Sydney champion and dual Brownlow Medallist Adam Goodes has announced his AFL retirement.

Goodes told his teammates of his decision following Sydney’s 26-point semi-final loss to North Melbourne at ANZ Stadium.

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Goodes 35, will finish as Sydney’s all-time games leader on 372, making him eighth on the competition’s all-time list, he kicked 2.2 and tallied 18 disposals and 10 marks in his last game.  

As he had been for the past few years of his career, Goodes – who was Australian of the Year in 2014 – was booed by opposition supporters throughout the match.

But that will not detract from his legacy as one of the greatest players to play the game – winning two Brownlow Medals and two premierships in a career that began in 1999.

A four-time All Australian, Goodes won his first Brownlow Medal in 2003 in a three-way tie with Nathan Buckley and Mark Ricciuto.

Two years later he won his first premiership when the Swans held off a fast-finishing West Coast to end a 72-year drought.

Although the Swans were beaten in the Grand Final by the Eagles in 2006, Goodes claimed his second Brownlow by three votes from Bulldog Scott West.

He had to wait until 2012 to claim his second premiership, when Sydney defeated Hawthorn by 10 points in a classic.

Goodes displayed immense courage in that game, playing on despite damaging knee ligaments early in the contest.

The latter part of the champion’s career has been embroiled in controversy – seemingly stemming from his Australian of the Year nod and work to promote racial equality.

In 2013, he identified a young Collingwood supporter who’d racially abused him, pointing her out to security.

Since that point, and increasingly this season – after his spear-throwing goal celebration against Carlton – Goodes has been a target of opposition supporters who boo his every touch.

After being jeered by West Coast supporters in Round 17, he sat out the following week.

– with AAP