Thompson, who resides in Newcastle working in real estate, said he will be cheering the boys from the Jets on among the sell-out crowd on Saturday.

Victory are hurting from last year’s Grand Final penalty shootout loss to Sydney FC and Thompson was backing them to lose two in a row.

“To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t really care if this puts a jinx on it, I don’t think it will,” Thompson told FourFourTwo.

“We seem to do well against Victory all the time and that’s going back to when I was playing, that won’t change, I think we’ll do them comfortably. I’m excited and I can’t wait.

“I live in Newy, so they’re my local team. Without a doubt, I’m going for them and they’re playing Victory, when I played with Melbourne Heart I didn’t really like Victory then either, so I definitely won’t be supporting them.”

Newy celebrates the 2008 championship triumph

Thompson played 76 minutes in Newcastle’s 1-0 triumph over Central Coast Mariners in the 2008 Grand Final.

The game was the Mariners’ home game and was controversially played at Allianz Stadium, but a decade on, McDonald Jones Stadium is hosting its first Grand Final.

While Thompson said he had a vague memory about the game, it was the lead-up which he remembers vividly.

“The cameras at training, I remember the last session we were horrible when we changed the formation,” he said.

“I remember everyone having a go at Dutchie (Gary van Egmond) and he was cool, calm and collected saying it would be fine.

“I remember people lined up from Adamstown to the freeway, it was 15 – 20 km of people pulled up to the side of the road cheering the bus as we left the day before the game.

Thompson playing in the 2008 decider

“I remember a cricket game stopped as the bus drove past to cheer us on, that’s the stuff that stuck with me,

“I just couldn’t believe how massive the opportunity was for the town and players, I don’t expect anything else this time around.

“Newcastle is buzzing at the moment, it’s a great feeling. I’m getting calls from guys I haven’t seen in 10 years about getting tickets. It’s going to be a great spectacle, it’s a quality stadium, packed house, what more do you want?”

Newcastle finished last in season 2016/17 and Thompson said he was confident the team would have at least made finals before the season.

“I guess when you look back, you straight away mention a couple of players like Dimi Petratos and Roy O’Donovan. For me, we all knew the club had signed better than previous years,” he said.

“Everyone had that assumption that maybe this would be the year they would get better. I’m not sitting here saying I picked them to come second and making a Grand Final. I’m just saying things were done a bit smarter this season, with Lawrie McKinna and Joel Griffiths on board, having those people in the club who desperately want the town to succeed.

“Lawrie’s done it at the Mariners and Joel is arguably the biggest football name in Newcastle, they want the club to succeed so they’ve done everything they could to make it happen.”

Matt’s prediction:

The score: Newcastle 3-0

Joe Marston Medal: Jason Hoffman