Winning the Grand Final is all about peaking at the right end of the season. How many times have we seen teams dominate all year (Storm!?) only to fall short to a team hitting form when it counts most?
The 2009 season is especially famous for this. The Dragons, Bulldogs and to a lesser extent the Titans, were far and away the best teams across the regular rounds.
The Storm, in fourth, finished five points behind the table-topping Dragons and Broncos. The eighth-placed Eels were four points further back.
Both found form at the right end of the season and would meet in one of the most famous, and now infamous, Grand Finals of the modern era.
Obviously, both teams contesting this Sunday's Grand Final are in form. Two straight wins is the minimum requirement, but not every player is currently firing on all cylinders.
We look below at the five form players heading into the decider. These aren't necessarily the best players, but the players who enter in red, hot form and will likely decide the premiership.
Let us know below who you believe is entering the Grand Final as the form player of the competition.
1. Cody Walker
The only criticism on Cody Walker has been the perception that he is never quite at his best in the biggest games.
Not only has he silenced such claims thus far in the 2021 finals series, but he enters the biggest game of the season as the form player of the competition.
Just two weeks ago he led his side to a win over his side's Grand Final opponents, the Penrith Panthers. On that night he crossed for a try, contributed a line break and made one himself.
For mine, he was best-on-ground in that he dictated where the game was played, especially in the second half when Penrith were chasing the game.
Most importantly he completed 19 tackles at 100%. Given that he, like the other three starting halves this weekend, will be targeted for 80 minutes.
Last week he crossed for a double, ran for over 100 metres and took the major percentage of the kicking game for his side. He easily outplayed his opposite half in Foran and even the supposed 'Michael Jordan of the NRL' Daly Cherry-Evans.
Walker and Cleary shape as the most important players this Sunday. Man of the match odds confirm what we already know.
Thus far, across the finals series, Walker has been the man. Can he completely silence his doubters with his biggest performance in the biggest game yet?
