Sam Tomkins: Warriors lacked professionalism

Sam Tomkins says a lot has changed with the Warriors since he arrived. Photo / Getty

Things have changed a lot during my time at the Warriors. Although we are frustrated with our recent results, there has been considerable progress in many areas.

I was quite surprised at the culture when I first arrived here in January 2014. It wasn't very strict compared to what I had been used to.

It was a little more relaxed, which isn't necessarily is a good thing and, overall, there probably wasn't enough discipline.

It became obvious things like punctuality - people would be late more often than I had experienced - or not doing the right things in training or away from the club were happening. Essentially, individuals were not being entirely professional.

Even though you might be at training for five or six hours a day, it doesn't stop there - you have a duty to be looking after yourself and not everyone was doing that.

It was polar opposites compared to my experiences in England.

At Wigan, standards didn't get compromised. It was a shock for me here at first but it's definitely moving in the right direction and completely different to how it was. It's now becoming that strict, professional environment paramount for success.

Chief executive Jim Doyle and coach Andrew McFadden have been driving the new culture but no one person can make every change at once. It's got to evolve, through the players and staff.

At Wigan it took us a long time. When Michael Maguire arrived as coach in 2010, he was the catalyst for a transformation. He turned everything on its head.

On and off the field, the discipline was much tougher and training become harder.

Overall, it was a lot stricter and there were fines in place for people doing the wrong things ... which was nothing like it had been before.

At first, not everyone bought into it. Michael had to develop things until everyone wanted to be part of it, which eventually happened. Over two years it changed and then Shaun Wane, who had been Maguire's assistant, continued that ethos.

In terms of this year, we have to keep pushing to finish the season strongly. The last three games have hurt but we have played teams who have just been better than us on the day. But you don't suddenly become a bad side over a couple of weeks and we still believe in ourselves.

We need to look at how we have played before and the good things we have done in recent weeks. By dwelling on that, we can build confidence. We are the same team who beat Melbourne a month or so ago - we need to remember that.

From a fan's point of view, it can seem like we're the best team in the world one week and the worst seven days later but that isn't the case. A few things change and your luck changes in a game.