Premiership winning defender Marty Mattner’s contribution to the Sydney Swans will officially be recognised in front of over 30,000 fans this Friday night.

The 30-year-old will complete a lap of honour at the SCG before the Swans-Carlton blockbuster at 7.20pm, and says he feels privileged to have the opportunity to thank the Swans fans one last time.

“It’s a great opportunity and is something that I didn’t think was going to happen,” Mattner told sydneyswans.com.au.

“The club have asked me to do it and I really feel a bit privileged to have it happen.

“Not being able to play that last game, which I would have loved to have done was tough, but it happened the way it did and it’s nice to be able to do the lap of honour and thank some of the fans in Sydney for the support they have given me.”

Mattner said he still can’t believe how much support he has received since he announced his retirement from the club earlier this month.

The much-loved defender, who played 222 games across 12 seasons for the Swans and Adelaide, received thousands of messages of gratitude across the club’s social media channels following his announcement and is still receiving letters from fans across the country.

“I’ve had some really nice comments on the Facebook page of the Swans and even some letters as well, which have been great,” Mattner said.

“You expect a few comments, but the amount of comments I received was the surprising part and everyone was so positive and I really, really appreciated all of them.”

Mattner added that his former team mates were also doing their best to keep him involved at the club, even if it meant waking him up with an early morning message.

“The boys last week texted me on the Wednesday morning when they had a 6am session,” he said.

“I quite enjoyed not having to rock up to that and not have to go through that but the boys wanted to let me know anyway.”

After taking three weeks out to return back to South Australia, Mattner is back in Sydney and has taken up roles with both the Swans reserves and the QBE Sydney Swans Academy.

“For the rest of the year I’ll be helping out Jared Crouch and the reserves, mainly working with some of the young defenders and helping them out,” Mattner said.

“I’ll be trying to teach them some of my knowledge that I’ve gained over the 12 years and pass on some things that can help them improve and help make the team.

“I’ll also be helping out some of the young kids in the Academy and doing whatever I can to help improve the players.”

Mattner, who will travel to the Swans reserves clash with the Brisbane Lions reserves at Blacktown this Friday afternoon, added that he has not ruled out the idea of pursuing a career in coaching in the future.

“My interest in coaching is the reason I’ve decided to go down the reserves path to see what it takes to become a development or assistant coach,” he said.

“Hopefully if I really enjoy it I can pursue it and I’m also trying to finish my level two coaching as well, so I’ll do that over the next 12 weeks and make the most of the opportunity.”