It's a situation the St George Illawarra Dragons experienced 10 years ago, the 2010 grand final played in heavy rain.

For many of the players, the decider was the culmination of not just a season of sacrifice, but an entire career spent building towards a premiership.

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Naturally there were plenty of nerves. Throw in the excitement and buzz that comes with a big game. But the Dragons arrived at the ground with a sense of calm.

The curse of the preliminary final had been vanquished the previous week. Now it was all about winning one more game of footy.

"I still vividly remember grand final day," Ben Creagh said. "Running out and seeing all the red and white, hearing the roar of the crowd. It was a special moment.

"There was probably less pressure that week compared to the prelim. We hadn't got past that barrier before, we'd always stumbled at that hurdle, so there was more pressure heading into the prelim.

"Once we were in the grand final, we knew it was our last game, we could just put it all on the line and there were no second chances."

Wayne Bennett had guided his side through grand final week like he always had.

Undefeated in deciders as a head coach heading into the game, just his presence brought a sense of ease to the players.

"Anyone that spent a bit more time behind the scenes knows it's an act," Jason Nightingale said. "Wayne knows it's important, he gets as nervous as anyone else, but I was happy to buy into it.

"He'd done it before and keeps that air around him, he knew what he needed to do for us. That builds confidence, you know he has done it before.

"Wayne needed to give us the 'I've done this before, it's all easy' message and it really did help us. He understood what built confidence and he made it clear 99.9 per cent of the work had been done by the time we got to grand final week."

The decider played out like so many do, a relatively even first half, both teams enjoying the grind in a physical, at times scrappy, affair.

Heading to the break, Bennett liked what he saw but also hated what he saw.

"Wayne said barely anything," Nightingale said. "He said 'you'll win if you start playing Dragons footy'.

"He basically said if we get our shit together, we'll win. If we don't get our shit together, we'll lose the game on our own. It's a cliche, but it wasn't about the opposition, it was about the way we were playing."

The Dragons heeded their coach's advice, running away with the match in the second half.

That provided the side with a rare opportunity, the chance to celebrate and savour the moment throughout the final 10 minutes.

"It was nice to have the last 10 with a big score and enjoy the back-end of the game," Creagh said. "There are not many games you can do that."

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With St George Illawarra up 32-8, there were moments in which that enjoyment turned into celebration.

"It was a special time," Nightingale said. "There was a period where we were dominating, they forced a repeat set and then Todd Carney went down injured.

"Sowie [Jamie Soward] and Gaz [Mark Gasnier] and I started celebrating during that break, there was a bit of emotion and we let it all out and started enjoying it.

''You don't often get to enjoy huge wins while you're still playing. Benny [Hornby] made us stop, said the game's not over yet. In reality, we knew we could not lose and it was a chance to party while doing what we loved."

Given everything that happened throughout the remainder of Nightingale's career, it was a premiership that took on more importance with each year played.

His message for the youngsters lining up on Sunday? Make the most of the opportunity, because you don't know if it will come around again.

"It did become more special as my career progressed.

"I'd like to have more than one, but having one, that's always the thing I look back on and I don't want to take it for granted."