HONEST, direct and with a smile on his face — prop forward Kyle Amor’s answers to interview questions mirror the way he plays the game.

In what has been a tough old season at times, the popular Cumbrian has been the team’s Mr Consistency; a real cornerstone of the Saints pack through the peaks and troughs of 2016.

That form has not gone unnoticed — the 29-year-old was named Saints Player of the Year earlier this week and even England boss Wayne Bennett has put the front rower on notice for Four Nations selection.

The form of Amor, in tandem with Alex Walmsley and some of the younger forwards, has been a key component in helping Saints turn around a season that seemed to be heading for the rocks 10 weeks ago.

But underpinning Saints’ revival, which has seen them win nine of the last 10 Super League games, has been a change in attitude and attention to detail off the field across the board.

Amor said: “We set off this year where we were winning three and losing one for a couple of months.

“Then suddenly we hit a rut in May where five clubs above us just beat us in a period, culminating in that defeat at Magic.

“People understood that we were below par and we just knuckled down to turn it around.

“I watched the Leigh v Huddersfield game at the weekend and although Leigh played well I could not help think ‘how did these men put 50 on us at Magic?’

“We started having doubts but Kez never lost faith, he simply said to us ‘I just need you to do this’.

“Once we did what he asked us to do – the bloke wasn’t wrong.

“It is a huge run that we have gone on - nine out of 10 with four games to go including a Grand Final.”

Amor said that there had not been any earth-shattering changes, no secret formula, rather the players simply reinforcing belief and trust in each other following one of the team meetings and a commitment to hard work.

Amor said: “After we had hit that rut we all spoke collectively and the senior players initiated the meeting – it was not like the Hull one at Widnes but one where we literally said ‘look, we have got a big last two months here, what do we want to do?’

“We all came to an agreement that we needed to lift ourselves in training and just tighten up on some things.

"The rules came in as well — stopping petty things like being a couple of minutes late for a physio session and having your phone on you where you shouldn’t have it.

“They were just little cracks that were creeping in everywhere and they can accumulate to a slacking off.

“In 18 months we had allowed those standards to knock off a little bit and if you do that eventually things become acceptable.

“You get a view that it is ok if I don’t do that because my mate will do it, rather than being accountable yourself.

“It is about trusting each other, enjoying each other’s company and working hard for each other on the training field.

“We said if we are not doing it then the younger boys around us can only go only go where we are going as senior blokes.

“The whole group bought in, even the lads that don’t play all year. It has been a real collective and team effort.

“That is all it has been – hard work, a bit of desire and passion to want to do things right for the club, the town and us.”

Amor, as well as front row colleague Alex Walmsley are among the half dozen or so members of the leadership group and they are happy to be leading by example.

“We want to be showing the likes of Tommo and Greg Richards, and even players that are not in our position like Morgan Knowles and Matty Fleming, that this is what it takes to be a Saints player.

“I have learned that from watching James Roby and Jon Wilkin and how consistent they are each and every week.

"Going forward as a club we have to do that because we are going to be here a number of years.

“We need to make that the next cab of the rank are doing the right things and we don't have to go through another horrible wobble patch.

“We want to make sure that when you pull on a jumper that you do things the Saints way - the right way,” he said.

Amor admitted himself that he had already had his kick up the backside last season, after basking in the warm afterglow of the 2014 Grand Final success.

“I admitted at the start of the season that I had taken things for granted after 2014 and that is all part of learning. You are never too old to learn.

“I let myself go massively last year. After being released at Leeds, all I have done is work hard — at Wakefield and then at Saints in my first year.

“I base my game on being as fit as I can be.

“I am not going to come up with anything special.

“I am just the guy who can be the bit of a cornerstone.

“I went back to that.

“Kez wants me to be international and kick on to the next level and to do that you need to be consistent every week.

“You don’t have to be 10/10, but if you get 7/10 and be a reliable player every week.

“That is what I have tried to do this year,” Amor said.

His contribution, among others, has helped put Saints 80 minutes from Old Trafford.

And at this stage of the season it is all about one thing – winning.

Amor said: “All we can do is worry what we do on the training field and on the games. Some games we have played well, others we have found a way to win.

“This time of year it is about winning. Some may say that the stuff is not very exciting to watch but I am sure the fans will be excited if we won the trophy again.

“We are trying hard, we will keep doing what we are doing.

“But right across the board, you hear Hull and Wigan talking about it too - it is all about completing sets and the kick chase. Maybe Warrington are the only team that plays a little bit off the cuff.

“Even if you look at the NRL you see a war of attrition. At this time of year it is looking at who is the toughest, who can hold out the longest and make the opposition crack.

"That is the way you have got to go at this stage of the season.

“We are not conceding too many points, apart from that Wigan game.

“It is something we spoke about when Browny was coaching here – back then we had a goal of keeping the opposition to 14 or so points and when you do that you have a chance of winning the game.

“Defence is an attitude thing and if everyone is ripping in and doing the right thing at the right time, it looks after itself.

“There are some individual errors and there are too many of those for this time of year.

“If you give too much ball away like at Wigan the other week - your defence cannot cope because we are not robots and it will eventually crack.

“We need to fix that aspect up – but we have two weeks and we don't want to be tip-toeing into the play-offs, we want to make sure we are battle-hardened and ready.

“We are going in to win 14/15.”

A team that was written off in June, to one that has a fighting chance of going to Old Trafford and winning has echoes from two years ago.

Although there has been significant player movement, there are plenty of survivors from 2014 but Amor says that experience is not an automatic process.

Amor said: “There are similarities to 2014 because we have been a bit of a patched up team all year with players dropping out.

“But 2014 has gone and when you get to this stage of the season you have no given right to win it because of how you have won it before.”

This is a different season, and the crop of 2016 – including senior men like Jon Wilkin, Jonny Lomax and Luke Walsh who missed out with injury last time, will want to pen their own story.

In many ways they already have done in the way they have helped pick the team up from the doldrums, after that horrendous run in May and June when it appeared that any win against a top four side was fanciful.

But week by week, and win by win they managed to inch up the table to secure a once unlikely semi-final spot.

Amor explained: “As we started picking up the wins after Huddersfield away, then Wigan and Warrington, it started feeling like something good was coming.

“And once that started it was infectious. We don't want that ball to stop rolling.

“We are 80 minutes from Old Trafford. We need to make sure we use the next two games to fine tune and not become complacent because when that has happened and we feel we have earned the right to play and not want to do the tough stuff it has bitten us on the backside.

“We don't want another season of ‘if onlys’. Last year in the semi at Headingley it was if only Sinfield had not kicked the 40/20, or if we had just been a bit smarter in the middle beforehand.

“We don't want to be that close again. We want to have a dig and do our best to get there and give it our best crack.

"On the day anything can happen.”