Yarrawonga's Michael Gibbons reveals he was close to playing grand final

But Gibbons has candidly declared the Pigeons made the right decision in not selecting him against Wangaratta at Lavington Sportsground.

Favourites Wangaratta snared a three-point thriller in one of the great second halves in a decider.

"I was pretty close, 'Hoz' (coach Mark Whiley) and I are pretty good mates, I'm pretty glad in the end he made the decision to not play me," he admitted.

"If I had gone out there and taken a spot and broken down in the first five minutes, there would have been nothing worse, I would have felt horrific."

The two-time J.J. Liston Trophy winner with Williamstown in the VFL had injured his left hamstring in the qualifying final win over Albury on September 3, with the grand final on September 25.

"I probably wouldn't have got through the game mate, I felt good, I trained on the Friday night and tried to change his (Whiley's) mind," he offered.

"I trained pretty hard and tried to get 'Hoz' to second guess himself (laughs), it was a really good decision, it was super, he said this is the decision and this is what we're going with, I was completely fine with that."

The hamstring completed a string of injuries which restricted Gibbons to only eight matches of a possible 22.

In his first stint after three years with AFL club Carlton, Gibbons was dogged by a calf complaint for the first half of the year and then fractured his foot after rolling his ankle against Wangaratta in round 10.

"I'd been training since I was 13 to make the AFL, I'd put my whole life into it, I rang Andrew Russell, who's the strength and conditioning coach at Carlton, I said, 'I don't know what's going on with all these little niggles' and he said, 'this is the first time you've ever let your body relax and sometimes that's the worst thing that can happen'," he revealed.

"He told me that your body feels everything a lot more because you've been training like a professional athlete for so long, so it's been a learning curve for me."

And along with the physical aspect of leaving the elite level, the 27-year-old also had to prepare for the mental transformation.

"I don't think a lot of people realised how mentally taxing it was for me since I was 17," he suggested.

"I was being touted every year to get drafted and not getting there, so when I was drafted and then got cut by the Blues it was heartbreaking, it shattered my world.

"I spoke to the Giants and Essendon and when that didn't happen, everyone said, 'go back to the VFL', I felt like I'd done more than anyone to get a chance and I was holding my own, to get cut, it really broke me and I wasn't putting myself through this again."

Gibbons has two years left.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"I'll train at Williamstown in pre-season, get as fit as I can and show a few people what I can do."

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