He's tasted success in his homeland and while playing for his country, so John Bateman knows a premiership-winning team when he sees one.
That's why the Canberra Raiders hardman looks around at his teammates and know they have what it takes to win it all this NRL season.
Off the back of a crippling injury toll and three straight losses, the Raiders could have lost their way through the middle of the season.
Instead, a hat-trick of wins has seen them enter the representative period with a renewed sense of confidence despite still missing a host of stars to injury.
England international Bateman said knew early in his time in Canberra the side had what it took to win the Telstra Premiership.
"I probably noticed it in pre-season, everybody is going to say then they are training hard and we look good, [but] we were confident with how we were training," he said.
"It's gone on to show in the season itself with how we're playing, we've had a blip every now and then, but I think we're bouncing back and getting into the grind in certain teams and championship teams win games like we did on the weekend."
Match Highlights: Raiders v Sharks
The English international said he is looking forward to playing one game in the next three weeks after admitting he played below his standards against Cronulla last round.
"Once I get a bit of running into myself I find I'm pretty sweet from that, I just haven't had a chance to do it much because we've had short turnarounds," Bateman said.
Prop Dunamis Lui admitted his body has been feeling less than 100 per cent in recent weeks and he too also welcomed the upcoming lighter playing schedule for the Raiders.
His comments come on the back of the NRL looking at lowering the number of interchanges to six per game.
Lui pointed to Bateman being the ideal player to thrive in that new environment if the rule change was to eventuate.
"I guess we'd have to get fitter and lose more weight," Lui said of future forwards.
"I just think it's a really good opportunity for the lighter players to show off their skills but also there's a goal for the bigger goal for the bigger boys to push themselves to play extra minutes."
Stiffer penalties for crusher tackles were also being examined by the NRL competition committee on Tuesday.
Competition Committee to consider clamping down on crusher tackles
Despite coming under the spotlight for his tackling style this season, Bateman said the practice must be stamped out of the competition.
"You read people saying they are intentional; I never go into a tackle saying, 'I'm going to try and hurt this player'," he said.
"But you can't have people coming out of tackles injured especially when it comes to your neck, you've got to be able to live your everyday life.
"You can't be giving players maybe fatal injuries, which is what it could be with the neck.
"So it needs to be cut out of the game."
After making his NRL debut in round one and then making way for the early return of Jordan Rapana, Bailey Simonsson has played seven games in a row in the top grade.
In that time he's proven to be a more than handy member of the back three at the Raiders, capable of finishing off a try and more than happen to be active early in a tackle count.
"I've just been trying to get used to the speed of the game and each week I think I'm finding it easier and I've been more comfortable at that level," Simonsson said.
"As a back three as a whole the coaches talk about getting our sets started (right) and if we can bring the forward well it's going to help our middles and help the rest of the team complete our sets well."
