Ending finals drought would ‘mean everything’: Brooks

Luke Brooks is daring to dream of a maiden finals appearance after years maligned as the NRL’s most experienced player to have never featured in the post-season.

Manly’s clash against Canberra this Saturday will mark Brooks’ 225th first-grade appearance, the majority of those coming in 11 years as Wests Tigers’ whipping boy in the halves.

To put the five-eighth’s finals drought into perspective, former Tigers teammate Alex Twal is the next-most experienced active player never to have featured in finals, but has only played 138 games since debuting in 2017.

Even then, there’s a high concentration of players on similar figures to Twal, including Canberra hooker Danny Levi (135 games) and St George Illawarra forwards Francis Molo (133) and Raymond Faitala-Mariner (131).

But in his 12th regular season, Brooks is odds on to bring his final drought to a triumphant end in a matter of weeks.

Fresh off the bye, the seventh-placed Sea Eagles sit three points inside the top eight and will finish the season with more wins than losses if they can triumph in two of their remaining five fixtures.

Finals would be the ultimate vindication for Brooks, who finally made the move from Wests this season after years of suggestions a fresh start could re-energise his career.

“It would mean everything,” Brooks told AAP of playing endings for the first time.

“As a player, that’s all you want to do, play in the big games, and to win a premiership, you have to play footy finals.

“That’s our goal and for me personally, it would obviously be great to finally taste some footy finals.”

Brooks has come painfully close to the finals before.

The Tigers finished in ninth place on the ladder during three of his seasons there, including a 2018 campaign in which he won Dally M Halfback of the Year.

In two of those ninth-placed seasons, Wests were only one premiership point behind eighth, but the series of close calls has not given Brooks reason to temper his expectations.

“I’m not really thinking like that,” he said.

“I’m just worried about this week, this game. Obviously there’s a good chance to make the finals and you think about that, but it’s not everything I’m thinking about, it’s just about this week.”

Brooks is particularly enticed by the chance to lock in a fifth or sixth-placed finish and host a final home at Brookvale Oval.

The Sea Eagles are undefeated in games against current top-eight sides at their home fortress this season and hold a 7-1 record there across all teams.

They are also the only team to have defeated the three premiership front-runners in Melbourne, Penrith and the Sydney Roosters this season, with all of those victories coming at Brookvale.

“If we could somehow get a semi-final here, that would be massive, I think it’s a massive advantage for us when we play here,” Brooks said.