Some home truths from a former Perth Heat teammate, and current ABL rival, sparked Warwick Saupold back to top pitching form firstly for Australia and now he looks to continue that in this weekend's Championship Series.
Saupold had still been pitching well over the past couple of seasons with the Heat in the ABL and still well enough to earn selection again for the Australian team for the Premier 12 tournament back in November.
However, Robbie Glendinning just felt that he saw Saupold didn't quite have that seem edge to his pitching that he had throughout a glittering career that saw him play some big games in the MLB for the Detroit Tigers.
Rather than get offended by what Glendinning was pointing out, Saupold took it on the chin and ended up agreeing and the results have been some of the best pitching of his career over the past three months.
Saupold put in some outstanding showings for Team Australia at the Premier 12 and now has carried that back into the rest of the ABL season where he took things up another level in the semi finals last weekend in Adelaide against the Giants.
He produced to finishing jobs in both victories for the Heat to see them into this weekend's Championship Series at Empire Ballpark against the Canberra Cavalry starting Friday night.
But it's that chat with Glendinning that he looks back on as a big turning point.
"I took a lot of confidence from the Premier 12 and I had a mate, Robbie Glendinning, speak to me not so much about my pitching, but my demeanour and attitude," Saupold told the ABL in Adelaide on Saturday night.
"It wasn’t work ethic at all, but the demeanour on the mound and I've always been a gamer who goes out there to compete. He felt like I lost a little bit of that and I as trying to guide the ball around.
"That really revved me up and it kind of told me to get some ticker, and it hit home to me. I did some soul searching after that, then put up some good numbers in the Premier 12 and gave Australia a chance to win.
"I have carried that into the ABL season but I also did a lot of work in the off-season throwing with Kieren Hall so we've put in the work. It is showing for him too and he's having a hell of a year, and has a bright future too but it all comes back to putting in the work or you get left behind."
Saupold was put in two tense and tight situations in both games late in the piece when he took the mound against the Giants. But what he knew was that he didn’t want to be part of a Heat team in Adelaide who didn’t capitalise on winning Game 1 once again.
"Essentially I was just telling myself to take it one pitch at a time. I gave up a hit there and there were a few challenges, but I just wanted to slow the game down and be in control the best I could," he said.
"I executed the pitches when it mattered and it was a big monkey off our back to be honest. The last couple of years we won Game 1 against these guys and lost the next two so that released a lot of pressure.
"We're now looking forward to getting back home, resting up and getting ready to go for one more week."
For hometown players and long-time Heat players like Saupold along with Tim Kennelly, Alex, Jake Bowey, Jess Williams and Ulrich Bojarski, that natural passion to be part of success with Perth is natural.
But what Saupold has also been impressed with is the way the imports this season have bought into the culture, understood the history and that was on show with the passion Jhon Diaz and Carlos Colmenarez showed in the semi-final series in Adelaide.
"When we took that lead again, Diaz obviously knows what it means and we've praised him for making sure he understands what's happened over the past couple of years and he bought in, and all the imports have to join our chemistry," Saupold said.
"It's a special bunch we have and we have one more hurdle to get over and we're looking forward to the Championship Series.
"For us local guys this is all we have and the ABL means so much to us, and we take pride in playing every year and putting on a show for the fans.
"We mentioned that to our imports straightaway out of the gate to buy into our culture or you won't enjoy yourself, and probably won't last long. Us local guys play with a lot of emotion especially me so it was good to get the win and now we move onto this last week."