Luke Keary believes this Sydney Roosters' group stand on the verge of one of their most special achievements.
The greatest of the Trent Robinson era, it could be argued, if they overcome their injury toll to lift claim their fourth premiership in 12 years.
Without halfback Sam Walker and hooker Brandon Smith for the season, after their double ACL blows in last month's loss to Canberra.
Second-rower Victor Radley still remains a faint chance of playing again this year, after fracturing his scapula in the same game.
A win on Friday night against a full-strength Penrith will put the Roosters one win away from a grand final.
But history is not on their side.
In the NRL era, only one team have won a grand final without their first-choice halfback.
And even that was self inflicted, given Brett Seymour found himself sacked by Brisbane late in 2006.
And no team has won it without their hooker and halfback.
"It's funny because there is stuff the media don't know about where you go through different adversities in different years," Keary said.
"We've had boys playing through injuries in finals series. Obviously Cooper (Cronk and his shoulder in 2018).
"Different players are always injured. We've obviously had a few really big ones in the past few weeks that are well publicised.
"It is a fair blow. But we haven't spoken about it too much internally. We believe in these blokes coming in and let's keep going on this journey.
"Maybe when we sit down at the end, if we're able to pull it off, it would be up there I reckon as a pretty special group to be able to do it."
The Roosters are adamant the injuries will not change their structure, with Sandon Smith happy on the right edge at No.7 and Connor Watson able to play big minutes at hooker.
Keary too insists his game need not change with Walker out, given he has done the bulk of the kicking this year and will still control his left edge.
But even so, the Roosters would have every right to feel like they've walked under multiple ladders in recent years.
They were decimated in 2021, had concussions kill them off in the 2022 elimination final and were missing most their backline for last year's semi-final in Melbourne.
"I wouldn't say we're unlucky, but we've just had some bigger ones than other teams," Keary said.
"But we're just a much better team this year, and been together for a lot longer.
"It's probably our third or fourth year together as a group, we're just in a better spot to deal with stuff like that.
"We have played better, we have a lot more confidence in ourselves in these big games. We are built to be able to compete in these big games.
"So we're in a better position as a team to go after it. We're not hoping or crossing our fingers or anything like that."
