Lachie Neale has made a miraculous comeback and been named for Saturday's grand final, although a teammate nearly undid all the Brisbane skipper's good work.
Neale was given virtually no hope of playing again this season when he injured his calf in the opening week of the finals, but the 32-year-old refused to give up and completed his remarkable comeback when the grand final teams were named on Thursday night.
Earlier that day, however, Dayne Zorko unintentionally gave Neale's recovering calf a significant test.
“He thought himself he was a genuine chance of playing. Most of us as players thought this is going to be a bridge too far,” Zorko told SEN Tassie Breakfast.
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“Calves aren’t the easiest thing to come back from. He did all the medical requirements he needed to do. He smashed the recovery front.
“I trained with him yesterday and had a close eye on him. I lobbed the ball out in front of him - absolutely not on purpose - but he just dropped the hammer and had gone after it.
“I was like ‘no, no, no, don’t go for it’. One comes off the side of your foot and you’re like ‘you’re not going to get there in a million years’.
"But he went absolute ball-hard at it and just missed it, but pulled up sweet and finished the rest of the session.
“I was like ‘well, to be honest, if it was ever going to go it would have been just then’.
"He had to react quickly, he put the afterburners on for about 30 metres. It was the quickest I’d seen him move for a while.
"That gave me goosebumps, but it also gave me a real sense of ‘OK, he’s no worries, that’s good’.
“This was quite early in the session as well - (I thought) that will give him a s**tload of confidence. It certainly instilled a lot in me.”
While Zorko initially thought Neale's chances of playing would prove a "bridge too far", another star Lion had faith in the dual Brownlow medallist.
Midfielder Josh Dunkley told AFL 360 on Thursday night he knew as early as last week Neale would be fine for the huge Geelong showdown.
“I knew exactly what was going to happen,” Dunkley said.
“I watched him last week on the Tuesday before the prelim final running around and thought ‘jeez he’s not going to miss if we win’.
“I actually thought he was a chance to play last week to be fair.
“Normally with the calves you see them limping but he’s been unbelievable. He’s done a fair bit of work in the hyperbaric chamber and things like that.
“It’s obviously worked for him and we can’t wait to have him out there on Saturday.”