The Grand Final hurt driving Nicholls towards a fairytale finish

Departing South Sydney forward Mark Nicholls says the hurt of losing last year's Grand Final continues to motivate him towards an elusive Premiership ring before he departs Redfern at the end of the year.

The 32-year-old still hasn't forgotten last year's heartbreak but, after defeating the Roosters in last week's Elimination Final, is daring to dream of a fairytale finals run to see him off from South Sydney with a Premiership victory to his name.

“It’s all just a blur from the end of the game to when Penrith were getting presented their medals. That time period is all distorted when I think about it. All I can remember is holding my daughter,” Nicholls told pan66.com.

“To be able to hold her, I guess was a bit of comfort for me, just to have her there in that moment.

“Yeah, that hurt and disappointment, it’s impossible to forget.”

The South Sydney prop knows all too well that grand finals are hard to come by.

“I’ve been playing footy for a long time now and I haven’t won a grand final since under 14s for the Leeton Raiders,” he said.

“So I know they’re hard to come by and even harder to win.

“It’s been a long year and a bit of a rollercoaster, but I think we’re starting to play some really good footy. It obviously would be a dream come true to win in my last year here but we’ve still got a long way to go."

After losing two preliminary finals and last year's Grand Final during his 98 games in the cardinal and myrtle, the South Sydney enforcer knows the hurdles that lie ahead of his team as they take on a Sharks side who finished second on the ladder and come into Saturday's game with the third-best defensive record.

The Rabbitohs' forward pack will no doubt feel a big impact with Thomas Burgess accepting a two-game ban for a careless high tackle but Nicholls knows his fellow front-men have what it takes to match the likes of Shark’s enforcers Toby Rudolf, Braden Hamlin-Uele and Dale Finucane come Saturday night.

“Tom’s going to be a huge loss for us. He provides so much go forth and impact to our team but Chee Kam got to come on last week as our 18th man, so I think he’ll slot into the bench well,” he said.

“But we don’t have any other injuries so we should be relatively unscathed and should be able to adjust. Jai (Arrow) will probably need to play more minutes but that’s when he plays his best footy so I can’t wait.

“Sharks are obviously a top-four team and have played some good footy all year," he said. "You can tell they are really well coached and defensively they’re a really good side.

“Off the back of their good defence they get good opportunities to attack and they’ve got some exciting players all over the park.

“Their forward pack, they’re not the biggest names but they all just work together and have a tough job and off the back of guys like Nicho (Hynes) and Matt Moylan who are playing career-best footy.”