NORTH Melbourne veteran Shannon Grant will retire at season's end.
Speaking ahead of his 300th game, against Port Adelaide on Saturday, Grant said the time was right to end his career and hoped for a successful finish as the Kangaroos prepare for the finals.
An emotional Grant broke the news to his teammates shortly before Tuesday morning's media conference and said retirement was a decision he didn't make lightly.
"It's been a long journey and a very good one. To be a part of such a great football club for a long period of time, I'm very grateful," he said.
"I've always wanted to go out on my own terms. I don't think there's anything worse than going that extra year or two and end up running around in the VFL.
"When you have enough time to think about it, you know when the time's right, you know deep down and I knew that time would come."
The 31-year-old has played 19 games this season after sitting out the round 12 clash against Fremantle and serving a club-enforced suspension in round 15.
Grant joked that he thought the milestone was in jeopardy after he missed the win over Port Adelaide, but conceded it was around that time that the rigours of football were getting the better of him.
"The body was starting to not recover as well as it probably has in the past and took me a lot longer to get up throughout the week," he said. "I've never had the quickest legs and they're slowly starting to go as well.
"Now that [the decision's] done, [I'm] very relieved and really just looking forward to finishing the year off well and hopefully tasting a lot of success in the next few weeks."
Coach Dean Laidley, who flanked Grant at the announcement, acknowledged his contribution.
"It's been a pleasure to coach Shannon and watch him grow as a person over the last five or six years," he said. "I've said this openly before, [if you] take Wayne Carey out of the picture, I think this guy next to me has won more games off his own boot than anyone else.
"Also the work that he has done with the younger guys, particularly in the last 18 months, Matty (Campbell) and Lindsay (Thomas), I think they've really come on in their careers.
"You miss people like that who are great characters around your football club. He's probably done everything in footy apart from the Brownlow Medal. That speaks volumes of his actions on the field and the work that he's done off the field."
Laidley also highlighted that the club may look to retain Grant in an off-field capacity next year.
"Shannon's done a lot of work at the Calder Cannons this year ... [and] there's the work that he's done with our academy group here and his work that he did with Vic Metro in the under-18s this year," he said.
"There's a pretty good resume building up and it's something that we've already spoken about."
"The coaching side of it (football) and the development side of the game is something I'd love to stay involved in." Grant added.
"I have a huge passion for the game and it's something that I'd like to continue to do."
After 58 games for the Sydney Swans, Grant joined North Melbourne in 1998 in a trade for Wayne Schwass.
He was awarded the Norm Smith Medal in the Kangaroos' 1999 premiership victory, won the club's best and fairest in 2001 and was named All-Australian in 2005.
