Champion Geelong premiership captain and four-time premiership player Joel Selwood is expected to announce his retirement this afternoon, leaving the game after 355 games.
He is the only player in the club’s history to win four flags and is the club’s games record holder.
He is also the club’s third consecutive premiership captain to retire after leading his club to a flag, with the emotion he showed when his teammates celebrated his last quarter goal against Sydney an indication it might be his last game.
Joel Selwood leaves the game as a premiership skipper recognised as a great of the gameCredit:The Age
The club has announced that a media conference will be held at GMHBA Stadium at 1pm.
The star midfielder, taken with pick No.7 in the 2006 national draft, was a member of the club’s 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2022 premierships. The 2007 flag broke a Geelong drought of 44 seasons without a premiership, with Selwood playing 21 games in his first campaign.
Selwood also set an AFL record for most games as captain, having led the club in 245 matches, eclipsing in round three the long-standing league record of 226 previously held by Carlton’s Stephen Kernahan. Selwood was aged just 23 when he made his captaincy debut in 2012.
In Saturday’s grand final, he played his 40th final, the most in the game’s history, passing Hawthorn’s Michael Tuck’s record of 39. Selwood led his team to a premiership in his final game, as Tuck did in 1991.
The now 34-year-old was six times All-Australian and three times named All-Australian captain. He won three Carji Greeves medals as Geelong’s best and fairest and finished his career with a winning percentage of 73.1, playing in 259 wins, a draw and 95 losses.
Selwood was also highly regarded throughout his time at Geelong for his work off the field, both as a captain and in the community, which was recognised when he won the Jim Stynes Award at this year’s Brownlow Medal count in recognition of his community service.
He showed his class on Saturday when he carried Gary Ablett jnr’s son Levi through the banner ahead of the grand final against Sydney.
He sits fourth on the list of most wins behind Tuck, Shaun Burgoyne and Kevin Bartlett. In 16 seasons he only once played fewer than 20 games in a season, playing in six grand finals and 12 preliminary finals.
He played 305 of his 355 games alongside star forward Tom Hawkins, the second most games as teammates – two matches behind Adelaide pair Tyson Edwards and Andrew McLeod.
The only game Selwood played in his career where the Cats were out of the finals’ race was the final round of 2015, the only season in his career Geelong missed the finals.
He finished seventh in the Brownlow Medal in just his second season in 2008, and was runner-up in the medal in 2013 when Gary Ablett jnr, who was then playing with the Gold Coast, pipped him by one vote when he was best on ground in the final round. Selwood also won the Rising Star award in his first season in 2007.
He was also named the Players’ Association’s most courageous player on four occasions.
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