{"id":113766,"date":"2025-09-02T18:18:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/113766\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T18:18:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:18:18","slug":"gold-coast-confirm-multiple-retirements-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/113766\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold Coast confirm multiple retirements – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Gold Coast duo David Swallow<\/a> and Sean Lemmens<\/a> have both decided to retire from the AFL<\/a> at the conclusion of the club’s finals campaign.<\/p>\n

Swallow, the last remaining member of the club’s inaugural squad, is the Suns’ games record holder with 247 matches.<\/p>\n

He joined the club as their first-ever draft selection, taken Pick 1 in 2010 out of East Fremantle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He would go on to captain the club from 2019-2021 and would claim best and fairest honours in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI firstly want say how thankful I am to the footy club and everyone who’s here today, and all the people that have come before me,\u201d Swallow said in a team meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis club gave me a chance a long time ago. I’ll forever be indebted to the Suns and am so thankful for the opportunities this club has afforded me and my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve spent my whole adult life here, had two beautiful kids in that time and share a lot of wonderful memories with so many people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve got the biggest game in the club’s history this weekend, and I feel like it’s just the beginning for us. I’ve waited my whole career to get this point, and I’m proud to still be here and get to be a part of that.
\u201cIt’s just the beginning for this team and this club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lemmens will depart the club after a dozen years at Carrara. The Suns utility has played 149 games for Gold Coast, sitting eighth overall on their all-time list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A product of Port Adelaide’s SANFL program, Lemmens emerged as a role model for the Suns’ incoming Indigenous players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve had a lot of time over the last couple of months to reflect on the last 12 years here. I am so truly grateful that this amazing club gave me an opportunity to live out a dream and achieve so many special things,\u201d Lemmens said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have made so many lifelong friends along the way, there are so many people at the club today that I absolutely love.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the playing group, it’s been an absolute privilege to go to work every day with such a connected group that I care about so much. The way I play is hard, and I put my body on the line, but it’s easy to do that for people you love and care about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve come a long way in the last 12 years as a club. We’ve still got plenty of footy left in us this year and I’m excited for where that can take us.\u201d
The two outgoing Suns are the first confirmed departures at the club for the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast duo David Swallow and Sean Lemmens have both decided to retire from the AFL at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-113766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}