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Four-time Hawthorn premiership player Luke Hodge has confirmed he will retire at the end of the 2017 AFL season.
2001’s No.1 draft pick confirmed his decision to hang up the boots come the end of the season at a press conference on Monday.
He will play his 300th AFL game against the Geelong Cats this Saturday at the MCG.
The announcement brings to an end the short-lived speculation put forward last week that Hodge might consider playing on at another club in 2018.
It was always considered likely given Hawthorn’s situation that Hodge’s time there would end this year by his decision on theirs, but the possibility was floated last week that he could play on another year or more elsewhere, as others like Paul Chapman, Steve Johnson and teammate Sam Mitchell have done in recent years.
Hodge made light of the rumours at the press conference, joking that “apparently I’m off to Geelong!” when asked what he was doing next.
No doubt there’ll be a heated race for Hodge’s services as a potential assistant coach, with clubs like Richmond reportedly having sounded him out as early as last year.
It will also be interesting to see if the news kick-starts a run of retirements among the Hawks, with Josh Gibson and Shaun Burgoyne also weighing up whether or not to play on.
Hodge was taken as the first pick of the famous ‘superdraft’ in 2001, ahead of the likes of Chris Judd and Gary Ablett.
He won a Rising Star nomination in 2002 and had a genuine breakout season in 2005 when he averaged 27 disposals and recorded 15 Brownlow votes.
He played in four premierships for Hawthorn, in 2008, and as captain of the club in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
He won the Norm Smith Medal in two of those, 2008 and 2014, and has won two Hawthorn best-and-fairests (2005 and 2010), and named in the All-Australian team three times (2005, 2008 and 2010).
His popularity among neutral fans has been up and down over the course of his career, and his career has at times been marred by regretable incidents on and off the field.
That said, he’ll undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most inspirational captains in VFL/AFL history, a much-loved son of the Hawthorn football club, and perhaps the player who has had more impact on the league than any other in this millenium.
(Photo by Justine Walker/AFL Media)