Time goes by, things change, but some remain the same. This includes that common springtime refrain “don’t take injured players into finals”. A star Lion is the focus of this updated edition of a 2021 article that still rings true today, and interestingly the results are not as cut and dry as aforementioned warning would have you believe.
Sadly a number of great players won’t take their place on the biggest stage through injury, with each of Saturday’s adversaries forced to enter the field of dreams without first choice players. Tom Stewart for the Cats, ineligible for selection via the league’s strict HIA guidelines, and Jarrod Berry for the Lions, declaring himself unfit after suffering a second dislocation of his shoulder in last weekend’s victory over Collingwood.
While these two won’t step foot into the colosseum, the biggest story of the week to date has been the surprise recovery and selection of dual-Brownlow medallist Lachie Neale just 21 days after tearing his calf so badly in the Qualifying Final loss that he was immediately declared out of the season. Talkback callers and media personalities are falling over themselves to espouse the massive risk Brisbane are taking and the advantage it hands to Geelong. While there is no doubt that things could go horribly awry, there are enough examples throughout history (and outlined below) that sometimes you need to take that leap of faith in pursuit of the greatest glory. As always, the only way to effectively measure the success of the decision is with hindsight, so we’ll have to wait until approximately 5.15pm on Saturday to shake our heads, or nod in respect.
Lets take a look at a few other recent occasions where finals matches may have been decided by that critical decision to back a player under an injury cloud.
The Good:
Nick Daicos – Preliminary Final 2023
Collingwood’s dreams of a drought breaking premiership in 2023 hung by a knife’s edge when their young megastar Nick Daicos went down clutching his leg in Round 21. The fracture was expected to finish his season, but he pushed through the pain to line up in the Preliminary Final and 28 disposals, including nine in a pulsating final term, helped his team across the line by the smallest margin. He backed up the following week with a game-high 29 touches and a goal in their famous four-point win.
Lachie Neale – Grand Final 2024
Hang on, didn’t we just hear about Neale playing tomorrow under duress? You wouldn’t read about it, but just last year the very same player was carrying the extremely uncomfortable plantar fasciitis pain throughout the finals series. It got so bad he was forced to crawl around his home rather than try to walk, but there he was on GF day, lined up in the centre square and performed well enough for second place in the Norm Smith Medal voting with eight votes and to claim the prestigious Gary Ayres Medal.
The Bad:
Sam Reid – Grand Final 2022
Look away Bloods fans, this isn’t pretty. Sam Reid despite a strong 2022 campaign was seriously hobbled in the lead up to the big dance, suffering with a groin strain. Longmire and co trusted their man, but he failed to fire, registering just four handballs in an insipid display before they conceded their mistake and subbed him out.
Logan McDonald & Isaac Heeney – Grand Final 2024
It’s no surprise Horse stepped away after a couple of calamitous GF performances on the back of ill-fated trust placed in injured players. Isaac Heeney is one of the competition’s premier players and should have been recognised with the 2024 MVP such was his impact, but sadly he badly damaged a foot in the Preliminary Final, a game he scored a perfect ten coaches votes to will his side across the line. He was unable to repeat the heroics a week later, and while he was far from the Swans worst, he was unable to be the difference his team required.
Logan McDonald channelled Reid from ’22 bringing in an injured ankle and unsurprisingly was only able to contribute one disposal before he was put out of his misery and expelled to the substitute bench. He also sat out the entire 2025 season.
Risk v Reward – The Great Finals Injury Conundrum
A thrilling finals series so far has been jam-packed with highlights, surprise results and heroes putting up their hand to grab that elusive premiership cup. However, it’s also been clouded by injuries to some of the biggest names in the game at a time when coaches can least afford the interruption.
The question is often asked, and only answered with hindsight as to whether the risk in playing an important cog under the fierce spotlight of finals pressure is worth the potential reward. It often comes down to a simplified equation of whether Player A at 75% is better value than Player B at 100%. The public perception is it’s usually wise to err on the side of caution, however, there are many examples of when the risk paid off, and below we’ll explore some of the more famous instances of when a coach rolled the dice. Sometimes it resulted in ultimate success, but also at times with devastating outcomes.
As for our two current day case studies, it is almost certain that Bontempelli will play this weekend, and his fate will depend almost solely on his pain threshold, along with a likely hard tag by Willem Drew, Stewart’s situation is now put to bed, and his unlikely Grand Final return was crushed by the Dees in the Prelim.
WHEN REWARD WON:
Tony Lockett – 1996 Grand Final
The greatest goal kicker in the game’s history had his only taste of that one day in September on the back of an incredible run in 1996. Lockett injured his groin kicking the winning behind from inside the centre square after the final siren in the Preliminary Final against Essendon the week prior, but nothing was going to stop him running out onto the MCG against the Kangaroos in the centenary decider.
Early on the Swans had all the play with Lockett well on top of his opponent Mick Martyn, kicking five first-half goals as North took a two-point lead into halftime. Unfortunately, the opportunities dried up in the second half and Lockett was only able to add one more goal to his final tally of six goals, one behind from eight disposals and four marks. With a season average of 5.5 goals, the risk was more definitely worth running by rookie coach Rodney Eade, however, wasn’t enough to halt the exuberant North from breaking their own premiership drought.
Steve Johnson – 2011 Grand Final
The enigmatic Steve Johnson already had a Norm Smith Medal in his kitbag from a five-goal haul in the history-making 2007 triumph, but as 2011 rolled around he was waylaid with a knee complaint. Facing an impressive Collingwood aiming for back-to-back premierships, first-year coach, Chris Scott threw caution to the wind and backed in his man, who returned the faith in spades as he ran riot booting four goals in a more forward-centric role. A seven-point three-quarter time lead was extended to a comfortable 38-point victory as Stevie J twisted and turned Magpie hearts inside out to finish with 4.2 and five tackles in a brave performance that could have conceivably resulted in a second Normie.
Nigel Lappin – 2003 Grand Final
Probably the least feted but integral member of the famous Lions Fab 4, Lappin endured broken ribs in the lead up to the 2003 Grand Final against the Magpies. With expectation high that the 2002 result would be reversed, coach Leigh Matthews trusted his player who repaid him in kind as the Lions flipped the script to physically intimidate their fancied opponents running out winners by 55 points.
While ultimately Lappin recorded 19 disposals and seven marks, admittedly well down on his season averages, the mental toughness to front up was indicative of the Brisbane three-peat era and would have boosted the morale of his teammates on the ground.
Jeremy McGovern – 2018 Grand Final
Do the Eagles get the chocolates withut Gov in the team?
Nobody needs reminding of his heroics that day, playing after suffering internal bleeding in the Preliminary Final. It was Gov backing his judgment and leaving Jordan de Goey to attack the footy in defence late in the game. It was the decision that eventually led to the Dom Sheed shot that was heard around the footy world, and powered West Coast to the flag.
Dale Morris – 2016 Grand Final
With a club so bereft of success it was always going to require sacrifices of superhuman level to again reach the summit, and in a match of incredible feats perhaps none exceeded those of hard-nosed defender, Dale Morris. Later discovered to have been playing with a fracture in his spine, Morris manfully took on the biggest task in football by standing the imposing Lance Franklin in what was supposed to be the Swan’s greatest moment and stared him down. The fairy-tale 22-point victory would not have been possible without the lion-hearted efforts of the Bulldog favourite who recorded 15 disposals, above his season average, ten intercepts, six one-percenters and a desperate tackle on Franklin in that frenetic last term that spilled the ball loose for Tom Boyd to put an emphatic exclamation point on the flag.
Cyril Rioli – 2014 Grand Final
The Hawk dynamo suffered a horrible run with hamstring injuries during the 2014 season, his third strain leaving him on the sidelines for eight weeks and completely destroying his finals lead up. For such an explosive athlete the chances were high he would be a liability on the hottest stage of all, but the Hawthorn coaching group alongside their medical team were confident if he could get through a half of the Box Hill Grand Final on the Sunday prior he would be right to go.
As it turned out Rioli was selected and not as the sub as assumed, but in a reflection of underdog Hawthorn’s intent, inside the centre square for the opening bounce. While he didn’t hit the scoreboard or collect a stack of disposals, the deft touches, tackles and goal assists set the tone for what was probably the greatest single team performance in the game’s rich history.
WHEN RISK LOST:
Ben Cousins – 2007 Elimination Final
By this stage of his Eagles career much of the lustre had already worn off, as fans and officials alike had grown tired of the off-field controversy. With a 13-game suspension for his bridge-gate incident and an increasingly fragile body belying his ability to still contribute at the highest level as his season average of 25-disposals would attest, he was selected for an Elimination Final at Football Park against the Grand Final bound Power.
He started well with 11 early disposals, but the strain of pushing to his regular standards on limited preparation proved too much and his hamstring gave way, torn from the bone in a sorry final act as a West Coast Eagle. This match was also noteworthy for the first appearance of his iconic Ned Kelly inspired ‘Such if Life’ tattoo.
Phil Davis – 2019 Grand Final
The Giant co-captain can be forgiven for doing everything possible to lead his team out on their debut Grand Final appearance against a vengeful Richmond, but the sight of the key defender completing a fitness test on the ground prior to the game can’t have been good for the confidence of his teammates. So it proved as the young GWS side was comprehensively jumped after scoring the first goal of the game with the result all but finalised by halftime.
Davis, himself, was able to collect a commendable 15 disposals and nine marks, but not a single tackle and most of these were collected in the somewhat meaningless second half as the Tigers cruised to a monster win.
Luke Hodge – 2012 Grand Final
Will rightly go down in history as one of the best big game players of all time as his two Norm Smith Medals and further two GFs were he received votes can attest, but the cliff hanger 2012 finale will not be remembered as fondly. A late withdrawal from the heart-stopping Preliminary Final the weekend prior nominally with a virus (the injury turned out to be a torn PCL), Hodge was definitely underdone when he was selected to lead his side against the upstart Swans.
Only contributing 17 disposals at a lowly 64% efficiency, three marks and one tackle, with no scoreboard impact down from career averages in Grand Finals of 28 possessions, eight marks and almost four tackles could certainly have been the difference in a ten-point game.
Dustin Martin – 2018 Preliminary Final
After sweeping the AFL world before him in 2017 winning the Brownlow, ALFCA and Leigh Matthews Trophies, along with the Norm Smith and Gary Ayres Medals, Dusty was the biggest name in the game and continued to run roughshod over the competition. Entering the Preliminary Final against Collingwood considered a fait accompli for the Minor Premier Tigers on the way to steamrolling another flag, Martin averaged over 26 disposals, almost five marks and 1.4 goals per game.
A knee injury hampered him in the lead up and once the game started it was immediately apparent that this would severely hamper both he and his side’s hopes of success. Unable to generate his usual power in the contest and well held by Levi Greenwood, Martin succumbed to only nineteen touches with five clangers and couldn’t deliver his usual goals in forays forward.
Mick Malthouse – 1982 Grand Final
This one is more a throwback to a forgotten era when Tiger coach Francis Bourke physically challenged Malthouse on the eve of their blockbuster playoff against sworn enemy, the Blues. Malthouse, recovering from a dislocated shoulder was desperate to play, Bourke desperate to prove him fallible assaulted him time and again in a post-training workout more commonly seen inside an octagonal cage these days, until the brittle joint again popped out of its socket.
Malthouse was left in agony and the Tigers, despite favouritism, were overrun in the second half by the Carlton mosquito fleet of which Malthouse would have been equipped to prevent and Bourke was subsequently fired sending the Tigers into an abyss for 35 years.
