Matildas superstars Mary Fowler and Kyra Cooney-Cross may have made Newcastle winger Sheridan Gallagher the barnstorming athlete she is today.
But if it wasn't for the passion - and lollies - of her late father, Gallagher wouldn't be playing sport at all, let alone an NRLW elimination final.
"I wasn't very good at sport at a young age," the cross-code superstar told AAP.
"So to keep me out there on the field and turning up week in week out, he used to have to stand next to me on the sideline and give me red frogs.
"Obviously getting older, I did turn into loving sport and he didn't have to give me red frogs.
"He was always encouraging, and he was just happy that I was out there playing sport and having fun."
Gallagher took to social media this week to post about World Suicide Prevention Day after her father died by suicide when she was 16.
She said posting about her dad sent a message that "we should be talking about it (suicide prevention) more often".
Gallagher still feels her father's influence on game day, just as she did all those years ago.
"(During a match), I just try and think about the game and think about what I have to do for the team," Gallagher said.
"After the game, there's definitely that emotion there that sort of fills you."
Two years after her father's passing, Gallagher went on to captain the Young Matildas, playing alongside current soccer icons Fowler and Cooney-Cross.
The Matildas stars helped shape Gallagher into the athlete she is now.
"To sit in classrooms with each other (Fowler and Cooney-Cross), to seeing them succeed on the world stage, it's something you dream of," Gallagher said.
"That soccer career that I had was the most professional environment I had been in, and it put me in a good place to walk into an NRLW program."
If Gallagher were to score one more try in Saturday's elimination final against Gold Coast, she will break her own record (nine tries) for most four-pointers for the Knights in a single NRLW season.
A win would also book the Knights a date with Brisbane in a grand final qualifier.
But Gold Coast are out for redemption, after the Knights beat the Titans in the 2023 grand final and knocked them out of the finals contention last year.
"Whenever we play them in finals footy, or anytime ... we sort of go, 'God damn it, it's you guys'," Titans player of the year Jessika Elliston told AAP.
"Our dreams got shattered last year by Newcastle, and our plan this year is to not let that happen again.
"It's cool being an underdog, which we have been forever.
"No one sort of backs us, which is so fine, we also love that."
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