KEY POINTS:
In league it is all about completing your sets and Keiron Cunningham will complete a remarkable one when he leads out St Helens for the Carnegie Challenge Cup final tomorrow against Catalans Dragons.
Cunningham is the one current player who played for Saints in their last two appearances
at the old Wembley in 1996 and 1997. Since then, he has played in cup finals at Twickenham, Murrayfield and Cardiff. Captaining them at the new Wembley will round things off nicely.
"The Challenge Cup has always been my favourite competition," says the former Great Britain hooker.
"The Challenge Cup and Wembley go hand in hand. I played there twice but I've lost most of my memories of it - too many knocks to the head. But the Challenge Cup has always had a special place in my heart."
This is his seventh final and, as he has been such a dominant figure for Saints for over a decade, it comes as a surprise to realise that he has not yet kept up a Cunningham family tradition by winning the Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match, as his older brother Eddie did for Widnes against Hull in 1982.
Of course, the main reason he has never won the Trophy is that Sean Long usually does.
"I hope Sean wins it again. It will mean he's had the game of his life."
Cunningham, who has played under the leadership of such diverse characters as Bobbie Goulding, Chris Joynt and Paul Sculthorpe, has the extra responsibility this year of captaining Long and the rest of the Saints.
At 30, he is now the sort of senior figure who has a finite number of big occasions ahead of him. He has already retired from Great Britain duty, sounds deeply doubtful about playing for Wales again and has just a year left on his St Helens contract after this season.
And yet his form this year has been as good as ever. He has not only played in every game, he has made an impact in just about every one n something for which he gives considerable credit to his shadow, James Roby.
Saints' coach, Daniel Anderson, has long been willing to tell anyone who will listen that he has the two best hookers in Super League. The way in which he mixes and matches them has been at the heart of much of his side's success.
Cunningham says Alex Chan has been outstanding this year - "one of the best props in Super League. And Stacey Jones is that good a player that you never know what he's going to do. He's done it on the big stage and there's no stage bigger than this."
As he completes his set, there is no one in a better position than Keiron Cunningham to judge that.
- Independent