Such was the misery poured on the Reds in their 34-3 loss to New South Wales that many of the generously quoted crowd of 36,205 started to head for the exits with 10 minutes left. They would have missed Ben Daley dislocating his shoulder and Nick Phipps scoring the last of the Waratahs' four tries.

By that stage, Ben Tapuai had been taken off with concussion and Ben Lucas was gone with a torn meniscus, suffered in the seventh minute when he was simply walking up to take a kick. It was like the good old days, when Berrick Barnes did a hammie in the warm-up. This was always going to be a tough night.

First, the grisly numbers. It was the most points NSW had scored against Queensland in the Super Rugby era and a record win to boot. It was also the equal lowest score by the Reds at Suncorp Stadium, the same as the infamous 6-3 loss to the Brumbies that saw casual fans run for the hills and Eddie Jones cop a $10,000 fine for constructive feedback on the officiating.

Reds fans didn't take long to take to the club's Facebook page to vent their fury on Saturday night, calling for the head of coach Richard Graham and bemoaning the kind of effort that saw them tumble from the finals in 2013 to win just five games in 2014, losing 11 along the way.

The Reds managed to cough up the ball 29 times. Despite ascendancy at the set piece for much of the contest, the cobbled together backline, many with barely a handful of caps to their name, never looked like having the finesse to make the Wallaby-laden Waratahs pay.

Graham has been under pressure to come up with information on new signings for next season, and on Saturday night's evidence that list better be impressive. But he had no news on that front as he recounted a year in which the Reds attack picked up but their defence went horribly amiss.

The side was criticised in 2013 for crossing the line just 31 times, the fourth lowest in Super Rugby. That figure increased to 42 this season but it came at a cost, with the swarming defence that helped them become one of the competition's elite sides folding up like a deck chair.

Graham was defensive coach under Ewen McKenzie and admitted he had put too much focus on attack, perhaps feeling the pressure to have his side produce the kind of rugby that helped the Reds become the best-supported side in Australia.

"I think we've made some good gains in our attack. We scored 12 or 13 more tries than we did last year, our set piece has improved significantly. But clearly the area we need to go back and address is our defence," Graham said.

"It was clearly a strength of ours last year. I haven't put enough time into it trying to improve our attack. Ultimately, that's bit us."

Graham said he wanted to keep defence under his coaching portfolio but all of that would be discussed in what is bound to be a searching post-mortem.

"Right at this point in time, I'd say I'll stay in that space. I did very well there last year, we only conceded 27 tries. Clearly in trying to change the decline in tries, I put more focus in attack. The adage is true - attack brings the crowd and defence wins championships."

The Reds side that finished the game bore little resemblance to the first-choice group, with Quade Cooper, Will Genia, Chris F'Sautia, Dom Shipperley, Ed Quirk, Nick Frisby, Aidan Toua, and Ant Faingaa among the absentees. They didn't play like it either.

"The game was a bit of a reflection of the season, to be honest, as far as that sort of thing. If Daley has surgery, that's the 18th bloke this year we've had go under the knife. We had eight backs that didn't play," Graham said.

It now falls to Reds chief executive Jim Carmichael to shed some light on rumours about James O'Connor and Karmichael Hunt, both of whom would be strong additions to a Reds side in need of a rapid reinvention.

It simply could be there is no news at hand, because there is no news to tell.