Paul Gallen will surpass Cronulla's all-time appearance record in Townsville on Saturday night.
But he will always be linked to the man he will pass.
Gallen equaled Andrew Ettingshausen's record of 328 games in the black, white and blue in the win over Gold Coast at Shark Park on Saturday. The Sharks skipper will play game 329 when Cronulla travel north to face the Cowboys.
It was on the field after Cronulla secured their historic maiden premiership in 2016 that Gallen and Ettingshausen, arguably the two greatest ever Sharks players, were captured in a tearful embrace - a much celebrated image that will always have a place in the club's history.
New Sharks coach John Morris, a former teammate of Gallen's at Cronulla, said Gallen had not wanted any fuss over his achievement. Morris said it was typical of Gallen, who has put his body on the line for the club playing in the middle of the field for 19 seasons.
"Gal being Gal he didn't want any fuss about him, actually. I spoke to him during the week about how we honour it being a home game but he wasn't interested in standing him out. He just wanted to get in, get the job done," Morris said.
"It's a wonderful thing for him to be able to equal that number that I never thought would be equaled let alone broken next week. Given how much of a legend ET is to this club and 328 games is amazing, what Gal has done for this club I just can't believe [it].
"To hold that [premiership] trophy up and be the first [Sharks] player to do that, our first captain to do that in 2016, he'll be remembered forever. It probably sits a bit uneasy for Gal breaking ET's record but I'm sure ET is happy for him to go past it and have a real solid year this year."
Gallen has played noticeably less minutes for the Sharks in their opening two games. The 37-year-old played just 35 minutes in the win over the Titans and 42 minutes in the defeat to Newcastle.
The Sharks have an embarrassment of riches in their forward stocks with representative props Andrew Fifita and Matt Prior starting most matches with Test prop Aaron Woods coming off the bench.
While Gallen was known for much of his career as an 80-minute player, Morris said Gallen was keen to take a back seat where possible this season.
"Every week it changes depending on how many minutes Andrew pumps out. Andrew has got a lot of minutes in him, then we put Aaron Woods on, an Australian front-rower, and he does 40 [minutes] on his ear as well. And you've still got Matt Prior in the mix and [Jayson] Bukuya and Jack Williams. It's really hard to get them all their minutes," he said.
"Gal's pretty open this year to not play as many minutes. He's happy to get off to a good, solid start and then we'll see how the game goes. But Gal's minutes will probably come down compared to what he's played in the past but he's open to that with where he's at in his career."