OF all the NTFL grand finals played since the mid 1950s, the Waratah-St Mary's premiership deciders have always had a special aura about them.
The two clubs have only met in four Premier League grand finals, but the intensity and meaning associated with all of those deciders have become NTFL folklore.
St Mary's beat Tahs by five points in the 1955-56 grand final and repeated the dose half a century later when they won the 2007-08 game by a whopping 96 points.
But Waratah responded by winning a classic 1976-77 decider in front of Queen Elizabeth 11 and the Duke of Edinburgh and snapped a 22-year premiership drought in 1998-99 when they beat St Mary's by 68 points.
Ironically, the same situation exists on Saturday night when St Mary's stand in the way of Tahs breaking another 22-year drought and winning their 16th flag.
St Mary's beat Waratah twice in the home and away season, but were outplayed by a physical Tahs in the second semi-final when the red and whites won by 15 points.
Waratah coach Ryan Ayres has no illusions on the challenge in front of his players despite two morale boosting wins over the Saints and defending premier Nightcliff in the leadup to the grand final.
"It's definitely been a long time and the players know it will be a massive challenge against a side like St Mary's,'' Ayres said.
"It doesn't matter when you play them, what players are missing or who is coming into their side, they are always hard to beat as most highly successful clubs are.
''We've tried to switch off a little bit since our last win in the second semi-final (against Nightcliff) but now we're ramping things up again and while we know we've got to embrace everything that is going on around us, it's also important we remain highly focused.''
Ayres will have a full list to choose from in Tahs' first appearance at the Big Dance for 14 years, a situation rival coach Anthony Vallejo also finds himself in at St Mary's.
"I suppose it's 50-50 when you go into these things, even more so now that both sides have got fit squads to choose from,'' Vallejo told the AFLNT as St Mary's pursue a 33rd senior flag.
"Shaun Edwards and Ryan Smith are two players we'll have to consider adding to the team this week, but when you win a final as well as we did against a quality side like Nightcliff, it's hard to make any changes.''
St Mary's are without a flag since 2017, a five-year trophy drought expectant Saints fans are not used to.
"It's been a while for sure and hopefully it will be third time lucky for me,'' Vallejo grinned.
"But Waratah has been a very good side all year, they were either on top or second top for the majority of it and they've got some big bodies around the ground, quality onballers and a really good key forward in (Cameron) Arnold.''
Both sides contain no-nonsense defensive lines and hard running midfields.
"Our back six is pretty solid and speaking from the perspective of an old backman at Saints, we've never been overly big but we've always played as a team unit back there,'' Vallejo said.
