From a potential season-ending osteitis pubis injury to bagging a career best seven goals, Sam Glyde's next target is Saturday's preliminary final against Queanbeyan.
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The Belconnen star, who came to Canberra last year from Coolamon, produced a stellar performance last weekend as the Magpies knocked thrashed Ainslie, cutting short the Tricolours' quest for a fifth-straight flag.
Glyde was simply grateful just to be on the park having only played four matches in 2020.
"I had an injury with osteitis pubis at the end of preseason and that put me back a fair way. I was meant to come back a lot earlier than I did," Glyde said.
"Then I hurt myself again, so it ended up being a three to four-month injury instead of a one-month injury.
"I have been a bit slow getting back into it, dropping easy marks, stuff I would normally take.
"So, I knew once I got everything together, I might be able to go all right. I was pretty happy with how the weekend went."
The Magpies went down to the Tigers in their most recent meeting in round nine, with Queanbeyan taking out the match by a whopping 70 points.
But Glyde said confidence was sky high once more at the Magpies and said they were capable of exacting revenge,
"I think round nine was that we just had a really bad day," Glyde said.
"I believe coming into this week we have a lot of confidence and they obviously lost last week, they'll have something to prove as well.
"I am just really excited to get out there and see how we go."
It has been 11 years since the Magpies last won a premiership and they lost to Ainslie in both the 2017 and 2019 AFL Canberra deciders.
But Glyde commented the feel around the Magpies was that they can go one better in 2020 and end their title drought.
"Everyone feels pretty good...halfway through the year we were undefeated, and we had a few injuries," Glyde said.
"We knew once we got a full side in and everything started to click, we are going to play well. A lot of people still write us off.
"We had a few rough weeks leading into the Ainslie game. But we always knew in patches we were pretty good, we just had to maintain that for a full game.
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"I think in the Ainslie game...our pressure around the footy [was key], it was just red hot.
"And when the pressure is high early, everything else looks after itself. Everyone feeds of the energy around it...we will take a lot out of it heading into this weekend."
Meanwhile, the Queanbeyan Tigers have received a huge boost ahead of the preliminary final with key man Anthony Lo Pilato set to return from an ankle injury.
Lo Pilato injured his ankle in the Tigers' thumping win over Belconnen last month.
But the minor premiers head into the clash without Alex Page (collarbone) and Jono Bowyer (knee).
