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A team man to the end, Sydney champion Jude Bolton has revealed part of his decision to retire at the end of the 2013 AFL season was so he wouldn’t block any of the club’s outstanding young players.
The 33-year-old midfielder-turned-forward has played 321 games for the Swans, second only to teammate Adam Goodes,(331), with both making their senior debut in 1999.
Bolton has played in three grand finals, tasting victory in 2005 and 2012 and defeat in 2006.
He has always been renowned for his fearless approach and has recorded more tackles than anyone since statistics were kept in that category.
Bolton is set to play more than 20 games for the 12th time in the past 13 seasons and can’t recall ever missing more than three successive matches.
In the past two seasons he has successfully been converted into a goalkicking small forward, bagging a personal best haul of 23 last year and improving it to 26 in the current campaign.
However, growing concerns about the state of his knees helped persuade him to call time on his illustrious career.
“I’m acutely aware of my body and 12 months down the track I don’t know how it would be if I had a setback along the way,” said Bolton.
“I might have a mid-season retirement.
“The other thing is I’m aware of our list. We’ve got some great talent coming through hopefully they can continue to push in.
“That’s what I want to see, that’s the footy life cycle and it’s just the the turnover of the list.”
Bolton is an accredited player manger and is interested in getting involved in the media and doing corporate work for Sydney.
Sydney coach John Longmire hailed Bolton as the best clubman he had ever known and one of the most popular players in the club’s history.
“I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and said ‘what’s your plans Jude?’ and he said ‘well if I play next year I will probably be keeping a couple of younger players out of the team,'” Longmire said.
“That sums up Jude Bolton, just a fantastic footballer and warrior for this football club and just an unbelievable person.”
Bolton, who missed last weekend’s big loss to Geelong through illness, will return against Hawthorn on Friday night and remained bullish about Sydney’s prospects despite defeats in two of their past three games.
“We’ve got the double chance as well, so it’s really exciting,” Bolton said.
“It’s the best time of the year, it’s a whole new season.”
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