His voice cracking under the strain of it all, Adelaide captain Mark Ricciuto called time on a 15-year AFL career that will rate with the greatest the game has seen.

Watched by a packed room featuring his partner Sarah Delahunt, daughter Sophie, all his teammates and club officials, Ricciuto choked back tears as he admitted he had lost belief that his battered body could cope any longer.

He has played just six games since mid-August last year due to illness and an assortment of injuries and is currently fighting an ankle strain.

This week Ricciuto will use the occasion of his testimonial game against the Western Bulldogs to say farewell to Adelaide's supporters via a lap of honour around AAMI Stadium in an open-topped car, though he remains fiercely determined to play again in 2007.

"Footy has changed over the last few years, you can't just sit on the bench ... and just come on for five or 10 minutes a quarter," he said.

"If you are prepared to put your name up to be part of the list, you need to give a prolonged commitment to the full year and you need to be able to do the training consistently and have the form to play in every game.

"So I haven't got the confidence in that at the moment."

Asked if he still harboured hope of a farewell premiership, Ricciuto quipped with typical frankness: "Bloody oath I do, that's why I'm trying to get back now."

Ricciuto made his final decision on Monday following searching conversations with his three closest confidants - teammate and probable captaincy successor Simon Goodwin, coach Neil Craig and football operations manager John Reid.

Their unanimous judgment was Ricciuto could lose more by playing on in 2008 and may even have faced the ignominy of being delisted, much like fellow club stalwart Ben Hart at the end of last season.

"I've had a fair bit of time on the sidelines over the past couple of years, so I've had a fair chance to think," Ricciuto said.

"I just spoke to a few people that I could trust that they'd give me the honest answers and their decisions were the same as mine so it made it pretty easy.

"I've never been one for all the fanfare so I thought if I announced it today, and I knew there'd be a fair bit of hype this week, so it could tie in pretty well.

"If it can help the club in any small way I think it would be a bonus."

Adelaide's captain since 2001, Ricciuto has played 309 AFL games, including the Crows' 1998 premiership, after missing the 1997 flag due to hamstring trouble.

He was a joint Brownlow medallist with Nathan Buckley and Adam Goodes in 2003, won three club champion awards and is an eight-time All-Australian.

Ricciuto reached the 300 game milestone last year quicker than any other player in AFL history - in 13 years and 83 days, some 11 days quicker than Carlton's Craig Bradley.

But his 2006 season ended in round 20 when he contracted parvovirus, while his 2007 season has been blighted by back, neck and ankle injuries.

Rightfully voted the best player of Adelaide's first decade when the club marked its 10-year anniversary in 2001, Ricciuto has left quite a legacy, not only as a player, but also as a leader, a club man and an example of how to get the best from oneself.

As Craig put it: "I look at it from the perspective of a total package, and he's as good as I've seen - that's playing, that's leadership on and off the field, his ability to change, the way he conducts himself - as good as I've seen."

Ricciuto will now enjoy the first prolonged break of his life, having joined the Crows as a 16-year-old high schooler in 1992, but there is little doubt he will remain close to football circles, either as a coach or ambassador for the game.

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