LANCE Du’Lac’s trip stateside reaffirmed his view that everyone at the Bulls – from the cleaner to the chairman – must be working towards a common goal.

2015 could have seen Jimmy Lowes’ side secure an immediate return to Super League.

They fell at the final hurdle, but Du’Lac says he has learned valuable lessons about the need for a united club at every level.

The head of performance and video operations said: “In American college football, they call it ‘school pride’ where they have what’s known as a pep rally the night before a game.

“It’s a social gathering which usually involves having a big barbeque and is a way of building camaraderie and celebrating pride in the team, with the onus then on the players to go out and deliver.

“If they do that, then it builds and builds to the point where you can start to get some extraordinary results off the back of it.

“These guys playing college football are unpaid and not yet professional, although some of them are on scholarships, but they have still got that hunger to reach the top.

“It’s quite humbling in a way because you look at some of the sacrifices they make to achieve that, and only a small percentage get signed up by NFL clubs, and it makes you think.

“If they’re doing that and not even getting paid for it, then what excuse have we got not to do the same thing when our ultimate dream is to get into Super League?

“You then realise there are no excuses for not wanting it.

“There can be reasons sometimes why you don’t get there, but there should never be any excuse for not wanting it.”

Du’Lac believes every employee at Odsal should take ‘ownership’ of their job performance.

He explained: “Our end goal this season is promotion, so you make no apologies for saying ‘we’re going for promotion’.

“We’d prefer to go for automatic promotion after what we went through last season in the Million Pound Game.

“But it’s about making sure that everybody is heading the same way and there are no little chinks in the armour.

“During my time in Florida, I was given tips on how to iron that out, so any issues you may have along the way, there are strategies in place to deal with them. It’s about staying strong to your philosophies.

“You look at the Million Pound Game where Matty Blythe didn’t quite get the ball down or Danny Addy missed a shot at goal.

“They weren’t the reasons we lost that game. We lost because we didn’t manage our responses to key events in a strong enough manner throughout the middle eights.

“People can say what they like about us, whether they think we were good enough or not, but to me that’s completely immaterial now.

“That’s why I’m starting to think, regardless of signings, we have people in this squad who have been through these situations and learned valuable lessons together.”

For the players, on a practical level it means coping with the various challenges that the Championship poses.

Du’Lac said: “Okay, we’re playing on a slope at Batley, so how are we going to respond to that?

“What’s our gameplan and what are people prepared to do to overcome these obstacles?

“To have that strong response from any event which faces us, so we can manage as best the outcome of any given situation.

“It’s about taking ownership of situations, so that if I’ve not done my job and prepared well enough, if something comes out of the woodwork then it’s my fault.

“You stick your hand up and you make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“It’s a very black and white way of looking at it, and there’s not much leeway there.

“You see teams criticising referees but no. The calls are made and we’ll get past that because we can’t change the officials’ decisions but we can change how we react to it.

“This approach goes right the way through the club and if you get that, you’re halfway there to what you want to achieve in the year.

“If you get over 90 per cent of your personnel right throughout the club thinking like that, you’re pushing up to the top end of where your performance is going to be.

“Once you get into the rhythm of doing that, as long as you keep on top of it and don’t take it for granted, you’ll be alright for the season.

“There is a danger that if you it hard for five or six weeks, and it works really well for you, then you start to slacken off a little bit.

“It can happen without you noticing it, so you’re really got to have accountability right the way through the club from everybody. We want to get beyond any excuses.”