The South Warrnambool export announced his retirement on Wednesday night – less than two months after winning a second flag with Port Melbourne.

He played in the Borough’s thrilling four-point grand final win over Richmond after working his way back from a serious hamstring injury which ruined his 2016 season.

Dwyer, 31, returned to Port Melbourne that season after a three-year stint at AFL powerhouse Collingwood.

But injury limited him to the last three matches after he “ripped three tendons off” in his hamstring.

He recovered to play 21 games in his final VFL campaign.

“Even last pre-season it was a still a bit touch and go whether the hammy would withstand the rigours of it all,” Dwyer said.

“It took a lot of work to get there but it was all worth it, to come away with a premiership.

“Richmond Football Club was charging – the VFL team had won 10 games in a row and was going in red-hot.

“Being down all the last quarter, you feel it slipping away a bit but we never waivered from the plan and it eventually turned.”

Dwyer said he was indebted to Port Melbourne – a standalone club which defied financial restraints in 2017 to win the flag – for taking him on as a teenager.

He landed at North Port Oval in 2005 and credited the arrival of former Geelong and Adelaide coach Gary Ayres three years later as “the biggest turning point in my footy”.

Dwyer played in the Borough’s 2011 premiership before landing at Collingwood as a mature-age recruit 12 months later.

“It is obviously a club I have almost called hom since moving to Melbourne,” he said of the Borough.

“I wouldn’t have got a crack at AFL level if it wasn’t for the club itself.

“There were plenty of years getting knocked back but to get the opportunity to play at the level I had been striving for for so long was the icing on the cake and to go to such a great club like Collingwood was special.

“I played in massive games – played in a couple of Anzac Day games and in my first year (former Magpies coach) Mick (Malthouse) was at Carlton and we played them in round two and there was 92,000 people there.

“In my first four games I played in front of an average crowd of 70,000. It was a big change goingt o Collingwood after playing in front of 2000 at North Port Oval.”

Dwyer, who is unsure if he will play at local level next season, said the passion people had for the Borough, from coaches and players to supporters, was vital to its success.

“There were financial woes on us at the start of the year and what epitomised it all was the guys sacrificed their round one match payments and stuck it out,” he said.

“It would have been easy for guys to walk away and it would have been completely understandable because it’s a big commitment to play at VFL leevl and you like to be rewarded for the time and sacrifices you make.

“But it shows how close and tight a football club it is that everyone stuck it out.

“Port supporters are as loyal as anyone – even at the grand final this year, the Port supporters were outnumbered 10-to-1 but were every bit as loud, if not louder, than Richmond’s were.”