The winners of this year's NRL and NRLW grand finals will be forever reminded of the people who helped make their seasons possible, with a heartfelt tribute etched into the championship rings.
As is tradition in many sports, the winners of Sunday's finals will be presented with stunning rings, but the NRL has opted to add another level to the priceless pieces of jewelery.
Along with a white gold finish and diamonds, rubies and sapphires, this year's rings will also have a motif engraved on the side featuring a firefigther passing a ball to a nurse - designed to honour the frontline workers who have helped Australia in the past 12 months.
Australia was rocked by a devastating bushfire season late last year which saw dozens of lives lost and an estimated 18.6 million hectares of land burnt.
Following that, Australia, along with the rest of the world, then had to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic which initially saw the NRL season postponed before it was safely resurrected in May.
Jewellers approached the NRL with a plan to recognise the sacrifices of frontliners who agreed to the design.
"It symbolises that changing of the guard between us but it also symbolises that we're all in this together," Fire and Rescue NSW chief superintendent Ken Murphy told Nine News.
Murphy added the rings also feature the support services and animals on the other side to honour "all the people who do the work in the background, that everyone seems to forget about, but it also symbolises some of the wildlife that were lost during those fires".
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