Champion Geelong captain & four-time premiership player Joel Selwood has officially announced his retirement, leaving game after 355 games.
Joel Selwood : Retires | Press conference | Net worth
A standout junior track and field athlete and footballer, Selwood entered top-level football early, joining the TAC Cup competition as a bottom-aged player.
His accomplishments as a junior included Most Valuable Player awards at state and international levels, and selection in the All-Australian and TAC Cup Team of the Year sides.
A potential top pick in the 2006 AFL Draft, Selwood sustained a serious knee injury during his final year of junior football that caused him to fall to Geelong’s first pick at seventh overall. Selwood made his AFL debut in 2007, winning the AFL Rising Star Award and AFLPA Best First-Year Player Award.
He set a VFL/AFL record with a 92% winning percentage in his first 50 games (46–4), and was a member of three premiership teams with Geelong in his first five seasons (2007, 2009, and 2011), the last of which as vice captain. With Selwood as captain of the team since 2012, Geelong have made the finals in all but one season.
They have played in seven Preliminary Finals in that span, but have not had success at that stage, reaching the Grand Final in 2020 that they lost to Richmond, before winning in 2022 against Sydney.
Retires
Champion Geelong premiership captain and four-time premiership player Joel Selwood has officially announced his retirement, leaving the game after 355 games.
He is the only player in the club’s history to win four flags and is the club’s games record holder with his coach Chris Scott – a two-time premiership player with the Lions and two-time premiership coach at Geelong – describing him as “the best player [he] has ever seen”.
“We won the footy lottery, getting to spend a decade or so with Joel Selwood. Now it is the turn for others to see what a truly great person he is,” Scott said. “You could forget about everything he’s done on a football field and the rest would still be amazing.”
He is also the club’s third consecutive premiership captain to retire after leading his club to a flag, with the emotion he showed when his teammates celebrated his last quarter goal against Sydney an indication it might be his last game.
Selwood choked up with emotion when asked whether any moment of his career in particular stood out before composing himself to answer the question.
“It’s the people you play with. That’s the front row, the people you play with,” Selwood said. “I just loved playing with the boys.”
He decided six weeks before the grand final he was going to retire but did not tell his teammates because he preferred not to distract them. However 21-year-old defender Sam De Koning caught him by surprise when he turned to his captain as they sat next to each other on the bench during the final quarter of the grand final and said “you can’t finish”.
Joel Selwood Press conference
Geelong champion Joel Selwood has announced his retirement in a press conference, ending his decorated AFL career on the high of a fourth premiership.
An emotional Selwood called time at a press conference on Wednesday at GMHBA Stadium by saying it was easier for him today than what most people would think.
He said he had decided six weeks ago he would retire at season’s end “win, lose or draw”.
Selwood said the club wanted him to play on but he thought the time was right.
“I had to be all in and I just couldn’t do that,” he said. “I couldn’t tell the players, I couldn’t let them play on emotion.
“It’s unbelievable, I’ve had great support all the way along.
“To have been able to play 16 years with the club I grew up loving is truly a dream come true.
“To arrive at the club in 2006 and to share the field with so many great players and to have enjoyed the successes together is better than I could ever have imagined. And to cap it off on Saturday with the premiership was a great way to finish.”
Net worth
Joel Selwood has an estimated Net Worth of $3 Million in 2022.
| Real Name | Joel Selwood |
| Birthdate | 26 May 1988 |
| Age (2022) | 34 years |
| Place of Birth | Bendigo, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Net worth | $3 Million |
He earns a good fortune from his hard work , which he devotes a lot of time to and where he presents oneself entirely.
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