The Cutters earned their spot on the game’s biggest day with a 21-20 win over Mounties in last week’s NSW Cup grand final, putting Nona within reach of his second double-crown after claiming the first interstate championship with Northern Pride in 2014. The Pride, under current Cutters coach Jason Demetriou, were heavy underdogs against a highly-fancied Penrth outfit but caused a grand final day boilover to win 32-28.

It will be a different experience for player and coach this time round, with the Cutters carrying slight favouritism into the match, but Nona said the experience of handling the lead-up has been invaluable.

“I think having that experience definitely helps and JD knows what to do to get the guys in right frame of mind to prepare for this game,” Nona said.

“When I was up at the Northern Pride it was actually the first time I’d even been to Sydney. We played Penrith and they were the hot favourites and no one had really hard of any of us coming from far North Queensland so the experience is a lot different this time round.

“Both competitions are very strong I think it just comes down to whichever team prepares the best for the game and whoever can turn around and play again. I think the game itself, playing on NRL grand final day, just that in itself is motivation enough to get you ready for the game.”

Nona’s combination with Dragons rising star Drew Hutchison has been a key plank in Illawarra’s success thos season but with experienced head Josh McCrone also in the ranks, Demetriou has juggled the trio to good affect in recent weeks with Nona starting from the bench against Mounties last week.

Other players might have dropped their head but Nona responded with a composed second half display to get his side home and is happy to play the same role if required on Sunday.

“The guys got out to a good lead but when Mounties started coming back it was pretty hard to watch from the sideline,” Nona said.

“Unfortunately [second-rower] Chris Lewis got knocked out and we had to re-shuffle our interchange so I had to bide my time but I was raring to go as soon as I got hold of the interchange card. We weren’t really completing our sets and building any pressure and I just though if I can get on there and do that it’d give us an opportunity at the back end of the game. If one of us is in that situation again I’m sure we’ll bide our time until we come onto the field.

“Me and Hutch were a new combination and we’re two pretty different style of players but JD got us working well together and the longer the season went the better our combination got. We’ve got Josh McCrone there as well who’s very experienced and having him there has been very good for me and Hutch because we’ve learned a lot from him.”