At the Roosters we lived by a mantra during finals.
Kick. Chase. Tackle.
That was it.
The first team that breaks, the first team that loses belief is the one to lose.
Earlier this week, one of the most passionate coaches in the game, my old coach Ricky Stuart told the world that his Canberra Raiders are going to win the grand final.
During a club function, and not knowing Fox Sports were up the back recording, Stuart told everyone in no uncertain terms about the belief he had in his side.
And that’s really what winning finals is all about. Belief.
It might sound trite to a spectator. What is belief, exactly? How can it be quantified? All of this must make people not part of the professional team environment a little skeptical about all these comments from players and coaches about belief.
But believe me, yes, there’s that word again, it’s the most important thing to a side at this time of the season.
It is the most important thing in the game.
Everything you do as a player and as a team flows off the back of belief you’ve built up.
Belief in yourself. Belief in your game plan. Belief in your teammates.
All of those things I’ve mentioned so far lead to confidence in every element of your game. Knowledge of what you should do at any point in the game, on any part of the field because that is what will win you the game. That certainty is everything in simplifying complex gameplans into easy to execute tasks, and if your thoughts are “here’s my job right now” rather than “what should I be doing now?” it makes the game a whole lot easier.
First you must believe that you have a better game-plan than the opposition, which is the whole point of the countless hours of video and offensive training done through the week. On the surface its identifying the weak links in the opposition defence or the most likely scenarios they’re going to come at you with in attack.
That’s the easy part and generally takes about ten minutes to get across. The deeper, more difficult job for a coach is convincing the team that it is the right path and that it will work. That’s where the hours of practice come in. They have to see it, experience it, feel it and understand it. They have to believe it.
Then you have to believe in your teammates. A player needs to be able to honestly stand there and say there is not a single person in my team I would sub out for another player from any other team. Even Johnathan Thurston. Even Cameron Smith.
My bloke is in a better position to execute “our plan” than anyone else in the game.
There might be better players out there, but I wouldn’t want to change them anyway. That level of belief in your teammates is critical. The recent Qld Origin teams would identify with this.
Now you have belief that your teammates are going to do their job, all the worry goes out of the game.
All you have to focus on is your job in that part of the field at that time of the game. When things are simplified, they’re much easier to execute. Making the right decision under fatigue and pressure becomes easier when you have confidence that nothing has to change, and that others will do their job.
This is why belief is so important – it creates ownership.
Ownership of your position and ownership of your role on the field. Breaking the game down into smaller, easier to execute segments allows you to pay enough attention to the detail of what you supposed to do because you’re not worrying about things out of your control.
From the opposition’s perspective, when you have a whole team coming at you like that, with that level of focus and confidence, it’s very hard to stop because they are coming at you from all angles with overwhelming force.
Belief is the very definition of a team. All coming together as one.(Click to Tweet)
Now it’s easy to have belief in the middle of the week, coming off the back of a good win or when you’re in the change rooms pre-game. Similarly on the field when you have a ten-point lead or you’ve had a couple of repeat sets in your favour.
The true test comes when you’re under fatigue, your head is spinning and the momentum is against you. You’ve got to defend repeat sets on your line, or perhaps you’re down by 10 with 20 minutes to play.
That’s when a team’s belief really shines through. That’s when the real game starts, the doubts set in and we begin to separate the believers from the talkers. Teams get stronger, tighter and rise to the occasion, or, they break into individuals.
Is our game-plan the right one? Did i do enough during the week? ? Do we have to change what we’re doing? Do I need to do something different to get us out of this? These questions and a thousand more start plaguing the non-believers.
Those are the things that shake belief and can kill a team’s chance of winning.
You go one way or the other at that point or questioning. You come back and get back on top, like the Broncos and Cowboys did this year.
Or it goes out the window. Your team pushes passes, throw balls out the back. You cease to be a team and become a group of individuals trying to do more than their job.
A team like that is a team that has lost belief.
Ricky Stuart is trying to get the team to believe. There’s no better team to put you under pressure and test your belief than the Melbourne Storm.
They kick into the corners and have your big men looking up the field with 80m ahead of them, control the pace of the game, make your attack feel uncomfortable.
The questions will start: can we get to the other end of the field? Do we need to push an offload and steal a few more yards?
It’s Melbourne’s entire strategy. Break down belief in opposition. Exploit the weak players, find breaks in their defensive line or to control the ruck and stymie the opposition attack. By putting a heap of pressure on the opposition in both attack and defence they make the opposition question themselves.
Ricky Stuart truly believes – he’s a highly emotionally invested coach. That’s one of his strengths and perfect for a young, impressionable and energetic side like the Raiders.
He wants young guys to feel the emotional significance of what they’re doing, to be full of energy and to feel like they can run through walls for him. To know that where they are now is not by some fluke but because of the the hard work and commitment to the plans they laid together long ago. That if each of them just does their job, they’ll will eventually prevail.
If he can build that belief in them they will be tough to beat. When Melbourne squeeze them it will be their test.
Whether an experience-light Canberra can respond will test whether they’re playing with emotion or belief. When you’re feeling pressured, it takes a mature mind to stay true to the course, rather than succumb to the head-noise and start solving imaginary problems.
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