Nine years on from his last premiership with Launceston, Joe Groenewegen is excited by the prospect of adding another.
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Set to turn 29 later this month, the two-time best and fairest winner's hopes of contributing to a third Blues premiership suffered a huge knock just weeks out from round one when he broke his leg at training.
A rehab program led by physio Zac Young saw the ruckman play three development league games before winning a round 12 senior call-up and kicking two goals in the weekend's preliminary final win over Lauderdale.
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"I'm really happy we're in," Groenewegen said.
"I was a lot younger when I won the first two - this is a young group and I'm one of the older boys so I've kind of come full circle and it will mean a lot to be part of it from the other side.
"There'll be kids looking at me to be level-headed and calm and leading the way whereas when I was a kid I was looking up to a whole bunch of senior blokes and letting them guide me.
"To win a premiership at any age is a big deal but this would be special - this is a good group and I think if we can get this one before maybe people expected us to it'll really put us in good stead, who knows where we could go from there."
Saturday's grand final will be Groenewegen's fourth with the Blues and will see the 198cm tall switch between playing forward and giving Tim Auckland a chop-out in the ruck.
Back from four years with the defence forces, the son of ex-Western Bulldog Robert said he was grateful for how the club had welcomed his return to Windsor Park.
"The club's done a lot for me this year in terms of giving me somewhere to come back to and I've had a lot of support from the staff," he said.
"So I just owe a lot of people at the footy club a lot and I would just love to see them all there and hopefully give them something to be happy with at the end of the day."
Groenewegen and Tim Bristow are the only players remaining from the Blues' 2011 flag team.