There's plenty Greg Inglis could take for granted in this life. 

The physical attributes that, if rugby league is the game they truly play in heaven as we suspect, would bear a spitting image to the big guy himself.

The adoring fans that, as a story from 2010 goes, when Inglis woke from a quick kip in his car while in Wagga Wagga to a hushed audience of young admirers, will even gather to watch the man sleep.

Of course he doesn't take these things for granted.

The body of one of rugby league's ultimate specimens has been put through more gruelling training sessions than the Bunnies fan base has tattoo sessions.

The masses, be they wishing well or hurling abuse, are not so much indulged as they are genuinely engaged with by the Souths superstar, regardless of whether they wear red and green or any other colour of the rainbow. 

But the four – count 'em – four consecutive grand finals that kicked off the first four years of his career as part of Melbourne's modern-day dynasty?

"To be honest I probably did take it for granted," Inglis told NRL.com of the four consecutive October long weekends he was given VIP access to on the biggest date on the NRL calendar. 

"I know the hard work that it takes to get into this position, not for one second did I forget that. But my first full NRL season ended with a grand final and I was sitting there thinking 'this is going so quick'. Actually I probably didn't even time to think that. 

"Everything was just so busy, there was so much going on, I was just sitting back going 'wow'. But from that experience, you sit back. You have fun now.

"Having not been in one for a while up until now, you learn that you can't take anything for granted. I try and savour every moment. I'm blessed that I'm in this position again, I really am." 

Try and remind the man that those two occasions he marched up onto the podium at ANZ in 2007 and 2009 to collect his premiership rings never actually happened in the eyes of the game, and he bristles. 

Understandably so. Salary cap rorting or no salary cap rorting, it was still the sweat off his back and the backs of his purple-clad teammates that got them there. 

So yes, give his arm a metaphorical twist, and the fact he's yet to win a genuine, bona fide premiership according to the pages of history does indeed provide a healthy dollop of incentive to right a couple of perceived wrongs. 

"It does drive you," Inglis says of the stripped premierships.

"But I've still got those memories. They can erase it from the history books and not mention it, but at the end of the day I've still got those memories and they can't take those away."

But the 27-year-old insists the sting that comes with both of those big stinking asterisks remains merely a side dish when compared to the main course of motivation. 

That would be ending the Rabbitohs' 43-year title famine, and giving the 5,500 faithful that turned out for the club's open training session on Monday – not to mention the thousands more that live and die by the cardinal and myrtle – something to really celebrate. 

"It means a lot, repaying Souths for giving me the opportunity to come here, words can't describe it," Inglis says, drawing a parallel or two between his present digs and the culture created by Craig Bellamy in the southern capital.

"I've seen Souths, before I even made the decision to come here, I've seen Souths as [having] a lot of talent around. It just needed a few things toyed with [back of] house - I didn't realise that til I actually got here. As you can see it's paying off over the last few years.

"Coming here and being in the position we're in... leaving Melbourne which was a successful club at the time, four years later I'm in that position... We just had a good quality bunch down there that knew how to win games and that's what we've got here now.

"It's been slowly building over the last three years, and we finally get to sit back and say we made it to a grand final."

(Additional reporting by Chris Kennedy)