MELBOURNE defender Steven May asked not to know the result of his hamstring scan in the build-up to the Grand Final and waited until he was a premiership player on Saturday night to be told he had torn it.

May suffered what coach Simon Goodwin described as a "solid tear" in the Demons' preliminary final against Geelong, with the coach conceding he would not have played on Saturday if it was any other game.

The star defender knew he had done something against the Cats, but he wanted to be given the chance to play based on his training and entered Grand Final folklore as a result.

"I got a scan and a chose not to be told about the result because I wanted to just give myself every chance to play," May told AFL.com.au on Saturday night.  

"We went off my symptoms and my strength and the way I was able to train and present, and they were pretty happy with it.

"I knew 'Goody' was a bit sheepish about it, because he kept asking me how I am. He obviously knew the result, but I didn't and I'm glad I didn't."

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May, who held Western Bulldogs star Aaron Naughton to one goal in Saturday's historic win at Optus Stadium, entered the match confident but then felt something wrong in the second quarter. 

"I thought maybe I've been carrying on a little bit about this injury, but then in the second quarter I hurt it again and thought there's something there," he said.

"I just carried on. I didn't speak to the doctors or the physios, because I didn't want to be ruled out. And then it wasn't until after the game our doctor told me.

"She was smiling when she came up to me and that's when I thought there must be something else to this story."

The Demons' approach to getting May to the line was to make sure he hit the required speed and agility benchmarks and proved his fitness, which he was able to do.

"But when you get out on an AFL field and you're playing on Aaron Naughton, you really can't replicate that at training," May said.

"I was a bit nervous at half-time, but I scrunched my lungs up and just thought you could be a premiership player forever, so deal with the hammy next time."

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