Dylan Napa has revealed how a pre-season honesty session during which the Sydney Roosters' junior stars laid down a club manifesto has driven their rebound in 2017.
The tri-colours have gone from cellar dwellers to title contenders this NRL season and will on Saturday clash with North Queensland for a spot in the grand final.
The Queensland State of Origin firebrand said that after the club's annus horribilis of 2016, the squad assembled at their Moore Park headquarters on November 1 last year for the first day of the 2017 pre-season.
After a campaign plagued by off-field dramas, distractions and a horror injury toll, the squad detailed a set of morals, standards and values which each player was asked to adhere to.
Napa described it as a game-changer and a decisive factor in why they have gone from second last to second this year.
"I never thought making a grand final was easy but I always thought we would be there at the end of the year, competing," Napa told AAP.
"Until last year when we came second last.
"(Then) I realised how hard it was to be consistently good all year.
"We came in November 1, as a group we decided what we needed to do to be on the same page, what values and morals we had to have.
"As a squad it's worked this year."
With the club's senior players such as Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Blake Ferguson away on representative duties, the squad's younger players laid down the law.
"The younger guys are the ones driving it," Napa said.
"A lot of the boys were out on Four Nations for the first part of the pre-season so there was a lot of us younger guys in the squad there. Some of the older guys were playing for the Kiwis or Australia. It was driven by the first-graders that weren't representative players."
While Napa was tight-lipped about what was said, he maintained the strict standards set down that day have permeated throughout organisation.
The side has emerged from a bleak 2016 as a premiership force to be within 80 minutes of the grand final while their reserve grade side Wyong has qualified for the NSW Cup grand final.
"I wouldn't tell you too much about what our values and morals are but we all just wanted to set standards of professionalism," Napa said.
"To be on the same page and set ourselves to a high standard.
"We all agreed upon it and it's been a real positive thing for ourselves and our culture."
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