Watch Cameron Bruce's interview with HawksTV on his retirement above.

WHEN Cameron Bruce addressed his Hawthorn teammates on Monday to tell them he was retiring, he left them with a message: grab your opportunity now, because chances don't come easily.

After an injury-riddled one-and-a-half seasons with the Hawks, Bruce's career has been brought to an end by a back injury.

He finishes as a 234-game player (224 with Melbourne, 10 with Hawthorn), a Demons best and fairest winner and two-time Australian International Rules representative.

But he never had the privilege of playing in a premiership.

In 2000, his first season of senior football, the versatile utility was a late withdrawal from Melbourne's losing Grand Final team after tearing his quad in the preliminary final.

He never got another chance at the ultimate glory.

"At the time I thought the opportunities to play in Grand Finals and finals would just keep coming, but as you quickly find out, it's not that easy," Bruce told hawthornfc.com.au on Monday night.

"I said to the boys today, they really have to grab the opportunity that's in front of them now, because time in the game goes very, very quickly.

"When you're up amongst the top, you've got to make the most of it."

Bruce leaves the game with a lot to be proud of.

Selected by the Demons as a 20-year-old with their last pick in the 1999 draft, the former Melbourne High School Old Boys star developed a reputation for his strong work ethic and remarkable consistency.

He finished in the top seven in the club's best and fairest in every year from 2002 until his departure at the end of 2010.

In 2005 he led the Brownlow Medal with eight votes after three rounds before a brutal tackle from future teammate Brent Guerra - then playing for St Kilda - left him with a severe sprain of the AC joint.

Jokes about what might've been have been common at Waverley over the past two seasons.

"I've got a distinct dip in my shoulder that I call the 'Gooey' (Guerra's nickname)," Bruce said.

"But over the last couple of years we've become good mates and we have a laugh about it.

"I'm sure the story will get better and better as time goes on. I'll tell him he cost me a Brownlow."

The 32-year-old now plans to pursue a career in coaching, and will begin straight away by filling a development role with the Hawks for the rest of the year.

He said he had no regrets about not finishing his career as a one-club player.

"The two years I've been at Hawthorn, the players have made me feel so comfortable within the environment that I feel like I've been at the club for a long, long time," he said.

"For where I want to go, I'm in such a better position for having experienced another club's way of going about things.

"It's helped me develop, and I'll be forever grateful for the opportunity."

The decision to retire immediately stemmed from a desire to be a good father to children Holly and Benjamin.

To keep playing with his back condition, he said, would have been to risk his chances of having a "happy, healthy post-football life".

"I thought it was just the stock standard soreness and I could push through it, but it's been lingering for a while and we thought we'd scan it, and when we got the scan the specialists alerted me to the risks involved in continuing on," Bruce said.

"For what I've got to look forward to outside of footy with a young family, it was a matter of moving on to the next phase."

The decision made, he can now look back fondly on 13 years at the top level.

"I never expected to play one game of AFL," Bruce said.

"I'd planned to finish year 12 and then go to university and join the workforce.

"So to be able to play as many games as I did, and get the friendships out of it, I couldn't have asked for ... a premiership would have been nice, but we're not all that fortunate.

"I've been lucky to have had the career I've had."