MELBOURNE veteran Bernie Vince says he is proud of how far the Demons have come throughout his five-year journey with the club.

Vince was unable to achieve the fairy-tale send off, playing his final game of football in the Casey Demons 10-point Grand Final loss to Box Hill at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, but he is adamant the club is in a great position to strive for sustained success.

“I’m really proud to see where the footy club is at at the moment,” Vince told Melbourne Media.

“I’m leaving it in really good shape.

“It’s disappointing to be leaving, but I knew my time was up.”

The 32-year-old announced his retirement after suffering a shoulder injury in the VFL seven weeks ago, but made an unlikely comeback to compete in the finals series for Casey.

“I just love playing footy,” Vince said.

“I understand that I’m not the player I used to be and I’ve gone back a couple of times.”

Vince was a valuable contributor against the Hawks on Sunday with 20 disposals and believes the strong connection between both senior sides is a tremendous asset for the club.

“The best thing about this footy club is … it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done, you just play the Casey way, or the Melbourne way that Goody’s (Simon Goodwin) been coaching,” Vince said.

“It’s easy to transition back – obviously you don’t want to be back, but it makes it a lot easier to try and push your name forward to get back in the AFL side.

“[There’s a] really good alliance and it’s good to see both the AFL and VFL team doing well.”

After a sensational 229 AFL game career, Vince is looking forward to retirement and says he will continue to cheer for the red and blue in the future.

“The time was perfect now, so I’m just going to enjoy the next phase of my life,” he said.

“I’ll really enjoy sitting back and hopefully watching Melbourne win a Grand Final one day, or sometime soon.”

Vince has been a terrific servant of the club, playing 100 games for Melbourne and winning the Keith ‘Bluey’ Truscott Trophy in 2015.