It's a huge sense of achievement and the elation of achieving your goal together. You start from day one and spend all that time preparing for that one event, that one game. It's a great feeling when it all comes together. I don't look at it personally as far as rewards go. My reward is seeing the players happy. If we can get our team out on the pitch and perform well then we have done our job. You set yourself some big goals and at Leeds we are blessed to have a club that's run extremely well and that we have a coaching and playing staff that are very committed. When you've got that type of environment you have a chance of achieving success.
I do look at the psychological aspect to help and use some DVDs. I don't like to pick out any opponent in particular. Some have faults and you take the best of them and try to use that as an inspiration for the players. We have great benchmarks of people in the past. It's a great way to learn about your history and examples of people who had achieved success in adversity or another way. History does repeat.
I like the idea that we learn, but it also teaches you more about life. At the end of the day, this is a game and we want to finish our time as better people. If we pick up some success along the way then that's fantastic. Now we have got another opportunity tomorrow against the Melbourne Storm. It will probably be the biggest World Club Challenge match-up, given the history and form of both clubs who have sustained success in their respective competitions. We want to do Super League proud against the best side the National Rugby League has produced in many years.
Melbourne are a strong side and it's certainly the biggest challenge we have had. We have been thinking about this game ever since our Grand Final win and perhaps we have even become a bit tunnel vision about it. Our start to the season hasn't been great with two defeats, which were disappointing. We have to work hard and get back to where we want to be. We have got pretty high standards of ourselves and it's more of a challenge than pressure. We should not be too bothered by what others think. The only expectations we need to fulfil are our own.
Brian McClennan is the coach of the Leeds Rhinos. Since taking charge in 2008, the New Zealander has won successive Super League Grand Finals and claimed the World Club Challenge (WCC) in 2008 by beating the Melbourne Storm. They face the Storm in this year's WCC tomorrow. @Email:sports@thenational.ae