Dunkley primed for fifth grand final despite sore ankle
Roger Vaughan |
Josh Dunkley will have an extra-busy week ahead of his fifth AFL grand final as the Brisbane tackling machine nurses an ankle injury.
While the midfield ace declared himself a certain starter for Saturday’s premiership decider against Geelong, Dunkley admitted he was sore after the preliminary final win over Collingwood.
Dunkley came off in the third quarter against the Magpies, but still laid a game-high 10 tackles.
That was a week after he set the AFL finals record of 18 tackles in the semi-final win over Gold Coast.
“We’ll see – I won’t be a watch’, I will definitely play, it’s just I’m a little bit sore,” Dunkley told AAP.
“I will be fine, just have to follow the protocol and we’ll be right.”
The Lions also have to make a call on whether Lachie Neale returns from his calf muscle injury, while Jarrod Berry is in serious doubt after suffering another dislocated shoulder in Saturday’s win.
“He’s a two-time Brownlow Medallist. You welcome him back into the team any day of the week,” Dunkley said of Neale.
“We’ll see how he goes, we obviously have a few more boxes to tick.”
Dunkley was massive early in last year’s convincing grand final win over Sydney, when the game was still in the balance.
This will be his third-straight grand final for the Lions, plus his debut season ended with the 2016 premiership at the Western Bulldogs.
He also played in the Bulldogs’ losing 2021 grand final and no other player on either team will have this much experience on the last Saturday in September.
“You don’t take it for granted – you know you’re playing in big games,” Dunkley said.
“Our group, being able to respond to everything, it’s so special. We’re looking forward to getting back there and giving it a crack.
“I’ve never gone back to back – we’re not looking any further than the task ahead.
“We know Geelong are a great side, it’s going to be hard to get over them. It’s going to take our absolute best.”
Dunkley said they had learned hard lessons from a fortnight ago, when the Cats comfortably won their qualifying final.
“They taught us a bit of a lesson, in terms of how they want to play against us and what it takes to be a good side,” he said.
“We reviewed that game, we’ll obviously look at it again … it’s going to be good for us, to have that in the back of our minds.
“There are so many things that we can learn from, and try to implement (this) week.”
AAP
