{"id":471163,"date":"2026-02-10T18:50:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/471163\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:50:33","slug":"western-bulldogs-midfielder-and-melbourne-premiership-player-james-harmes-makes-shock-retirement-call-on-eve-of-afl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/471163\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Bulldogs midfielder and Melbourne premiership player James Harmes makes shock retirement call on eve of AFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Bulldogs<\/a> midfielder James Harmes has made a bombshell retirement call just days out from the start of the 2026 AFL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

Harmes, 30, has been working through some personal issues and recently took indefinite leave from the club.<\/p>\n

He trained before Christmas but did not return after the three-week break.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Harmes reportedly told his teammates of his retirement decision on Tuesday (today).<\/p>\n

Harmes joined the Bulldogs ahead of the 2024 season after a successful 152-game stint at Melbourne<\/a> that included the 2021 premiership.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been so fortunate to play AFL footy for over a decade at two amazing clubs,\u201d Harmes said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning a premiership in 2021 was a lifelong dream and something I\u2019ll cherish forever, while spending the past two years at the Bulldogs has been special.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the time is right for me to step away from the game and focus on other areas of my life. I\u2019m forever thankful to those that have played a part in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

He played 13 games for the Bulldogs in 2025 with his last game coming in the Dogs\u2019 thrilling Round 16 win over Sydney at the SCG.<\/p>\n

In that game Harmes had 21 touches, slotted a goal and, as per usual, was one of his team\u2019s best tacklers.<\/p>\n

He battled concussion issues throughout the year but the club said he missed the following week\u2019s game, against North Melbourne, due to illness.<\/p>\n

He did not appear at AFL level again.<\/p>\n

Harmes\u2019 three-year contract was due to expire at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

His sudden retirement means the Bulldogs have a vacant spot on their list which they will be able to fill via the AFL\u2019s pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP).<\/p>\n

The window for signing SSP players closes on March 2.<\/p>\n

Harmes was drafted way back in the 2014 rookie draft and made his AFL debut in 2015.<\/p>\n

He finishes his AFL career with 174 games to his name.<\/p>\n

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2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Bulldogs midfielder James Harmes has made a bombshell retirement call just days out from the start of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,1625,7804,3863,588,85,698],"class_list":["post-471163","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-lifestyle","tag-melbourne-demons","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471163","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=471163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}