Mick Ennis is sitting on the other side of a table outside a cafe in Gymea, and we are wrestling with one of the game's great conundrums …

Is the Cronulla hooker an annoying grub on the field, outstanding human being off it?

Ennis can get under the skin of any player, often without even trying. As someone told me this week: "Even Danny Buderus didn't want to shake his hand when he played." That says a lot because Buderus was the nicest man to ever lace a boot.

Like many reporters, I've always slotted Ennis into the same category. Would you have a beer with Michael Ennis? I would. Maybe even two.

Other players, though, aren't so sure.

So if you want to get under his skin, ask him some hard questions about getting under the skin of other players. Why isn't he liked? A niggler? Where does it come from? What are your thoughts when you pat Cameron Smith on the head? Blah blah blah …

"I'm sick of talking about it just for the simple fact that it is what it is – and I have two games left," he says, frustrated. "I don't want to worry about that. Who I am as a person has made me who I am as a player. If I thought of changing now there would be no point.

"I try to be the best person I can all the time. Sometimes it doesn't go to plan. As much as people want to write and say that I must go into games with pre-conceived ideas, I never do. I'm there about winning a footy game, about attacking structures, it's all that boring stuff you've heard before. Sometimes, things just happen on the field.

"You are what you are. If we're all the same player, if we're all Cameron Smith, the game wouldn't have the energy and support that it does."

The issue is particularly sensitive not so much because it is well worn but because Cronulla's preliminary final against the Cowboys at Allianz Stadium on Friday night could be his last.

Ennis would prefer to be remembered for what he can do as player, not as the man who raised the ire of Canberra coach Ricky Stuart in the first week of the finals when he mocked the now cultish "Viking Clap" in front of the Raiders faithful at GIO Stadium after full-time.

Stuart branded the act as "disrespectful" and the discourse for the next few days was typically divided. What many overlooked was a comment from Stuart that captures how some players feel about him.

"Mick's real personality is the way he plays," Stuart said. "His real personality is what we see on the football field … And then when he is fronted he wants to be the 'other' Michael Ennis. I am over him."

There's a belief among Ennis' peers that he plays the nice guy off the field – especially to the media – to smother the annoying things he does on it. In other words, they're tired of the con job.

Is he a good guy? Is he legit?

"I think I am," he says.

And how does he think he's regarded by other players?

"I think, at times, they feel like I'm annoying or highly competitive to play against," he says. "That in-your-face style. If you broke that down, I think they'd see a fair footy player as well. I saw Jason Taumalolo say those things about me last night. But if you listen to the rest of his story, he was pretty flowing in his appraisal [of me] as an actual player … but people don't want to talk about that because it's not entertainment."

On Tuesday, at a media all-in, the Cowboys cannonball said this of Ennis: "I speak for most of the NRL when [I say] Mick is definitely up there as one of the most annoying players in the comp."

In the lead-up to a preliminary final, the comments were dynamite. In reality, Taumalolo said it with a broad smile. Soon after, his remarks that Ennis was one of the best in his position "in the modern-day era" were given scant coverage.

Ennis' mocking of the Canberra fans was widely condemned but what isn't commonly known is that Triple M received several calls from Raiders supporters declaring they loved the theatre of it all.

That's the thing with Ennis: these aren't grade-five contrary conduct offences – a pat on the head here, a slap in the face there, a sledge that went straight up the nose of Nathan Hindmarsh at Parramatta Stadium one night, prompting the veteran forward to throw punches, get sent off and then claim "he's just a grub".

A year earlier, they had been roommates in the NSW Origin camp … under coach Ricky Stuart.

It's understandable Ennis doesn't want to talk about this side of his career with the end so near.

Earlier this week, he walked from the training paddock and it dawned on him it was one of his last-ever sessions.

He'd agreed to terms with Cronulla earlier this year, taking up an option to play one final season. Then he sat down on the lounge that evening. It didn't feel right.

"Do I really want to do this?" he thought. "I don't think I can commit to this."

He phoned Sharks coach Shane Flanagan the next morning, asking to see him before training.

Sharks fans love their No.9: Michael Ennis celebrates with fans in front of a banner made to celebrate his 250th NRL game in March. Photo: Brendon Thorne

As Ennis walked into Flanagan's office, captain Paul Gallen was leaving. He'd just told the coach he wanted to play on.

"It's a brave decision and I admire your honesty," Flanagan said when Ennis told him he wanted to retire. "But can you get through training and go home and have a think about it and we'll talk tomorrow?"

Later that morning, after training, Flanagan texted his veteran hooker: "Have I had a bad dream or are we going down that path?"

Says Ennis now: "I was comfortable with what I had decided. I couldn't bullshit my way through it just to get the cash."

Ennis fits snugly into the narrative getting around Cronulla right now: the team few want to see win … except for the pocket of fans from the Shire who are desperate to know what a premiership feels like.

Having been squeezed out of Newcastle, St George Illawarra and Brisbane, Ennis seemed to have finally found the love he needed at the Bulldogs. They were his kind of club: all about footy. They looked after their own.

He was made captain, played in the grand final in 2012 and was then squeezed out when coach Des Hasler snatched young hooker Michael Lichaa from the Sharks – prompting Cronulla to pick up Ennis to fill the void.

Rivals: The Melbourne Storm's Cameron Smith and Canterbury rake Michael Ennis at the 2012 NRL grand final breakfast. Photo: Marco Del Grande

"I was disappointed that they thought I couldn't have success there," Ennis says. "That lit the fire … I could've stayed there and been that worker making 50 tackles a week but that was never the player I was. I was always an attacker from dummy half. I'd lost that enjoyment out of my game where I could exploit defences out of dummy half. I didn't realise I had lost it.

"Here, I go into games now excited, not just thinking about where I have to get the ball to. I look to attack. It wasn't about proving Canterbury wrong – it was about proving myself right."

Proved himself right? He's probably in the best form of his career, prompting questions about why he would retire now, even at the age of 32.

A perfect finish looms. Ennis has the chance to be like Smith and win something.

Early days: Michael Ennis during his stint with the Dragons in 2005. Photo: David Tease

He did his anterior cruciate ligament early into the 2006 season when he was at the Broncos, who went on to win the premiership.

In 2014, he broke his foot in the preliminary final against Penrith, missing the Bulldogs' grand final loss to South Sydney.

At the start of the year, the old salts around Cronulla would spy him and say, "This is our year". Now they're saying, "We're gonna win it".

"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry," Ennis smiles.

When he finishes, he will get to spend more time with his young family. He has four children. His wife Simone is his rock.

"She's seen that many people want to smash me up," he says. "She knows the person who walks through the front door. But she knows that no matter what she says people will still have that opinion of me. Yeah, I just don't like the bloke …"

Then Ennis will find his place in the commentary box. He's been working for Fox Sports for a couple of years now and is a regular on the players' panel on NRL 360.

That's helped change perceptions, he says.

"I might've said I didn't care about my reputation when I was younger but that's just bravado," he says. "I do care about it. I think Fox has helped people see there's a person away from that player who runs out on the weekend. People come up to me and say, 'You're not that bad after all'."