Angus Crichton has detailed how being made to fight for his Sydney Roosters career was the making of him as a man, with a farewell title now the potential prize.
Crichton will play his 214th and final NRL match in Sunday night's grand final against Newcastle, before leaving for rugby and the NSW Waratahs.
With a win at Accor Stadium, the backrower could bookend his eight-year Roosters stay with premierships after also lifting the 2019 trophy with the Tricolours.
But it hasn't always been easy, with high-profile mental health battles in 2023 and persistent questions over his future at the club.
The NSW State of Origin star was even told in 2024 there would be no new contract, with the Roosters signing David Fifita before the second-rower backflipped.
"That's the thing with this club. They demand success and you've always got to be at the top of your game when you're here," Crichton told AAP.
"Everything's earned, nothing's given.
"There are definitely times where you've got to fight for a contract or you've got to fight to make your way back in the team.
"That's part of the making of you as a man. Nothing's given to you, you've got to take everything that you get."
Crichton did just that, producing the best year of his career in 2024 and earning the right to leave the club on his own terms this season.
"It's hard, because I didn't want it to happen and thankfully it didn't happen. Thankfully I'm still here," Crichton said.
"Through the darkest times you've got to find something within you and it ends up being your biggest strength.
"In those moments and those times you've got to really put yourself into a different place. Just to get yourself to where you want to go.
"It makes you, as a person. It builds that resilience and that character and that's such a big part of who I am. That's my biggest strength, is my resilience, my grit."
Crichton is also now undeniably himself.
The former Rabbitoh sports Lightning McQueen boots at training and has two teeth with gold caps in honour of his late grandmother Lucy.
The backrower jokes one can tell his career stage by his hairstyle, going from "shaggy schoolboy" style in the early days to the "aerodynamic shaved head" with a goatee now.
"There was a regular short back and sides that morphed that into a pretty aggressive mullet at one point. Then a little fade to the top knot," Crichton said.
"I've ticked off probably most of the hairstyles I could have done, so I'm pretty happy."
What would make Crichton happiest is a second premiership, having declared last week that nothing short of that would be a fathomable exit.
"This is what you pray for and put your whole life into. You want these moments," Crichton said.
"To be sitting here in grand final week getting ready for my last game for the Roosters in the NRL, it's very exciting."
