Lindsay Collins is 80 minutes away from shedding the tag of being the Sydney Roosters' hard-luck man in grand-final week.
Because after 10 finals campaigns and three preliminary-finals appearances, it's easy to forget the Queensland State of Origin front-rower is yet to play in a decider.
A mainstay of the Roosters' pack for close to a decade, Collins will be eyeing off his first grand final if he can help defeat the Dolphins on Friday night.
In 2018 he played in both of the Roosters' finals wins over Cronulla and South Sydney, before Dylan Napa returned from suspension for the decider.
One year later it was Jared Waerea-Hargreaves who came back from another ban, this time taking the spot Collins had filled in a week-three win over Melbourne.
And as if to ram home Collins' bad luck, he would have missed the 2024 decider had the Roosters qualified after being concussed the week before.
"Those two deserved to be there more than me (in 2018 and 2019). So there wasn't really any moment where it hurt," Collins told AAP.
"That's just footy. It could have been a completely different story and result if they weren't there.
"I don't look at the negative side. I was in an NRL team playing grand finals in my second and third year of NRL. It was an awesome experience to be a part of."
Collins' grand-final omissions haven't always been straight forward.
In 2018 he was still every chance of playing until the day before kick off, when Cooper Cronk's ability to play through a broken scapula knocked him of the bench.
So close was Collins to playing that game, coach Trent Robinson gifted him his premiership ring in the dressing room after the game.
"You can deal with those all a bit easier. It's not that it was in bad form or anything," Collins said.
"It was early in my career, so I was just happy to be there. But when I look back on it now, it's taken me another seven years.
"We've been in the finals every year since, but it's hard to get back there. But now I'm looking forward to getting another opportunity to do that."
In many ways, Collins' story typifies that of the Roosters.
They are the only team in the NRL era to have had a run of six straight finals series without a grand-final appearance, with the club's last being in 2019.
Angus Crichton spoke this week of the Roosters' deserving and demanding much more, with the only acceptable way for him to finish there being a premiership.
"It's not easy," Collins said.
"It just shows how hard it is to make a grand final.
"There's a lot of work that goes into it, the consistency, firing at the right time, not having injuries and everything that goes into playing well."
