The fact is, Benji did seem done. Under the headline: Marshall deserves fitting send-off this column outlined why.

After two-and-a-half seasons with the Dragons, the club's appetite to renew him was low. We now know it was clearing the decks for the $6 million offer it ultimately put to Ben Hunt for the 2018 season and beyond.

It also wanted to give a youngster named Drew Hutchison a shot in the interim (he subsequently tore his ACL in the pre-season).

You could reasonably suspect it made Marshall the offer of a $300,000 extension knowing it would be knocked back. Marshall publicly laughed it off.

It's easy to question the club's call then given five seasons later, at 36, he's preparing to play his second grand final 16 years after his first.

However, the reality was it was hardly getting outbid by rivals for Marshall's services.

His past three contracts have effectively been lifelines. He played 13 games for minimum wage with the Broncos in 2017.

That opportunity was solely due to his relationship with Wayne Bennett from New Zealand's World Cup-winning campaign in 2008.

His cut-price homecoming with the Tigers in 2018 should have been his final destination. That club is now a shambles after letting him go at the end of last season.

Through its entire history, without Benji, it has been in a perennial state of disarray. People constantly ask, what does Wests Tigers stand for?

For a club based in Concord, with four home grounds, supposedly representing the now-affluent inner west of Sydney and blue-collar South Western Sydney, Benji was the great unifying force.

That they forced him out last year still astounds.

It shows Marshall's true measure. Every time people, even those well-meaning, have told him it's the end of the road, he's refused to believe them.

Five shoulder operations before he was 21, to an ill-fated switch to rugby, a hit-and-miss return with the Dragons, to stints at his last three clubs.

He's refused to draw the curtain.

He'd be the first to tell you he's been humbled along the way.

It's evident the Dragons didn't get it wrong in assessing his market value back then.

From all reports, he hasn't earned more than that in any season since.

For all his talk at the time about his role being simply to control the game, steady the ship, mentor the young guys, he didn't always play that way.

With the very best of intentions, he still often reverted to flick passes, chip kicks and that sidestep. They were habits hard to shake for a bloke whose sidestep was to rugby league what the alley-oop was to basketball.

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It was only when he left the Dragons under the circumstances he did, that he truly realised his value did lie in those more-measured attributes he espoused. With that understanding, he has churned out five more seasons and 90 NRL games.

He says he may not be done yet and, given what we've seen, we'd be foolish not to believe him.

Which brings us back to that column. People often say opinions are like a particular orifice - everyone has one.

We in the media put them down on public record. Some are bound to come back and bite you; look 'ice cold' as the kids say on the online gibber machine.

This column has had to eat its fair share of humble pie. It's the nature of the beast. Respectfully, it won't be doing do so on this occasion.

The central thesis of that piece was that Marshall deserved a send-off befitting his impact on the game. He may be just about to get it.

In conclusion, we'll borrow the final lines of that column written back in 2016. They are as true now as they were then - perhaps even more so.

Whatever your opinion of Benji Marshall, it's undeniable that, in the game of rugby league, there was a time before Benji and a time after Benji. It's a legacy only a special few can claim.

ONE of the most interesting aspects of this weekend's decider is the battle of the fullbacks. Whatever the result, it'll buck a trend.

The role of custodian has shifted so dramatically over the past 15 years you can reasonably assert competitions can't be won without a genuine superstar at No. 1.

You just have look at the recent honour roll: Ryan Papenhuyzen, James Tedesco (twice), Billy Slater (four times*), Ben Barba, Greg Inglis, Anthony Minichiello, Brett Stewart (twice), Darius Boyd.

Many, this columnist included, put a line through Souths when their superstar fullback Latrell Mitchell was scratched due to suspension.

Through these finals, Tedesco pulled a spare-parts Roosters deeper than they should've gone virtually off his own bat.

This year's Sea Eagles were as close to a one-man team as you can get in elite professional team sport - Tom Trbojevic producing a run of individual form unprecedented in modern NRL

With the utmost respect, neither fullback running around this weekend even approaches the class of players listed above.

It's all relative of course. With that list we're talking the top echelon of the top echelon of the top echelon.

Dylan Edwards is held in highest regard within the Panthers inner sanctum, but in terms of the aforementioned honour roll, Lachlan Coote (Cowboys 2015) is the only real comparison.

He's the well-maintained Commodore in a garage full of Ferraris and Porsches. Lucky then, that the Panthers' last two games have been more Bathurst 1000 than Grand Prix.

Edwards was the best player on the park last week, but his value lies in the grunt work - with and without the ball - not the sheer brilliance of most who play his position in big games.

Blake Taaffe is another matter altogether, about to play a grand final in just his eighth first grade game. His composure given that fact is remarkable and points to the future he may well have.

He seems quiet unassuming also - two qualities Wayne Bennett prizes over most others. It may explain his faith when Jaxon Paulo and Alex Johnston were viable options.

He has shown touches of ball-playing class in recent weeks, but his impact on the grand final could lie in going unnoticed in the face of what'll be another kicking onslaught from Nathan Cleary.

More interesting still, their battle is the unknown quantity given the rest of the respective spines, on paper, cancel each other out.

In Cleary-Jarome Luai and Adam Reynolds-Cody Walker, you have the elite game manager paired with the off-the-cuff attacking whiz. In Damien Cook and Apisai Koroisau you have two running dummy-halves that give opposition coaches heart palpitations.

All six will need to step up if their side is any chance at victory. It'll be the difference if one or more of them don't. If they do, though, the game will stay on a knife's edge.

It means which fullback decides to stand up and make the game his could prove the difference in the whole darn thing.

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