Richmond rookie Sam Lonergan is content he is leaving the AFL having extracted all he could from his body and mind.

The 26-year-old made the surprise decision to hang up his boots at the end of the 2013 season, despite the Tigers being keen for him to spend a second year at the ME Bank Centre.

“It has been a really tough past 24 months, so it was really the right time to move on and start a new chapter of my life,” Lonergan told The Examiner newspaper.

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“We had spoken about another year at Richmond as a rookie, but once you start double questioning things, you're not going to get the best out of yourself.

“I'm 110 per cent sure I dragged everything possible from my body and my ability that I could, which allowed me to survive eight seasons in the system.

“I might have only played one or two games at Richmond, but they were the ones that allowed me to put some icing on the cake of my career and allow me to walk away proud of what I achieved.”

Lonergan’s first seven years at Essendon yielded 79 games, before he was delisted and offered a lifeline by Richmond in the 2012 Rookie Draft.

After some outstanding performances early in the 2013 season at VFL level, he broke through for back-to-back games in rounds nine and 10.

While his playing career at the highest level might have come to an end, Lonergan harbours plans to return in the coming years as a coach.

“Leaving a year early will hopefully put me in good stead for a few years down the track, and the way people remember me,” he said.

“If I were to take my foot off the pedal a little bit this upcoming season, it could change people's mindset, so I wanted to leave the game knowing I'd given everything and that I'm the type of person that AFL clubs would want to have back one day.”