Geelong captain Joel Selwood is expected to announce his AFL retirement on Wednesday afternoon, four days after claiming his fourth premiership medallion and first flag as a skipper.
The Cats have indicated “a significant club announcement” will be made at 1pm (AEST) at GMHBA Stadium, with Selwood expected to front reporters and confirm he’s played his final AFL game.
It’s a similar path to the one taken by Hawthorn legend Shane Crawford, who also announced his retirement in the aftermath of the Hawks’ 2008 flag following 305 games for the club.
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The Geelong Advertiser reported Selwood told the club officially of his decision on Tuesday nights, but had told some close to him on Saturday that he’d made up his mind.
Selwood, who played 355 games across 16 seasons, will depart the Cats and the game with one of the great CVs as a four-time premiership player, six-time All-Australian, four-time AFLPA most courageous player award-winner, three-time best and fairest and the record for the most VFL/AFL games captained.
After playing a key role during the Geelong dynasty that saw the club claim the 2007, 2009 and 2011 flags, Selwood led the Cats to the 2022 premiership last weekend and held the club aloft alongside Chris Scott.
He was drafted with Pick 7 in the 2006 draft.
Saturday’s triumph over the Swans marked Selwood’s 40th final — a VFL/AFL record after passing Michael tuck’s previous record of 39.
The 34-year old also holds the AFL record for the most games as captain, having led the Cats in 245 matches ahead of Carlton great Stephen Kernahan’s 226 appearances as skipper.
But Selwood’s legacy was just as strong off the field, highlighted by the fact he won the 2022 Jim Stynes Award for his years of service to the community, as well as the beautiful images from Grand Final day of him with Levi Ablett, club waterboy Sam Moorfoot and Auskicker of the Year Archie Stockdale.
AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley declared Selwood was arguably “the greatest Geelong player of all”.
“So (Graham) ‘Polly’ Farmer changed the game and Gary Ablett Sr player it like no other player has – and may ever will – but the longevity of Selwood’s period of excellence, which he defines, he transforms the club from when he arrives as a teenager,” Whateley told Fox Footy on Monday night. “He’s not ‘the right player at the right time’, he is the player that is the central driver of it. It starts in 2007 and it finishes in 2022.
“His tenderness as a man and his head-in-the-hole, blood-and-guts football that has defined his playing days – it was there for us over and over, both examples, on the most perfect day – it’ll ripple through history.
“In 30 years’ time, he’ll be elevated to legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame and those images, with Levi, with Sammy over the fence, with the boots to the Auskicker and the way he was the best player on the ground in the first quarter is where the game was won.”
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Former Hawthorn sharpshooter Ben Dixon said Selwood adapted his game to every trend that’d been thrown his way and had been well supported and managed by the Cats.
“He’s a deadset chameleon. He blends in to where the game’s going,” Dixon told foxfooty.com.au last week.
“He’s gone through multiple eras now in terms of the way footy has transformed and he’s just adopted his football acumen. That’s a huge tick.
“The Cats have been enormous for 10 years now about managing players. And for Selwood, the management of his game time throughout the years has been so smart, playing him off half-back and playing through the mids pinch-hitting here or there.
“I think his legacy’s unquestionable. His ability to lead Geelong and now possibly to a flag 11 years later is just unheard of. Normally, it goes the other way when you get older and you step aside to let someone else lead. But he‘s enforced leadership into that group that no one can do. No one can do it other than him.
“So his legacy will be, one, of longevity but, two, his ability to lead a team for such a long period of time for success – that‘s the full stop.”
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