RICHMOND’S Joel Bowden is well aware that as last year’s ‘wooden spooners’ the Tigers will be heavily scrutinised in season 2008.
But he believes the key to improving their performance from last weekend’s 40-point round-one NAB Cup loss to St. Kilda is a change in attitude.
"It’s all about handling that extra pressure and trying to use the pressure to our advantage," Bowden says.
"We have to be able to perform and execute our skills under pressure and just be comfortable in the fact that there is going to be pressure out there and not be overawed by it at all.
"Then continue to just play to our processes and structures and let the coaches make the moves. We just have to worry about the things we can control."
As for the extra media attention, the 29-year-old is confident the Tigers can handle it.
"That’s just football now a days, it’s highly scrutinised… footy is a big industry and people are paid to make observations on it and judgments and that’s just the way it is.
"We have to deal with that and we deal with that by training and playing better next time.
"Fortunately for us, we’ve done a fair bit of work on the inner sanctum to make sure that our group is strong, united and all basically pushing in the same direction."
What’s more Bowden is confident that there is still enough time left before the start of the season proper to eradicate any jitters which were evident in the defeat to the Saints.
"Hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll fine tune enough so that when the season proper comes, we’ll be competitive and consistent over the year."
The Tigers travel to Cairns this weekend where they will face Melbourne in a NAB Challenge match at Cazaly's Stadium and the talented defender sees the fixture as a chance to learn from last weekend’s mistakes.
"The most important thing is bouncing back from your mistake, putting it aside… then you just move on.
"It’s hard to do and it’s easy for me to say it but it’s getting that into players' minds that mistakes happen - move on, just do a better job next time."
