Bulldog Grant to bow out
Michael Gleeson | October 2, 2007

WESTERN Bulldogs great Chris Grant is expected to announce his retirement tonight at the club's best and fairest function.

The 34-year-old veteran of 18 seasons and 341 games had been considering one last campaign in 2008 but is understood to have informed the Dogs yesterday of his decision to leave the game.

Grant was talked out of retiring at the end of 2006, in part because of the optimism generated about the teams' prospects by a return to finals football and a sixth-place finish. But having committed to 2007, he was injured and didn't play until round 13.

The two-time best-and-fairest winner and club games-record holder played just five matches in a season that was personally and collectively disappointing. He had groin surgery in April and the Dogs, who were 9-6 after 15 rounds, did not win a game in the last seven weeks of the season to slump to 13th.

Grant spoke about his future with Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade in the week before the club's last game of the season, against the Kangaroos, but later indicated that he needed more time to consider the possibility of playing into his 36th year. Grant turns 35 in December.

One of the club's most revered figures, Grant was a commanding key forward and defender in his pomp who was controversially denied a Brownlow Medal in 1997 when he was suspended for contact with Hawthorn's Nick Holland that was deemed unworthy of a report by the umpires in charge of the game.