Years ago, when Daly Cherry-Evans was merely in his early 30s, he'd say that he was going to play forever and he was only ever half-joking.
Plenty say that but Cherry-Evans has lived it.
Win or lose, the Sydney Roosters sudden-death semifinal against Cronulla on Saturday is the beginning of the last days, the ones that seemed like they would never arrive.
A defeat will mark Cherry-Evans's final NRL match before he links with Hull FC in Super League next year where's he's odds on to, at least once, play with or against someone a full two decades younger than him.
If the Tricolours do manage to go all the way, Cherry-Evans will break Lote Tuqiri's record for the longest gap between grand final wins by one season.
In becoming the first rookie halfback to win a grand final since 1978 and because he was one of Manly's best through the finals and on the big day in their win over the Warriors, Cherry-Evans was able to transcend many of the slings and arrows launched during the rise of franchise playmakers.
Instead of the typical hero journey most halfbacks endure, with its peaks and valleys and rises and falls, Cherry-Evans's success as a rookie gave him a kind of instant validation.
The end of that reality was put into relief in Sunday's qualifying final loss to Penrith even as, at the end of all things, Cherry-Evans can still cut it in a game of such quality and intensity.