{"id":44343,"date":"2025-08-05T03:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T03:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44343\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T03:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T03:14:10","slug":"afl-port-adelaide-great-travis-boak-calls-time-on-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44343\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL: Port Adelaide great Travis Boak calls time on his career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beloved Port Adelaide great Travis Boak has decided against extending his glittering AFL career into a 20th season and will retire at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

The 384-game veteran announced his retirement on Tuesday and will finish his career alongside coach Ken Hinkley.<\/p>\n

Boak had overcome injury in May to enter a rich vein of form and make a case for extending his career.<\/p>\n

Power great Travis Boak has called time on his AFL career.\u00a0Sarah Reed\/AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Another season would have given the 37-year-old the chance to become the seventh player to reach 400 AFL\/VFL games, but the temptation was easily resisted.<\/p>\n

“After 19 years at AFL level, it feels like now is the right time to finish my career,” Boak said in a club statement.<\/p>\n

“I’m incredibly grateful to have had the career I’ve had, and at a club I truly love.<\/p>\n

“Being a one-club player is really special to me, and it’s certainly not lost on me how lucky I have been.”<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Drafted with pick No. 5 in 2006, Boak ends his AFL career as the club’s all-time games record-holder, with all 384 matches played for Port Adelaide.<\/p>\n

He is the club’s longest-serving captain (2013-18), a three-time All-Australian, a three-time Showdown Medal winner and a two-time club best-and-fairest winner.<\/p>\n

The veteran midfielder also represented Australia in the 2014 and 2017 International Rules Series against Ireland.<\/p>\n

Lauded as one of the greatest Port Adelaide players, Boak famously turned his back on rival offers in 2012 to remain committed to the club amid turmoil.<\/p>\n

Then, Port were propped up by AFL funds, had just won five games for the year, and sacked coach Matthew Primus after just three victories in 2011.<\/p>\n

Perennial powerhouse Geelong were keen to snare Boak, a Geelong Falcons under-18 product, but he stayed at the Power.<\/p>\n

“The highs and lows are what makes footy exciting, and those moments are what connect a group in a significant and authentic way,” Boak said.<\/p>\n

“Port Adelaide fans are loud, passionate and supportive. They demand success.<\/p>\n

“And while I haven’t been able to help deliver them an elusive second AFL premiership, I can’t wait to sit back and watch on as this club does that for them.<\/p>\n

“I’ll forever be a Port Adelaide person, and I’ll forever be grateful for this part of my life.”<\/p>\n

Hinkley, who will hand over to assistant coach Josh Carr at the end of the season, lauded Boak for his loyalty during the club’s “darkest days”.<\/p>\n

“Coaching Travis has been one of the great privileges of my career,” Hinkley said.<\/p>\n

“Travis has been the heartbeat of this football club for 19 seasons.<\/p>\n

“When I think about Trav, I don’t just see a great player, I see a person and leader who embodies everything Port Adelaide stands for – someone who is selfless, caring, courageous and never satisfied.<\/p>\n

“He chose to make his stand with Port Adelaide at the end of 2012 when it mattered most, and we’ll all be forever grateful for his commitment to our club.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beloved Port Adelaide great Travis Boak has decided against extending his glittering AFL career into a 20th season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-44343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44343","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=44343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}