Brisbane coach Anthony Griffin has put the blowtorch to his players, questioning their attitude and commitment by labelling their woeful performance against last-placed Parramatta on Monday night “embarrassing”.

“Too much talk, not enough action,” fired the no-nonsense Griffin after suffering the worst loss of his two-year NRL coaching career.

Griffin, who recently stitched up a new deal with Brisbane until 2015, was clearly unimpressed by the effort of many of his players after the Eels helped themselves to a 30-6 half-time lead before knocking Brisbane out of the top four with a 42-22 upset.

Griffin wasn’t alone in his criticism with captain Sam Thaiday admitting the team was not playing finals-like football and needed to find the character established by former players who’d worn the jumper proudly.

One of those, former club captain Gene Miles, said like a lot of others he was “pretty disappointed” with what he saw.

“Admittedly they had four guns (Justin Hodges, Jack Reed, Corey Parker and Josh Hoffman) out but they had 30 points put on them by halftime by a side which is not one of the power clubs of the NRL,” he told AAP.

Miles however qualified his comments, saying: “I don’t think it’s the end of the world”.

“They’d be very disappointed by the performance they put in before a home crowd given the proud record they have recently at Suncorp Stadium.”

Miles, who succeeded Wally Lewis as captain of Brisbane and playing 72 games in the club’s formative years, said the side’s senior players had to accept much of the blame for the big loss.

“I don’t think it was any fault of the young fellows, I thought the senior players could have led the way better for them,” he said.

“A few of those senior blokes didn’t have their best nights.

Brisbane chief executive Paul White said Griffin and Thaiday knew what was needed and he was confident they would get it right by the finals.

“They’re all hurting, they certainly don’t need me making comments after what Hook (Griffin) and Sam (Thaiday) have said about it.”

Brisbane will be boosted for Sunday’s clash against the Raiders in Canberra with the return from suspension of fullback Josh Hoffman, but Hodges (ankle), Reed (leg) and Parker (knee) were not included in the 17-man squad.

Reed and Norman have been running at training and could come into calculations later in the week.