Canterbury and England prop James Graham is hoping to end his Grand Final losing streak when he faces Sam Burgess’ South Sydney in the NRL’s season-ending spectacle on Sunday.
The 29-year-old has played in seven Grand Finals in the last eight years, but has won just once, in 2006. Since then he’s lost six in a row.
“The sole [win] was 2006 at Saints and it pretty much went downhill from there,” Graham told the Daily Telegraph in Australia.
“We won a couple of Challenge Cups, which are really difficult to back up from the way the seasons are structured. The Cup final in late August and then the grand final in October. I know it might sound weird to you but it’s so difficult to peak and then [you have] got to peak again.
“We managed to get there a couple of times and you reflect and think, ‘you should have got that one if not for injury, or a decision goes our way, or a 40-20 or doesn’t go our way’. You think ‘if only’, but the record isn’t too good.
“I guess if you went to a casino and it was a 50-50 bet, you’d be pretty annoyed it only came up one 50-50.
“That’s all in the past and this game now on the weekend is moved to one side, although I still remember a lot of those memories quite vividly. It certainly won’t come into play on Sunday, this is a completely different team.
“I was on the other side of the world for five of those losses.”