When the Power battle Geelong for a place in the preliminary final, the veteran midfielder will take part in his first final, 11 years into his decorated career.
And that achievement is not lost on Rockliff, who reflected on the nerves he felt in the build-up to his biggest game.
“I haven't thought about it too much - every time I do I get a few butterflies in the stomach,” he said.
“You aspire to play finals footy, that's why everyone plays, at the start you just want to build your career and then you want to play finals. That's where reputations are made. There was probably an element of ‘is it going to happen?'
“Speaking to the young guys, I think it's important to realise you've got to grab an opportunity when this comes.”
Rockliff debuted for Brisbane in 2009 but only managed one game and was not in the side when it reached the semi-finals - and what followed was a dark period for the club as it finished no higher than 12th on the ladder in the next eight seasons.
The former Saint might well have felt cursed when the Power finished 10th two years in a row after he joined his new club - so he will be making up for lost time once tonight's qualifying final kicks off.
“My first season at Brisbane, 2009, they made finals and I wasn't playing at the time and I just thought it would happen from there as a young bloke coming in,” Rockliff said.
“They won their first final and you just expect the next year we'll go on and get better from there. Then when it doesn't happen you've got to really appreciate the moment you live in.
“The last two years we've provided ourselves with opportunities to play finals footy and we haven't been able to go on with the job. I think we were 11-4 my first year down here, and then last year we were thereabouts until the last couple of games and we still could have played finals footy.”
But considerable improvement will be needed from Port if it is to reverse its regular season result against the Cats, where it was thumped by 60 points.
“They were outstanding the way they took us on, they transferred the ball from our front half to their forward half really well.
“So there's no doubt we have to tinker with a few things, I think (Tom) Hawkins got a lot of good opportunities one-on-one inside 50, so we've got to slow down their ball movement.
“We've got to make sure we maintain possession a little bit more than we did that night, we just couldn't find any marks coming out of our back half.”
● Meanwhile, Katamatite's Tom Clurey is fit for selection for tonight's final, but is reportedly set to not be risked for the tough assignment of taking on star Geelong forward Tom Hawkins.
While initially a hamstring injury was set to sideline the veteran defender, form appears to have kept him out of the Power's plans, per Channel 10 News' Max Burford.
Hawkins had a field day when the teams last clashed, kicking 6.2.
