Best-and-fairest winner Josh Dunkley intent on being fully fit for Lions’ quest for third successive premiership

Brisbane’s player of the season Josh Dunkley, who had a shoulder operation on Tuesday, will have further surgery later this month to ensure he’s at full fitness for the Lions’ bid for a hat-trick of premierships next year. Dunkley’s superb year earnt him his first Merrett-Murray Medal, with the midfielder’s stellar 2025 also recognised with the players’ player award at the club champion night on Thursday. “I’m just rapt to play my role in what is an amazing team,” Dunkley said. “It’s very humbling. The love that I get inside the four walls of our footy club is insane. I’ve never felt that before.” Dunkley played in Brisbane’s 47-point grand final win over Geelong last Saturday with shoulder and ankle problems. “I’ve already had one (operation) done, the shoulder. I’ll get the ankle done in a couple of weeks’ time just to space it out,” he said. “I’ll be off legs for a little bit, but I’ll be doing all the off-legs conditioning I can do to make sure I’m ready to go day one of pre-season. “I might be a bit limited early, but I’ll be good to go after Christmas.” Dunkley, who has played in five grand finals and won three flags, two with Brisbane and the other in 2016 with the Western Bulldogs, said it was important the Lions celebrated their achievement of back-to-back premierships but be ready to again work hard when pre-season training started. “You pinch yourself that you’re part of such an amazing group, but we know that there’s a lot that goes into what we've achieved, so everyone starts again at ground zero when we come back to pre-season,” he said. “As soon as we come back in the doors in pre-season, we’ll be fully focused on what’s next, not about the past and what we’ve just done. “Enjoy this while you can and then as soon as we come back in, it’s all about the next job. “It’s so easy to slip up and get carried away with being a reigning premier, but our guys have just done it tremendously well this year, and … we’re moving forward.”