Match-winning Lion reveals he’s been playing with fractured back

Grand final hero Logan Morris played through a stress fracture in his back and barely trained in recent months as he became the first AFL footballer to win a premiership in each of his first three seasons.

Morris’ injury revelation followed a star turn in the final quarter, when he kicked all three of his goals, including slotting the go-ahead major with 64 seconds left after brilliantly out-marking Oscar McDonald just inside 50.

“I think throughout the game I was getting under them [when the ball was kicked to him], and wasn’t marking ones that I would have liked,” Morris said.

“[Development coach and ex-AFL player] Liam Jones came up to me at half-time and just said, ‘Be patient with your marking, don’t release too early’, and that last one, I think I did it perfectly and released at a perfect time and was able to mark it and then obviously go back and kick it.

“I was definitely shitting them a bit [lining up for the goal]. I knew that this kick was to put us up in a grand final. I was nervous, but I just went back to what I do in training … and I was super stoked to kick it.”

Morris started poorly early with an errant set shot that went out on the full late in the opening quarter, but his afternoon transformed after Alex Pearce suffered a game-ending Achilles injury while he and Morris were chasing after the loose Sherrin.

“It was obviously shattering for him,” Morris said.

“They were probably a bit smaller [in defence after that], so we wanted to isolate whoever had a better match-up. It’s shattering for him, but it probably worked out better for us.

“I didn’t have the start that I wanted, but in a grand final – a high-pressure game – I knew that my moment was going to come. I had a quiet three quarters, and I was a bit flat with myself … [but] I knew that it would open up late in the game, and I just got my chances, and took them.”

Morris has kicked 149 goals in his first three seasons – 72 of them this year while earning his maiden All-Australian selection – to go with his history-making premierships, and he finished this year under great duress.

The Lions’ medical staff nursed him through to the grand final, with a weekly regimen where he didn’t train early in the week.

“I can probably say it now. I’ve had a stress fracture to the left side of my back for probably the back half of the year,” he said.

“It’s been a bit of a pain. Obviously, you want to be fresh, but you also want to be playing. Credit to the medical staff; the way that they’ve handled it and been able to get me up for games every week.

“It’s a relief now, sitting back and winning a third grand final after a pretty challenging year with my body.”

Morris said it was “super special” to have accomplished so much at such a young age, but he sent a warning to the rest of the competition that Brisbane were not yet satisfied.

“I’m super grateful to be part of this footy club, and I just love coming into the club every day,” he said.

“Will Ashcroft and Levi Ashcroft’s old man, [Lions premiership star] Marcus, came up to me after the game and said, ‘Enjoy this one, but you’ve got to go again’. So, we’ll enjoy it for a week, a couple of weeks, and rest our bodies in the off-season, come back fit and firing, and go again.”

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