Ball to take on old AFL teammates
Luke Ball insists he won't need to draw on any extra motivation provided by lining up against his old club St Kilda in Saturday's AFL grand final.
Ball joined Collingwood for the 2010 season in acrimonious circumstances after walking out on the Saints following their grand final loss to Geelong last year.
"Any time you play in a grand final is special enough, I don't think it will be any different because it's my old club," said Ball, who was a co-captain of St Kilda in 2007.
"I think it's slightly ironic more than anything that it's turned out this way."
The 26-year-old midfielder, who remains great mates with many of his old team, said he hadn't heard from any within the St Kilda ranks this week.
"We haven't spoken this week, there's probably not a hell of a lot you can say," he said at Friday's grand final parade.
"It's going to be a big occasion but I've played against them three times this year so I think each time it's become a little bit more normal."
After recently experiencing the heart-break of a grand final loss, he said he knew how motivated the Saints would be to reverse the result on Saturday at the MCG.
"When you see the footage and disappointment of last year, the human reaction is for it to stir up emotions inside you and hopefully steel yourself to go that one better," he said.
"The St Kilda boys will no doubt have that in the back of their mind and from a personal point of view I will as well."
Ball was in some doubt for the big match after injuring his hamstring during Collingwood's preliminary final thrashing of the Cats.
However he said he always felt confident he would recover in time to play.
"Obviously I finished the game early as I had a little bit of a scare but I pulled up really well the next day," said the midfield star.
"I was always really confident, and I trained really well this week so I'm 100 per cent ready to go."
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