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Wood announces AFL retirement
Wood announces AFL retirement
https://i.postimg.cc/4x9fGVkS/HERO-221021-Woody.jpg
Western Bulldogs Premiership captain Easton Wood has called time on his AFL career.
The 32-year-old leaves the game as a one-club player, having represented the Bulldogs 188 times over 14 seasons, after being taken with pick 43 in the 2007 AFL Draft.
His on-field achievements include a Charles Sutton Medal and an All-Australian blazer in 2015, and the honour of being Club captain in 2018 and 2019.
He was instrumental in the Bulldogs’ 2016 flag season, becoming just the second Premiership skipper in the Club’s history.
Off the field he was just as instrumental, representing the Bulldogs brilliantly in his role as a delegate and later a board member of the AFL Players’ Association, and as an ambassador for long-standing Club partners, including the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.
After careful consideration, Wood decided the time was right to step away from the game.
“After much thought I’ve decided to retire from the game I love so much, at a club which has been my home for 14 years,” he said.
“Whilst it’s been difficult to confront, the reality is I’ve athletically declined. I wanted to finish up on my own terms and I felt that if I declined further next year, I wouldn't have that opportunity. I’m proud to go out as a member of the team and being part of an amazing run to get to the Grand Final.
“Having dealt with numerous injury setbacks over the last few years, in particular my troublesome hamstrings, I felt like the time was right to step away. I’m at peace with the decision, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter in my life.
“As I reflect on my career, I’m incredibly proud of my contribution to this special football club. To every person who has had an influence on my career, on or off the field, thank you for making me a better player and person.
“There have been some up and downs along the journey, but I’m leaving the game content that I gave everything I had, backed by my family, friends, and the loyal and passionate Bulldogs members and fans.
“The Club is in such great hands, and I can’t wait to sit back and support the boys as a fan in the years to come.”
Bulldogs’ senior coach Luke Beveridge lauded Wood for his sustained impact at VU Whitten Oval.
“We’ve been extremely fortunate to have Easton as part of our organisation for as long as we have,” he said.
“It’s not often we find a player who is universally admired for his football ability, but also the impact he has on those around him. Easton has left a lasting impression on everyone associated with the Club, and we’re better for having worked with him.
“Not only was he meticulous in his preparation and yearned to maximise his potential as a professional athlete, but he succeeded in being an influential leader and he always spent the time to make others better.
“It’s a shame that Easton didn’t have the opportunity to communicate the news and say his goodbyes directly to the players, coaches and staff, but we’ll find an opportunity to farewell him in person later this year.
“We wish Easton, Tiff, Tilly and Freddie all the best, and they will be forever welcome at our club.”
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Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
Most probably the right call. Easton Wood has retired. Thanks for the memories. An immortal Bulldog as our second Premiership Captain.
https://resources.westernbulldogs.co...952&height=592
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Selfless to the last. Forgoes a year on his contact because it's the right thing to do.
Stupid sexy Easton Wood...
Thank you. For everything.
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Re: Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
Western Bulldogs Premiership captain Easton Wood has called time on his AFL career.
The 32-year-old leaves the game as a one-club player, having represented the Bulldogs 188 times over 14 seasons, after being taken with pick 43 in the 2007 AFL Draft.
His on-field achievements include a Charles Sutton Medal and an All-Australian blazer in 2015, and the honour of being Club captain in 2018 and 2019.
He was instrumental in the Bulldogs’ 2016 flag season, becoming just the second Premiership skipper in the Club’s history.
Off the field he was just as instrumental, representing the Bulldogs brilliantly in his role as a delegate and later a board member of the AFL Players’ Association, and as an ambassador for long-standing Club partners, including the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation.
After careful consideration, Wood decided the time was right to step away from the game.
“After much thought I’ve decided to retire from the game I love so much, at a club which has been my home for 14 years,” he said.
“Whilst it’s been difficult to confront, the reality is I’ve athletically declined. I wanted to finish up on my own terms and I felt that if I declined further next year, I wouldn't have that opportunity. I’m proud to go out as a member of the team and being part of an amazing run to get to the Grand Final.
“Having dealt with numerous injury setbacks over the last few years, in particular my troublesome hamstrings, I felt like the time was right to step away. I’m at peace with the decision, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter in my life.
“As I reflect on my career, I’m incredibly proud of my contribution to this special football club. To every person who has had an influence on my career, on or off the field, thank you for making me a better player and person.
“There have been some up and downs along the journey, but I’m leaving the game content that I gave everything I had, backed by my family, friends, and the loyal and passionate Bulldogs members and fans.
“The Club is in such great hands, and I can’t wait to sit back and support the boys as a fan in the years to come.”
Bulldogs’ senior coach Luke Beveridge lauded Wood for his sustained impact at VU Whitten Oval.
“We’ve been extremely fortunate to have Easton as part of our organisation for as long as we have,” he said.
“It’s not often we find a player who is universally admired for his football ability, but also the impact he has on those around him. Easton has left a lasting impression on everyone associated with the Club, and we’re better for having worked with him.
“Not only was he meticulous in his preparation and yearned to maximise his potential as a professional athlete, but he succeeded in being an influential leader and he always spent the time to make others better.
“It’s a shame that Easton didn’t have the opportunity to communicate the news and say his goodbyes directly to the players, coaches and staff, but we’ll find an opportunity to farewell him in person later this year.
“We wish Easton, Tiff, Tilly and Freddie all the best, and they will be forever welcome at our club.”
Link: https://www.westernbulldogs.com.au/n...-afl-retiremen
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Re: Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
Good piece in The Age with more information. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/...21-p59244.html
He has definitely made the right call.
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Re: Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
First Dylan Addison now this. How am I supposed to cope?
Wood, as always, putting the team before self. What a legend.
Premiership Captain, Bullgod forever.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
I think it's the right decision and a huge thanks to Woody for stepping aside and for his brilliant career in the Red, White and Blue.
I know I've banged on about it a bit but it makes the decision to sign him for 2 years even more perplexing.
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Re: Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
Fantastic clubman, injuries definitely caught up with him, and indeed probably stopped him from reaching his full potential. But he's been a wonderful leader, seems a ripping bloke and will always be a Bulldogs premiership captain and hero.
All the best Stupid Sexy Easton Wood.
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Re: Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
Thank you Easton for what you have done for the club. At his peak he was incredible, spoiling, intercepting and retires as an immortal of the club.
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Re: Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
Quote:
Originally Posted by
bornadog
Thank you Eastern for what you have done for the club. At his peak he was incredible, spoiling, intercepting and retires as an immortal of the club.
You're welcome. Thanks also to Easton.
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Re: Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
Quote:
Originally Posted by
EasternWest
You're welcome. Thanks also to Easton.
See how you influence me. :D
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
What a great career, an absolute Bulldogs champ.
Kudos on making the right call to finish up now, his hammies deserve a long and relaxing holiday.
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Re: Easton Wood Retires - Thanks for the memories
Quote:
Originally Posted by
angelopetraglia
Agree. the fact the his thought that it would make him feel sick if his body led him to let the team down next year, just speaks to his quality, and leadership. The consummate clubman.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Absolute legend - I got a massive man hug from him on GF night 2016 at the after function I'll never forget, think he was more excited than me !
All the best with whatever comes next for Easton.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
I thought news articles belonged in Dogs Day? Why has it been moved here?
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Goodbye to the hottest ever Bulldog. What a servant to the club on and off the field. Gave it all and got to be only the second ever Bulldog captain to lift the cup.
Rest up Laverne and Shirley.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
A positive in this news, is that I won't have to put up with my wife using Easton as a reference point to highlight my physical shortcomings any longer.
Bad news is she'll probably just transfer that role over to Bailey Smith....
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Grantysghost
Absolute legend - I got a massive man hug from him on GF night 2016 at the after function I'll never forget, think he was more excited than me !
All the best with whatever comes next for Easton.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FCQ22OuV...pg&name=medium
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Happy retirement Stupid Sexy Premiership Captaining High Flying Charlie Sutton Winning All Australian Entirely Unselfish Reliable Teammate Easton Wood.
Am I right in thinking that means the entire 2016 Men's Department premiership winning defence is now gone from the club?
edit, JJ is still there
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
A bull-god for sure.
Thanks Easton. You’ve been a pleasure to watch and have given us such joy over the years. It’s sad that it’s time to call it a day but much respect for calling it on your terms and going out with your last match being a GF. Impressive career and even more impressive human.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
I think I may have seen this coming but I'm really sad (but I'm not crying you are). Great stuff on a wonderful career Easton and its dignified conclusion.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Kind of surprised, but yet sitting back it's the right call.
Tremendous career Easton, always liked him from day one and had it not been for his body, he probably gets 250+ games.
Either way, 180 odd games, a B&F, AA and Premiership Captain is honestly the stuff of dreams.
Well deserved, he'll be missed - a calming presence, a good leader and somebody who gave his all for this footy club.
Thanks Woody.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
20 hamstring injuries throughout his career. You have to be bloody mentally strong to overcome that many setbacks and still contribute to so strongly to the club.
Not sure what his coaching aspirations are, but I reckon he has it in him to become a very well respected assistant.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jeemak
I think I may have seen this coming but I'm really sad (but I'm not crying you are). Great stuff on a wonderful career Easton and its dignified conclusion.
Just watched his highlights package on Twitter and can admit that I am in fact crying a bit.
At his peak just an outstanding player.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Quote:
Originally Posted by
comrade
20 hamstring injuries throughout his career.
Wow, didn't realise it was that many
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Swamp
@sirswampthing
Easton Wood calls time
In the 2021 SF became the first WBD person to play in a final on their birthday
8 wins in finals
Equal most for WBD with Matthew Boyd
Premiership captains for WBD
Charlie Sutton
Ellie Blackburn
EASTON WOOD
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
What a champion. Always put the club first. Will always be remembered as a legend of the club.
We will be forever grateful.
Thank you
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
He's certainly put the club first and arrived at the right decision. A club captain and premiership player so he's done what every footy loving kid dreams of.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Axe Man
I thought news articles belonged in Dogs Day? Why has it been moved here?
It looks like a couple of threads were merged.
I agree it should be on Dogs Day so I'll move it over
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Quote:
Originally Posted by
westdog54
Selfless to the last. Forgoes a year on his contact because it's the right thing to do.
My first thoughts too.
We were lucky to have him. Will always be known as a Premiership Captain.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Easton Wood. Club first always.
For me, he's almost up there with Dale Morris... There's no higher compliment.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
I'm not surprised but it still hurts. All the best Woody
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
‘I’d feel sick about that’: Easton Wood retires with a year to run
By
Daniel Cherny
October 22, 2021 — 11.00am
Easton Wood couldn’t stomach the thought that he might let the Western Bulldogs down next year. The idea of always putting the club’s interests first had been drilled into him by Bob Murphy, the man alongside whom Wood held aloft the premiership cup in 2016,
ending what was at the time the AFL’s longest premiership drought.
Wood was contracted for 2022, and pulling the pin a year early would mean relinquishing tens of thousands of dollars. But that was a secondary consideration.
“No matter how much I was getting paid next year, if I felt like I was just rocking up to get a pay cheque knowing that ‘jeez at any moment if I pinged a string or I got dropped that I could just pull the pin’ and leave the club high and dry, I’d feel sick about that. I don’t think I’d be able to ever reconcile that, no matter how much was coming back the other way,” Wood told
The Age.
So, having first thought about the idea of a premature retirement as early as May, Wood - after discussions with wife Tiff and a close circle of friends - has decided to forego his 2022 contract, retiring from the AFL after 188 games since being drafted at pick 43 out of high school at the end of 2007.
The idea had first popped up during the round-nine win this year against Port Adelaide. The Dogs were flying, but the defender was faltering. His hamstring gave way early in the game. It was his third such injury of the year and the 20th of his career.
“You know how there’s the definition of insanity of doing the same thing twice and expect a different response? I was thinking, is that where I’m at and have I already crossed over? What’s going to change? That kind of incident rocked me a little bit. I thought that was my body saying it wasn’t kind of up to the demands of AFL.” Wood said.
Briefly, he pondered whether that would be it.
“You kind of catastrophise straight after the event and you kind of have to bottom out before you can come back up. I was confronting that idea of ‘am I done?’ And then after a few days, and you let the emotions settle a bit you go, ‘no I’m not, it’s round nine, it’s only a grade-one.’
“[But] once that idea was planted in my head it was kind of hard to avoid thinking about it.
“The great thing was I kind of made a deal with myself that I’ll do everything I can to get back and if it goes again then that might be it. But if it doesn’t I’ll try to eke out as much [as I can].”
Eke he did. Though it took him more than two months to get back into the senior side, a journey that included a VFL stint and another month sidelined because of an ankle injury, Wood made it back. He was there for the Dogs’ capitulation over the final rounds of the home-and-away season, and then for their mighty national tour through the finals.
But the gnawing hadn’t gone away. And a brutal reality had dawned. Wood’s body, torn and repaired so regularly over the years, was no longer doing what his mind willed him to do.
“The thing that became apparent over that period and probably what’s been the driving factor in my decision-making is that whilst it was great to be back in the team and be fit, it’s a bit hard to confront but I’ve athletically declined. Just not quite as fast as I used to be and I can’t quite jump as high either. It’s only small, but it might mean missing the ball by a centimetre.
“Kind of confronting that reality I sat back and looked at next year and thought, ‘jeez I don’t want to decline more and find myself out of the team and go out that way,’ so I’ve decided to go out that slightly bit early, go out on my own terms and albeit not the way we wanted it to end, losing that grand final, but I go out playing at the pinnacle of the sport, so I’m really content and proud.”
Coach Luke Beveridge was understanding. Having already witnessed a handful of premiership players step away while under contract for varying reasons, he did not seek to twist Wood’s arm.
“He said he was a little bit surprised, which was I suppose nice to hear, flattering. But he didn’t attempt to change my mind, he just thanked me for what I’d done. And obviously I thanked him because when he came along he turned me into a different player. I’ve had exactly half my career with him, and I became probably twice the player I was before he came along.”
Wood’s assertion that Beveridge changed his career is not an over-simplification. The backman had played 65 largely unobtrusive matches to the end of 2014 when the coach arrived. But Beveridge backed Wood to fly for his marks and win the ball, rather than just nullify.
The years that followed would bring a best-and-fairest crown and All-Australian blazer in 2015 before elevation to the vice-captaincy ahead of the 2016 campaign.
Has there ever been a more famous deputy in VFL/AFL history? Murphy’s season-ending knee injury in round three thrust Wood into the top job, and eventually into immortality as a premiership captain. Murphy resumed the captaincy in 2017 before Wood stepped up properly at the end of that season until Marcus Bontempelli took over.
Wood says his footballing peak came in the first quarter of the preliminary final win over Greater Western Sydney in which he “marked everything”.
He had been reluctant to dwell too much on the premiership at the time, mindful that at 27 he still had plenty of unfinished business.
“When I experienced it all in real-time, I really wanted to solidify those memories myself. I haven’t watched the grand final back. That was a really conscious decision to make sure my memories were through my own eyes ... but also at that stage I was probably in the prime of my career, and I was thinking ‘I want more.’ And I can’t get more by looking back.
“But I tell you what, I’ll be watching it pretty soon. There’ll be no guilt whatsoever, I’ll just chuck it on and live off the glory for a while!”
Wood, like so many Victorians after two COVID-riddled years, is in the short term just planning on enjoying the simple pleasures of life with Tiff, daughter Matilda (aged two), and son Frederick, soon to turn one.
Having stayed in Victoria during lockdown this time around, Wood wants Tiff to be able to dedicate time to her consultancy business.
“My wife’s incredible, she’s supported me through this whole thing.”
For Wood, there are no concrete plans about the next chapter from there. Staying in footy is an option, but after 14 years a break is welcome.
Whether he has a future in the game or not, his place in its history is secure. Bulldog VFL/AFL premiership captains. There are just two. Charlie Sutton, and the kid from Camperdown.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Best of luck to Wood, sometimes you can tell when your time has come. The team will miss his leadership and we'll be a hell of a lot less handsome without him.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
What a selfless act to make this call... we were all questioning his worth to the team in 2022 given how his body has been struggling to cope with the rigors of being an AFL player, but for Easton to recognize this and step away whilst under contract is testament to his character.
Forever a Bulldogs premiership captain and during his prime was a wonderful player.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Awesome player and maybe the player I respect the most as a person (Morris his main competition). Bowing out like this certainly only strengthens that impression.
Those first two years under Beveridge were incredible, such a joy to watch. That mark he took against Freo where he ran back with the flight and then launched himself to take it is probably my favourite memory of him, along with a lot of the 2016 finals series.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Bullgod forever.
Is it sad my first thoughts were how was EW taking this news haha.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
He's dead right about the first quarter of the GWS preliminary final. He was super stupid sexy Easton Wood at that time.
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Re: Wood announces AFL retirement
Nothing but positive thoughts and incredible memories when I think back through his career. Admiration level 10/10, future dogs HOF member