Come to work with a smile, hopefully leave with an AFL premiership.
Richmond defender Bachar Houli personifies the upbeat mood at Punt Rd that has helped take them to their second grand final in three years.
In the wake of their disastrous 2016 season, the Tigers focused on lightening the mood and it paid immediate dividends as a factor in their drought-breaking 2017 premiership.
Easing the pressure also helped at halftime on Friday night, when the Tigers were 21 points down in the preliminary final against Geelong.
“There was complete calm, even at halftime … we thought to ourselves, we’ve been in this same situation multiple times,” Houli said.
With Tom Lynch kicking five goals and Houli supreme across half-back, the Tigers overran the Cats in the second half and will start favourites in Saturday’s grand final against GWS.
“It’s been a work in progress, it’s something we’ve focused on for the last three years and we’re getting better at it,” Houli said.
“The one thing we focus on, particularly as a backline group, is try to be calm regardless of the situation.
“The worst-case scenario is you lose – life goes on.
“We always bring it back to celebrating each other’s actions, celebrating the moment.
“It is important and to have people running the show with that mentality, it makes it easier for us … it makes us come to work with a smile on our face.”
There wasn’t much celebrating at Richmond after round one, despite the win, when key defender Alex Rance went down with a season-ending knee reconstruction.
The widespread feeling was that eventually, losing Rance would count the Tigers out of this year’s premiership race.
But with Houli and key defender Dylan Grimes leading the way and earning All-Australian selection, Richmond’s defence had other ideas.
“Obviously not having Rancey there, we’ve agreed that we’ve had to share the leadership role,” Houli said.
“The way I look at things is we get tested in life and that was a major test for us, how to respond.
“Our best player has gone down. Our general has gone down.
“But it’s given an opportunity for guys like Dylan, Nick Vlastuin, (David) Astbury.”
Houli added they are happy for other teammates to have the limelight.
“Something we focus on in our backline is celebrating each other’s efforts,” he said.
“We’re not going to get the fancy goals. Tom Lynch – that’s his job.
“Our job is to stop the goals and try to create play from the back, stick to structures.
“It’s not going to look pretty.”