Lee Spurr has given a passionate farewell to Fremantle fans after the defender called time on a successful seven-year career at the club.

Spurr played a crucial role in Fremantle’s defence during the most successful period in the club’s history, playing 120 games with nine finals appearances including the 2013 Grand Final.

The no.8 pick in the 2011 rookie draft spent four years as a part of Fremantle’s leadership group from 2014 to 2017, won the Beacon Award in 2012, the Best Clubman in 2013 and finished in the top five in the Doig Medal twice in 2013 and 2016.

The 31-year-old said his fondest memory of the Purple Army came from Fremantle’s qualifying final victory against Geelong at Kardinia Park in 2013.

“I’d like to say thank you for the support over the journey and for how passionate you are,” Spurr said.

“I still remember to this day, down at Geelong and playing them in a final.

“We’d been written off, no-one thought we could get it done and there was a little contingent of Freo fans at the corner, there would have been five to six thousand of them and they were that loud. 

“Every time we scored they roared. I don’t really hear the crowd very much but we could hear them across the whole oval and we got across the line.

“And then after the siren, with them sticking around and hanging over the fence and just being absolutely passionate was fantastic.”

Spurr urged fans to keep their passion going as he expects big things to come from Fremantle’s up-and-coming list.

“My message to the fans would be to continue to be so passionate,” Spurr said.

“This year, the group is very close to doing what we did in 2012, we’re just a little bit off.

“We’ve got some young players who are going to grow a lot from the games they’ve played this year. 

“I think if we can continue to improve and work, we can have something special like what happened in 2012 and 2013 where the group just gelled.

“Stick with us as hopefully, that premiership is just around the corner.”