"I really can't complain about my last game for the Broncos - that worked out pretty good apart from the cheekbone," he said in a final pre-match media appearance at the Australian team hotel this week.
"I really don't have any complaints about how the season has gone, I've had a great time, I've enjoyed it all. I understand it doesn't all go your way. That is part of footy, you can't have it all fall your own way."
Lockyer has had his fair share of triumphs in his 355 NRL games and 55 test matches (records both), but also disappointments.
Many of those have come at the hands of the Kiwis. The 2008 World Cup final and last year's repeat heartbreaker in the Four Nations final provide a little balance to a resume that includes four NRL premierships, eight State of Origin Series victories (seven as captain), and two golden boot titles.
A Kiwis team stacked with NRL stars was a vastly different entity from the scratch sides the Kangaroos routinely thrashed for much of his 13-year test career, Lockyer said.
"In the earlier days, in the last 20 minutes sometimes we'd put a big score on the Kiwis. Now, last year and even at the World Cup, we were in front at the 60-minute mark and they came home strong. That is what the NRL is about - grinding out a result - and they do that a lot better now than they did a decade ago. They are a much harder prospect."
The farewell-to-Lockyer bandwagon has done some seriously rolling already in 2011. He's played his last test in Queensland (a 20-10 Anzac test victory on the Gold Coast); his last State of Origin game (a 34-24 victory at Suncorp), his record-breaking 350th match in Townsville; his final regular season game at Suncorp and his final NRL match. Tomorrow's match against the Kiwis - his final match on Australian soil - is likely to be the penultimate stop.
Barring injury, the final act of this long, long goodbye will come in the Four Nations final in Leeds on November 19.
Lockyer's form has never wavered. It has been so impressive that many have pondered whether the master playmaker has called time a year or two prematurely.
"There are occasions where - I don't think it's second-guessing that I've done the right thing - it's more that I've done something for so long it's hard to accept that it's the end," he said. "But I have accepted it. If ever that thought has crossed my mind throughout the year I just keep telling myself I've had a good run.
"I am happy to go now, particularly after the year, the way it has turned out with all the support I have had from the public - that has been fantastic. I just keep telling myself I have had a good career and I've got to retire sooner or later. In my eyes it's good that I am going now and people remember me this way."
The Queensland Government has commissioned a Lockyer statue to sit alongside Wally Lewis at Suncorp Stadium, and an 85km section of Queensland highway has been renamed Darren Lockyer Way.
When the end finally comes, Lockyer will be up there in the pantheon of the greats.
"It is one of those things where you'll look back and say I coached him and [his teammates] played with him in that series, in his last games of football, which is something you'll tell the kids," Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens said.
"Everyone has left something in the game. They've replaced someone you didn't think could be replaced. For instance Wally [Lewis] was replaced by Darren. Someone will replace Darren. [Peter] Sterling was replaced when [Andrew] Johns came through. That's the beauty of the game. But, in his own moment and in his own time, [Lockyer] has been a great player."
Lockyer isn't about to be distracted by wistful thoughts. He's got a game to play.
"I think the reflection will come when I am walking off the field. Right now, my focus is on the game and doing my job. Reflection is for when the job's done."
Darren James Lockyer
Born: March 24, 1977, Brisbane
Height: 1.78m
Weight: 85kg
Position: Fullback, five-eighth
Brisbane Broncos
Games:355
Tries: 122
Goals: 341
Field goals: 21
Points: 1190
