Swans stalwart calls it a day

After battling a debilitating hip condition for a number of years, the 30-year-old, who joined the Swans in 2008 after six seasons with the Adelaide Crows, struggled to return to fitness after aggravating his condition in this year’s round seven clash with Hawthorn.

Speaking to SwansTV ahead of his official announcement on Thursday morning, Mattner said he made his final decision on Tuesday afternoon following another painful running session.

“I’ve been having some trouble with my hips over probably the last few years now playing football,” Mattner said.

“I did everything I could in the off-season to get it right for this season but after injuring them in the Hawthorn game, I just haven’t been able to get back and finally on Tuesday I pulled the pin and gave it away.

“I think it’s just been probably the last six months or even the last year that I’ve really struggled pain-wise to get through training and playing and that sort of stuff.

“I think I just had had enough of it and it wasn’t a rash decision because it was something I’d been thinking about for probably the last month.”

Mattner has struggled with hip concerns since 2008, when he underwent the first operation on his left hip. Since then, Mattner confessed that he has suffered on-going pain in both his hips, which now impacts his daily life.

“The pain has sort of been nearly every day, so in terms of that it’s been the hardest thing – the everyday stuff – and then also mentally as well getting right for games,” he said.

“Even the basic thing of putting shoes and socks on in the mornings is quite challenging, so in terms of that for my life, I decided to make the decision.

“It’s not acute pain, sometimes it’s an aching pain and it’s just hard to do everyday things … it’s quite hard.”

Speaking at today’s announcement, Swans coach John Longmire praised the defender’s resilience to play through the pain over the last few seasons.

“Not many of us probably knew some of the challenges, particularly over the past 12 months that he was playing with,” Longmire said.

“To have the time off over the summer and then for him to have another go at it when he could have quite easily given up at the end of last year was another example of what he’s about.”

Longmire added that Mattner was the ultimate team player, and went on to highlight some of the defender’s finest moments for the Swans.

“There’s a chase-down tackle on Stanton out at ANZ Stadium two years’ ago when Stanton looked as if he was going to walk in and kick the winning goal for Essendon and Marty came from the clouds and came from 20-30m away and laid a tackle and covered for a team mate and cleared the ball out of defence,” he said.

“I think the ultimate underline for his career was the tackle that he laid in last year’s Grand Final in the last minute of the game.

“It probably typified what Marty is about. He’s able to do the simple things well all the time and he’s an ultimate team man.”

Supported by his wife Chelsea and six-month old son Oscar at today’s announcement, Mattner said he was looking forward to some down time with family over the next few weeks before returning to the club to assist with the Swans reserves.

“Hopefully I’ll take a couple of weeks off and just relax with the family and chill out and let everything sink in,” he said.

“After that I’ll come back to the club in a couple of weeks’ time and do some work with our reserves, which I’ve been doing for the last few weeks.

“I’ve been sitting on the bench and helping out some of our young defenders, so I’ll stick around and finish out the year.”

Mattner also acknowledged the support of the Sydney Swans Football Club as well as the Swans fans that have shown him so much support over the past six seasons.

“I’d like to thank the footy club, the players, the staff and everyone at the footy club and also the supporters,” he said.

“The support here was amazing, the last couple of years especially, and especially last year in the Grand Final.