The Fishies captain and the 2016 Whitney’s Jewellers Player of the Year, was clobbered by Forbes prop Zac Merritt inside the opening two minutes of Sunday’s decider.

A clearly groggy Jenkins was assisted from the field while Merritt was put on report and is in real danger of missing the opening rounds of the 2017 season.

Jenkins returned for the second half but wasn’t quite himself as the Magpies powered to a stunning 26-22 victory.

“I can’t really remember too much about the first half but there was a couple of errors in the second half which didn’t help us but you can’t make excuses, they were just better on the day,” Jenkins said.

“It’s always tough to take and we built a culture where every year you expect to be in a grand final and expect to go well. You train so hard you really need to get a reward out of it to make the year worthwhile but they were good today and deserved it.”

Jenkins stated he was fine after the game but there were some clear concerns among the Fishies staff when he was floored.

“Think I copped a bit of a high shot from Zac Merritt but it’s all over now,” he said.