It was deep into the third quarter when a boundary throw-in took place in the vicinity of the West Coast Eagles bench.

Captain Chris  Judd  jockeyed   for   position as the ruckmen battled to palm the ball to advantage. He was then collected awkwardly by Sydney Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes. The West Coast champ immediately grabbed at his left shoulder and grimaced with pain. He was in trouble.

Judd made his way towards the interchange bench. He was keen to receive treatment. But when just a few metres from the gate, he waved dismissively to officials in the dug-out, turned and continued to push forward.

A few moments later he again contemplated a break from battle. Made a bee-line for the interchange gates, but then re-considered and continued to play. In a one-point ball game there are many clutch moments. This was one of them.

At the three-quarter time break Judd received attention to his damaged shoulder.  Clearly all was not well and should the explosive midfielder be unable to continue then West Coast would be in deep trouble.

When drafted by the Eagles in the 2001 player ballot, the brilliant midfielder survived until selection three only because he had already endured reconstructions on both shoulders. In his five years of AFL action there had scarcely been an issue. How cruel it would have been if Judd had been cut down at that time. At the definitive moment of his career.

Judd has many qualities which have prompted football aficionados to rate him, even at this early stage of his career, as one of the best of all time. He is explosive off  the  mark, able to wriggle through the arms of would-be tacklers, has amazing balance and poise and, despite often being held at stoppages by his immediate opponent, regularly charges onto the loose ball at full tilt. Few have been able to thwart his impact.

Yet there is one trait that is rarely mentioned in an appraisal of this modern day superstar. Courage. And Judd has it, in spades.

On this day, and at this moment, he gave almost 100,000 fans at the game and millions of viewers globally an insight into that bravery. There was no doubt he was hurting and hurting bad, but nothing would deny him. Not now.

Judd pushed through that clichéd pain barrier and continued to have a remarkable  impact on the outcome.

He had some important touches in that final term. He never flinched. Not once did he back out of a contest for fear of further damage. Not once did he show his obvious discomfort.

And finally, after an epic arm wrestle, he celebrated the greatest moment of his burgeoning career. A premiership.

“It pretty much has sunk in, but it certainly hadn’t straight after the game,” Judd said of the grand final triumph. “By mid-week it had soaked in and I was very satisfied with what we had achieved.

“It makes you feel that whatever happens from here on in is a bonus. No matter what else happens  in  my  career  I  would  classify it as successful because I have been a premiership player.

“At the minute, it feels as though I won’t have as much drive next year, if anything. But I’m sure once we start playing practice matches the competitive juices will start to come out and we will be just as focused as ever.

“The thing it does do is make you feel how good it is to win one and hopefully that will be a driving force next year. I think it was what I expected. It was a different feeling after the game. I didn’t feel like jumping up and down, or anything like that, I just felt so relieved, to be honest.

“I was ecstatic, but I wasn’t excited. It was different to how I thought I would feel, but certainly it has been everything I hoped for.”

One of the great mysteries of the grand final was that Judd failed to poll a single vote in the Norm Smith Medal. There is no doubt that Andrew Embley was a deserving winner of best-on-ground honours, but it was startling that Judd should go voteless.

He had 28 possessions, was dominant around the stoppages and applied wonderful defensive pressure, but for all of that  was not recognised by those charged with the responsibility of crowning best afield. Not that

Judd was fazed by that. Far from it, his only thought was team glory.

“It just comes from achieving something that we have wanted for so many years and it is finally ours,” he said of his football fulfillment. “I guess the fact that it was such a close game and it could have gone either way contributes to that as well.

“The rivalry between the two clubs is starting to build. A lot of the rivalries between clubs have been built on angst between those clubs, if you like, but I think the good thing about the rivalry we have with Sydney is that it is borne out of respect for one another.

“The big thing that the man-on-man does  is that it ensures you play contested footy and I am still convinced that’s the style of footy that holds up best in finals. That is certainly true of the last couple of years.

“It is definitely harder to play that more offensive zoning off game under the pressure of finals footy.

“I felt differently to last year because we won. I have nothing to compare it to, but it is an incredibly proud moment to be captain of such a good group of blokes."

While Judd’s capacity to ignore the  pain  of his shoulder injury  was  a  definitive  moment of the battle, there was another which encapsulated the victory ceremony. He and coach John Worsfold had been presented with the premiership cup, that magnificent silver trophy which symbolises triumph.

Before the rest of the players charged on to the victory dais, Worsfold moved to one side and called Ben Cousins to share the moment. The man who stood down as captain during the pre-season deserved to bask in this ultimate accomplishment. While Cousins was not captain in name, he continued to lead in every sense, sharing that responsibility with the man who replaced him.

The relationship between Cousins and Judd was crucial to the victory.

“After the game we came up with the idea,” Judd said. “Cuzzy has been a huge leader of this club and he led it through some pretty tough times, so it was only fair that he was one of the first to experience the joy when success came.

“I am just rapt to share it with 21 other blokes and the 40 blokes who are on the list. This bond will last forever. A lot of life is about relationships and, realistically, if you finish your career and you have three or four good mates that you are in contact  with regularly you have come out of it pretty well. But when you win a premiership you are guaranteed that every five or 10 years you will be catching up with those blokes.

“We’re just ecstatic. I’m just over the moon over what we have achieved.”

Judd, who required post season shoulder surgery, said he was feeling as content as he had ever been during his five-year career.

“It is probably the first time in my football career where I have felt comfortable,” he offered. “Where I feel like anything else is a bonus and that’s obviously a pretty dangerous place to be because the competition keeps improving and if you’re not improving you get passed by pretty quickly.

“I’m sure once pre-season starts and the practice matches start, you get your butt kicked a few times that the competitive juices will kick in. I am under no illusions as to where I stand and there are plenty of areas in my game where I can improve.”

Only the second man to captain the club to a premiership, Judd was glowing in  his  praise for the other successful skipper, Worsfold, who has spent the last five years as senior coach.

“You can’t underestimate the influence that Woosha has had on the team,” Judd enthused. “He’s in a lucky spot, with the  fact  that  he was such a hard, courageous, tough and team oriented player that he automatically had the respect of the playing group.

“Certainly the way he carries himself, that respect has just grown and every player in the squad would do whatever it takes for him.

“Initially, I just felt an extreme sense of relief and almost tiredness. I didn’t feel like doing cartwheels or jumping up and down at all. A couple of people actually slagged me off for not being happy enough. I was just so relieved that it had happened. It’s just fantastic.”