Edwards, 36, has brought down the curtain on his brilliant career after 19 years of senior footy.

He says it is a difficult decision to say goodbye to the game as a player, but with his body starting to battle with the rigours of football, he knows the time is right.

“I'd like to play again next year, but there are no guarantees you're going to get through,” Edwards told The Courier.

“If you could say to me now ‘you'll play next year and you won't get injured and you'll have a perfect run’ then I'd definitely play. There are no guarantees though.”

Starting off as an eight-year-old at Northern Oval, Edwards’ tasted his first senior BFL premiership in 1997 – North Ballarat’s last year before moving to the VFL.

Aside from a one-year stint back in the BFL with Ballarat in 2002, he remained in black and white until he signed with Redan in 2006.

From then he became the league’s biggest name. 

A staggering four consecutive Henderson Medals for the maroon and gold set him apart from the rest.

A controversial shift back to the Redan on the verge of the 2013 season (having previously agreed to play with North City that year) saw him play just two matches that year, before returning to North City for good, helping win the 2014 flag.

He dreamed of a seventh premiership to finish his career on a high, only to go down to Darley in this year’s grand final.

“Nobody gets to write their own destiny, you can only put yourself in a position to have an opportunity finish on a fairytale, unfortunately it was Darley's year,” he said.

“I have absolutely no regrets about playing this year, not one whatsoever.”

Edwards said he would look at getting into coaching in the future, but ruled himself out of calculation to fill the vacant role at North City for next year.