Everyone has a mate like Butters, at least they do if they’re lucky. He’s what you’d call a salt-of-the-earth rugby league type, the president of his local footy club, he owns more footy polos than Hugh Hefner’s had girlfriends and he simply lives and breathes the game.

He also happens to be a Sharks fan – one of the most passionate that you’ll see – which has made the story to this point an altogether sad one. Like he told me this week, if he had a dollar for every time he’s been asked: how many premierships have you won? He’d be probably be able to buy the club he loves so much with plenty more coin to spare.

The question is of course rhetorical. Everyone knows the answer, which is precisely why they ask it. 

It’s the one-size-fits-all refutation to any argument that has made Sharks fans virtual second-class citizens. Even the Knights fans in our crew who watched their side produce one of the most abysmal seasons of the NRL era in 2016, can still make them the butt of their jokes.

This schadenfreude may be the overwhelming reason why neutrals have struggled to embrace their grand final charge – who wants to surrender their trump card?

There are other reasons of course. There’s the lasting stain of the supplements scandal. Skipper Paul Gallen has virtually made it his life’s work to bash Queenslanders and still struggled to win any love north of Tom Uglys Bridge. Hooker Michael Ennis is the reigning king of the niggle while their best froward has made a recent habit of publicly supporting one of the state’s most loathed convicted killers.

From the outside looking in, the suburb itself is either synonymous with race riots or affluence depending on which way you look at it. It hardly draws the sympathy and therefore tacit support of the uncommitted like Penrith’s battlers in 2003 or JT’s Cowboys last season.

It’s more perception than reality but in the grand narrative of grand final week, perception is all there is.

But battlers they are and, as a fan-base, they’ve had to battle harder than most. It’s the bond they share. There is no such thing as a fair-weather Sharks fan. It’s why my mate Butters will spurn the normal grand final day festivities this week and lock himself away to watch the game. He’s confident, but it comes with the disclaimer: “it might never happen again”, which for Sharks fans conditioned to keep their hopes modest, is the sobering reality.

It has to be their time right? They won 15 straight this season playing some of the most entertaining footy we’ve seen in years. They have a forward pack choc-full of experienced hard-heads, a slick back-line overflowing with talent and the form half of the finals calling the shots. They’re coming off a performance far more impressive than Melbourne’s. If ever there was a time for Cronulla, it’s now. 

To do it, they’re going have to be better than they’ve been at any time this season. Much of the talk to come out of the Melbourne-Canberra prelim final, was that the Raiders played better footy and Melbourne were ‘lucky’. Canberra may have been better in patches but Melbourne are never lucky – Craig Bellamy’s men make their own luck. 

The old firm of Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk boast a collective 600-plus games between them and their starting forward pack is the best in the game. You know exactly what you’ll get from them which is why they remain Kickoff’s tip to win on Sunday. They are methodical, clinical and know how to get the job done on the biggest stage…but why not add ‘underdog’ the Sharkies fairy tale.

The longer the game stays in the balance, the more it will favour Melbourne but if the Sharks can start well and shoot out to a lead, then maybe Harold Holt will show up at Wooloware. And finally, my mate Butters will have an answer to that annoying frikken question.