IT has taken six years, two months and 10 days, or 123 NRL games.
But Sione Mata'utia's long wait to play finals football will end on Sunday when the Newcastle Knights tackle South Sydney in an elimination play-off at ANZ Stadium.
Mata'utia was labelled a future "great player" and club captain in the making by then Knights coach Wayne Bennett, in the lead-up to his top-grade debut, aged 18, against the Sydney Roosters in 2014.
Just seven games later, he was named in Australia's squad for the end-of-season Four Nations, becoming the youngest player ever to wear a green-and-gold jersey in a Test match.
But if Mata'utia seemed a young man heading fast in the right direction, he soon found himself as a regular in a team who finished last in three consecutive seasons, at one point enduring a club-record 19-game losing streak.
In his first five seasons at the Knights, they never once seriously challenged for a berth in the finals.
On Sunday the fullback-turned-back-rower gets to discover what all the fuss is about, along with long-time teammates Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Mitch Barnett and Daniel and Jacob Saifiti, who will also be making their first appearances in the play-offs.
"It's exciting," Mata'utia said.
"It's just a different feel this week.
"Just things like training at the stadium, in front of the members and fans. I'm just excited and keen to take it all in.
"I think it's important to take it all in, because you never know when the next time will be."
Mata'utia returned off the bench against the Roosters three weeks ago, having been sidelined for almost half the season with knee and ankle injuries.
He was confident from the pre-season that the Knights were destined to break their finals drought this year.
"We've worked hard this year," he said.
"It's been a bit of a crazy ride, pretty bumpy, even over the last couple of weeks.
"But we're here now [in the finals], so that's what we wanted."
The 24-year-old said there were some "honest conversations" within the team after last week's 36-6 loss to Gold Coast but the priority has been focusing on preparations for Souths.
"Last week [against the Titans], that wasn't what we're about," Mata'utia said.
"We have to move on quickly and get ready for the weekend.
"So we take a little bit out of that game, then leave it behind us and focus on the Rabbitohs.
"It was important that we noted the elephant in the room.
"We didn't start well, get to the end of our sets and the errors we made with the ball sapped the energy out of us."
