Storm hooker Harry Grant is determined to help the club rewrite the history books after conceding he struggled with his own form during his first full State of Origin series this season.
The Storm are in unfamiliar territory for the first time in eight years after finishing outside the top four in a first since 2014, a record that cannot be matched by any other club in the league.
Four losses on the trot during the Origin period coincided with Grant’s time away on Maroons duty and the 24-year-old indicated like the team, he found juggling both a big task.
“I was disappointed with my form through the Origin period and back to club land, it was a bit unfamiliar to me with my first full series,” Grant told NRL.com.
“I probably didn’t approach the club games the way I would’ve liked but that’s behind me now and I’m feeling good about the finals.
“As a squad we’ve got no time dwell on what’s happened to get to this point. We’ve got to take our opportunities and I believe we’re ready to do that.”
The Storm have suffered two close defeats as preparation leading into the finals – the first time since 2011 they’ll go into a series with back-to-back losses.
Don't sleep on Harry Grant
However, the opposition – the Roosters and Eels – are among the form teams of the competition and genuine title chances this season.
“It’s been a disappointing last couple of weeks, we definitely haven’t given ourselves a chance with a couple of periods of playing poorly,” Grant said.
“When you play good opposition you can’t play catch-up footy so we’ll have to fix it if we want to go far in the finals.
“Comparing this season to last year we were on a bit of a roll winning a lot of games going into the finals throughout the year.
“This year has been quite the opposite, we’ve gone through a lot of adversity and lost a lot of matches in consecutive weeks.
“It hasn’t put us in a good position not being able to have a second crack but it’s do or die a week earlier and a new competition now.”
Many are tipping the 2022 season could be the first under the NRL finals system, which was introduced a decade ago, to have a team outside the top four win the title.
“A lot of the time statistically it’s top four but we have the belief we can do it,” Grant said.
“We haven’t given ourselves the best opportunity but there’s a lot of quality sides in the top eight. I think it’s anyone’s game.”
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