Quinten Lynch Biography

Quinten Lynch will retire at year's end, bringing the curtain down on a successful 13-year AFL career.

The 31-year-old told Magpies teammates of his decision on Monday afternoon, although he will continue to play while the AFL and VFL teams' seasons remain alive.

"I have enjoyed a wonderful ride," Lynch said in a statement.

"The frustrations of this year have only been a small part of a long career I was never sure I would have. It was fantastic to enjoy success with the Eagles and to finish my career in Melbourne with the experience of playing on the MCG in front of big crowds for a wonderful club."

Quinten Lynch admits the arrival of former Swan Jesse White at the Magpies may limit his opportunities in 2014.

[It] depends how much they want to use Jesse in the ruck and where they see that role coming in," Lynch said.

"They might decide they want to only play two talls and a sort of mid-sized third tall so that would probably leave me out of the mix. I can't control that … I will control what I can control for now."

Sports medico Dr. Peter Larkins says Quinten Lynch should adapt to a deformed joint in his little finger rather than opt for surgery.

"Unless he has a further incident where he breaks it, I don't think he should do anything before the end of his career," Larkins said.

"I would have thought superstition would stop them doing anything about it during his playing career simply because there would be an unpredictability of what sort of function he'd get."

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley lauds Quinten Lynch's efforts in the ruck after No. 1 ruckman Darren Jolly was taken out of them game with an injury in the opening three minutes of the Magpies' match against Carlton.

"Quinten was huge to be able to work as basically the sole ruckman through the last three and a half quarters of the match," Buckley said.

"We didn't recruit him for that but he was fantastic and showed a lot of guts, and I thought the players as a whole in the last quarter when the game was on the line wanted to win the game, which was more than encouraging."

Pies believe recruit Quinten Lynch will ease the burden on main ruckman Darren Jolly.

"Quinten has done a lot of ruck work, and he's athletic himself and can run around," Magpies football and coaching strategist Rodney Eade said.

"I think that's going to ease the load on 'Jols'. We think we loaded him to probably the maximum of what we could [this year].

"It was a big load for him to carry and with Lynch coming in, who can ruck more during a game, I think that will share his load a bit … with a view of maybe giving him some breaks and managing him throughout the year."

Former West Coast forward Quinten Lynch has signed with the Magpies as an unrestricted free agent.

"So many things appealed to me about the move," Lynch said.

"It was exciting to think that I could play for the biggest club in the game and challenge myself at the same time to play a flexible role, which is what we have discussed.

"The idea of playing on the MCG every second week was really attractive, too."

Premiership forward Quinten Lynch has rejected the Eagles' one-year contract offer and will field offers from other clubs.

"It's very disappointing to lose a player of Quinten's standing," West Coast list manager Craig Vozzo said.

"He has been an integral player at our club for more than a decade and we were hopeful that he would continue with us in 2013."

Despite being dropped for Josh Kennedy, Eagles coach John Worsfold says Quinten Lynch is an integral part of West Coast's finals plans.

"It's not as though he's out of form and we're worried about what he's going to bring if he comes in," Worsfold said.

"He's fit and healthy and he'll play a role when he gets the opportunity."

Ahead of his 200th game, Eagle Quinten Lynch credits the pain of missing the 2005 Grand Final for the makings of his career.

"When I was dropped for the prelim final and also missed the Grand Final [in 2005], that was a very bitter pill to swallow at the time, but I learned a lot from that and came back stronger in '06," Lynch said.

"Other players have tough periods through injury and I've been lucky enough not to have those. As long as you learn through the tough times, it makes you better at the other end of it."

West Coast utility Quinten Lynch has agreed to terms for the 2011 season with the Eagles.

West Coast coach John Worsfold says forward Quinten Lynch must work on improving aspects of his game if he wants to return to the senior side after being dropped for his performance in round 1.

"Quinten's got areas of his game he has to work on to become the player that we need," Worsfold said.

"He's been aware of those things for a few years and still hasn't addressed them. So he needs to show that he can fix those areas to become a good enough player to help us go forward and get to where we want to get to."

A final-quarter blitz from Quinten Lynch inspired West Coast to a thrilling 10-point AFL practice match victory over Adelaide in Alice Springs.