1. The Coaches: There has never been a Grand Final with a more experienced coaching match-up.Wayne Bennett and Brian Smith are second and third respectively on the most first-grade games coached list, with the duo totalling 1,158 games and 675 wins between them.

Bennett has coached in seven Grand Finals, winning all six with Brisbane and losing in 1987 with the Canberra Raiders, while Smith is still chasing his first premiership in his 23rd season coaching in Australia. Smith has lost three deciders, including the 1992 and 1993 big ones when his St George Dragons lost to Bennett's Brisbane Broncos.

These two have had a long-standing rivalry and they will ensure both teams are prepared to the minute and at their best for the Grand Final.

2. The Rivalry: The Dragons-Roosters rivalry goes back to 1941 when the two teams first met in a Grand Final. Eastern Suburbs point-scoring legend Dave Brown announced his retirement before the match and the Tricolours were hoping to send him out a winner but the defending premiers were blasted by a Dragons team hell-bent on claiming their first title. St George ran out winners 31-14.

The two met again in the 1960 decider and again the Saints came marching in, winning their fifth title in their amazing run of 11 straight with a 31-6 victory against an over-matched Roosters. The most famous clash between St George and the Roosters came in 1975, however, when the Roosters blew the Dragons off the park in one of St George's most humiliating defeats. The Roosters won 38-0 in a match best remembered for Graeme Langlands wearing white boots and turning in a shocker.

Since 2002, the Dragons and Roosters have met on Anzac Day and the two have staged some memorable clashes, including a famous 11-8 Dragons win in 2004 and an 18-4 win to the Roosters in 2007 where the Roosters won their first game of the season after Dragons five-eighth Richie Williams taunted Braith Anasta. The Dragons and the Roosters went on to stage an epic battle in front of a packed Sydney Cricket Ground earlier this year with the Dragons prevailing 19-12 in one of the best matches of 2010.

3. The Crowd: The NRL decider is always a sell-out but the fact this is an all-Sydney Grand Final should mean the crowd is fairly evenly split. The atmosphere is going to be electric as ANZ Stadium hosts its first all-Sydney Grand Final since 2004 and only the third all-Sydney decider since Super League. In a close match the crowd can play a major role and with a stadium packed to the brim with rabid Dragons and Roosters fans, both teams should be lifted to extraordinary deeds.

4. The Five-Eighths: After being rejected by the Roosters in 2007, mercurial five-eighth Jamie Soward found a home at the Dragons and has thrived under the mentoring of Wayne Bennett. Such has been Soward's outstanding form at the Dragons, he finished third in Dally M voting in 2009 and good judges have been crying out for him to be given an opportunity at representative level.

Roosters five-eighth Todd Carney has a similar tale of redemption. A prodigious talent from a young age, Carney was cut by the Raiders and suspended for a year by the NRL after a series of alcohol-related incidents. He returned with the Sydney Roosters this year and went on to be named the best player in the game when he took out the Dally M Medal. Soward and Carney are the two most exciting and creative playmakers in the NRL.

Both can dazzle with a pass, burn with a run and win with a kick. The Grand Final seems the perfect stage for them to create a memory for the ages.

5. The Drought:

Dragons fans have waited 31 years for a premiership, having suffered through five losing Grand Finals and any number of finals eliminations that can legitimately be considered chokes. There is an air of desperation in the Dragons camp and desperation often brings out the best. A Dragons win would make the match an historic drought-breaker while a loss for the Red V will lead to severe recriminations and another day of bitterness for the once mighty Dragons.

6. The Day: Grand Final day brings out the best in teams and over the past quarter of a century, some of the great matches have been reserved for The Big Dance. The 1989 Grand Final between Canberra and Balmain is widely regarded as the greatest match ever played. Newcastle's last-minute victory over Manly in 1997 is perhaps the most exciting finish to a decider.

Scott Sattler's amazing tackle on Todd Byrne was the turning point of Penrith's win in 2003. It took a desperate Andrew Ryan ankle tap on Michael Crocker in the final minute of the 2004 decider to crown the Bulldogs champions. And this is to say nothing of the memorable farewells Grand Finals often bring, with the likes of Royce Simmons, Mal Meninga, Shane Webcke and Terry Lamb (before coming back in 1996) all retiring as winners on Grand Final day. The Grand Final always brings out something special and the match is nearly always a classic.

7. The Big Boppers: Michael Weyman may be the most feared prop in the match this Sunday evening but it will be Jason Ryles who will be playing with the most drive. There is no doubt Weyman has one of the best go-forward games in the NRL but he will be met head on by Ryles, the former Dragon who was dumped by the club when Wayne Bennett hit town and brought Weyman with him. Ryles had a love-hate relationship with the Dragons faithful and will no doubt be fired up to prove both Wayne Bennett and the Dragons fans who rode him hard wrong. Expect sparks to fly when Weyman and Ryles come together.

8. The Second Generation Stars: None of them have tasted success themselves but the deeds of their fathers in the last game of the season are long remembered. When the Dragons last won the title in 1979, they were skippered by Craig Young, with Steve "Slippery" Morris wearing the seven jersey. Those Dragon greats never would have dreamt that it would be up to their sons to win the next title, but it is, with Dean Young and Brett Morris key players for St George-Illawarra.

The Roosters have their own second generation player with Mitchell Pearce trying to win the premiership that proved so elusive to father Wayne. Wayne "Junior" Pearce was a Balmain legend who played 191 games for the club but was part of the losing Tiger teams in 1988 and 1989. The picture of him sitting forlornly on the Sydney Football Stadium after the '89 loss is one of the most haunting in rugby league history.

9. The Defence: This is set to be a defence-oriented match, with the Dragons having the fourth best defence of the NRL era behind only the 2007 and 20008 Storm sides and the 1999 Eels.

The Dragons have allowed a miserly 12.56 points per match this year and have allowed a total of only 12 points in 160 minutes of finals football. Only five times have the Dragons allowed 18 points in 26 matches and that defence has held firm against top eight teams, with the Dragons allowing an average of only 13.6 points against fellow finalists. That figure drops to 9.46 if you eliminate bogey team Canberra and is a tremendous 9.5 against top four teams.

The Roosters defence is also sturdy, with the Tricolours allowing only 15.2 points per match over the past nine weeks and only once allowing more than 20 points in that timeframe. This will be a grinding Grand Final that will be determined by who has the sturdiest defence. Great defence means few points and a likely close finish. This shapes as one of the great defensive battles.

10. The Fullbacks: Fullback has quickly become one of the most important positions on the field and both the Dragons and the Roosters have outstanding custodians in Darius Boyd and Anthony Minichiello.

Boyd has been brilliant since moving to fullback in 2009, thriving as an elite kick returner and dangerous ball player, this year finishing third in Dally M Medal voting and winning the Dally M fullback of the year, no small feat considering he was up against the likes of Dugan, Slater, Coote, Gidley and Hayne.

Anthony Minichiello, meanwhile, has had his first injury-free season since 2005, the year he last played for New South Wales and Australia and a year after he won the Dally M fullback of the year award. Minichiello is the Roosters last remaining player from their 2002 title and their last remaining player from the 2004 Grand Final. He will play a key role this Sunday as he tries to spark the Roosters attack with his kick returns and dummy-half running. The team with the better fullback will likely win the match.