Collingwood key-position player Chris Tarrant will retire at the end of the 2012 season, giving the popular Magpie just one more shot at an elusive first AFL premiership.

Tarrant has played 263 AFL games and kicked 366 goals – most of them in two stints at Collingwood.

The 31-year-old also spent four seasons at Fremantle before returning to the Magpies in 2011, a year after they won a first premiership in 20 years.

Tarrant told his team-mates at training on Monday he was ending a decorated 15-year AFL career – which included All-Australian selection in 2003 – at the conclusion of the current campaign.

Tarrant began his career as a full-forward and five times topped the Magpies’ goalkicking list.

He was reinvented as a defender during his time at Fremantle and has mostly played in the back half during his second stint at Collingwood.

Injuries have limited Tarrant to just seven games so far in 2012.

The fourth-placed Magpies play West Coast in Perth on Saturday.