Brisbane Broncos coach Anthony Seibold said the club's shift towards youth will play dividends in the long run despite the side's 1-5 start to the season.
Seibold's high-profile move to the club was hoped to produce results earlier, with the club showing only occasional glimpses of what it might be capable of.
He implored the club's fans to trust the process as the young team learns "on the run".
"When you're going through tough times, that's when you really see who's the rusted-on supporter and who's dedicated to the cause," Seibold said.
"This is an easy time for people to have a free shot at the Broncos.
"I've only been back there since December but whether it's ex-players, supporters, members, it's an easy time to have a crack at the club.
"The thing I've seen in my short time at the club is we have a resilient bunch in there (in the change rooms) and if people are willing to be patient through the tough times, they'll get some joy."
Down 10 points at half-time against the Canberra Raiders on Sunday, the Broncos showed flashes of what they are capable of to battle back and grab the lead in the 59th minute when Corey Oates pounced on an Anthony Milford grubber.
However, a 40-20 to Jack Wighton and two subsequent tries knocked the wind out of the Broncos' comeback effort as they crashed to 14th place on the ladder.
Seibold knows fans will 'stick solid' with young Broncos
"I'm going to back the young players and I am going to back our team," Seibold said.
"We had an opportunity to win the game last week and we couldn't get it done and two of the last three we lost it with literally the last play of the game.
"We're not a million miles away and we're not getting lapped every week.
"It's disappointing because we're [one from six] if you look at the results, but if you look at the progress we've made, Tom Flegler and Payne Haas had nine NRL games between them and they were our starting front-rowers and they did a hell of a job."
Haas was outstanding in a losing side, racking up 170 metres from 19 hit-ups and 36 tackles.
Seibold said efforts such as the one from Haas show what is possible in the future as the club attempts to cover for the loss of invaluable experience in the middle third of the field.
"I knew what the squad looked like (when I got here) and the club's gone in a specific direction," he said.
"We've lost players like Josh McGuire, Sam Thaiday, Jordan Kahu, all international players and Korbin Sims is a really established first grade player.
"The club has gone down that route because like I keep saying we had five players under 21 playing in our middle and that's exciting.
"They're learning on the run in some ways, but they've showed they're NRL players and they wouldn't be in the team if we didn’t think they could do the job."
James Roberts played 34 minutes off the bench in his comeback from an Achilles injury, with the Brisbane coach pleased with what he was able to show against the Raiders.
"That's what we planned for him, he hasn’t done a lot of training with us the last couple of weeks and I thought Kotoni Staggs deserved to start the game," Seibold said.
"I thought Jimmy brought plenty of energy and a bit of a threat but again we'll review and look at what we need to do for next week."
