Full match coverage and stats<\/a><\/p>\nWhile he was obviously restricted and played in great pain, Dunkley still had his moments as the Lions weathered a fierce first half before kicking away.<\/p>\n
Dunkley grinned sheepishly post-match when asked about his injury, before admitting the severity of what he took into the Grand Final.<\/p>\n
“That’s a six-to-eight-week injury – under the knife normally, the next week,” Dunkley admitted.<\/p>\n
“I got a call from the doc (early this week) and he said to me ‘you’re not going to miss, we’ll get you up for it’.<\/p>\n
“That’s part of being an AFL player, you put up with injuries.”<\/p>\n
Dunkley added he will undergo a shoulder reconstruction next Tuesday, but afterwards will also need an ankle operation.<\/p>\n
All the pre-game Brisbane injury focus had been on Lachie Neale’s calf and Jarrod Berry eventually being forced out because of another dislocated shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then Brandon Starcevich left the game in the third term with a head knock.<\/p>\n
But Dunkley was also one of the celebrated “cockroaches” coined earlier this month by coach Chris Fagan. Despite repeated injuries through the season, these Lions just cannot be killed.<\/p>\n
Josh Dunkley is tackled by Gryan Miers during the Grand Final between Geelong and Brisbane at the MCG, September 27, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Syndesmosis injuries are graded from one to four, with four the most serious.<\/p>\n
“Fages brought that up a couple of weeks ago and it’s lived on,” Dunkley said of the cockroaches tag.<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t about the kicks, marks and handballs for me, it was more about the leadership and helping our guys just go to work.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got 10 weeks to get better now in the off-season. I will do anything for this club.”<\/p>\n
Asked how he was feeling, Dunkley said: “Not great – I will admit that. It’s worth every bit of pain.”<\/p>\n
This was his fifth Grand Final, after playing in the Western Bulldogs’ 2016 premiership and their 2021 loss to Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Josh Dunkley after the Grand Final between Sydney and Western Bulldogs at the MCG, October 1, 2016. Picture: AFL Media<\/p>\n
He was traded to Brisbane at the end of 2022 and this is his third-straight Grand Final at the Lions.<\/p>\n
“It’s crazy – I can’t really believe it,” he said of being part of three premiership teams.<\/p>\n
“It’s a special group. Our ability to continue to get to work and learn and get better as a group … it’s a team effort, this one.<\/p>\n
“I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason. So it’s nice to be standing here today, but I am very grateful for the opportunity to go to Brisbane.<\/p>\n
“I’m very grateful for the Bulldogs as well – I wouldn’t be the person or player I am today without the Dogs.”<\/p>\n
Dunkley said the midfielders learned their lessons from the qualifying final loss to the Cats.<\/p>\n
Josh Dunkley with family and friends after the Grand Final between Geelong and Brisbane at the MCG, September 27, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
“It was very hot, that’s for sure. They brought the contest in the qualifying final and taught us a bit of a lesson in there,” he said.<\/p>\n
“For us to be really able to weather that storm was important.<\/p>\n
“Lachie Neale coming on gave us a bit of a different look as well.”<\/p>\n
Co-captain Harris Andrews said Dunkley is a “winner” who has been huge for the Lions.<\/p>\n
“The way he puts his ego on the hook each and every week, he’s the best teammate in the world,” Andrews said.<\/p>\n
“I could not speak more highly of him as a footballer.<\/p>\n
“He’s a warrior. He’s tough, he’s resilient, his mindset is incredible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midfielder Josh Dunkley played Grand Final with a grade-three syndesmosis injury Josh Dunkley after the Grand Final between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-173001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}