This was supposed to be our year. Then came a sold-out Mt Smart, a second-half collapse and that old familiar feeling.

Back in March, I was sitting on the concrete blocks at the back of the western stand at Mt Smart Stadium when Wests Tigers halfback Adam Doueihi crossed the line for the team’s fifth try of the evening. Any hope of a miraculous Warriors comeback was dashed.

As Tigers fans erupted around the stadium, a young Warriors supporter sitting in front of me turned to his father and said, with tears about to roll down his face, “Dad, I don’t want to watch this any more.” All I could think to myself was “welcome to the Warriors, kid”.

I felt for that young boy, though, because I was once him. Week after week, year after year, the Warriors would fall short. The nation’s NRL team debuted in 1995, the same year I was born, so I’ve quite literally been waiting a lifetime for them to win a chip. It’s one of many running gags I return to in order to cope with the pain of being a Warriors supporter. Another favourite is that I’ll get excited about the Warriors when they’re winning a grand final by more than two scores with 20 seconds left in the game. Until then, I expect heartbreak.

Fans from the early 2000s will remember the “it’s just a matter of faith” motto the club promoted to try to convince its supporters that we just had to keep the faith and, eventually, a premiership would follow.

I remember crying as the Sydney Roosters destroyed the Warriors in the 2002 grand final. I remember believing we would go all the way in 2011, just to have the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles crush our hopes. I remember believing time and time again that we might finally do it – that maybe it was our year, only to have my heart broken yet again.

Eventually, I couldn’t handle it any more. When I found myself living overseas on a tropical island with no television and limited internet access, I effectively tuned out of the NRL. It was a forced sabbatical from caring so much about how the Warriors were doing. Sure, they were still my team, but I didn’t feel so attached to their weekly results.

Decades later, though, I fell in love with the game again. I began coaching junior representatives and found myself living with a rugby-league-crazed father-in-law who religiously watched every NRL game. He would talk to me about what was happening, who was playing well and who had signed with which team. I began taking an interest again – mostly so I had something to talk about with him.

That’s how I ended up at a packed Mt Smart Stadium for the Warriors game against the Queensland-based Dolphins on Saturday night. Expectations were high – it was the Dolphins’ first time in the finals and the two teams had taken a game each during their encounters in the regular season. Tickets for the game sold out within minutes of being released. Even former club ambassador Peter Leitch, AKA the Mad Butcher, showed up. It had all the makings of a classic.

Unfortunately, what unfolded felt all too familiar for Warriors diehards. The team capitulated: 50/50 calls went the other way, lapses in judgment led to sin bins and silly errors cost the Warriors a halftime lead, and eventually the match.

I stood in front of the famously raucous south stand in the second half as the Dolphins scored three unanswered tries at the other end of the field. Instead of celebrating a Warriors win, I could feel the collective sigh of tens of thousands of loyal supporters around the stadium. I chuckled as the familiar feeling of disappointment washed over me.

It has been a strange year to be a Warriors supporter. The club has had one of its greatest seasons in decades. Hopes of a premiership have almost never been higher – around 25% of all tickets for the Sydney grand final sold before the end of the regular season were purchased by Warriors fans. It feels as though many expect them to win it all.

While it’s great to be hopeful, it’s important to remember there are always winners and losers in sports. Unfortunately for us Warriors tragics, the club has not yet managed to win a premiership. Many of us were there for the highs of 2002 and 2011. Fifteen years later, we’re back on the roller coaster once again.

Instead of having a week off to prepare for the preliminary final, which would have been the case had they beaten the Dolphins, the Warriors will now play the Newcastle Knights in a do-or-die match on Sunday evening at Eden Park. If successful, they will play minor premiers the Penrith Panthers for a spot in the big dance.

It’s the hard road to premiership glory for the team now. But it’s been a hard road to get here anyway. We’ve had injuries, suspensions, tough losses, and criticisms of players and coaching decisions. That’s what being a Warriors fan is though – a hard road.

When we do eventually taste premiership glory, the struggles will make it that much sweeter. Only the rugby league gods know if this is truly our year, but we’ll keep the faith regardless.