Earlier this year Alex McCormick thought his football career was over, let alone his quest to play 100 senior games for the Queanbeyan Tigers where he's been a permanent fixture for almost two decades.
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His right knee was covered in persistent boils and throbbing in agony due to complications arising from a surgery more than four years prior.
On Saturday he'll run out in his beloved yellow and black for the 100th time, hoping to help shut down Eastlake's dangerous forward line and steer the club to its first top-grade premiership in five seasons.
It's a moment he thought was lost forever when doctors told him they would need to open his troublesome right knee back off to fight a dangerous infection.
"The skin would boil and then open up, I had a 15 mil [millimetre] hole in my knee, that would be the best way to describe it," McCormick said.
"The screw had deteriorated in my knee which is a one in 3000 chance or something like that, so I was pretty unlucky. The bone had already healed around the thread of the screw, it was the head of the screw was what was causing the infection.
"I had to go under the knife to get that removed and that was sort of third surgery where they figured it out that's what it was.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to put the boots on again."
McCormick's knee troubles started a lengthy list of debilitating injuries which has also included a broken finger, and fractured hand - both of which required separate surgeries.
It explains why the 26-year-old, who made his senior debut in the reserves under current top-grade coach Adrian Pavese aged 19, has taken so long to bring up the triple-figure milestone.
He played in the Tigers' 2015 premiership triumph before hurting his knee the following preseason.
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Now he's on the verge of tasting more success at the historic club, thanks to a phenomenal 62-point final-quarter effort to come from behind and beat Belconnen in the preliminary final.
But McCormick said Eastlake would be an even tougher assignment, especially after the Tigers lost Liam Greenwell to a knee injury last weekend - their third season-ending injury in two weeks.
"The last few times that we've played them [Eastlake] we probably haven't been at a hundred per cent," McCormick said. "We're looking to start well I think that's where the game's going to be won and lost."
AFL Canberra grand finals at Gungahlin Enclosed
Men's - Eastlake Demons v Queanbeyan Tigers, 3pm
Women's - Queanbeyan Tigers v Belconnen Magpies, 6.30pm
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
