Emotional Birchall calls time on his decorated career
FOUR-time AFL premiership winner Grant Birchall was a “blubbering mess” when he told his Brisbane Lions teammates on Friday that he had retired from football.
After a stellar 287-game career that included premierships with Hawthorn in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015, 33-year-old Birchall decided to call time on his career.
The veteran defender, who spent the past two seasons with the Lions after 13 seasons with the Hawks, was battling injury when he moved to Brisbane and, like former premiership captain Luke Hodge, rediscovered his form at the Lions.
In his two years at the Lions, Tasmania-born Birchall was a mainstay of Brisbane’s backline, playing in 39 of Brisbane’s 43 matches in the period.
He helped the Lions secure successive top-four ladder spots in that time.
However, a fifth premiership eluded him, with his 287th and last AFL match being Brisbane’s heartbreaking one-point semi-final loss to the Western Bulldogs at the Gabba last Saturday night.