Hawthorn star Shane Crawford hinted he had considered leaving the AFL club, but has instead reaffirmed his desire to be a one-club player.

Crawford, the 1999 Brownlow medallist and former Hawks captain, has signed a new contract tying him to the AFL club until the end of the 2007 season, by which stage he would be 33 and closing in on 300 games fitness permitting.

In further good news for the Hawks, who recently re-signed key position player Trent Croad and have won three of their first four games, long-term prospect Jarryd Roughead has signed a new two-year deal until the end of 2008.

Crawford admitted he had toyed with the idea of playing for another side, but said his love for the Hawks was now so strong he wanted to play out his time there.

"You look at things, but if you love something so strong, you don't really want to do anything," he said.

"My love for the Hawthorn Football Club has definitely grown stronger as we've gone along, so why would I want to move now?

"Especially when the side is starting to do really well and all of these young kids are coming through.

"So it's a very exciting place, with new facilities and it's got a really good feel about it and great direction, so I really want to stay there."

Crawford's huge profile and marketability have long had him linked to an entertainment career outside football, and although he still took great enjoyment from playing, there were "other things I'd like to move onto".

But as long as he's playing, it will be in gold and brown.

"It's been a goal of mine, when I first started out - not only to play AFL football - but to stay at the one club for the whole duration of your career and that's definitely going to happen, so I'm rapt with that," he said.

Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said the club was thrilled to have a player of Crawford's experience - he will play game No.258 against Essendon on Sunday - to nurture the batch of emerging players over the next two seasons.

Clarkson said it was exciting to offer Roughead, the No.2 draft pick from 2004, another deal.

Roughead said: "We've got a great bunch of young kids coming through and I want to be a part of that in the future, so I'm real happy.

"There are about 10 of us (young players), so hopefully we can all become really good mates and have a really close, tight-knit group and we can just go forward from there and just play in some finals in the years to come."

Although unsure whether he will play in 2008, Crawford at least envisaged he would be fit enough to do so if he wanted.

"This is the first year that I've actually been able to rest on the bench, in our rotations, throughout my whole career and, after some of the games, you pull up feeling amazing," he said.

"So hopefully by doing that you definitely get three or four more years out - if that's what you really want to do."

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