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Kirk kicks the game

By Mr Dandalooa

Veteran footballer and Sydney Swans co-captain, Brett Kirk will retire from AFL at the end of the season.

The 33-year-old announced his retirement at a press conference in Sydney.

Kirk has played 225 games since he came off the rookie list in 1999, and was widely regarded as one of the most courageous players in the game.

He has been co-captain since 2005, and was voted club champion in the 2005 premiership year, and again in 2007.

The club this week said his leadership will be sorely missed,

“Brett Kirk is not only one of the greats of this football Club and the game, but he is an incredible example to everyone about what can be achieved with determination, hard work and a never-say-die attitude,’’ Sydney Swans senior coach Paul Roos said.

To go from a player who not only battled to get on the Swans list, but was also almost finished as a player at the end of 2002, and then to end his career as possibly one of the top five players to ever play for the football Club is an achievement of mind over matter.

“It’s not only his legacy as a player that is extraordinary. Equally important is his enormous influence on the culture of this football club. Hopefully there will always be a little bit of Brett Kirk in the Sydney Swans Football Club.”

Kirk said he had decided to announce his retirement now so that he could devote all his attention to doing his best for the team for the remainder of the season.

He said being involved in the 2005 premiership was the ultimate prize in a team sport, but his greatest legacy was not about on-field achievements.

“I’m someone who has played with my heart, led with my heart, and this is a decision that has come from the heart,’’ Kirk said.

“The reason I’m announcing it now is because I started to have thoughts about it over the last week or two. I was resisting it, and it was causing me stress and pain, so I need to listen to my intuition.’’

Swans chairman Richard Colless said in the 136 years of the club’s existence, it was hard to believe there would have been too many people - not just players – who would have made a greater contribution to the fabric of the organisation than Kirk.

He said he always told players when they started their careers that he wanted them to leave as better footballers and better people, but that most importantly the football Club would also be better for their involvement.

“No-one has been a greater example of that than Brett Kirk,’’ Colless said.

Sydney chief executive Andrew Ireland said Kirk had been an ornament to the game, highlighting he had been in the top three in the club’s championship every year since 2003.