ADELAIDE defender Nathan Bassett is the latest AFL player to announce his retirement.

The 31-year-old told his teammates on Wednesday morning that he will hang up the boots at the end of the season.

Bassett has played 208 AFL games (including 21 this year) in 11 seasons with Adelaide. Originally from Norwood, he was drafted by Melbourne as a rookie in 1997 but was traded to the Crows at the end of that year.

“Nathan retires as a life member of our club. Since commencing in 1998 he has grown enormously in terms of his leadership and the contribution he has made to the culture of our playing group – especially in recent years – has been very significant,” Trigg said.

“We’ll always remember the animated ‘Bass’ responses, the selfless acts of courage and the long runs out of defence which were trademarks of his 11 years as a player.

Bassett’s first game for Adelaide was against Carlton in the opening round of 1998. He played 13 games in his first season before injury ruined his chances of playing in the 1998 grand final.

In round 13 this year Bassett became the eighth Crow to play 200 AFL games for the club, joining Mark Ricciuto, Ben Hart, Andrew McLeod, Tyson Edwards, Nigel Smart, Mark Bickley and Simon Goodwin.

Bassett was runner-up in the club champion award in 2005 and the following year was named as a back pocket in the All Australian team. He has been a member of Adelaide’s leadership group since 2005. He is also a director on the Crows Foundation Board.