Ten years on, with more than 200 NRL games under his belt, and the Broncos gunning for their seventh premiership win and first since 2006, Blair is as relaxed as he was as a happy-go-lucky teenager.
"In 2006 I wasn't nervous at all," he says. "Obviously I'm a little bit older and wiser and know how to control things like that.
"I'm just really excited and can't wait. You can feel the hype around Brisbane now and the fans are getting behind us, so it's an exciting time for the club."
After his early success at the Storm, Blair endured some tough times and produced some mixed form after joining Wests Tigers for three seasons from 2012 to 2014.
"I made the decision to go to the Tigers and you've got to live with the decisions you make and I really enjoyed my time there.
"I'm a competitive football player and I hate losing and the only thing that was more disappointing was falling out at round 26 every year."
The chance to head north this year to play under two long-term mentors in Bennett and his Broncos assistant and Kiwis coach Stephen Kearney was too good to pass up.
The seven-time premiership winning master coach has been a fan of Blair's uncompromising style of play ever since the pair met during his time assisting Kearney during the Kiwis' 2008 World Cup triumph.
"I've bumped into Wayne nearly every year since. He holidays in a place where my wife and her family holiday, so we'd always bump into each other at the gym.
"Having someone the stature of Wayne, who believes in your ability and believes in what you can do, it's humbling, and it gives me that sense of relief, that someone like Wayne really believes in how I play and what I can bring to a team."
His connection with Kearney is also strong and goes back to his earliest days at the Storm.
"I've had that bond with Stephen ever since I first started at Melbourne at 16, and then he moved into the coaching ranks.
"As a young kid growing up watching the Kiwis, I was playing back-row so he was a guy that I looked up to.
"I'm glad I've come full circle and back to Brisbane where I've met up with a lot of the staff that I started off with."
His focus now is on turning out another take-no-prisoners display at ANZ Stadium on Sunday, and working in tandem with Broncos front-row partner Sam Thaiday.
The Broncos' mix of young talent and experienced older heads has been gelling at the right time of the year, and Blair knows he needs to help lead the way when the going gets tough.
"We've got a lot of young boys in there and they ooze enthusiasm and they enjoy everything around football so a couple of big tackles or a big run and they seem to lift for us.
"They're going to look at the older guys to step up and it doesn't take much for these young kids to get excited."
