Lavington star Nick Meredith has quit football.
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The 28-old has declared he won't play next season despite being in the prime of his career.
His shock decision has taken some gloss off the boom signing of Adam Schneider as coach last week in the biggest coup of the off-season.
Meredith's has been working in Canberra for most of this year and will be spending further time in the nation's capital next year.
He felt there was no future in playing for the Panthers if he couldn't commit to the training.
"I'm working in Canberra now and coming home on weekends so there's no point playing if I can't train so I'm going to have a year off," Meredith said.
"If you can't train, your form suffers and you just end up frustrated and cranky when you can't get a kick.
"If you can't play your best footy I don't see the point in playing.
"Things could change but realistically I can see most of my work being in Canberra for quite a while.
"I'm not interested in playing in Canberra so I'll have 12 months off and reassess after that."
ALSO IN SPORT
Meredith won the Panthers' best and fairest in 2015 and had aspirations of playing at the elite level.
He spent two years in the VFL with Werribee and played 24 matches over two seasons before returning to the Lavington Sports Ground in 2018.
North Melbourne, Essendon and Greater Western Sydney spoke to Meredith after his first year in the VFL, where he was rated in the top 25 VFL players in line for the AFL.
"I'm only 28, so I have still got quite a few years left in me if I want to return to playing football," he said.
"I didn't train once this year because of work and my form reflected that.
"I wasn't doing anyone including myself any favours by trying to play without training.
"I was lucky enough to play in the flag in 2019.
"Footy has always been a huge priority for me.
"But since COVID struck, I've lost a bit of passion and motivation.
"Having a year off might get the hunger back a bit."
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