The 2024 edition has all the hallmarks of being an all time classic NRL grand final.
The Storm and Panthers have been the benchmark team all season, and many have tipped the pair would be the grand final protagonists all season.
The Panthers have the chance to do what no team has ever done in the modern era and win four straight premierships in their fifth-straight grand final.
Billy Slater believes the 2020 loss will give the Panthers “huge motivation”.
“There has been talk a little from the Panthers … they learned a lesson about playing finals football (in 2020) and it’s put them in good stead over the last three years, and they’ve also said they were bullied a little bit in that game,” Slater said on Nine’s The Billy Slater Podcast.
Led by their star halves, the Storm and Panthers have been the benchmark teams all season. Getty/Nine
“So there’s huge motivation for Penrith to go out there and not just win a fourth straight, but the last thing that stopped them, taught them a huge lesson. Now they get to play them again.”
They’ve met 10 times since the 2020 grand final – which was the last time they met in a final – and the Panthers have won six of them.
Perhaps crucially for the Storm, they’ve won both meetings this season in tight affairs – 8-0 in round one and 24-22 in round 24.
“I think this will be one of the greats, without a doubt,” Andrew Johns said on Wide World of Sports’ Immortal Behavior.
“I think there are going to be a lot of storylines, and it doesn’t happen that often that that two best teams actually play each other.
“I think back to the early to mid-90s, if we had a Broncos-Canberra grand final, they would’ve been epics. But this will be a classic.
“Fine weather, fast track, there’s been a few barbs thrown. I like it.”