Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nLuai to PNG has Tigers demons returning | 02:46<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time, there\u2019s still some things that we need to be better at, especially defensively,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the last three weeks, we were really strong defensively and the last three weeks, we\u2019ve just let our bundle go, which is not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tigers missed 46 tackles in Saturday\u2019s game and no longer look capable of defending errors like they were earlier in the season.<\/p>\n
It would be easy to put the blame squarely on the playing group, but instead Marshall said it was on him as a coach to \u201cwork out\u201d why that was the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are our own worst enemies are off the ball at the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are making mistakes, poor discipline, giving the opposition too much footy. I think we\u2019ve been dominated with the ball the last three games but again, then defensively we expect more from ourselves. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo again, I\u2019ve got to look at what I\u2019m doing and why we weren\u2019t up defensively this week or why we haven\u2019t been the last couple of weeks. That\u2019s something as a coach that I probably need to work out. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe bye week is a good time to reflect on that and look at what\u2019s changed in the last three weeks bar personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
How can Benji Marshall fix it? (Photo by Hannah Peters\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
It has been a busy month for the Tigers off the field, with skipper Jarome Luai confirming in late April that he would be leaving the club at the end of 2027 to join the PNG Chiefs. <\/p>\n
The disappointment of that announcement has otherwise been balanced out by plenty of good news, with the May brothers and Bula among the big names to extend their contracts with the club.<\/p>\n
It is easy to look at the Tigers\u2019 sudden slide in the past three weeks and connect it to Luai\u2019s signing news. Marshall knows it and said criticism of the club\u2019s recent performances is \u201cfair\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deserve to cop it for the way we\u2019ve performed, to be honest,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
But he also said that he has an important role as coach to lift spirits within the playing group, reiterating that the squad is \u201cunited\u201d despite what any headlines may claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a happy camp,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing makes you unhappy. I don\u2019t want to make excuses or say what\u2019s not happening. But we\u2019ve got some things happening internally that we like the way we\u2019re doing our training but it\u2019s just not happening on the field. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re panicky. We\u2019re losing confidence. So again, that\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jake Trbo backs Haumole for Blues | 08:04<\/p>\n
Luai, however, defended his coach by declaring it is on him as a \u201cleader\u201d to have the \u201chonest conversations\u201d with his teammates and turn their form around.<\/p>\n
\u201cBagz doesn\u2019t need to take it all upon himself. I\u2019m right beside him,\u201d Luai said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a challenging period, and it\u2019s going to challenge us as leaders. The hardest thing to do right now is probably be positive. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s what I need to do for my team and my teammates. Address it head on, walk towards this challenging period and work it out ourselves. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the only people that\u2019s going to dig us out and just have honest conversations with each other and back to the drawing board.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benji Marshall admitted the Tigers are \u201cin a bit of a hole at the moment\u201d after his understrength…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-674480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776909012_441_poster-fallback.png\"\/)