Benji Marshall took issue with a question from a journalist and assured critics the Tigers are improving despite their 10th straight loss at Campbelltown Stadium.
Marshall was asked if the Tigers should take all their home games to Leichhardt Oval amid their horror recent record at Campbelltown.
“What do you want to do?” Marshall shot back.
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“17,000 people. Yeah, our fans are great. They’ve turned up here twice in a row for home games.
“But we can’t, because of the loss, say let’s go and change everything. We just need to perform better.
“That’s a silly question, man. Yeah, don’t ask it.”
Marshall believes his side made improvements despite the six tries to two result.
“I wouldn’t say a step backwards, I thought in the first half we showed a lot of promising signs and good signs,” Marshall said.
“I thought we actually dominated the first half even though the scoreline was against us.
“But like I said to the team we have got some good things about us. We played back-to-back grand finalists two weeks in a row.
“There’s a lot of good stuff to take away, but there’s also a lot of learnings about how to manage a game and how to actually execute a game.
“And today, you know, they’re a great side. I think they’re the best team in the competition.
“But we let them get away with too many cheap things, too many soft tries, and ultimately penalties and errors just hurt us.”
Marshall conceded his halves need to be better with their last play options.
“I thought our last play options were terrible,” Marshall said.
“I thought some of our sets were clunky and looked like we were just making it up on the spot.
“Yeah, it was disappointing. But again, there were moments there where Api’s try, we thought it was a try, and then that’s 10-6 at that point.
“And we come back with a little bit of momentum, and then off the back of it, they go and score two tries, one before halftime, that was pretty soft.
“And we had halftime to address, and we came out and gave away a penalty straight away, and we were on the back foot, and they scored.
“So managing moments and momentum, we just struggle with at the moment.”
Marshall refused to point the finger at Samuela Fainu over a couple of errors including his sin bin.
“You can point to finger at Samuela, we love what he brings to our team,” Marshall said.
“And he thought that he didn’t catch it on the full and just thought he was making a tackle, which is a mistake, and it’s a bad one because it cost us.
“But we actually defended pretty good through that period when he was off. But again, we’re finding ways to hurt ourselves more than the other teams hurting us.”
Tigers skipper Api Koroisau went off with a bad back, but Marshall is confident he will play next week.
“He’s got a pretty sore back,” Marshall said.
“Just a bit of nerve pain and damage, but he thinks he’s going to be okay for next week.
“Nerve pain, and he had a sore back and it just tightens up. Once your back goes, it’s hard to play.”
Marshall lauded the impact of former teammate Adam Reynolds, who strangled the Tigers with his kicking game.
“Pretty obvious, isn’t it? Controls the kicking game, where they go, all the plays off him,” Marshall said of Reynolds.
“A calmness, and that’s why he’s one of the best halves in the competition. He kicked us to death tonight, took some great options, and his attack on the right side with Reece Walsh was pretty hard to stop.”
Despite another loss, Marshall is proud of his side’s fighting spirit, but concedes they need to execute better.
“I love the fact that our boys keep fighting to the end,” Marshall said.
“That’s never been a problem for us. We have to find moments in the game where we need to manage better.
“Again, our last play options were made up. Even though at the back end of the game, we were making everything up.
“That’s not how we want to play. Scoreboard pressure hurt us too, but we need to get better and learn fast in the last two weeks, especially.”
Marshall warned there is no quick fix for the Tigers, but he remains confident they are heading in the right direction.
“Well, it’s about believing in your process and what you’re doing,” Marshall said.
“And again, I thought, and I said to the team, we showed moments tonight, especially the way we started the first half.
“And we did it against Penrith for 63 minutes. And I guess everyone just wants us to turn it around overnight.
“It doesn’t happen like that. There’s things that need to improve. I thought we had moments to start our season with our defence where we got better.
“Our attack still hasn’t clicked, so we still have a lot of work to do. But it doesn’t happen overnight.
“There are improvements that we’re seeing, but we need to hold on to those for longer periods of the game.”
Originally published as ‘That’s a silly question man’: Benji Marshall bristles at journo after another Tigers loss