Injured forward Dakota Davidson has taken part in the entirety of the Brisbane Lions’ last training session ahead of the AFLW grand final.
Davidson appears a certain starter for Sunday’s decider against North Melbourne at Ikon Park despite hurting her knee in last week’s preliminary final triumph over Geelong.
The star goalkicker looked inconsolable after going down late in the third quarter against the Cats.
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Davidson’s initial reaction led to speculation she might have ruptured her ACL.
But the 24-year-old has done everything required of her this week and trained on Saturday with heavy strapping on her left leg.
“She’s pretty good, actually,” Lions Craig Starcevich said before the team’s captain’s run on Ikon Park.
“Last Saturday night it was looking a little bit like it was going to be a bad one, but she had a scan pretty soon on the Sunday and got going.
“Trained really strongly on Thursday night, did the whole set, so she’s good to go.”
Brisbane are in their fifth grand final from seven completed AFLW seasons, with the club continually defying raids from expansion clubs to contend for premiership glory.
The Lions lost All-Australian stars Emily Bates, Greta Bodey (both Hawthorn), and Jesse Wardlaw (St Kilda) following last season’s grand final defeat to Melbourne when they were favourites during the opening of their home base in Springfield.
The Lions’ only AFLW grand final win came in 2021 when they travelled to Adelaide as rank outsiders to defeat the Crows.
Brisbane often thrive on being underdogs, something they will be again when they face the Kangaroos in Melbourne.
“I think we’ve got a totally different group,” Lions captain Bre Koenen said about last year’s grand final loss to the Demons.
“We obviously reviewed that game shortly after but totally different feel this week, different opposition.
“You can’t really compare the two, I don’t think, but we’ve looked at that (grand final) in the past and we’ve learned from it so hopefully we can go one step further this weekend.”
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