The 2024 NRL Grand Final is set, with the minor premiers set to take on the reigning premiers in what promises to be an almighty clash between this year's two best teams.
Here are the three questions that will decide the outcome of this game:
Who will win the battle of the halves?
Sunday's grand final sees two of this generation's greatest halfbacks collide in a contest that is sure to thrill and go a long way towards deciding the winner. Jahrome Hughes, the 2024 Dally M Medal winner vs. Nathan Cleary the 2021 and 2023 Clive Churchill Medal winner; both men are in sparkling form, and both are integral to their team's chances of glory on Sunday.
These halfbacks are masters of organising their teams, steering the forwards into the battle, kicking for field position, deciding when to unleash their backs and when to introduce their deadly attacking kicking games.
Hughes, perhaps slightly more than Cleary, is a brilliant support player, always there to turn a half break into so much more. Both possess deft passing games and the vision that enables them to see opportunities when nothing seems apparent.
Hughes goes into the decider in career best form, while Cleary goes in under an injury cloud, with his shoulder nowhere near 100%. At their absolute best, there isn't a struck match between them, but Cleary could be at a reduced capacity due to his shoulder injury.
Playing outside these two are their enigmatic partners in crime, Cameron Munster for the Storm and Jarome Luai for the Panthers. These two are remarkably similar in the way they can confound opposition defences and fans alike with their off-the-cuff genius.
When a coach sits down to formulate a game plan against either of these two, the bottom line is to shut them down as soon as possible. They are the masters of confusion, given any room to move they will conjure a break out of nothing. The worst thing you can do against either of them is to let them escape in a broken play situation. The more opportunities they have, the more likely it is that their team will win.
Munster's return from injury has been a slow process, but he showed last week that he is just about back to his best. Luai led the Panthers through a large chunk of the season without Cleary and has grown in stature because of it.
With the potential for an evenly matched battle up front, the magic produced by the halves could be critical in deciding this one.
Can the Storm pack match the Panthers?
The old truism says that regardless of how good your spine is, you won't win the big games if your forwards are not dominating in the trenches. Without the momentum that comes from a dominant pack it is hard for the hooker and halves to work their magic. And so the question must be answered on Sunday; which pack will come out on top?
The Panthers front-row pair of James Fisher-Harris and Moses Leota are among the league's leading metre makers. A pair of no-nonsense, hard-running props who would happily run through brick walls and back up with 30-odd tackles. When the need arises for a break they turn to the slightly less imposing, but equally reliable, Lindsay Smith and Liam Henry. Add to the engine room the wily edge running duo of Liam Martin and Luke Garner, plus the game's best lock in Isaah Yeo, and you have a very formidable pack.
The Storm have lost Nelson Asofa-Solomona to suspension, but have replaced him with the almost as damaging Tui Kamikamica, who will start alongside the impressive Josh King. Onto the bench they bring the man with possibly the biggest thighs to ever play the game in Lazarus Vaalepu, who alongside Christian Welch provides plenty of options in the front row rotation.
Supporting the engine room is one of the sharpest back rows in the game in Shawn Blore, Eliesa Katoa and Trent Loiero. Like all Craig Bellamy-coached packs, they all know their assignments and complete what is expected of them to form a formidable unit, one greater than the sum of its individual parts.
The pack that gains the advantage on Sunday will go a long way towards securing the victory. Neither of these teams are going to be blown away up the middle, so it will come down to the little gains, the extra metres after contact, the quick play-the-balls, the ability to control the ruck in defence, and the discipline to stay in the referee's good books -- these things will decide which is the dominant pack and which is the winning team.
How many 'Six Agains' will Ashley Klein hand out and to whom?
Referee Ashley Klein can have an enormous influence on the outcome of the grand final, as has been true of all match officials before him. More than any errors that might be made, these days the man with the whistle can change the momentum of a game through his interpretation of the 'Six Again' rule.
After blowing the pea out of his whistle in the opening finals match between the Roosters and Panthers, Klein has had a relatively quiet series since. If he continues this non-invasive approach, the best team should come away with the title.
These two teams thrive on possession, grinding opposition defences into dust with their relentlessness. Defending your line against them for six tackles is tough, but blow that out with multiple 'Six Again' calls and it becomes near impossible. Do that a couple of times and the stuffing is completely knocked out of the defending team's ability to reply.
Both teams are masters of controlling the ruck, so Klein has to find a balance between policing that and accepting it as one of the reasons these two are as good as they are. He could literally find a reason to restart the tackle count in almost every tackle, but he needs to let the game flow and only punish the most cynical of efforts.
If one team receives a greater share of possession, particularly early in the game, then they will have a greater chance of winning what should be a game that is won or lost on the slightest of advantages.