Billy Slater has missed the Storm's last two finals campaigns so it's no wonder he's enjoying the experience in 2017.
The star fullback was wearing a suit instead of the club's purple as Melbourne went down to Cronulla in last year's grand final, and it was a similar story when Melbourne were heavily beaten by North Queensland in 2015.
This time, he's raring to contribute.
"It's an exciting time of the year," he said.
"I suppose for myself personally, missing out on the last two finals series, I've really enjoyed the last couple of weeks."
The Storm are regular finals visitors and Slater feels each campaign is slightly different.
"There's always elements to it each year, whether it's personnel, or the way you got there, the position on the table you finish, the teams you play against," he said.
"I think the overall excitement is generally the same, and the way that you build into your campaign, the feeling that I within the organisation."
Some of the younger Storm players suffered from some pre-match nerves before their qualifying final two weeks ago. Slater also revealed he goes through the same jitters.
"If you're not nervous at this time of the year, it doesn't mean enough to you," he said.
"I still get nervous in big games, that's just a part of who I am and everyone's a bit different. I think everyone will have an element of nerves going into these sorts of games. "
Slater said his side needed to fix a couple of simple things ahead of their preliminary final against the Broncos on Friday night.
"I think a few errors crept into our game," he said.
"The month before, we played really consistent football and felt like we eradicated those errors out of our game but they seem to creep their way into that first final. If we complete a lot better, we won't put that pressure on ourselves."
