IN the end, it's always about attitude.
Turning up with the right one doesn't necessarily assure you of success, but the wrong one will always get you beaten.
In what was a bumper opening weekend to the new season, the greatest example of this was Newcastle's victory over the heavily favoured Bulldogs.
From the opening whistle, it was evident that the Knights were full of self-belief and a work ethic synonymous with a side well prepared both physically and mentally.
Attitude is very often portrayed in a team's defensive desire, but there are also other indicators that give an insight.
The Knights were superb in what players call the one-percenters. When it came to things like diving on loose balls, competing in the air and struggling for quick play-the-balls, they were all over a Canterbury outfit that looked like they were expecting something to happen instead of making it.
There must be few more irritable performances for a coach than to watch your team only find the necessary hunger as a result of the desperation of a situation.
Kevin Moore will want to know why his football team didn't turn up at the beginning of the night with such desire.
The Dogs did storm home after trailing 16-0, but snaring an unlikely victory would have been a travesty.
The same applies in Brisbane's win over North Queensland.
The Cowboys also came with a rush in the second 40 chasing a large deficit but couldn't quite finish the job.
The youthful Broncos, who fielded nine players 21 years of age or under, mixed scrambling defence with adventurous attack to build up their 24-point lead.
It's very rare to hear Brisbane skipper Darren Lockyer critique an opposition team's performance. So for him to describe North Queensland as appearing to "be going through the motions" until early in the second half, shows how lacklustre they had been.
In fact, if they hadn't received a healthy slice of luck leading to their opening try to Ty Williams, you wonder whether they would have continued in their malaise and afforded Brisbane a much more comfortable victory.
In the end, the most impressive aspect of the win wasn't the Broncos building up a big lead, but the mental fortitude they displayed to overcome momentum after it had swung completely against them.
At CUA Stadium, the Panthers were another to score early points but they again showed their worrying habit of becoming mental pygmies.
When Penrith are on a roll, there are very few teams that can go with them. However, they also display an ongoing tendency to interrupt these performances with a dramatic loss of concentration. They mentally lose their way.
Fortunately, after inviting Canberra back into the contest, the mountain men got back on track to run out comfortable winners.
One can only hope that, for the health and sanity of coach Matt Elliott, Penrith can find a way to match their obvious physical talent with the necessary mental toughness.
No such problem for Melbourne and St George Illawarra in their respective victories over tough and competitive opposition.
The Storm are tremendous at somehow getting competition points under any circumstances. Their winning culture is something every player understands and is prepared to build on.
In these opening weeks they will win games, but are biding time until the return of Cooper Cronk.
Cameron Smith is such an exceptional player that he can fill in at halfback and still be effective. Bring Cronk back in and move the skipper back to dummy-half and Melbourne improve five or six lengths in the premiership race.
After watching the Dragons battle it out against Parramatta, I don't see much improvement in Wayne Bennett's men.
I tipped them to beat the Eels first up because their game plan was always going to be easier to execute early in the season.
Their defence will win them a lot of games, but I just don't see where enough points will come from as the year unfolds.
Coach Bennett said that he wanted his team to take the three penalty goals second-half instead of going for the jugular because being round one, the team was tired and their attack not fine-tuned.
Trouble is, I see them making the same decision late in the season as they did last year, and that wasn't and won't be good enough against the better sides.
Both Parramatta and Cronulla will be disappointed in defeat, but they looked quite good and their attitude was great.
In what proved the most exciting match of the weekend, the Wests Tigers came back from the dead to stun Manly.
At 20-4 down, the Tigers were being dominated on both the scoreboard and through the middle of the ruck but were able to take advantage of a string of penalties.
The great thing about their showing was that they never got into a negative frame of mind despite the match seemingly slipping from their grasp. They are a dangerous football team because of that mentality and have the ability to strike from anywhere on the field even on the back of an ordinary build-up.
Late in the contest, they started a set with some pedestrian hit-ups on their own line and were going nowhere. In a flash, they threw two cut-out passes to send Lote Tuqiri away down the left wing. Two rucks later, they scored in the right corner.
Tim Sheens will be looking to improve a number of aspects of their play, but the one thing that he will take great heart from is that his players never said die. It's the exact attitude that every team must produce to be successful in 2010.
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