Benji Marshall isn't shying away from the truth that his Wests Tigers side is running on empty when it comes to belief.
What he can't say for certain is whether the swirling off-field drama engulfing the club is dragging his players down with it.
Saturday night's 32-0 hammering at the hands of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs extended the Tigers' skid to five straight losses, dropping them to 14th on the ladder with just six rounds of the regular season remaining.
It's a brutal on-field slump that's been compounded by a major decision from Luai and the Tigers.
Jarome Luai will exit the club for the Parramatta Eels at season's end, before eventually linking with the PNG Chiefs in 2028.
Fans didn't hold back, booing Luai every time he got a touch of the ball.
After the match, the playmaker shrugged off the crowd's hostility and stated the scoreline stung more.
"This was our best week in terms of training and preparation, but it just didn't transfer into game day," he said on the Fox League broadcast.
"We came out in the second half and gave it our best shot, but the Doggies are too good in defence.
"The feeling for us as players is that we are trying. It doesn't always transfer into a result. I will always back my brothers. I believe in our boys. Onto the next."
Watching from the sidelines, Marshall wore his frustration openly and true to form, he didn't sugarcoat things when he fronted the media afterwards.
"We are struggling at the moment with confidence," Marshall admitted during the post-match press conference.
"The start was pretty poor from us. We are struggling to play our type of footy, and off the back of it, we struggled to defend our sets.
"I thought we showed some fight in the second half, but then we struggled in key moments, and the next minute the scoreboard was 32-0. It is disappointing."
Pressed on whether the Luai exit saga was weighing on his group, Marshall stopped short of ruling it out.
Api Koroisau, though, remained confident it hadn't crept into his own mindset.
"On a personal level, I didn't think about it once," Koroisau stated.
"Like Benji said, we had one of our best weeks at training, so I don't know if it did play a part."
Marshall still had praise for Luai's effort on the field despite the noise around him this week.
"He went out there and did his job. The scoreboard did get the better of us at the back end, but he was trying hard."
The 41-year-old coach acknowledged glimpses of fight have resurfaced in recent weeks.
The trouble is, they're showing up in the wrong moments and the wrong parts of the field.
In a bid to reset his group before facing the Bulldogs, Marshall handed his squad three days off ahead of the build-up.
In hindsight, he's wondering if the break ran too long.
"We will work out how to freshen the group up and build up the week to give them some confidence," he said.
"If I look at the way we prepared, we couldn't have prepared any better this week. That didn't translate to the field. But we have to fight these moments together. I know our group will."
Marshall also addressed Alex Twal's late fight with Bulldogs forward Jaeman Salmon, conceding it captured the mood around the entire club amid the losing streak and the turmoil swirling off the field.
"I think we put so much emphasis on this week, especially on the result, caring and wanting to win, that the frustrations and emotions got the better of us," Marshall said.
"(Twal's actions) were probably a reflection of a lot of us and how we are feeling.
"It is tough at the moment because the way we started the season gave us a lot of hope, but we are battling at the moment. We have to ride through it. I told the boys to strap themselves in because we have to keep fighting for it.
"We have to keep preparing well, keep fighting and get the execution right.”
Now, the Tigers turn their attention to a road trip to Canberra, where they will take on the Raiders next Saturday.
