On the eve of his 100th game, Storm forward Dale Finucane still remembers the day he first entered the NRL.
Finucane, now 24, can still recall the first time he ran out onto the field for the Bulldogs back in Round 13, 2012, but said it's his first try that sticks with him the most.
"It feels like it's gone so quickly, it doesn’t feel like that long ago that I had my debut when I was with the Bulldogs, but the years have gone by very quickly, and the 100 has come around pretty fast," Finucane said.
"I think you'll always remember your firsts for everything, so I think it's got to be my first try. I remember I got very excited for my first try that I scored and it was against Parramatta as well actually, so that was quite a memorable moment for me."
Finucane made his Storm debut in the opening round of 2015 and has since been a constant in Craig Bellamy's 17, missing just three games.
The reasons for heading down south for Finucane were quite clear, as the forward has now seen his goals achieved quite quickly.
"I think coming to Melbourne, obviously I wanted to achieve a few different things including playing more minutes and playing in a starting role, and last year I was able to achieve that. That's probably the main goal for coming down here, and that’s been achieved."
After an impressive 15-14 victory over the Cowboys on Saturday night, the Storm will now turn their attention to the Eels on Monday night, in their final match before their first bye of the season.
The Eels have had quite an eventful season to date, but Finucane knows that now that their season is back on track, they'll be hungry for the points come Monday.
"They'd be disappointed in losing the points they’ve accumulated since the start of the season, and I watched some of them on the weekend and it was a pretty close game," Finucane said.
"This being a home game for them, they'll really want to win that… so they'll be a pretty determined team on Monday."
In what looks to be an intriguing forward match-up, Finucane is ready for a physical encounter this weekend, and is wary of one man in particular.
"They (the Eels forwards) have been quite good and they've got a decent sized pack as well. Obviously they've got a bit of size, especially with Junior Paulo, and he's got good offload ability as well, so they're a good sized pack and they'll be tough for us on the weekend," Finucane said.
Video first featured at melbournestorm.com.au
