{"id":344194,"date":"2025-12-12T23:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T23:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/344194\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T23:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T23:44:10","slug":"three-club-defender-calls-time-on-afl-career-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/344194\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-club defender calls time on AFL career &#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\/12\/1764633130_359_ZH-InArticleMyTeamLink.png.webp.webp\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Recently axed Hawthorn key defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/sam-frost\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Frost<\/a> has announced his retirement, hanging up the boots after a career which spanned across 14 seasons and three clubs.<\/p>\n<p>The veteran defender&#8217;s career started with GWS prior to a move to Melbourne, who would trade the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/tac-cup\/sandringham-dragons\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sandringham Dragons<\/a>\u00a0product to Hawthorn ahead of the 2020 season.<\/p>\n<p>In the brown and gold, Frost would find career-best success, averaging 15 disposals and 2.5 intercept marks per game in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Frost featured at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a>\u00a0level just twice in 2025, with the Hawks prioritising star recruits\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/josh-battle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Battle<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/afl\/players\/thomas-barrass\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tom Barrass<\/a>\u00a0as the prominent figures in their back six. It comes just one year after Frost played in a career-high 24\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a>\u00a0matches in 2024, missing just one game that season.<\/p>\n<p>Frost had been hopeful to secure a contract for 2026, given he was often a class above his peers at state level, but ultimately no club took a chance on the 2012 rookie draft selection.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to\u00a0AFL.com.au, Frost thanked all three clubs that contributed to his lengthy career in Aussie Rules football.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to thank the Greater Western Sydney Football Club, the Melbourne Football Club and the Hawthorn Football Club for affording me the opportunity to live out a childhood dream of playing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohanger.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AFL<\/a> football,&#8221; Frost said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In particular I&#8217;d like to thank the Hawks for helping me to become a teammate, partner and father I can be proud of as I finish my career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After 14 years and 185 game I&#8217;ve had incredible highs and shattering lows and will retire with no regrets, only gratitude for the experiences I have had and the people who have helped shape them. I look forward to discovering what&#8217;s next for my family and I.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recently axed Hawthorn key defender Sam Frost has announced his retirement, hanging up the boots after a career&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-344194","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\/344194","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=344194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}