Max Bailey is an extraordinary football story: after three knee reconstructions, he retired just short of his 27th birthday after only 43 games in eight years, and yet a premiership in his last AFL contest.

Bailey's rocky journey is illustrated by the fact that Hawthorn played 174 matches in the period between his debut in 2006 and his 43rd and final game on grand final day 2013.

Bailey, whose bone-on-bone knee was hanging by a thread late in the 2013 season, was rested in Rounds 14, 19, 20 and 23 and then had another valuable week off when Hawthorn won the qualifying final.

Although he didn’t dominate in the grand final, he was a critical role player; helping David Hale to tame Aaron Sandilands.

It was the fairytale ending to Bailey’s story of sheer determination and persistence.

Grand Final Moments Countdown:

20. Schoey tastes success 
19. When Brian met Norm
18. Kennedy hands over to Clarkson
17. Cyril’s 2008 tackling rampage
16. The 4X club
15. Roughead relief
14. Langford laps it up
13. 2013 goes down to the wire
12. Hodge’s half time speech
11. The people’s champ
10. Isaac Smith's 2013 goal
9. A Brian Lake special