TWELVE months ago, the glittering careers Adam Goodes and Chris Judd appeared almost over.

Both all-time greats spent the early part of last season on the sidelines nursing chronic injuries that threatened to consign them to sad exits from the game they had dominated for so long.

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Their clubs, reading the play, had already planned for life without their veteran superstars.

But then came a most wondrous sequence of events: Goodes and Judd overcame their physical issues, between them played their last 31 games in succession (Goodes 20, Judd 11), and were sufficiently strong contributors that they decided to grace us for at least another season.

It will be the 17th AFL season for 351-gamer Goodes, 35, and the 14th season for 271-gamer Judd, 31.

It's just the latest of many parallels between the exalted duo.

Both are dual Brownlow medallists, Victorians who won premierships and Brownlows outside their home state, and one-time rival skippers who relinquished their leadership roles at the end of 2012 to allow other leaders to emerge.

They played on each other in thrilling Grand Finals, winning one apiece, and rate each other as their toughest opponents.

The AFL Record found more common ground when it spoke separately to the revered pair about their decisions to play on for at least another season, their motivation to achieve more success, their preparations for the season, their personal evolutions over their careers, what they would tell their teenage selves, and their surprising lack of conviction about what their lives after football will entail – lives that appear unlikely to include coaching.

Read the full version of this story in this week's edition of the AFL Record, available at all grounds.