Geelong Advertiser |
ADAM Donohue admits they may need to shut down streets in Grovedale if the Tigers were to complete their football fairytale and win Saturday's GFL grand final.
Grovedale, which finished with the wooden spoon last year, will play in its first grand final since the 1970s and first since the GFL was formed in 1979 when it takes on league powerhouse South Barwon at Simonds Stadium.
Donohue, who was delisted by Geelong after the 2009 season, returned to Grovedale at its time of greatest need in 2010 when it was languishing at the bottom of the table.
"I came back to the club for a reason; I love it and I love all of our supporters," he said. "You can still hear all of the supporters now and if we won it then I think we'd have to shut down Heyers Road, it would be awesome."
Donohue will hope to maintain his final term dominance from his side's preliminary final win last Saturday, when he helps lead his side against the Swans.
The 23-year old helped spark the Tigers' come-from-behind win over Bell Park last week by kicking two long goals in the final term before setting up majors to teammates Dyson Bell-Warren and Heath Brown.
Despite having spent two years on Geelong's AFL list, Donohue discounted any theories that he had been individually advantaged playing on Simonds Stadium.
"I know the surroundings, but when I was here there were none of these grandstands or anything like that," he said.
"I wasn't nervous at all, I felt comfortable and most of the guys were as well.
"It might have got us in the first quarter, but from that point onwards it was all good.
Since returning to Burdoo Reserve, he has played 74 of a possible 75 games since 2010 (not including his selection in every GFL Interleague side).
However, all previous achievements and milestones appear minor upon entering Donohue's grand final mindset.
"A premiership here (at Grovedale) would mean more to me than all those other things combined by a mile," he said.
Donohue, who polled 10 Mathieson Medal votes this year, is the son of former Cats star Larry Donohue.
