SANDHURST senior captain Wayne Mitrovic called it quits on Sunday evening following the Dragons' 33-point first semi-final loss to arch rivals South Bendigo.
Straight after the loss, Mitrovic addressed the players and supporters in the Queen Elizabeth Oval change rooms.
He told them he'd loved his time in the Bendigo Football League with the Hurst, but back and groin injuries had cut him down in the past three seasons and he wasn't able to do all that much for the club after the 2004 premiership victory over Gisborne.
Mitrovic had not played much more than a handful of games since that scintillating win three seasons ago.
He's heading back to Macorna, his home club, in the Golden Rivers league while he's still got a few seasons left in the legs.
Sandhurst committeemen and supporters praised his rapport with the Dragons' younger players and Mitrovic said in his Sandhurst social rooms speech --- his second in 45 minutes -- he hoped to be able to help with Macorna's young players.
Mitro said he'd finished on 98 games with the Hurst. Had he played in the preliminary and grand finals this year he would have racked up 100 senior BFL games --- but that wasn't to be.
Dragon president Danny Ellis told his faithful Mitro would go down in the records as not only a Sandhurst premiership captain (2004) but also one of the great senior skippers at the club. There's not all that many senior Sandhurst premiership captains still going around Danny mentioned.
In fact when Sandhurst won the 2004 flag, it was the end of a 21-year premiership drought. The Dragons had last hoisted the Bendigo Advertiser premiership cup aloft in September, 1983 when they accounted for Golden Square by seven points.
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