Booney wrote:Dane Swan to retire. A couple of other Collingwood plonkers retired today too.
COLLINGWOOD great and 2011 Brownlow medallist Dane Swan will announce his retirement on Tuesday, ending a storied 258-game career.
Collingwood has made arrangements for a special media conference on Tuesday, when Swan will confirm that a serious foot injury has prompted his decision to retire after 15 seasons at the Magpies.
Swan suffered a severe foot injury in Round 1 against the Swans and while he had nursed a hope of potentially returning to play, he has been unable to run. Swan is understood to have informed coach Nathan Buckley of his decision to retire last week.
While Swan was out of contract at season end, the fact that a foot injury — he suffered a ruptured Lisfranc ligament in Sydney — has ended his career means he will seek a one-off compensation payment for having had an injury end his career, as the rules permit.
Collingwood is expected to bring significant figures from Swan’s career to the media conference at the club on Tuesday.
Swan’s exit ends the career of one of the game’s greatest and most consistent midfielders. Swan, a key member of Collingwood’s 2010 premiership team, won three best and fairests and was a five-time all-Australian.
Swan won the Brownlow Medal in 2011 receiving 34 votes, the most ever recorded with the exception of the 1976 and 1977 seasons when twice as many votes were given out in each match.
One of my favourite players as he gave his all on the field but off the field, as Nick Maxwell said, he's not going to be someone who's football, football, football the whole time. A lot of people on and off the field can learn from this, enjoy the game but keep it in prespective.
He can look back at having a great career and I certainly will buy his book as hopefully, it will be different than the "by the numbers stuff" you normally get from sport people.
