Ashley Klein has worked hard all season to be part of rugby league's biggest day - but when all is said and done, he hopes you won't even notice he was there.
Appointed to stand in the middle as the referee for his third NRL decider, Klein earlier this season celebrated his 400th game as an NRL referee and has plenty of experience in big games, and said the sign of a good performance for him was to have all the fans talking about the players after the full-time siren.
"This one means a lot - there was obviously disappointment last year, but that also gave me the motivation to go into this year and perform and make it back and I’m pretty excited to be going out there on Sunday to officiate what will hopefully be a fantastic game with the top two teams of the competition," Klein said.
“It is exciting ... but once kick-off happens, it's just another game of footy and the important thing is to just adjudicate what's in front of me and keep doing what I've been doing to get here, pretty much change nothing and work together as a team with the two touch judges and the video referee.
"(Hopefully) coming out at the end of the game, everyone is just talking about the players and no officiating."
Klein will be joined in the decider between Melbourne Storm and Penrith Panthers by touch judges David Munro and Chris Sutton, with Grant Atkins on board as the Bunker Review Official.
Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski has been appointed to referee the NRLW decider between Sydney Roosters and Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, with Karra-Lee Nolan and Rochelle Tamarua the be touch judges for the encounter.
“It's a massive honour, really excited and looking forward to it," Przeklasa-Adamski said.
“Any grand final day that you get to be involved in is a highlight of your career and it's certainly one of mine."
Kasey Badger is the Bunker Review Official and said she was proud to see how far the NRLW competition had come since the first grand final in 2018, where she was an on-field official.
“It's been great to see that the trajectory in the female game, both on-and-off the field over the last number of years,” Badger said.
“I am a massive fan of the women's game; it's great to see where it's come from.
“I was just looking back today, some memories popped up on my Facebook, memories of the first NRLW grand final which I was lucky enough to be involved in and to see how far it's come since then, it's just amazing and knowing that we're going to increase teams again next year is just setting the game up for such great success."
Grand final day will begin with with the NRL State Championship with the winner of Queensland's Hostplus Cup Norths Devils facing off against NSW Knock-On Effect Cup winners Newtown Jets.
An officiating team of referee Liam Kennedy, touch judges Jarrod Cole and Kieren Irons and review official Peter Gough will be aiming to get the day off to a great start.
"Just running on the day is going to be a great event," Kennedy said.
"I don't want to scuff the grass up too much for the main events later on, but I'm really looking forward to it."
Match: Jets v Devils
NRL State Championship -
home Team
Jets
away Team
Devils
Venue: Accor Stadium, Sydney
