As if knowing his incredible 16-year AFL career was coming to an end in under half an hour was not hard enough, Joel Selwood’s grapple with his footy mortality was made even tougher by one of Geelong’s brightest young stars.
Selwood had only told a select few people prior to the start of the finals series that he decided this year would be his last in the league, meaning hardly any of his teammates knew that when they ran out onto the MCG on Saturday for the grand final against Sydney, it would be their last game with their inspirational captain.
Perhaps sensing the moment in the final quarter with the game, and the premiership, well in the Cats’ keeping, prodigious key defender Sam De Koning urged Selwood to reconsider his decision.
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“I played OK in that last (home-and-away) game of the year against West Coast and then in the first final I went OK again,” an emotional Selwood said.
“It was probably only my wife that said, ‘Are we making the right decision?’
“At that stage there was only a few people who knew. My brothers didn’t even know at that stage. Decided to tell them a little bit further down the track.
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“I came off in the last quarter (of the grand final), Sam De Koning was on the interchange with me on one side, ‘Blitz’ (Mark Blicavs) was on the other side, and Sam just said, ‘You can’t finish’, which is pretty special – a 21-year-old kid probably read the moment.
“Blitz knew I was probably in a bit of trouble. My heart was racing, my eyes watering and I knew that I was going out for my last 15 minutes of the game and my career.”
‘He could have had us over a barrel’ | 02:39
Selwood admitted he would have some trouble readjusting to life as a former footballer.
“I’m OK now, I’ll miss when the boys go back to train. The fierce competitor in me won’t leave me,” he said.
“I will miss this place.
“It‘s the people you play with, it’s the front row [his family]. I just love playing with the boys.
“Footy clubs are special.”
Selwood bows out as one of Geelong’s greatest ever players, becoming their first player in club history to win four premierships, captaining one this year, finishing with a club record 355 games and a VFL/AFL record 245 games as captain.
Selwood also broke Hawthorn legend Michael Tuck’s record of most finals played when he ran out for the 40th time in a final on the weekend and he finishes his career with six All-Australian nods (three times as captain), three best-and-fairests and an incredible winning rate of 73 per cent.
The 34-year-old finished with 214 Brownlow votes as well, ranking him seventh all-time on the adjusted list.
