Any astute analysis of Jason Porplyzia’s football career should include the word brave.

There are other descriptive words that befit his polished play but Porplyzia’s life as a Crow was punctuated by periods of pain and disappointment that shaped rather than shattered him.

The game that stands out for raw courage was against Sydney at the SCG in round 17 of the 2008 season.

Porplyzia’s season had appeared over when his dodgy right shoulder popped out against Collingwood at the MCG two weeks earlier.

The Crows had lost five in a row to tumble out of the top eight before the trip to face the Swans - and Porplyzia chose to return to the forward line.

The gamble appeared to fail when his shoulder popped out again early in the second term on a wet night. But a clearly restricted Porplyzia returned to the field and then kicked three second-term goals as Adelaide broke the game open to lead by 23 points at half-time.

Porplyzia added two more goals in the final term to help protect the premiership points. His final contribution was 5.2 (including a poster) in a team score of 11.11.

“There was no guarantee it would not go out again but I was prepared to take that risk,” Porplyzia said post-match.

The shoulder, so loose that it later dislocated on the sofa while he was watching TV, eventually ended his season just as Adelaide entered the 2008 finals series.

Six years earlier Porplyzia had been drafted by Adelaide as a rookie. After just one season at West Lakes, he was gone, back full-time with West Adelaide.

Very few earn a second opportunity at the same AFL club but Porplyzia knuckled down under Crows great Shaun Rehn at West - winning the club’s best-and-fairest in 2005 and also playing for the SANFL State team - and returned to Adelaide’s list through the pre-season draft.

By the 2008 season he was an integral part of Adelaide’s forward line, deceptively strong overhead for his size but also blessed with hands that rarely fumbled a ground ball and an elite level of awareness that created time and space.

The 2008 shoulder reconstruction stopped Porplyzia from joining full contact training until the eve of the next season but 2009 will be remembered as his finest in the AFL.

He played every match, kicked 57 goals including five in an elimination final win over Essendon, finished runner-up in the Club Champion count and was named in the All Australian squad.

Pelvis soreness limited him in the 2010 season and then his first goal of the 2011 season was his last, another cruel shoulder injury in the opening minutes of the first game needing season-ending surgery.

He vowed to return and did, kicking 30 goals in 22 games in 2012. But he battled through 16 games in 2013 and then played only four AFL games this year, the last – his 130^th – against Hawthorn in round 17.

Very few footballers are fortunate enough to have the finish they want.

Porplyzia’s best deserves extra recognition, however, because it was achieved against enormous odds.