With history on their side, the Brisbane Broncos travel to Allianz Stadium confident they can beat the Sydney Roosters on their own patch.
After finishing in third position at the end of the home and away season, the Broncos must make the trek to Sydney to take on the Roosters in Friday night's Qualifying Final – a journey they are quite comfortable making.
Brisbane's record at Allianz Stadium in finals football is impressive, winning 14 of 22 finals matches at the venue formally known as the Sydney Football Stadium.
To top this, the Broncos have won four of their five finals clashes against the Roosters, including a 24-16 victory in their most recent meeting at Allianz Stadium in 2008.
All these facts have left Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett a confident man heading into the contest, with the master coach even comparing the venue to Suncorp Stadium.
"There are a few grounds around the country that you'd prefer not to be at but Allianz is not one of those," Bennett said.
"We've won premierships there and had a lot of success there. We've won Origin games when I was coach of Queensland with a lot of Broncos players playing.
"It's a great venue and it's very typical Suncorp. It's not as big as Suncorp of course but it's got a great footy environment and surroundings. It makes you feel like you want to play football."
Friday will be the third time the Broncos have met the Roosters this year, with each team on one victory apiece.
That has been the tale of the tape in recent contests between the two sides; with the last six match-ups being split at three wins each.
Despite the evenness of the rivalry and Brisbane's imposing finals record at Allianz Stadium, the Broncos have not beaten Sydney at Allianz Stadium since 2012.
Since then the Roosters have won four in a row at the venue, with this record coinciding with Sydney's dominant run of three-straight minor premierships between 2013-2015.
After a lean 2016 the Roosters are back near the top, and Bennett was full of praise for Trent Robinson's men when asked of their recent accomplishments.
"They've done a good job. They've been a good team for the last five years," he said.
"They've won three minor premierships and only had a bad year last year because of what happened in their off-season.
"They've been up there all year and are a quality football team. It will be good to play against them.
"We play good footy against them and they play good footy against us. There's a good rivalry there between two teams that can play good football."
