John Longmire rates Jude Bolton the best club man he has worked with Jude Bolton with his wife Lynette and daughter Siarra on the SCG after announcing his retirement at the end of the 2013 season. WHEN Jude Bolton suggested recently he have his knee scanned, the club doctor was not keen. Did he really want to know what's going on in there after 321 games of footy? And once he did, what was he going to do about it? The 33-year-old figured he was right and it may not have been a major influence on his decision to bring down the curtain at the end of this season, but it revealed something about the tenacity and focus of the veteran. Renowned for an approach that coach John Longmire refers to as "putting your head in the hole," he has suffered more concussions and contusions in 14 years of AFL football than any man still on the right side of sensible or presentable. There was a saying at the Swans, if Bolton had his head wrapped in bloody bandages then the midfield was up and about and all was right with the world. It sells him short, however, to say it was all about courage. There was a fanaticism about his on-field approach that sees him as the greatest tackler in the history of the game and one of the elite contested ball-winners. To date, Bolton has notched 1467 tackles and played more games than any Swan other than Adam Goodes. Graphic: Jude Bolton Winning the contested ball and tackling were Bolton's trademark. He picked up 36 disposals, 26 of which were contested, he laid 12 tackles and won as many clearances and gave the ball to Goodes for the match-winning goal. A year later he notched 19 tackles against the West Coast Eagles - an AFL record. It was said of the female fan's favourite footballer that he "looked like Jane but played like Tarzan." One of the Sydney coaches famously observed that the fearless Bolton came into the game pretty but had little chance of leaving it that way. These days the club has a host of new hard heads in the midfield, but Josh Kennedy, who is a gold standard contested ball-winner, has never matched Bolton's 2010 game against the Bombers. Bolton's resilience was also remarkable. Three weeks out with a knee injury that seemed to have ended his hopes for the 2012 finals was the longest he spent out of the game, which he started playing in 1999. The Swans are facing the finals hindered by injury to key players - the news gets worse as Dan Hannebery (knee) is out of contention at least for this week - a fact raised by Bolton as he faced his teammates, family and the media yesterday to reflect on his career. "I've avoided some of the long-term injuries guys have gone through," Bolton said. My heart goes out to people like Rhyce Shaw (who tore his ACL on Saturday) and that's certainly the dark side of footy. I think three games was my longest stint out of footy and that was last year when I hurt my knee. It's been an unbelievable journey. Longmire said Bolton was the best club man he has ever worked with, noting his ability to arrive at work every Monday smiling and ready to go no matter the result on the weekend. When it looked like his knee had put him out of the finals last year the coach approached his player to offer commiserations, asking how he felt. I was shattered for him and expected him to be the same, but I went across and asked him how he was going and he said 'good, how are you?' Longmire said. That typifies Jude Bolton. I reckon if you can get over an injury with the power of a positive mind . . . Jude Bolton has been able to prove that time and time again. Longmire lauded the veteran's work with young players who came into the club. Many thought Bolton would not play on after last year's premiership but his decision to continue has been confirmed with a return of 26 goals from 20 outings. Bolton said the Swans he joined struggled to retain players but had evolved into one of the most admired cultures in football. "Back then we'd just lost Shannon Grant and Anthony Rocca, who wanted to head back home," Bolton said. And the 'go-home' factor was a big part of what was happening back then. Now we've got a club that is envied in terms of having a great culture, a great club to be part of, a great supporter base and corporate support. He said the greatest player he played alongside was Tony Lockett and the most difficult opponent was St Kilda's Robert Harvey. He is second on the Swans' list of games behind Goodes, who has played 332 games, and ahead of Michael O'Loughlin (303).