EXPECT crash, bang, wallop at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

Two thunderous packs are gearing up to rock the joint to its multi-million pound core.

And the outcome is highly likely to depend on the forwards who make their presence felt most.

Very often the most influential player in a match is a half-back, hooker or full-back, those crafty performers who orchestrate and take advantage of the platform set by the big boys' bruising battles down the middle of the pitch.

Scrum-half Gerry Helme (1954), full-back Derek Whitehead (1974), hooker Michael Monaghan (2009), half-back Lee Briers (2010) and full-back Brett Hodgson (2012) are testament of that as Wire's Lance Todd Trophy winners – those chosen as man of the match in the cup final.

But because of the anticipated powerhouse confrontations in attempting to get over the top of the opposition in this showpiece decider, I see Mike Cooper as The Wire's key man and potentially only the second front-rower since 1980 to take the individual honour.

It is a team game, of course, and success is built on the sum of the parts but there is always somebody who catches the eye, goes the extra mile and brings the best out of people around him.

Super Cooper has been doing that a lot lately.

Now 29, the prime age for a prop forward, the former Latchford Albion junior is delivering the performances of his life for his hometown club.

Coops has had some great spells for The Wire since he first made the breakthrough to the first team as a 17-year-old in 2006.

His appearance off the bench in the 2009 Challenge Cup Final will be among the highlights.

The 2011 season in which he played his part in a League Leaders' Shield success and was selected for England Knights will be too.

There will also be some disappointment, having missed out on selection for the 2010 and 2012 Wembley showdowns and having suffered defeat in the 2012 and 2013 Grand Finals at Old Trafford.

But he is undoubtedly delivering the consistency of top-notch performances now, leaving England head coach Wayne Bennett in no two minds about recalling him into the international set-up in preparation for the end-of-year series against New Zealand.

They may be biased, but ask anybody in the Warrington camp about the form prop in the country and they will all tell you 'Coops'.

And with skipper Chris Hill and hooker Daryl Clark in formidable form too, do not rule out an all-Warrington front row for England at some stages of those battles to come with the Kiwis.

Cooper certainly seems to thrive under the coaching of Steve Price.

He did so when he made the brave move to leave behind everything and everyone he knew to try his hand in the Australian NRL in 2014.

Price was coach of St George Illawarra Dragons at the time and he clearly saw the potential in the former Bridgewater High School student.

With no disrespect to Cooper, few rugby league fans Down Under would have heard of him before his arrival never mind have an opinion on his game – despite him having left these shores as a Grand Final runner-up with Warrington.

But he made an instant impact, firstly in Price's tough pre-season regime and then on the field – to the point that he was among the form front-rowers in the best competition in the world.

And on the back of it he was called up to represent his country in the senior squad for the first time that year, going on to gain his first cap the following season.

It is fair to say Coops came back to Warrington for the 2017 season not only an enhanced player but a more rounded individual for the experience, including becoming a father too.

He had always come across as smart and mature, making plans for his future with a directorship in clothing firm 1895sports early in his playing days backs that up.

Almost certainly the devastating injury and life-threatening issues suffered by Coops in 2007 gave him some perspective on rugby league being a short career.

If a badly broken leg in an under 18s game was not enough to contend with, complications during the operation led to a blood clot in his lung and pneumonia, with doctors initially giving the prop a slim chance of survival.

But perhaps even they did not account for his fighting qualities.

Cooper, despite briefly contemplating retirement, started the long road back to fitness, and 14 months after sustaining the injury he was back in the first team.

This in itself tells how mentally tough he is – and being the nephew of former Wire captain and coach Paul Cullen it is a quality that seemingly runs in the family!

He needed to call on that mental toughness last year, when he was eager to show his home town the improved player he had become but frustratingly for him some niggling injuries held him back and the team's disappointing form throughout the year made it doubly difficult for any individual to shine.

Not so, this year!

With Tony Smith departing and Cooper being reunited with Price, Warrington fans are now seeing how that relatively unknown 'pommy' made a name for himself in Australia.

He is proving to be a machine in this Wire side, and a disruptive one too.

With the ball in hand, it always seems to take two or three defenders to take him to ground but only after he has carried them for a further metre or two.

He may not be the biggest forward on the field, but he has the strength of an ox.

His offload game has come to the fore too and most importantly, in the vast majority of cases, it is a pass out of the tackle that finds a teammate's hands rather than being uncontrolled, a little wild and finding the turf as can sometimes be the case for players with this particular skill.

In both of these instances, Cooper's work means the next play generally comes against a defence that is not set properly and therefore presents his teammates with further attacking opportunities.

It is not just the power and handling that make him a force to be reckoned with.

His footwork as he approaches a tackler makes him tricky to handle, meaning a proper grip cannot always be achieved and he can evade defenders.

When he is running at full throttle against the grain of play, taking an inside pass as he switches direction, he cuts defences wide open too.

And without the ball, he is a non-stop bundle of energy, putting himself in harm's way to the point he features high in the tackle count every week.

His cover work, tidying up threats, no doubt also makes him a dream for teammates to play alongside.

Cooper's stamina in what is probably the hardest role to play in the sport has also set him above most in Super League this season while proving to be durable too.

Many of his Wire pack colleagues are not far behind him as they live up to Price's pre-season mantra of laying the foundations for a 'tough and resilient' football team.

But the phrase 'leading from the front' could have been written for Coops and no doubt the town is very proud to see one of its own doing so.

He is set for his first start at Wembley and against probably the biggest pack in the business.

On the biggest stage, it is arguably the biggest test for Cooper and if there is any justice in the world he will reap the benefit of his St George years and slay the Dragons.