Veteran GWS ruckman and perhaps the AFL’s most unlikely seller of candy, Shane Mumford, has the chance to make some history in Saturday’ grand final, in what could potentially be his swansong.
Outside of Victoria, no player has ever won a flag with both clubs in the same state.
Mumford will get that opportunity on Saturday when GWS contest their first grand final, seven years after Mumford played in Sydney’s 2012 flag-winning team.
He was also a grand final emergency during his time at his first club Geelong and on Saturday will play his 192nd and possibly final game of a colourful career.
Mumford produced one of the most memorable acts in the closing stages of last Saturday’s preliminary final win over Collingwood when the 198cm big man audaciously sold some candy to Pies skipper Scott Pendlebury just a few metres out from the goalpost, with the Pies pressing for a potential match-winning goal.
“I think if I hadn’t have pulled the ball back, he probably would have grabbed it out of my hands and kicked a goal, so thank God I did,” Mumford told AAP.
“But lucky it did come off because it could have been embarrassing if someone else had tackled me after I’ve stepped him.”
While Mumford struggled on occasions over the last two weeks, he earned widespread praise for producing several heroic pressure acts to keep Collingwood at bay in the closing stages.
“Shane’s last four or five minutes, if you have the pleasure to watch that again, Shane’s hunger and want to will us over the line was pretty spectacular,” said Giants co-captain Phil Davis.
Mumford isn’t sure if he can squeeze one more season out of his 33-year-old body, but acknowledged GWS would have the final say.
“If we won it, it could be this situation – do you go out on the high or do you want to chase that feeling again,” he said.
“I don’t think it (the result) will have too much effect. In the end, it’s going to all come down to how my body is feeling, where my mind is at, whether I’m ready to go around again and then I guess the main one is whether the club want me to.”
