GRAND finals are carried off by the outlandishly talented, the freaks, the stars of the game - Benji Marshall's flick pass in 2005, Mark Geyer's virtual decapitation of Bradley Clyde in 1991, and Greg Inglis's two-try knockout of Manly last year.
It may well be true; it may also be true that they're lost by the last man on the bench, the weakest player in your 17. The Storm have slight advantage at the top, with more big game gamebreakers. They used to have an advantage at the other end, too. No more.
Last season the Melbourne bench packed a power of punch - Jeremy Smith, Matt Geyer, Michael Crocker and Jeff Lima. All four are in this year's run-on side, filling the holes left by injured or departed comrades.
At Manly, however, the shift has been in the other direction. Jason King has slipped back from starting prop to the bench with the recruitment of Josh Perry, while Adam Cuthbertson and Jack Afamasaga couldn't make the cut as other players have improved.
The contrast becomes even more stark with the last men on the bench. For Manly, it's Mark Bryant, a big strong forward playing his 100th first grade game in a career that began six years ago with the Raiders. The 27-year-old prop is off to the Celtic Crusaders having played his best NRL games in during the second half of the season.
Last man on for the Storm will be either Scott Anderson or Aiden Tolman and coach Craig Bellamy will be desperately hoping these names that can't ring a bell with league fans can have more impact on Manly's pack.
Tolman is more mobile, Anderson more sturdily built. Tolman has seven NRL games and Anderson nine. Until the end of the year the only time they ever got to play was during the annual Origin depletion.
The pair are good mates and are now just counting down the clock to see who will play.
"I was down here all last year and didn't get a game," Tolman said. "Not everyone gets to play in a grand final. To do that, the pinnacle of our sport, would be unbelievable."
In his profile, Bryant describes himself as "omnipotent", a scary word to hear from a front-rower.
"My mum actually gave me the expression 'patience and persistence together are omnipotent'," he said. "It was something from earlier in my career when I wasn't getting places I wanted to be. It does have a bit of truth."
Manly's assistant coach Geoff Toovey says depth is very important in modern rugby league.
"It's the old cliche that you're only as strong as your weakest link and, backing that up, you need the links coming off the bench to be as strong as those on the field," he said. "Mark is your bread-and-butter old-style football player. He's done his time here and down in Canberra and he's very enthusiastic on the field. His impact off the bench in the last couple of matches has been noted by the coaching staff."
Chris Anderson says it's all a question of trust. "That's the first you thing you look at - more than football - and that's what you spend your season sussing out," he said.
Does the coach trust the 17th man and do the players? "They mightn't have played a lot of games but they're someone who you've seen under pressure and who has handled it. You're not putting talent there; you're putting people who have handled pressure," Anderson said.
As much as it pains the former Storm premiership-winning coach, Anderson conceded Manly do have an advantage on the bench, given the inexperience of Anderson and Tolman.
"In a big game it's not an ideal situation for them because Manly have a very strong bench," Anderson said. "That gives the coach confidence but, more importantly, it gives the team confidence; they don't lose anything when they see him run on and they say 'We've got a good solid bloke here' compared with a bloke coming on whose only played half a dozen first-grade games."
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