THE thought of retirement had crossed Easton Wood\u2019s mind earlier this season.<\/p>\n
Wood, who captained the Western Bulldogs to their second premiership in 2016, called time on his AFL career on Friday, playing 188 games over 14 seasons, including 15 in 2021.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old defender admits he had \u201cathletically declined\u201d after suffering multiple hamstring injuries across his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about it [retirement] for a little while,\u201d Wood told SEN Drive<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt probably first popped up back in round 9 against Port Adelaide, I pinged my hamstring and that was my third one for the season at that stage.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought that might have been my body saying that I\u2019m not quite up to it mainly because when I actually look back at it, that was my 20th hammy overall.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s too many, and it kind of took the wind out of my sails.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was great was I came back, albeit through a bumpy road in the VFL, I managed to do an ankle and miss a month as well, but to get back in and have that incredible run in the finals series, I was so grateful to be a part of [that].<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was really evident and became quite evident to me during that period was that despite the hammys holding up, I\u2019d athletically declined and I was a bit slower. I didn\u2019t want to decline more next year and find myself out of the team and go out that way.<\/p>\n \u201cAs upsetting as it is to go out on a Grand Final loss, I go out on my own terms proud of what I\u2019ve done and proud of finishing my game at the pinnacle I suppose in a Grand Final.\u201d<\/p>\n Wood, a Charlie Sutton Medallist and All-Australian in 2015, bowed out with a year to run on his contract.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n