After 302 AFL games, Greater Western Sydney star Callan Ward knows full well mid-season can be like this.
The Giants are eighth, in the midst of a logjam where only two games separate fourth from 12th.
After a red-hot start to the year, they've lost four of their past five and as coach Adam Kingsley puts it, they're in a lull.
No one is blowing GWS away - their biggest losing margin is 29 points - but their system isn't firing and they're inconsistent from quarter to quarter.
They face fourth-placed Port Adelaide at home on Sunday and it's time to fire up.
"There are a lot of teams in the same boat as us. They've been pretty good, but they're just not really getting the wins, or just winning," Ward said of the mid-table crush.
"Players have to understand things can't always be good and there are going to be lulls. This is definitely a lull.
"(We'll) continue to be optimistic and positive, making sure we review the games really hard, but fair.
"If that means being harder on each other, or more ruthless, then that's fine - as long as we can move on and learn from it."
What especially irritates Ward is that while the Giants have been coping with a long injury list, that's not the issue.
"We believe it's mainly system, it's mainly role players - playing your role for the team, and everyone understands what that is, to a man," he said.
"I wouldn't put anything down to personnel - that's the disappointing thing, that we haven't been able to cover those guys as well as we thought we could.
"There's no doubt we have the confidence to do that. It's just not working for us at the moment.
"That's what you want to be - that team, it doesn't matter who plays, you know what you're going to get.
"That's the gold star for us, what we're trying to do."
In the wake of last weekend's six-point loss to Hawthorn, media commentator and Giants board member Jimmy Bartel was scathing.
Bartel criticised GWS for their attention to detail and, more damningly, a lack of effort.
"You probably can't argue with much of it. I don't think he's wrong," Ward said.
Captain Connor Rozee is among four inclusions for Port, who have dropped key forwards Charlie Dixon and Jeremy Finlayson.
The Giants welcome back star midfielder Josh Kelly and first-choice defender Jack Buckley.
