Western Bulldogs legend Bob Murphy reached out to Josh Bruce in the aftermath of his season-ending knee injury last month, which has cost the Canberra junior a shot at an AFL premiership.
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Murphy was one of several past and present AFL players who made contact with Bruce, who underwent a left knee reconstruction in August after tearing his ACL in the dying moments of his 150th match.
The Bulldogs have since stormed their way to Saturday's decider against Melbourne in Perth, despite the loss of their star full forward whose 48 goals this year remains a club high.
His Bulldogs teammates have used FaceTime to help Bruce celebrate finals wins over Essendon, Brisbane and Port Adelaide, but the 29-year-old has been stuck in Melbourne recovering under COVID lockdown restrictions and will watch Saturday's clash from his couch.
Five years ago, when the Bulldogs claimed a drought-breaking premiership, it was veteran Murphy who was unable to run out on grand final day having suffered a similar injury earlier that season. The fan favourite famously joined his victorious teammates on stage during the post-match celebrations, and hoisted the premiership cup alongside Easton Wood.
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"He messaged me on Instagram which was nice of him," Bruce told The Canberra Times.
"A lot of guys in the ACL community have, every time another one falls and joins them they welcome them in with open arms.
"It's obviously a little bit different in terms of the fact that I'm so far removed from the group as well.
"I've been able to get there on Facetime and stuff like that, but it's not as though I'm going to training and the boys are there every day, it's not as though they're playing in from of 100 thousand at the G, there's no grand final parade. It's not like a usual build up."
Outside of the Bruce-Murphy similarities ahead of Saturday's decider, parallels have also been drawn between the 2016 Bulldogs and this season's charges - nine of who won a premiership medal five years ago.
Both sides were required to blaze a trail to the grand final from outside the top eight, and both notched stirring wins away from Melbourne while down on personnel.
And just like 2016 against the Sydney Swans, this year's Bulldogs head into the Demons clash at Optus Stadium in Perth as the underdogs.
"I think the only thing that we can draw off from that [2016] is that it is possible to do it from fifth and to do it the hard way on the road," Bruce said.
"More importantly it's the way we've handled everything this season that's kind of allowed us to do what we've done in the finals series.
"We've been to Perth twice already, we've quarantined twice. We haven't lost on the road this season, we had a draw with Geelong down there.
"Just the lessons that we learned from 2020 and potentially not doing the hub as well like some of the other teams has held us in really good stead for the finals series.
"The make up of the team is completely different. There's a couple of guys who are left over who are from that team and they know what it's like to win a flag.
"They certainly know it better than the Melbourne guys."