Goodbyes are never easy.
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But as Lucinda Morgan closes the book on her Hume League netball career, she has pages of memories to be thankful for.
Growing up on a farm in Lockhart, Morgan started playing netball for the Demons when she was five.
After relocating to Albury for work at the end of high school, she joined Jindera in 2003 and reached 250 A-grade games with the club this season.
Morgan, who turns 39 next month, has now announced her retirement after racking up close to 450 Hume League games across two clubs.
While she admits she's been lucky to have experienced success on multiple occasions, her farewell season didn't end as she had hoped.
"Winning the premiership would have been the way that I would have liked to have gone out, and now we will never know," she said.
"You're only as good as your last game, and we played Osborne and were able to beat them.
"There's a bit of unfinished business, and it will stay unfinished for me.
"It's about my kids now."
The mum of Brock, 8 and Zac, 3 said there were no hard feelings when she left her home club.
"It's always one of those tough things when you play against your old hometown," she said.
"My parents were fine about it and I think they were just happy that I was staying in the Hume League so we could still see each other at some games and finals."
Morgan has won multiple club best and fairest awards and was runner-up in the league's A-grade vote count in 2011.
She was an integral part of the Bulldogs' seven straight grand final appearances from 2008 to 2014, in which they won five premierships.
Morgan missed just one flag after the arrival of her oldest son.
While players have come and gone since then, she experienced all of the highs with current Bulldogs' defender Sharna Holland.
"I've been lucky to be surrounded by such great netballers and to be a part of a successful team," she said.
While she's grateful to have mostly avoided injuries throughout her career, she can still remember having to tell former coach Bree Kirk about a snowboarding accident that left her sidelined.
"She was not impressed," Morgan laughed.
"I went up snowboarding during one of our winning years and did my medial collateral ligament in my knee and was out for a few weeks.
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"I missed a prelim final after hurting my ankle at training, and broke my arm playing indoor netball.
"Other than that it's been pretty smooth sailing."
When she's not playing netball or running around after her two sons, Morgan is kept busy by her business Leading Property Group.
After opening the border real estate company in 2015, Morgan said netball had become a way of maintaining a work-life balance.
She would never miss a training.
"It's been great to have an outlet from work to clear my head," she said.
"There's been many a late night up until 12am working after I get home from netball training or playing on a Saturday, but it's what you have to do to make it all work.
"My partner Jayme is very supportive with the kids, he looks after them whenever I've got training and they always come to games."
While it's a bittersweet end, she's cherished her Hume League career.
"I have been lucky enough to play with some of the best players in the Hume League," Morgan said.
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