It was the moment Dean Solomon never thought would arrive. He had just put the phone down having told Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy that he was walking away from the club that had been home for the past six years of his life. Just a few short months earlier it would have been unthinkable. Back to full fitness and playing good football, Solomon had never looked more at home in the red and black guernsey.

But drawn out contract negotiations had come to a head while he was spending the off-season in London. In the mind of Solomon his options were becoming limited.

""I was in a situation where I just felt after everything that had happened that the club didn’t respect me. Maybe I had got ahead of myself but that is how I felt,"" Solomon said.

""I don’t think they respected where I wanted to go in terms of where I wanted to go with my career. I started looking at the list and the new faces and wondered if I fitted in to their long-term plans.

""I spoke to Richmond and I was excited by where they were going and the role they had for me in the midfield and that is where I wanted to play. What they offered me in terms of on-field stuff was very exciting.""

And so Solomon picked up the phone and called the coach. The man who had been a big supporter of Solomon since the day he first laid eyes on him. The man who loved his crash and bang style of football.

""It was a hard call to make,"" Solomon said.

""I rang Sheeds and said that I felt too much water had gone under the bridge with the contract negotiation and people had got so frustrated with each other. I wondered if the bridges could be rebuilt. I told him that I would be leaving. I also rang Mark Harvey. Both were sad that I had made the decision but they said they understood.""

But Solomon was anything but relieved when he put the phone down. In fact he felt physically ill.

""I’ll never forget that day. I hung up the phone and went down to a restaurant and sat there for about two hours just feeling sick in the stomach,"" he said.

""About three or four hours later I was still wasn’t feeling much better and I thought this can’t be right if I am feeling like this. I thought about ringing Sheeds back but it was about 3am back in Australia.

""There was about an 11-hour window where I had let go and as the saying goes, you don’t know what you’ve got until it is gone. The way I felt I just knew it was the wrong call – everything just rammed home during that time and I knew I wanted to be at Essendon. I rang Sheeds early the next morning and said if it is not too late I would like to stay and they were really pleased.

""Once I made that call to Sheeds I sat back and felt better instantly. I knew it sat better with me than the phone call I had made earlier and that confirmed to me that it was the right thing to do. I haven’t looked back since. It is great to be back with my friends and at this footy club.""

Despite some suggestions to the contrary, Solomon says he never contemplated giving football up. ""I never got the stage where I thought about walking away from football. It is my job and the club had to make the right decision as well,"" he said.

Tomorrow Dean Solomon talks about the role his close friend Adam Ramanauskas played in his decision to stay at Windy Hill. He also talks about the insecurity that led him to believe he might not have been a required player at Essendon.