It was roughly three or so hours before kick-off when the call came down for Jonathon Reuben.
"Hook (Anthony Griffin) called me in and he said 'be ready' and I was like 'shit, I better be' and I waited until 5 o'clock when it was definite," Reuben said.
"Then they said I was playing, and it was so good."
And that was it. The words had been spoken. It was going to happen, at last.
Jonathon Reuben, after ten years of brilliance in reserve grade and a lifetime of dreaming, was going to do it. He was going to play in an NRL game. He would be a first grader. Be ready? He'd been ready all his life.
That is how Reuben, a proud Indigenous and Torres Strait Island man whose family comes from Daly River and Darnley Island, and who scored 107 tries in 106 matches in the Queensland Cup and who lived 29 years, two months, three weeks and two days before this happened and who earned this chance a dozen times over, this is how he finally got there and became the oldest debutant in NRL history.
Reuben felt good going into the match and he looked good once he got out there, notching 182 metres and a linebreak for St George Illawarra in their 31-12 loss to North Queensland last Friday night.
"I just wanted to do my job and do my best for the team. I loved every minute, it was fast, I was blowing a bit, I was always on my toes, but it was so good to be out there with some of the best players in the game," Reuben said.
"I was playing outside Ben Hunt, that's like playing on cloud nine."
The Dragons may have gone down to the Cowboys but Reuben's performance was a highlight in a tough day for the Red V, especially given the Townsville junior debuted in front of a home crowd at North Queensland Stadium.
He may not have crossed the stripe, but he looked dangerous with several carries and took an intercept midway through the first half on his own goal-line which saved a try.
In the lower leagues Reuben has known and dominated since he finished his prolific career in the Under 20s, that intercept would have been a four-pointer up the other end – but they run a bit faster in the top grade.
"When I got the ball I thought I was gone, I was backing myself, but a heap of them were backing off and I knew if went for it there'd be a heap of them coming across," Reuben said.
"We were defending a lot in that half and for a second I thought I was gone, but then the play was to cut inside. But to make a break like that at home, I'll never forget that moment, running down the sideline, it was mad."
After such a long on the doorstep of first grade, where he played for Canberra and Newtown and Norths Devils and Sunshine Coast and a couple of other teams along the way, Reuben's belated NRL debut was worth the wait.
He had a huge crew of family and friends with him last Friday, even if a few of them couldn't make it to the stadium on short notice – and he could feel the presence of his late father and brother with him when he took the field.
"My mum came, my nephew and his girlfriend, my other brother man and his family, a few of my other friends, there was enough there for support," Reuben said.
"My missus watched us from in Brisbane, my sister was out somewhere west of Mackay in the mines listening on the radio. Even though they couldn't all make it they were all emotional, and I was all emotional as well.
"I didn't sleep that night. I came back to the hotel after the game and I thought about my dad and my brother, and I wished they were here for this moment but I knew they were here in spirit.
"My brother and dad were big supporters of mine, and I knew they'd be looking down on me."
After spending 29 years waiting for his first NRL appearance, Reuben is ready for the second cap that could come in the next week or so.
He understands that's the next step - he had a lifetime to get ready for his first NRL game, but maybe only week to get ready for his second, and that's a challenge he welcomes.
And if you're in reserve grade in New South Wales or Queensland, he wants you to know you can do it as well, you can make it late in your career just like he did.
If he can make history as the oldest man to ever make his NRL debut, anyone can do it, so long as they stay on the cause and never give up.
"It's a big relief, to play that one game. Whatever happens now, I'll do my best for the team. Knocking down that door and playing one game, I'm still buzzing," Reuben said.
"Nobody ever backed me, I just had my family and missus support me, nobody else backed me. So never give up, no matter how old you are.
"I might be 29 and everyone's talking about it, but 29 is the new 21.
"Never give up on your dream, because it can come true.
"To all the Queensland Cup players out there, it can happen. It can happen for you."
