Carlton veteran Sam Docherty will return from an ACL injury in elimination final against Brisbane

After having footy “taken away” too many times during his career Carlton favourite Sam Docherty is going to “cherish” his miracle return in Saturday’s elimination final against Brisbane just 183 days after suffering what for most would have been a season-ending ACL injury.

Teammate Jacob Weitering said Docherty’s drive to return and play his part in delivering the “higher purpose” of winning a premiership could be the lift the Blues need to take down the Lions with the news of his inclusion met with wild scenes in the pool at Carlton headquarters on Tuesday.

Docherty, 30, will take his place having diligently worked on his recovery since suffering the devastating knee injury in Opening Round of the 2024 season, also at the Gabba.

While he was a “bit all over the joint” in the immediate aftermath of receiving the news, Docherty said it was exactly what he worked for, and now it was up to him to “repay the faith” of coach Michael Voss who has rolled the dice to pick him to return on such a monster occasion for the club.

“I’ve had footy taken away from me a fair few times across my career, and I cherish every game that I can get back out and play, but let alone a final, just super excited,” he said.

“I can’t put it all into words at the moment, probably won’t for a little bit anyway. But yeah, a couple of days, let all sink in and then lock right into what my job will be on the on Saturday night and get out there and perform it.

“This whole last six months has been just about giving myself an opportunity to play if we got here and needed a lot of things to go right.

“Very thankful for coaching staff and medical staff and the footy club to be able to get me in position to play and to trust me, to me, to be able to go out there perform. I’m very excited.”

The clash will be his third consecutive game at the venue, having played in last year’s losing preliminary final and the opening round win this season.

The emotional boost for the Blues comes with the bonus of adding a former captain with 168 games of experience and a singular focus to help Carlton achieve the ultimate team success, having endured more downs than ups in his nine seasons at the club.

“To get little lifts like this is massive,” Weitering said on Tuesday.

“For him, he’s been at this club since 2014, a couple of wooden spoons, he captained the club through some really difficult times.

“He’s been a mentor to me and multiple younger boys to get us through some troughs in our own careers.

“I’m just so glad for him as a person, for Nat his partner and his little daughter to get out there in a final.

“It says a lot about him as a person, his commitment to the team and our mission and the higher purpose of ultimately winning a premiership.

“He knows he hasn’t got a whole lot longer in the system and he’s pushing to do that for us. I’m very glad to have him out there.”

Docherty has now overcome two serious knee injuries as well as a bout of testicular cancer throughout his AFL career, and Weitering said his teammate’s drive made it clear that if anyone could get back from an ACL injury inside six months, it would be Docherty.

“Sam, I would have said, he’s a chance. If you said anyone else, it’s probably a long shot,” Weitering said

“When he first started running, mid-season, middle of winter, boys are a little bit sore, he was running better than me I reckon his first session back.

“The amount of effort, he, the medical team all his family and his support network have done to get him to this position, and to do a role for us, it’s an absolute credit to him.

“Hopefully, we can do something for him.”

As well as Docherty, the Blues are likely to get back star forwards Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay as well as defender Mitch McGovern and Zac Williams for the sudden-death clash with the Lions,

The Blues only scraped into the finals after Fremantle lost to Port Adelaide in the final home-and-away game of the season, having gone down to St Kilda earlier in the day.

“It’s tough going into selection this week, there might be a few changes,” Weitering said.

“But we have a great squad mentality.”