Gary Shipton retires after 350-plus game carer

The 37-year-old played his final game in Bridgenorth's four-point loss on September 12, drawing the curtains on a journey which started in Launceston's under 12s in 1992.

Making his senior debut in 1999, he stayed at the Blues until the 2007 season where he crossed over to NTFA side Hillwood for the year - winning the club's leading goalkicking and best and fairest in a seventh-placed season.

He then worked his way back to Windsor Park until 2014, winning the 2008 NTFL flag to add to their 2006 triumph before taking out the State League premiership in 2011.

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After calling time on his 245-game Blues career, Shipton found his passion for coaching, leading Bracknell to a preliminary final in 2015 before three consecutive grand final appearances but the NTFA's top prize stayed elusive.

The unfortunate trend continued in the 2019 season as he made the move to Bridgenorth as Brady Demeijer's assistant coach, falling at the final hurdle before taking over the head role for the disrupted 2020 season.

But the four-club player has no regrets, breaking the news to his Parrots side after his penultimate game - a loss against Rocherlea.

"It was always on the cards, it's been on the cards for a little bit now," he said.

"When the COVID came in, it was hard to get motivated again after putting in a big pre-season and having COVID come in and cut that three months, it was hard to keep myself and everyone else motivated.

"It wasn't really a tough decision, I'm turning 38 in a few days' time so it was always going to come eventually.

"I didn't think I'd be playing as long as I have but I've really enjoyed playing footy so that's what's kept me going through the years."

Unable to split the 2011 State League premiership and his first flag in 2006, which fell on his 24^th birthday, Shipton also struggled to name the best player he played with across his journey - citing too many to name.

However, picking the best he'd played against was an easy task, doing battle against some former AFL greats in his time at the Blues.

"Chris Tarrant was obviously a tough one when he played at North and Russell Robertson when he went to Burnie, they'd be two that were up there."

Upon his farewell to football, Shipton thanked the four clubs he played for over the journey as well as his partner of 13 years, Rachel, who along with his two young daughters and son, will see more of him.

"I'm just going to be enjoying the family time [in the future]," he said.

"I've got two daughters playing netball and my youngest fella, he's interested in footy so obviously I'm going to be involved in sports in some capacity."

In terms of his club's football future, he passes the reins onto former North Launceston, Scottsdale, Deloraine and Longford player Phil Lethborg, who served as assistant coach for the past three seasons.

"Phil is fantastic to work with, all the boys love him to death and I think he will be very good for the football club."

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Shippy was very versatile and also bloody hard at it.

He was good to coach, he's a well-respected guy both on and off the field and that's probably the biggest thing you can take from Gary.

He's honest, he plays hard, he's been a very good player for a very long time and he's well-respected among NTFA and both State League and NTFL communities.

We played a fair bit of footy together back in the day, certainly the 2011 premiership was a highlight for obvious reasons but Gary is one of those guys that always puts in a lot of effort so he very rarely plays ordinary games.

Gary is one of those kinds of coaches that led by example on the field so we knew what we were getting out of him. He wasn't the best back of house with some of his words but he did enough on the field to gee you up and he knew when it was his time to go.

He's definitely probably one of the most courageous footballers I've ever played with and one of the hardest that's for sure. He's one of the nicest blokes you'll meet off the field and one of the nicest on the field too I suppose but once he got across the line it was do or die for his 21 teammates.

Shippy was an absolute pleasure to coach. Being my assistant coach, he helped out heaps on the field and off the field and his leadership is second-to-none as well as his IQ footy brain.

When he was coaching me, that's when you're able to learn a few tricks of his trade when he was able to take time to you personally and teach you little parts of the game that you little parts of the game that you might not have come across yourself.

I was lucky enough to play with him a little bit at Launceston [as well] but you could just see spurts of what he was in his mid 20s and early 30s because there would be certain quarters where he would kick four goals and turn the game on his own boot.

I'm sure he used to do it a lot more frequently when he was in his prime.