LAST year at the grand final eve luncheon I sat down with my manager and great friend Craig Kelly to discuss my footballing future. Just seven days earlier Collingwood's 2007 season had ended at the hands of the all-conquering Geelong.

In that time I had wrestled with the many variables that the decision involved. My physical limitations, my state of mind, the club's chance of success, the club's well-being, the impact on family, the worst-case scenarios, the best-case scenarios.

That week hadn't made the decision any clearer to me.

At one point in the conversation I looked across the table at 'Ned' and said earnestly: "I still think I can play the game." To which the balding, 40-year-old man sitting across from me said, with a glint in his eye, "So do I."

It was at this moment that I realised my career was all but over.

Because in that moment I stopped looking at what I wanted to happen and started looking at what needed to happen. It was a shift in thought process that ultimately resulted in my retirement 10 days later.

Separating the dream from the reality was something beyond confronting. Every decision I'd made in my life to that point had been made with football in mind.

Being a better player, a better leader and a better teamman were all-consuming for me and now I was considering a life without it.

Not every player is exposed to this scenario as many are shown the door before they contemplate what is beyond it. But for those that do it can turn them inside out.

At the beginning of the week, I felt for the situation that Fraser Gehrig found himself in and the pressure that was brought to bear from the media in particular.

Gehrig's circumstances are far from normal.

Just eight months ago he made the decision to end his playing career. His body was beginning to rebel, his best was behind him and he saw a future for himself without football. With 59 goals for the season and his fifth straight club leading goalkicker award it was a fitting end to a great career.

But within a few months things changed.

If you're to believe the reports, his relationship with someone overseas had faltered and he was back in town. How he came to be recruited once again to the Saints only they know, but I'd suggest the club approached him. And why wouldn't you when, in effect, he would be taking no more than the 40th spot on the list. It was worth the gamble.

Ultimately, it's clear to us all that the gamble hasn't come off and this week both the club and player are hedging their bets by putting Gehrig on the long-term injury list. The season is still far from over.

From all reports, Gehrig would have retired if the club had asked him to, but ultimately he could still have a role to play when the season nears its end.

In the next eight weeks, he has a chance to get his body right and be used in a pinch-hitting, gorilla-in-the-goal-square role, if and when the finals come around for the Saints.

The chance of playing in finals was what kept me going last year and it is the primary reason that Gehrig's AFL career remains intact.

The same cannot be said of David Neitz. The end came suddenly when a neck injury compounded on his battle-weary body. The decision would have been made so much easier by the probability that the Demons will not figure in finals at season's end.

If Neitz was a Cat the decision might have been a whole lot more complicated. Ditto for Matthew Carr in the West.

Towards the end of a long career, and with nothing left to prove as an individual the prospect of team success becomes even more influential.

Just ask Robert Harvey.

He has said time and time again that he plays on to contribute to team success for the Saints and the prospect of becoming a premiership player in the process.

Every season for the past three or four years, I'd suggest that Harvey has sat down and weighed up all of the retirement questions and every time he has found no reason to give up on his dream.

Still he gets little slack from those outside the inner sanctum. He remains one poor performance or an injury away from the nay-sayers who would prefer their champions retire at their very best.

It is the acceptance of reality that allows Harvey to continue doing what he loves and, indeed, to love what he is doing. To reconcile that your best is behind you is a mental challenge that a high performer must face.

Harvey is not at his line-breaking, blistering best but still remains a great contributor to the team's performance.

Retirement can seem like the big gorilla that sits in the corner for those looking from the outside in, but in reality it remains a fluid thing. The best interests of the club are the only concern and sometimes that can mean keeping an experienced player on for another year.

For my part, I can say to Neita, Matt Carr and Frase and Harvs that when their time comes the sky doesn't fall down and your world doesn't collapse. Life just rolls on.