A GRAND FINAL rematch. Just another game, is it? Just like last year's grand final was just another game? So why, Mr Hasler, haven't you got around to watching the tape of last year's match?

You've only had 367 days to flick the video on, so we can safely presume time is not the issue. And, given your obsessive commitment to improvement, we can also rule out lack of interest.

What's left? Maybe the 34-8 defeat is just something Des Hasler would rather forget.

The Melbourne Storm didn't just beat Manly in last year's decider, they broke them, and putting them back together has taken a massive effort of will by all involved in the peninsular club. One year on, the Sea Eagles are back where they so desperately wanted to be, back in the only place where the wounds inflicted in last season's decider can properly heal.

But history is not on their side. Since mandatory grand finals were introduced in 1954, the same contestants have run out for rematches in consecutive seasons on only six occasions. And every time bar one, the premiers have successfully defended their title, suggesting that one of the spoils of victory might be a touch of what Steve Waugh termed "mental disintegration".

Win a grand final and you grow an inch or two; lose one and something inside - self-belief at the least - shrinks. More so when you have to face the very same players who put you to the sword the year before.

Brisbane were the last side to defend their title against the same opponents, dispatching St George in 1992 and 1993. The first year, a crack Broncos side led by Allan Langer lost only four times and streeted the field to win the minor premiership.

"The first time we beat them we were odds-on favourites," centre Chris Johns recalled. "We were really a dominant football team, and people expected us to win that one.

"The rematch was a funny one. St George beat us in the last game of the season proper and they beat us quite comfortably. Everyone was saying St George will win it.

"We had no pressure on us, so it made it a lot easier. But, having said that, we were really confident. We never, ever doubted we would be able to beat them because we had the confidence of knowing we'd beaten them the year before."

The self-belief was a powerful fuel in the dressing room. "We knew what we had to do to beat them," said Johns, who sees a parallel with this year's Manly-Storm rematch.

"The Storm have had their wake-up call when they were beaten by the Warriors.

"Obviously, they're not going to come out in the paper and say, 'We think we can beat them.' But, as a team behind closed doors, I think they're going to be extremely confident.

"I think it's going to be a super game. From an outsider looking in, Manly couldn't be in better form. But, in the back of their minds, they know this football team has beaten them easily: they know what the Storm have done to them in the past."

Kevin Ryan, who played a part in three consecutive defeats of Western Suburbs during the great Dragons dynasty, believes the premiers have a natural advantage. He's also surprised Hasler hasn't gone over last year's grand final.

"It's a bit strange. I'm a great admirer of his. But I think I'd be looking at the bloody video very closely," Ryan said.

St George comprehensively won their first grand final against Wests in 1961 and held on for narrow victories in the two years that followed.

The Storm could benefit from the manner of last year's victory, despite the recent losses of Cam Smith and Ryan Hoffman. Clint Newton, Ben Cross and Matt King all left the Storm after last year's match.

"You have that edge," the tough Dragons second-rower said. "I think Manly are a much stronger proposition this year but the Storm still have that winning advantage. Obviously, they're going to be a lot tougher proposition than the Warriors.

"They'll fire up. They're goers and they've got tremendous spirit. They don't know what getting beaten means."

Parramatta five-eighth Brett Kenny - named on Tuesday as man of the match in the Eels' consecutive defeats of Manly in 1982-83 - said the repeat dose had little to do with the previous year, although Manly fans experienced a painful deja vu as their stars crumbled in 1983 in much the same manner as they had done the season before.

"I went into the game confident of winning, not because we'd beaten them the year before but mainly because of the way we'd played that year," he said.

Kenny does believe some Manly players are scarred. But they also have form on their side.

"Some of them probably still haven't got over the fact they got beaten last year. I think it wasn't so much that they got beaten but the way that they played. It was a very ordinary game from their point of view," he said.

"But they will go out there with a bit of confidence now with the way they played against the Warriors, and they've got every right to be confident because they played very well."

GRAND FINAL REMATCHES

1954 South Sydney 23 Newtown 15

1955 South Sydney 12 Newtown 11

1961 St George 22 Western Suburbs 0

1962 St George 9 Western Suburbs 6

1963 St George 8 Western Suburbs 3

1982 Parramatta 21 Manly 8

1983 Parramatta 18 Manly 6

1990 Canberra 18 Penrith 14

1991 Penrith 19 Canberra 12

1992 Brisbane 28 St George 8

1993 Brisbane 14 St George 6