It is why he extended his contract at the club in early 2021 after making his debut in the Broncos' dire wooden-spoon season of 2020.
After his best season yet, the 23-year-old is set to play in an NRL preliminary final on Saturday week, a scenario he said he always believed was possible.
"It is crazy. (Finals) is one of things I could see when I first re-signed at this club," Riki said.
"I go back to the dark times and we were such a young group but I knew if we could all stick it out and stay together hopefully it would all pay off."
The New Zealand-born Riki came through the Broncos academy alongside players including Herbie Farnworth, Thomas Flegler and Keenan Palasia.
When he re-signed he urged his teammates to do the same.
Despite that troubled 2020 campaign, Riki did not contemplate a move away from Brisbane.
"No, I definitely wanted to stay at the club," he said.
"That was a thing for me straight away. I am huge on loyalty. My family is all back home in New Zealand but I call the boys here, and the staff members, my family.
"The Broncos gave me an opportunity when I was just 15 years old.
"We were lacking maturity in the game (in 2020) and learning our positions and how to play them properly, but now we have games under our belt and can fully understand the game and how things work."
Riki has turned himself from a flash and flamboyant footballer into a tough, uncompromising one.
His kick-chase is one of the best in the game.
In the pre-season he sat down with fellow back-rower Kurt Capewell to identify areas needing improvement.
He also used fullback Tristan Sailor as a crash test dummy, running at his teammate over and over to hone his chasing skills.
"Poor Tristan Sailor was definitely copping it in the pre-season," Riki grinned.
"I was trying to hit him as hard as I could in the kick-chase and I worked closely with him and (club legend) Darius Boyd who is a great fullback as well."
After beating Melbourne 26-0 in last Friday's qualifying final a wave of emotion came over Riki when he thought about how far he had come.
Reality then kicked in.
"The biggest saying for us when we came back into training after the Melbourne game was, 'The job is not done', and we are definitely all on board with it," he said.
"Last year we just missed out on the top eight and that was burning us.Â
"We want to take it out this year and put Brisbane back on the map where it belongs."
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