"My leg just stopped moving. It didn't really hurt to begin with but I couldn't move it and I couldn't stand up."
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Thomas Busch thought his Western Premier League season was over almost as soon as it had begun.
It was less than two minutes into the season opener and the Dubbo FC midfielder went down seemingly out of nowhere in the middle of the Lady Cutler pitch.
It was quickly apparent it was a serious injury.
"I looked down and my kneecap was out," he said, looking back.
"It was 'oh wow, what's going on?'. It was a scary moment."
But even that night, once an ambulance had taken Busch from the ground and to hospital, the first reports were positive.
As dislocated kneecaps went, this was one of the better ones.
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Less than two months of hard work at physio and Busch was back, slotting into the Bulls midfield like he'd never been gone.
Since his return to the Bulls have rediscovered some of their best form and they'll look to cap that run with title glory on Saturday night.
The Bulls beat the minor premiership-winning Macquarie United in an all-Dubbo decider at Apex Oval.
Busch will again be a key figure for the Bulls, having scored the lone goal in last weekend's semi-final win over Panorama FC.
While the Dubbo sides are familiar with each other afte years of battling in the local competition before returning to the WPL this year, Busch knows some of the Macquarie players better than most.
"I've played pretty much my whole career with some of them," he said.
"Jesse Spang, Aeden Todhunter, Brooklyn Crain. I'm good friends with a few of them as well so there is that friendly competition."
Busch and Spang are particularly close and often train together as they strive to continually improve their games.
But now Busch and his team have to work to stop Macquarie and, in particular, the league's leading goal-scorer in Spang.
"When they're on, they're on," Busch said of Macquarie's brilliant attack.
"They're going to be hard to beat but we've beaten them before and we know how to. We just have to make sure we turn up on the day but we know they're a good side."
The Bulls' win over Macquarie came in the most recent meeting between the two.
That 2-0 result proved crucial, not only because it went a long way to confirming finals football for the Bulls, but it also kick-started the Bulls' impressive run of form which has continued on to the grand final.
"After the Parkes game (a 2-1 loss) we switched on and we needed to do it," he said.
"Then against Macquarie and Lithgow it was the best form we've been in all season and really since I've played with the team in the last two years.
"I think we're doing well."
This weekend marks 11 straight grand finals across all competitions for the Bulls' first grade side.
A handful of the club's stalwarts - Scott Fox, James Leonard, Nelson Flick, and Tim McLachlan, have been there since the start of that run while Busch and other younger players have entered in recent times to continue the stunning run of results.
"Sometimes you can get lost on the field but there's always someone there to direct you," Busch said of the older heads.
"I think without that experience we'd be a very different side."
Saturday's grand final kicks off at 8pm.