THE career of one of the most celebrated sons of the west appears to be over, with seven-time club champion Scott West told yesterday he was no longer a required player at the Western Bulldogs.

West was told yesterday afternoon that he would not be required in 2009. The club intended to announce the decision publicly today, but a devastated West left after receiving the news and had not been back in contact with the Bulldogs as reports of the decision started to leak out.

Senior coach Rodney Eade paid tribute to West in a statement issued by the club last night, after it became clear the 324-game veteran would not be getting back in contact with the club.

"Scott West is regarded as one of the Western Bulldogs' all-time great players and we hope to honour him in the future in the way a club legend should be honoured," Eade said in the brief statement issued by the club.

"Westy has been an integral part of our leadership group and it has been devastating to see someone who has played so many years with minimal injuries to finish his career in such frustrating way."

Brownlow medallist Jason Akermanis yesterday said he was not surprised by the ending of West's career.

"I wasn't. I was with Scotty all yesterday and last night and while we were fairly intoxicated at the (Brownlow Medal) after-party, Rocket was standing behind me, and (West) said: 'That guy there is going to tell me tomorrow it's no good, I'm going to be finished' … there's no doubt that he wanted to play on but it's so tough when you're 34," Akermanis told radio SEN yesterday.

"It's amazing, when you're getting older, if your body has just one bad patch — and he's had a great career — how quickly you can be gone. We know how good a player he is, or was, and I think the decision was made, there's a lot of young guys coming through, and hey, there's pressure on me now.

"I had a chat today with the coaches and I don't mind saying that I got the distinct feeling that there's a lot of pressure coming on young guys to get games, and if I sort of have a little bit of a bad patch, they said: 'Look, you may have to go and play in the twos and are you going to be able to handle that?' That's the nature of football as you get older."

The 31-year-old also revealed that season 2009 would be his football finale.

"After that conversation I will tell you categorically right now, next year's the last. Hopefully I'm playing good footy and hopefully I play all the way to the end, and hopefully we're in the same position trying to get to the top of the tree. Next year, that's it," he said.

Although West had been restricted to only four games this season with knee injuries, he had been involved with the team's preparation throughout the finals campaign, which ended with last Friday's 29-point loss to Geelong in a preliminary final.

The decision was communicated to West the day after another Bulldog midfielder, Adam Cooney, won the Brownlow Medal, an award West had gone so close to winning on several occasions.

West finished second in the Brownlow in 2000 and 2006 and was third in 1998.

West's in-and-under style and seemingly limitless endurance made him a hard man for opponents to stop. You could stick with him, hang on to him, do everything short of wrap him up entirely and somehow he would squeeze a handball out to a teammate. Though not a big goal-scorer himself, nor even a particularly long kick, he had an uncanny knack for finding the ball and giving it to someone in a better position.