Coach Craig Bellamy has put on a brave face throughout the Melbourne Storm's horror season 2010 but on the day that the curtain came down on the club's season that facade was almost shattered.
Renowned as one of the best coaches in the competition after guiding the Storm to premierships in 2007 and '09 from four-straight grand final appearances, Bellamy has this year been tested like never before.
A third-successive State of Origin series loss as New South Wales coach would ordinarily have been hard enough to deal with but that pales into insignificance compared to what he's had to wade through at club level.
After having his world turned upside down in late April, Bellamy had to try and pick himself up and not only deal with his own emotions at the stripping of those two titles and the ruling that the team could claim no competition points in 2010 but also be there for his players.
Several times throughout the four-and-a-bit months since the NRL's stunning revelations of the club's salary-cap cheating Bellamy has said his players have done more for him than he did for them and he admitted in recent weeks that there were times he basically had to stop coaching his troops.
And while there was obvious relief on Sunday following the 34-4 win over Newcastle at AAMI Park that the season is over, the overriding emotion was more one of sadness at having to farewell a host of players that have become like sons for Bellamy.
"Oh yeah it feels (like) a bit of a relief obviously," Bellamy said.
"It's been a long tough year for everybody involved at the club."
"It was a great way for those guys to finish," he added of the fact that Greg Inglis, Brett White, Ryan Hoffman, Aiden Tolman, Jeff Lima and Brett Finch will all now depart the club for other NRL destinations or overseas teams.
"They've added a lot to our club those guys leaving and it's hard seeing them go."
Having watched a highlights package showing some of the deeds of those leaving on the big screen at AAMI Park after the final whistle, Bellamy had to contain his emotions just after addressing this group for the final time before some of them head off.
"I had a little bit of a heart-to-heart (with the players) actually so that's sort of between me and the players," Bellamy said.
"I just gave them a little opinion I had on certain things."
"When you see the quality of player up there (on the big screen), that obviously stands out but the thing that you can't see up there is the quality of person."
"And as I said they've added so much to our club ... and yeah, it's hard."
Regardless of what Bellamy says publicly about how his players have been his rock throughout the season, White says there is no doubt that the coach has been just as important for the entire squad.
"He's the ultimate mentor and I think that's why he's so good," White said.
"He's been through the ups and downs with us and he's kept us tight as a unit."
"All the work he's done in previous years as far as building this team and the players that are here helped this year."
"We got through it all together and it's all done with now."