Lara defender Matt Spence has labelled his surprise retirement “a difficult decision to come to”.
The former Cats skipper, who made 128 appearances for the club, had been contemplating his future over the summer after suffering a fractured spine late last season.
Spence made a definitive call last month before telling co-coach Shayne Stone he was hanging up the boots.
“It got to mid-February, and I gave ‘Rock’ (Stone) a call, and I called around to his house, and we sat down in his home, and we had a chat,” the 30-year-old revealed.
“I was certainly dreading catching up with Rock because I knew that, ultimately, that was the decision I would make.
“It’s the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make with anything in my life because it’s something I absolutely love doing.
“I’ve played footy since Auskick as a five-year-old, then coming through Lara Little League and into the junior system at Lara.
“I’ve spent my whole time playing for Lara.”
The fractured spine, suffered in the Round 17 loss to Newtown & Chilwell. is among a range of injuries sustained by Spence during his career, which began in Round 15, 2011 against Colac.
He was sidelined for 13 months with a badly broken leg suffered in mid-2016, took more than a month to overcome a concussion from an on-field incident in 2021, and damaged a medial ligament.
However, Spence says the most recent injury has “tipped me over the edge”.
“I was playing in defence and just went up for a spoil, and as I went up to make the spoil, I spoiled the footy, but my body rotated 180 degrees.
“As I landed, I fell backwards into a Newtown midfielder coming from the centre to the contest.
“Unfortunately, his knee brushed my L3 vertebrae and fractured the wing of the vertebrae.
“It could have been so much worse. It’s amazing because the contact wasn’t even that pure; it was more (that) he brushed it, but he just brushed it in the wrong spot for me.
“I found myself laying on the ground, and I couldn’t get up … eventually, I couldn’t move.”
Spence captained the Cats from 2019-2022, fulfilling a childhood dream.
“As a young kid, I went and watched Lara, and then I got the opportunity to captain the under-18s,” he said.
“Ever since those days, I could see myself being a leader for the club.
“It took a lot of hard work … it was a massive honour and something I’ll look back on in years to come with a lot of pride.
“I’m so thankful that Rock gave me the opportunity to do the job.”
Spence won’t be a stranger at Bisinella Oval, with wife Paige returning to the netball court for the Cats in 2024 after giving birth to the couple’s second child in November.
“I’m actually looking forward to going down and watching my wife play netball,” he said.
“I’ve never had the chance to do so because every time she plays netball, I’m warming up to play footy.
“It’ll be pretty cool to sit there with the kids and watch and cheer her on.”
