No regrets as Graham bows out
5:41:23 PM Tue 16 August, 2005
Scott Spits
Sportal for afl.com.au
Veteran defender Mark Graham has retired from AFL football with the 32-year-old to enjoy the honour of playing his final match against the club where he made his name - Hawthorn.
It will be an emotional farewell for Graham at Telstra Dome this Sunday, after playing 19 games for the Tigers this year in his first season for the club after 223 games with the Hawks between 1993 and 2004.
"I'm going to leave the game with no regrets, and to actually finish this week playing against my old team Hawthorn … is something pretty special," Graham said at Punt Road on Tuesday.
After being somewhat controversially delisted by the Hawks when the new coaching brigade swept a broom through Glenferrie Oval last season, Graham went about contacting coaches at other Melbourne-based clubs before new Richmond coach Terry Wallace gave him a final chance.
Graham said there was no underlying sadness that he couldn't finish as a one-club player, and the former Hawk enters retirement 'not going to die wondering' about the right time to end his career.
"I love playing football, whether it be for the Hawthorn Football Club or the Richmond Football Club. The game of football is just fantastic.
"Allan Jeans said to me no player wants to finish their career asking themselves 'what if?' I'm lucky I'm not going to ask myself 'what if' because I know I've got the absolute most out of myself - probably an extra 230 games more."
Graham's apprenticeship at Hawthorn began in 1989 when he played under 17s for the Hawks, moving on to play senior footy as a tall, skinny wingman.
He eventually moved to the backline between the retirement of Chris Langford in 1997 and the emergence of Jonathan Hay in 2000, and was usually assigned the opposition's best forward - a role he carried out with aplomb.
One of the most popular Hawks of his time among both players and supporters, he finished runner-up to Joel Smith in the club's best and fairest award in 200, the year the Hawks finished just a kick from a grand final.
Graham paid special thanks to Hawthorn coaches Ken Judge and Peter Schwab who showed tremendous faith in the key defender.
"One of the greatest accolades you can get is what your coach thinks of you week in, week out. I reckon for the majority of my career I was always playing on the key forwards. One week it would be a Carey, Ablett, Kernahan.
"It was quite mind-boggling at times, but to have your coach think about you in that light is something I should be proud of."
Graham lists his main highlights as an early match when he played on Stephen Kernahan, the 2001 finals series when the Hawks narrowly missed the grand final, the 'merger' match against Melbourne in 1996, along with his extra AFL season at Richmond.
"My second game was against Stephen Kernahan at Waverley in 1994. Peter Knights had pretty much said 'I'm going to put you on him and see how you go'," Graham reflected.
"I reckon Stephen Kernahan ran about 15k that day. By the end of the day I was just absolutely spent. I think I'd thrown up about five or six times on the field, cramp in every muscle known that I've got.
"At the end of the game he pretty much picked me up off the ground - they'd pumped us by about 87 points - and I'll never forget this, and he said to me - 'It gets easier. You'll have a good career'."
Graham is in no doubt the time is right to retire, citing mental and physical fatigue. Only a few weeks ago he admits he struggled to keep up with teammates on a run around The Tan. Importantly, Graham leaves the game on his own terms.
"It was pretty much time to pull the pin. This game is so brutal and so unforgiving, it doesn't care how old you are, how big and strong you are, what you look like. It will just eat you up and spit you out if you can't do the work.
"You've just got to be able to do the work. You've got to be fit, you've got to do the pre-season, you can't cut corners because it's so physical, it's so fast moving."
Graham would love to remain in football, and believes he has a particular flair to work with young players.
"One of the things I've always enjoyed about my career is that it hasn't always been about me. It's always been about your teammates.
"If you can get the best out of your teammates, it's going to make your job a bit easier because everyone's going to improve.
"I really do have a bit of a passion for helping out the young guys. I reckon I've got a bit of skill there in helping to fast-track young players to become senior players quicker."While Graham would love to enjoy a victory against his former club this Sunday, he says he has no problem about his departure from Glenferrie last year.
"I feel very comfortable about it," he said.
"I've got some great friends at Hawthorn and they're still there. I have got closure. It will be even more closure if we sing the theme song this week!"
His career as a key defender has coincided with the careers of some of the greatest modern-day forwards, and listing his toughest opponents takes time. Graham freely admits he's had particular difficulty against Matthew Lloyd, being ' touched up a few times' by the champion Bomber.
However, one of the more memorable moments on the field occurred when he once played on Chris Tarrant, with the pair exchanging words during the match.
"I said to him 'mate, you're lucky you're playing today'. They were not going to play him because he'd mucked up or something," Graham remembered.
"He turned around and said 'mate, you're lucky you're playing every week'. It was quite funny. I thought 'well done Chris, you got me there'."
http://richmondfc.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=222996
