RUGBY league can be a tough game when you can’t seem to win one.

Especially when your effort, your work rate and your passion never falters. That’s probably the most frustrating part.

During our six-match losing streak at the start of the season I don’t think we ever lacked any effort in our performances.

Some of our skill errors and our discipline let us down. We realised that’s what was hurting us, but it took us a while to actually fix it.

There were probably a couple of significant moments that helped us realise just how badly we needed to shape up.

One was the bus trip back from Canberra after the Raiders beat us 18-2 in round 6.

That was a tough road trip. The atmosphere on the bus was really low, and there wasn’t too many words spoken between the boys at all.

There’s not much more you can say after you’ve just lost your sixth consecutive game, and we knew we had gotten ourselves beaten once again.

Even Brad Arthur had run out of sprays to give. He had delivered a few good ones over the first four or five games, but after six losses they sort of died down.

Then a couple of days later was THAT training session that everyone has heard about.

It was a pretty bad training session to be honest, and our reserve grade side was sticking it to us in an opposed session.

The boys really started to fire up, ripping into the contact and there was some big hits put on. Blood was spilt.

That’s a sign the boys were frustrated with our situation, but it also showed the effort and the desire to play for each other had not disappeared.

Something else significant happened that week — Jarryd Hayne returned from injury.

I had never played with Jarryd before this year, but obviously we’ve all watched his career pretty closely and we all know what a special player he is.

His return to the paddock that week really gave the team a lift. Haynesy had this energy about him, he was up on his toes and it lifted the confidence of everyone else in the side.

He is a leader, he’s played in Origin games and in World Cups and everybody has seen what he can do on a footy field. But that game against Manly he stood up and pulled the whole team with him.

The other guy who has been big for us in recent weeks is Clint Gutherson.

He obviously returned from his knee injury the week earlier than Haynesy did, but the effect he’s had on the rest of the players has been similar.

Gutho is the sort of bloke every footy club needs. His attitude, his approach to training and his enthusiasm for the game lifts the players around him.

He is the first one in every morning and the last one to leave.

Mitchell Moses (centre) of the Eels runs with the ball. Source: AAP

When you suffer a bad injury like he did, and you have to spend every day in rehab with the same training for weeks or months, it can be a lonely place and it can really get a guy down.

But Gutho was an inspiration the whole time he was recovering, and his attitude is infectious.

I don’t think I’ve ever played with a guy like him. He’s also a very talented footballer and a big, big part of our footy club.

There’s no surprise Brad made him a co-captain.

With Gutho and Haynesy back from injury, and a couple of wins to get our confidence up, I still think we are capable of improving on last season.

We’re not looking too far ahead though — as the old cliche goes, we’ll take things one week at a time and hopefully it leads us somewhere special.