Hawthorn ruckman David Hale will let his third AFL premiership sink in before he makes the likely decision to retire.
While Hawks teammate Brian Lake wants another season, Hale is the obvious candidate in this team to call time.
The team that belted West Coast in Sunday's grand final is the oldest premiership lineup in AFL history.
Hawthorn have a solid core of seven four-time premiership players and several of them are in their 30s.
The Hawks will have to manage their list demographics carefully or risk dropping off the pace quickly.
Hale, 31, has played 237 senior games and switched from North Melbourne after the 2010 season.
He and fellow ruckman Ben McEvoy played a crucial role in this year's three finals wins.
While they lost the hitouts against stars such as West Coast's Nic Naitanui, Hale and McEvoy made sure the ruck duels were predictable for the Hawthorn midfielders.
"It (his body) is pretty banged up now, so I will sit down with the club and family in the next few days and decide what happens next," Hale told Channel Seven's Game Day.
Hale made the most of the post-game celebrations, joining teammates in a golf buggy ride across the MCG.
The escapade happened before an evening fireworks display at the ground and security staff were worried the cart might set off an explosion.
Sam Mitchell was the driver.
"He (a security guard) chased us for about 400m - I think he was a bit worried the pyrotechnics would blow the cart up," Hale said.
"Every year we've gone in the golf cart and Mitch is usually the driver.
"Mitch is like 'yeah, no worries, I will get off' and then he proceeded to go through about five more sets of pyrotechnics."
Hale said Hawthorn's theme going into the grand final was to make sure their attitude was right in the wake of the qualifying final loss three earlier against the Eagles.
"We let ourselves down in Perth," he said.
"Everyone talks about our ball movement and all that sort of fluent stuff.
"But our attack on the man and ball, when we're at our best, that's probably something that stands out."
Share
