If the Warriors win the National Rugby League grand final in Sydney on Sunday, they won't be just notching up an historic first premiership for the only non-Australian club in the competition – they will be flying in the face of pure statistics as well. A team ranked from outside the top four, going into the playoffs, has never won the NRL since the rebranded competition began in 1998.
The Warriors are the sixth team from outside the top four to make the season's decider in that time, but the closest any non-top four team has come was in 1999, when the sixth-placed Dragons were just nudged by the Storm 20-18.
All remaining outsiders have typically been handed hidings, with the averaging losing margin for each of the other five teams being 14 points.
In 1998, a year before the McIntyre System was introduced, the ninth-ranked Bulldogs reached the grand final, which they lost to the Broncos.
You have to turn back the history books to 1995, the Warriors' foundation year, for the last time a sixth-placed team won the first-grade competition.
The then-Sydney Bulldogs beat minor premiers Manly 17-4 to win the Australian Rugby League title that year.
In a good omen for the Warriors, former captain Steve Price started in the second row for the Bulldogs that day, while, interestingly enough, former All Black John Timu played in the centres for the premiership winners.
The Warriors' 20-12 victory over the Storm last Saturday meant that for the first time since 2005, when the fourth-ranked Tigers beat the Cowboys, there will be no minor premier in the grand final.
Don't think that it is all sunshine for the Sea Eagles though, who finished the season placed second. Since the McIntyre System was introduced in 1999, second-place teams have made the grand final five times, only winning twice.
These victories came in 2004 when the Bulldogs overcame the Roosters, and in 2008 when the Sea Eagles themselves trumped the Storm.
The Junior Warriors will also be aiming to rewrite history on Sunday.
A victory against the Cowboys Under-20s in the Toyota Cup grand final would be the first back-to-back pair of premierships in the junior competition's history.
And while the Rugby World Cup has swept New Zealand throughout the past month rugby league fans will, very quietly, point out that since their inception in 1995 they have now made two finals, compared to the All Blacks' one, against South Africa in 1995.
AT A GLANCE
Warriors' run to the NRL grand final (since August):
Lost to Broncos 21-20 in Brisbane
bt Knights 20-12 in Auckland
bt Panthers 26-12 in Sydney
lost to Dragons 26-22 in Wollongong
bt Cowboys 18-6 in Auckland
lost to Broncos 40-10 in Brisbane (qualifying final)
bt Tigers 22-20 in Sydney (semifinal)
bt Storm 20-12 in Melbourne (preliminary final)
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