HAYDEN rang the other day. He rang as part of a round in which he informed select friends and family that he was retiring.

After more than two decades in which his body had been mostly kind to him, one hamstring had given up. He acknowledged his body's plea.

At 45, an age when most men find it difficult to do the gardening without incurring an injury, he had finally run his last 20km stretch during a game of AFL football.

I'm glad I was among those he chose to ring. I felt privileged to have been part of a journey that lasted 495 AFL matches, from 1988 to 2011, including five Grand Finals.

Hayden used to say that umpiring was cut-throat because you could be dropped for missing a decision or two. Given his record, it must have been a mighty spur.

If ever I doubted his motivation, it became clear all over again as I was cycling along Royal Parade a couple of months ago. A large group was running in the opposite direction, heading towards the Carlton footy ground.

It was the umpires. About seven comprised the front row. Hayden was in the middle of the front row, shorter than his fellow runners, yet clearly in charge. He wanted to show the young blokes that he was up with them. He always was a competitive beast.

David Parkin was the umpires' head for a short period in 1989 and 1990, between his days as Fitzroy coach and his return to Carlton. During the umpires' touch football matches, Hayden was too fit and competitive. Parkin would assign someone to tag him. Hayden was quietly very pleased with this badge of honour. I'm sure it built his confidence.

It was in this period that Hayden was said to have the lowest body-fat level in the AFL. A big photo of him doing pre-season training with his top off adorned the wall of his Pascoe Vale home. It was a great photo, but really! You've got to have ego to be a successful umpire.

I met Hayden in Year 8 at St Bernard's College. We were at the old junior school campus in Moonee Ponds. Hayden was renowned for being a sportsman. He was a top batsman with St Christopher's in Airport West and a handy rover with Doutta Stars.

He was also renowned for his infectious cheer; classmates would laugh in anticipation whenever he entered their circle. And he was small. It was this fact that drove him to give away football, his first sporting love, and take up umpiring.

Having captained Brunswick in the Hatch Shield for the state's best under-16 cricketers, he could well have gone down the cricket path.

He began umpiring in the Essendon District Football League. After leaving school, he joined the VFL umpires panel. His promise was recognised when, aged 20, he umpired the 1986 under-19 grand final between Collingwood and North Melbourne.

In those years, junior umpires learned their craft in the VFL under-19s and reserves, but also in the country. A taxi would pick up four or five umpires at the crack of dawn and ferry them to a distant part of the state. For the longest trip, to Naracoorte, just over the South Australian border, they caught a train.

At Naracoorte they often had to sprint to get on the 1am train for the journey home, leaving friends and admirers on the platform. In Wangaratta one night, Hayden got the entire bar singing while someone played the piano. In Shepparton, he threw up in the centre circle at the Deakin Reserve after the two of us had pushed things too far the previous night in Melbourne.

At one stage in those early years, Hayden wondered whether he really wanted an umpire's life of discipline. At the end of the season he took off to London to see a few old school mates. It was amid the good times on the other side of the world that he worked out he really wanted to make his mark as an umpire.

On returning just before Christmas, he embarked on a mad fitness campaign in an effort to make up for the time he had lost overseas. He ran twice a day. Once or twice he ran three times a day. He ran so often that he risked injury. His path was crystal clear. He went on to umpire senior League football for 24 seasons.

Besides being fit, Hayden was renowned as a decision-maker. He developed a reputation for having the nerve to pay a free kick in the dying seconds of a close game.

I remember one match, in 1992, in which he paid a free kick to St Kilda near the siren in a Queen's Birthday Monday match against Collingwood. The free was there. The Saints won. Hayden went up in the umpires' coaches' estimation as he strung together a series of gutsy decisions.

His efforts culminated in his selection to do his first final, a Geelong and Footscray match in 1992. He had to wear a suit. Being a canny spender, he bought two suits for the price of one. He was so nervous before the match that he threw up on both of them.

His ultimate aim was achieved when he was chosen to do the 1995 Grand Final between Carlton and Geelong. I was living near the MCG at the time. Hayden dropped into our Grand Final breakfast on his way to the ground. He stayed an hour. We were worried about him getting to the ground. Clearly, he was handling his nerves better by 1995.

Hayden's generous and personable nature has made him popular wherever he goes. He's bouncy. He's into life. Often he's been to a party or the races and enjoyed himself despite the fact that he's the only one not drinking.

On such occasions he's the butt of many jokes. He's also the centre of much affection. We all admire him for taking such good care of body. It's this care that enabled him to run up and down and round and round football grounds for so many years.

The other factor behind his longevity is his family. He has a wonderful, patient wife Maree, (with a good sense of humour), and three children aged from 15 to nine, Harrison, Molly and Finn. They're a very happy bunch. Hayden now looks forward to taking his kids to AFL footy like other dads.

I was always struck by his relationship with his father Pat. Hayden and I lived in Darwin for a short time when he was umpiring in the Top End in 1988. Every few days he received a letter from his father. Every letter was one small page.

Pat just wrote a few lines about something that was happening in Melbourne, generally of a sporting nature, and sent the letter off. No one does that any more. It's one of my enduring memories of our short time together in the tropics.

When Hayden rang on Tuesday he was emotional. To my surprise, so was I. There's something humbling about a long journey that's come to an end.

I knew he had given everything until he could give no more. He had lived life to the fullest, which is more than most of us can say.

I wish him all the best in his retirement.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs