It's been a seemingly endless and painful eight-year wait for Parramatta NRL fans to breathe that September air again - and star Mitchell Moses knows.
The Eels' halfback remembers shedding tears like the entire blue-and-gold army did Melbourne ruined their 2009 fairytale run to the grand final.
And the western Sydney club haven't been to the finals since.
"I was actually in year nine at Holy Cross (Ryde), and I was a big Parra fan so I went to that grand final. It was pretty heartbreaking," Moses said on Wednesday.
So it's a good thing the 22-year-old admits to being in career-best form heading into Saturday's qualifying final against the Storm at AAMI Park.
Moses has been a major factor in the Eels' best regular-season showing since their minor premiership of 2005, with the club winning 11 of 14 games after his mid-season arrival.
He finished the regular season with a team-high 20 line-break assists to go with his 14 try set-ups. Moses also owns a sharp 85 per cent goalkicking rate.
In his fifth NRL season, Moses says he's never had more belief in his game.
"I'm feeling really confident with the players I've got around me, with the coaching staff, and how I'm playing my footy," he said.
"I guess you could say it's the most confident I've been since I started playing NRL.
"It's just getting my head right for each game and the combinations that we've got working at the moment, it really helped me and making my footy a lot better."
Even his defence has improved from his first few outings in Eels colours, when he was lambasted for a concerning high number of missed tackles.
"Parramatta always had a pretty good defence and pretty aggressive defence. I think that's definitely helped me a fair bit with the players I've got around me," he said.
"I get a lot of help from (Michael Jennings), Tepai (Moeroa) and when Kenny (Edwards) comes on. They help me out a lot and support me pretty well.
"I was carrying a few injuries around that time so I wasn't too worried. I was just getting my body right.
"I wasn't really afraid to go away from the contact. It was most just sticking and finishing off my tackles. I've worked on that with our tackle tech coach and it's been working well."
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