Melbourne captain Cam Smith has warned Parramatta that his club heads into Sunday's NRL Grand Final 'peaking' at just the right time.
The Storm have belted the Sea Eagles 40-12 and Broncos 40-10 in consecutive finals, having entered the finals series on the back of heavy 38-4 and 30-0 defeats of the Roosters and Warriors respectively, to earn a shot at a second premiership in three years in their fourth-straight title decider.
And while in the three previous campaigns Craig Bellamy's men had entered the finals as the minor premiers, Smith believes this time around that his team is ready to hit the ground running on Sunday as opposed to limping in like it did 12 months ago.
"It's been a lot smoother run for us and the build-up's been gradual," Smith said. "I think it's building nicely for us."
"It's certainly the best run we've had into a grand final over the last three years, the best preparation we've had has been this year."
"I think this year we're peaking at the right time rather than peaking for the last round and then trying to hold on for the finals series."
"You can see from our matches we're travelling along nicely and we just need to carry that on for another week."
Smith is possibly proudest of this grand final appearance because the club has not dominated the competition to the same extent this year as both consistency and other dramas like Greg Inglis' club-imposed suspension had to be dealt with.
"I think given what we've had to go through, we've had plenty of dramas this year and our form hasn't been so great … I guess I'm very proud of the group to pull together in the end and really starting to perform the way we knew we could," he added.
"We won some games earlier in the year and from those performances we knew that we could get there."
Asked to expand, Smith pointed to the grand final rematch against Manly when both teams were struggling early in the season and met for the first time since the Sea Eagles had embarrassed the Storm 40-0 in last year's decider.
"Playing Manly at Brookvale, I think that was a big game for us," Smith said.
"A lot of the guys weren't involved in that grand final last year but they really took on board the desire we had to beat them up there and it's one of the hardest grounds to win at, and that was a grand final replay and we had a really tough game up there and won it."
"Playing those games and winning against teams like Manly gives you a lot of confidence. The consistency fell away after that game … but winning against sides like that you know you're capable of going all the way and we've done that."