NORTH Melbourne captain Andrew Swallow will almost certainly finish his career as a one-club player after re-signing with the Roos for three more years.
Swallow, 27, was due to become a free agent at the end of this season, but has re-committed to North to the end of 2018 by when he will be 31.
Swallow took over the North captaincy from Brent Harvey ahead of the 2012 season and has led the Roos into the finals in two of his three seasons in charge.
The courageous midfielder finished ninth in last year's club best and fairest award despite missing North's first seven games as he recovered from a ruptured left Achilles tendon.
Swallow was understandably rusty when he first came back last year, but by the end of the home and away season had returned to the type of form that saw him win three best and fairest awards from 2009-12.
The Roos skipper has been one of the best inside ball-winners in the AFL for the past few seasons. Since 2011, he has led the competition in average tackles (7.1 a game) and is third for clearances (6.7).
From his return in round nine last year, Swallow led North in contested possessions, clearances and tackles.
Champion Data statistics also show that North scored from 30 per cent of Swallow's clearances last year (the equal eighth-highest percentage of the competition's top 50 clearance-winners) and his clearances generated more points than any other player in the AFL from rounds nine-23 (123, 25 more than the next best player).
After captaining Western Australia in the 2005 NAB AFL Championships, Swallow was selected by North with pick No. 43 in that year's national draft.
North now has six players remaining in 2015 free agency pool: Harvey, Drew Petrie, Michael Firrito, Nathan Grima, Robbie Tarrant and Scott McMahon.
