Wests Tigers coach Benji Marshall has firmly addressed claims about players vaping in the club's gym, denying any such behavior.
On Wednesday, he acknowledged the necessity for the Tigers to elevate their club standards while also expressing his "love" for player Adam Doueihi.
This comes almost a week after Doueihi expressed dissatisfaction with a positional switch away from halfback and subsequently left the club.
Reports suggested that beyond the shift, Doueihi had concerns regarding a perceived lack of professionalism and accountability at the struggling club, which has yet to reach the finals since 2011.
As the Tigers head into round 22, they find themselves at the bottom of the ladder, a stark contrast to their earlier position in third place and reeling from a heavy 46-point defeat against Canberra.
Marshall acknowledged there is work to be done to enhance their standards but dismissed the notion of a cultural issue affecting their performance.
"I don't feel like there's a culture problem," he stated.
"[But] if we're talking about standards and that, there's probably a few things we might've walked past recently that we need to address."
Furthermore, he countered the allegations of a vaping culture during training sessions.
"I can tell you now that no-one's vaping in the gym. That's actually fabricated or misinformation," he asserted.