Territorian Steven May declares himself right to go as the AFL grand final looms large

Territorian Steven May says he will be part of the Melbourne side pushing for its first AFL flag in 57 years on Saturday.

TERRITORIAN Steven May has no doubt he will run out with Melbourne in Saturday night’s AFL Grand Final against the Western Bulldogs as his Demons attempt to break a premiership drought that has lasted for 57 painful years.

The subject of intense scrutiny since tweaking his left hamstring in the opening minutes of the preliminary final, May brushed off any

thoughts of missing the Big Dance when contacted by the NT News this week.

“I’ll be right, the hammy’s feeling pretty good, we’ve got a fair bit of time up our sleeves and the medicos have a plan in place,’’ May said.

“I’ve got to tick off a few things, but I’m feeling super confident with the body in great shape.’’

Territorian Steven May of the Demons during a training session at Lathlain Park on September 18, 2021 in Perth, Australia. Photo: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Saturday night’s grand final is the culmination of a football dream that began with a young Steven May watching Territory greats like Michael Long, Andrew McLeod, Darryl White, Dean Rioli and Cyril Rioli run around in AFL grand finals.

“My career has gone for 11 years now and I haven’t been close to that, so to not only play in my first finals series this year but to be playing in the Big Dance is pretty surreal,’’ May said.

“We’ve had a great couple of seasons where we’ve built from last year and now feel like we have all the pieces in play to give this thing a real crack.

“We sat down early in the year to make it our goal to win the premiership and to be playing off for the premiership this week is a pretty good reward for effort.

“But only half the job is done, we all know there is a lot of work left if we want to bring the flag home to Melbourne.’’

May played his junior football at three NTFL clubs, beginning with under-14 football at Palmerston and the Darwin Buffaloes before moving to U16, U18 and senior level with Southern Districts.

He was an U18 All-Australian in 2010 where the Gold Coast Suns made him a priority pick in the same year.

May captained the Suns in 2017 and 2018 before moving to the Demons in search of finals football.

Long serving Southern Districts premiership player and coach Shannon Rusca knew May was bound for bigger things when he spotted him as a talented junior.

“Steven had a good body size on him, was very athletic and could always kick the ball a long way,’’ Rusca said.

“If the AFL wasn’t his call, the NFL in America was next in line as a punter because he could always kick the ball with precision over great distances.’’

Originally published as Territorian Steven May declares himself right to go as the AFL grand final looms large