{"id":296393,"date":"2025-11-20T05:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T05:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/296393\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T05:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T05:36:11","slug":"champion-ruckman-calls-time-on-afl-career-announces-new-club-for-2026-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/296393\/","title":{"rendered":"Champion ruckman calls time on AFL career, announces new club for 2026 &#8211; AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/introducing-myteam-your-club-your-news-your-way-166070\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"327\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" style=\"float:right;\" class=\"my-team-banner promo-article-banner\" id=\"my-team-banner\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ZH-InArticleMyTeamLink.png.webp.webp\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Former Essendon and North Melbourne player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/todd-goldstein\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Todd Goldstein<\/a> has officially called time on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> career.<\/p>\n<p>Goldstein was delisted by the Bombers at the end of 2025, but seemed keen to continue to remain in the top flight, depending on whether there were any suitors.<\/p>\n<p>However, the 37-year-old has made the decision to hang up the boots after 345 games across 19 seasons, following his drafting in 2006 with Pick 37 by the Kangaroos.<\/p>\n<p>Goldstein played 315 games for the Arden Street club, winning a Syd Barker Medal and All-Australian blazer in 2015. He added another 30 under former coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/coaches\/brad-scott\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brad Scott<\/a> at Essendon.<\/p>\n<p>He also holds the record for most hitouts in V\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> history.<\/p>\n<p>Goldstein took to\u00a0Instagram to reveal the news.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The end of one journey signals the beginning of another. I am officially announcing my retirement from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a>,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m incredibly appreciative of all the support I&#8217;ve received over my last 19 years and feel privileged to have played 345 games. It has been the privilege of a lifetime to play this game at the highest level.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to thank the North Melbourne\u00a0family for helping me grow as both a player and a person. I will forever treasure being Shinboner\u00a0#947. The lessons, memories and relationships I formed at North will stay with me for the rest of my life. I believe it is a truly special place, and it will always hold a special place in my heart, for where my journey began.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Growing up an Essendopn supporter and having the opportunity to fulfil my childhood dream in the last years of my career really has been a dream come true and given me an experience I never thought I&#8217;d get.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m looking forward to continuing my coaching role at Essendon. I love the game of footy, and I am excited to continue to play with and for friends at Pascoe Vale with Daniel Harris\u00a0where I get to give back to the game that has given me so much.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Essendon and North Melbourne player Todd Goldstein has officially called time on his AFL career. Goldstein was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-296393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296393","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=296393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}