Sydney tough nut Daryn Cresswell confirmed he had played his last game of AFL after the Swans lost the preliminary final to Brisbane at Telstra Stadium by 44 points.

A teary Cresswell was chaired from the ground by his teammates after his 243rd AFL game, all with the Swans.

The on-baller announced in the pre-season that this year would be his last.

And Cresswell told Swans coach Paul Roos before the game that it would be his last if Sydney bowed out and confirmed the same with reporters after the match.

"Yeah it was (my last game)," Cresswell said.

"The last five or six weeks have been pretty hard on my body.

"It was a tough decision to make but the time was right to make it.

"The last two finals I played in a fair bit of pain and the time was right to give the game away and let a young guy come through and play."

A Swans' Team of the Century player, Cresswell arrived in Sydney from North Hobart in 1992, and won the club's best and fairest in 1994.

The veteran finished runner-up in the best and fairest last year for the fourth time, and it was the sixth time in the past seven seasons the ultra consistent 32-year-old had run a place in the club championship.

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