SIXTEEN minutes into the final quarter of the South Australian National Football League reserves grand final, Glenelg defender Nick Pekin had the world at his feet.

Then he landed and heard a pop. The rest is somewhat of a blur for the former Horsham Demon.

The Tigers stormed to a 12-point win in the reserves grand final on Sunday, giving Pekin his third straight premiership.

The days that followed featured plenty of boisterous celebrations followed by a visit to a knee specialist who told Pekin he had a `50-50' chance of playing next season.

Yesterday Pekin, 20, was told he had a minuscule tear of his anterior cruciate ligament.

He will have surgery as soon as he can to repair it.

He is scheduled to go under the knife on October 20 but will push to have the surgery done sooner.

"I reckon I will be fighting fit for round one," he said.

It will be a tough ask to play in a fourth straight premiership next season, but Pekin is determined to do it again.

"I held off the tests for as long as I could so I could enjoy the premiership celebrations," he said.

"I reckon I deserved to have a few beers after the game.

"When I landed awkwardly and heard the pop, I knew I was in some trouble."

The Tigers had stormed back into the grand final after being 33 points down at half-time.

They were running neck and neck with a tiring Eagles side.

"We have done it all year," he said.

"We would have shocking starts and then run over sides in the second half.

"We all thought we still had a chance. The coach gave us a big rev up at half-time and we all said `let's give this a red hot go'."

Pekin has had an incredible run of success in the past three seasons playing in Horsham Demons' 2007 Wimmera Football League premiership, then Glenelg's under-19 premiership last year followed by the reserves premiership this year.

He said he had loved his two years in Adelaide and looked forward to more years at Glenelg.