An AFL career that began in near tragedy could well end in a fairytale.
Tom Lonergan was playing just his seventh senior match for Geelong back in 2006 when he crashed to the Kardinia Park turf following a sickening collision with Melbourne’s Brad Miller.
He underwent lifesaving emergency surgery to have a kidney removed and spent four days in a coma.
That Lonergan was able to make it back to the big time and forge a long and successful football career is one of the AFL’s all-time feelgood stories.
And now it could have the ultimate final chapter, with the Cats a real chance to claim a fourth flag in the space of nine years.
Lonergan and his longtime defensive partner Andrew Mackie – both aged 33 – chose the conclusion of Saturday night’s 44-point win over GWS to reveal they would both be hanging up their boots at season’s end.
They walked together around Simonds Stadium to receive the plaudits of their adoring home fans.
Unless the second-placed Cats end up playing the Giants again in a qualifying final in two weeks’ time, this will be the last time that Lonergan and triple premiership star Mackie grace the turf at their home ground.
“We wanted to keep it really low-key,” said Lonergan after the 200th match of his post-kidney operation career.
“It was obviously a big game for us , needing to lock down a top-two position and hopefully get a home final.
We didn’t want to make it about us during the week.
“… I just wanted to go out having played some really good footy and go out on my terms.”
Lonergan and Mackie played 184 games together, including the 2011 grand final victory over Collingwood.
Cats coach Chris Scott said the low-key nature of the pair’s retirement announcement spoke volumes about Lonergan and Mackie.
“Their request to everyone around Geelong is to focus as hard as we can on the month ahead and that would be the best way for them to go out,” Scott said.
“I can say this hand on heart – there is no one in the game I respect more than those two.
“Let’s just put aside the quality of their football, which has been at an extremely high level over a long period of time.
“But as people, if you were saying to first-, second- or third-year players at a footy club, we want you to be like someone, you’d say those guys.
“They give to the team, they help their teammates, they sacrifice their own interests if it’s necessary for the betterment not just of the team itself but the football club in general.
“They represent everything we want to be as Geelong people.”
TOM LONERGAN
Age: 33
Debut: 2005
Games: 207
Goals: 55
* Member of 2011 premiership team
ANDREW MACKIE
Age: 33
Debut: 2004
Games: 277
Goals: 100
* Member of 2007, 2009 and 2011 premiership teams
* 2013 All-Australian
* 2013 third in Geelong best and fairest
