KEY POINTS:
Like most players, Des Hasler didn't take very well to being dropped. But back in 1990 when I was coaching Manly there was a little bloke called Geoff Toovey snapping at Hasler's heels for the No 7 jersey. Hasler was the Kangaroos' halfback at the time.
It was
one of the toughest calls I've ever had to make but in my heart I knew the ageing tyro had to go and so I moved him up into the pack to make way for the younger fella.
It's fair to say the shades came down over Desi's eyes and he wore the look of the Grim Reaper about him for a fair while.
It was the kind of burning intensity that you'd expect from the most competitive person I've ever met and someone who protects his space like no one I've ever known. These days they call that headspace "being in the zone" and I can assure you Hasler will have been wearing the look of the Reaper all week, except this time I reckon it means an agonising death for Melbourne in Sunday's grand final.
They say you've got to lose a grand final to win one but I'm afraid it won't be fairytale time for the Storm in 2007 after getting beaten up 15-8 by the Broncos last year.
And Hasler will be the vital difference in two evenly matched teams.
He won't have had the whiteboards out this week like I'm sure his counterpart Craig Bellamy will have.
Bellamy is a real student of the game, he's a swot, much like the approach Graham Henry brings to the All Blacks.
Hasler, on the other hand, has crawled out of the fire to get Manly to where they are.
When the game was all about blood, sweat and fear, Hasler was there.
As things started to change through the 1990s, Hasler was there too.
And here he still is in the game, newly transformed where power, speed and skill is at a level like never before.
Hasler has everyone in the right position and doing the right job for the team.
But Bellamy insists on playing one of the best players I've ever seen out of position.
Greg Inglis is not the five-eighth to win you a grand final, especially when there's a pairing like Jamie Lyon and Matt Orford steering the opposition round the field.
And the positional switch of Inglis has robbed Melbourne of speed and real attacking edge from the wing. And that's where I think Manly will win it.
There's little between the halves. Orford has a better kicking game while Cooper Cronk has the slightly better running game. But in tight grand finals it's those precision chips behind the line and time and presence of mind to set yourself up for the last-tackle kick that count for so much. Orford is at the top of his game right now.
It'll be fascinating to watch the head-to-head between the Storm's Billy Slater and Manly's Brett Stewart. Both are dynamic runners and the understanding each has developed with the halves over the season could be crucial, again a potential failing with Inglis at five-eighth.
And then there's the clash between youngster Israel Folau and Manly's Kiwi, Steve Matai, in the centres.
Matai's had a huge season and what's more, he's got a decent bit of that Hasler competitive spirit in him.
Matai's from that old-fashioned school of toughness. There's times I've watched him get a knock and would swear he's dead but he just gets back up.
In fact it might be Matai who epitomises best the spartan approach Hasler has brought to the club. It's there in the treatment of the players and the way success is dealt with in an age where young blokes earning big money are allowed to develop egos to match.
Of course, that'll be put aside for 80 minutes of thick-ears-and-broken-noses league - even if that's not the image the NRL likes to sell too heavily these days.
And at a time when the league's propaganda is all about the salary cap producing the best result for the game, there's one thing that can't be disputed.
The two best sides have made it through to the biggest game of the year. And you can't ask for more than that.
