Jarome Luai wasn’t in the mood to make any excuses for his side’s awful display against the Sharks, offering the bare minimum when asked if his signing with the PNG Chiefs had been a distraction for the side.
The Tigers, who have been the surprise packets of the competition, copped a whopping 52-10 loss at Shark Park, conceding a half-century for the first time this season.
This defeat came off the back of Luai being paraded around Papua New Guinea and announcing he’d leave the Tigers at the end of next season.
READ MORE: Rivals clash in fiery post-match scuffle after Knights win
READ MORE: Mariner undergoes surgery after courageous display
READ MORE: Foran cops first loss despite sin bin, Cleary controversy
When asked how it was getting up for the Sunday match, Luai’s response was simple: “Nah easy”.
Benji Marshall and Jarome Luai. NRL
The follow up question revolved around whether it had been a distraction to which he replied “nah”.
Later Luai was asked again about how he’d describe the week that was but wasn’t in the mood to go into it.
“I just told the bro there, no excuse for the week that was towards the game. I’m like all the boys, right now I’m feeling the same as them, just disappointed, but we move on,” he said.
Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now.
His coach, Benji Marshall, wasn’t using it as an excuse either.
“We’ve had things that have been distractions all year to be fair, so it’s no excuse,” Marshall said.
“If anything, I probably need to look at from a coaching point of view, what I did during the week, that made us change our mindset and the way we want to play.
“The buck starts and stops with me, so I need to figure that out and go and really look deep into it.
“But I know with my team, we can turn it around pretty quickly, but we’re just going to have to hurt and go through that and learn.”
The loss marked the third defeat for the Tigers this season and was the heaviest by a significant margin.
Previous results were 20-16 against the Rabbitohs and 21-20 to the Broncos.
Marshall was disappointed his side lacked the drive to defend their errors.
The coach admitted he didn’t recognise the team that performed at Shark Park.
“It’s way different, if you look at our two losses before, we lost by one and we lost by four and we never gave up in those games,” he said.
“And we dominated field position and played the way we wanted to play. Today was, I don’t know what team was out there, but that wasn’t the team that we’ve played like and prepared like, it was actually the opposite.
“So I’m not going to make any excuses, it’s credit to them, because they were relentless with the way they played.
“I thought their halves really kicked well for them, and I thought their middles ran a lot harder than what we did, so it’s a good lesson for us.”