the Australian jumper.

"We didn't play with the right passion and intensity that was needed and that ended up costing us in the end," Fitzgibbon said.

"We were probably a bit rusty, it's the way we've started off over the last three years. It's getting a bit disappointing, but it's early days and we're not out of the competition yet.

"We're not going to pack it up and go home, we are going to fight for it, fight for the jersey to try and get ourselves out of this position."

Kangaroos hooker Danny Buderus said the side had a lot of work to do during the week, with defence likely to be the area under most scrutiny.

"They played well, take nothing away from them," Buderus said.

"There's a lot of pressure on us now, we need to go over there and win and restore a bit of pride.

"I think our defence was the main thing, we dropped some ball but we need to do a lot of work on defence."

- AAP