Alastair Graeme Lynch (born 19 June 1968) is a former professional

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). He is best known as a three-time premiership

full-forward Full-forward is a position in Australian rules football and Gaelic football with a key focus on kicking goals. The Coleman Medal is awarded to the player, often a full-forward, who has kicked the most goals in an Australian Football League se ...

for the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

. The

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

n began his career in defence, where he became a club champion and leading goal-kicker for

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

. He represented his home state at the elite level, and at the peak of his career in 1993 he was acknowledged as one of the league's best with

All-Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

status. However, he left a financially struggling Fitzroy to become a prize recruit for a new-look

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/A ...

after the club's move from the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

. With the merger of his former club Fitzroy and new club Brisbane, Lynch rejoined with former teammates and became club captain. A long battle with

chronic fatigue syndrome Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or ME/CFS, is a complex, debilitating, long-term medical condition. The causes and mechanisms of the disease are not fully understood. Distinguishing core symptoms are ...

threatened his career; however, after many years in absence, Lynch's return to form at a relatively late age in his career was hailed by the football community, and he became part of Brisbane Lions' celebrated premiership winning formula. Lynch is a Tasmanian football legend, a favourite son at both Fitzroy and Brisbane clubs, and holds the record for the most combined goals for the merged entity and one of the last remaining former Fitzroy players to play in the AFL.

Early life

Lynch was born in Burnie. He attended Burnie High School. He began playing football with Wynyard club where he played in the U17s and U19s before moving to Hobart. In Hobart he played senior football with the

Hobart Football Club Hobart Football Club (nicknamed The Tigers) is an Australian rules football club based in Hobart, Tasmania. They play their home fixtures at the TCA Ground on the Queens Domain, in Hobart and from 2014, the club has been a member of the Southe ...

under coach

Peter Hudson Peter John Hudson AM (born 19 February 1946) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and for the New Norfolk Football Club and Glenorchy Football Club in the Ta ...

VFL/AFL career

Fitzroy Lions career (1988–1993)

Selected at pick 50 from the in the

1986 VFL Draft The 1986 VFL draft was the third formal draft to provide recruitment opportunities to clubs participating in Australian rules football's elite Victorian Football League. Held on 26 November 1986 after the end of the 1986 VFL season, it consisted ...

, Lynch began his senior football career at

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

. He signed his first contract on 5 February. He was an intimidating player in defence, playing full-back and centre half-back. In his early years, his notable abilities were his strong marking (his outstanding aerial abilities were recognised when he won the 1989

Mark of the Year The annual Australian Football League Mark of the Year competition (currently also known as the Four'N Twenty AFL Mark of the Year) is a sporting award that celebrates each season's best mark. A mark is the action of a player cleanly catchin ...

award) and heavy tackling. His titanic battles with key forwards such as

Tony Lockett Anthony Howard Lockett (born 9 March 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League (AFL). Nicknamed "Plugger", he is considered one of the greatest f ...

were highlights, and Lockett has commented on Lynch being one of his toughest opponents. In 1993, Fitzroy coach Robert Shaw moved Lynch to full-forward, where he led the club's goal-kicking with 68 goals in addition to winning the best and fairest award. Lynch also played full-back in the 1990 Tasmanian

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

team, the first Tasmanian team to defeat Victoria in 30 years.

Brisbane Bears career (1994–1996)

In 1994, Lynch transferred to the Brisbane Bears. At the time, the

, like the Fitzroy Football Club, were experiencing lean times, but they were improving somewhat under the coaching of premiership coach

Robert Walls Robert Walls (born 21 July 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented and in the Victorian Football League (VFL) during the 1960s and 1970s. In a playing career that spanned three decades Robert played a combined 259 games ...

. The term of Lynch's contract, ten years, was unprecedented; at the time, it was considered by outsiders to be a great risk for the club. Lynch came full of promise to the Bears. In the early years, he became a poster-boy recruit for the struggling club, which lacked big name players. In his first few games of the

1994 AFL season The 1994 AFL season was the 98th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured fifte ...

, Lynch had suffered a broken collarbone and knee surgery, making him unable deliver his best. In 1995, he contracted a mystery virus (which was later revealed that he was suffering from

), which sidelined him for the entire 1995 season. Some commentators believe that if Lynch had played that season, the Bears could have won a premiership. Others believed that Lynch contracted chronic fatigue when over-training during his rehabilitation from injury. Lynch was one of the first sportspeople in Australia to experiment with the

ice bath In sports therapy, an ice bath, or sometimes cold-water immersion or cold therapy, is a training regimen usually following a period of intense exercise in which a substantial part of a human body is immersed in a bath of ice or ice-water for a ...

, which proved to assist in his recovery, and became a public figure for the illness which was struggling for credibility at the time. After the illness Lynch rarely travelled to Perth, to play the Western Australian teams at home. In his return the following season, the Bears, struggling for forward-line talent and with an increasingly talented back-line, first experimented playing Lynch up forward to relieve an ageing

Roger Merrett Roger Merrett (born 19 April 1960) is a former Australian rules footballer who played in two Victorian Football League premiership sides with the Essendon Football Club in the mid-1980s before moving to the fledgling Brisbane Bears, later capt ...

with some success. Successive seasons saw him interchanged between the two opposite ends of the ground.

Brisbane Lions career (1997–2004)

When Fitzroy merged with the Bears after the 1996 season to form the

, Lynch was made a semi-permanent forward but was unable to perform at his peak for the next two seasons due to minor recurrence of his illness. Lynch was appointed as club co-captain with

Michael Voss Michael Voss (born 7 July 1975) is a former professional Australian rules football player with the Brisbane Bears/Lions and current senior coach of the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Voss was a triple premiersh ...

in 1997, a position that he held until 2000, when Voss assumed the full captaincy. Still struggling with intermittent lapses of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 1998, Lynch discovered that the drug he had been prescribed at the beginning of the season, although with the permission of the Australian Sports Drug Agency (official AFL drug agents), had been added to the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

list of banned substances. He took it upon himself to alert the AFL and was controversially charged for taking a prohibited substance before eventually being cleared. A new beginning for Lynch and the Lions came in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

under champion coach

Leigh Matthews Leigh Raymond Matthews (born 1 March 1952) is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. He played for Hawthorn in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and coached and the . Squat, short-legged and barrel-chested, Matthews earned the ic ...

. He played some games in defence but usually at full-forward. Improvements in his strength, kicking for goal, and positioning during marking contests made him one of the most feared forwards in the competition. The Brisbane Lions enjoyed great success for the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

seasons, with Lynch becoming a multiple goal-kicker against the game's most prominent full-backs, including

Stephen Silvagni Stephen Silvagni (born 31 May 1967) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). As the second member of three generations of Silvagnis to represent the Blues, he is ...

Matthew Scarlett Matthew Scarlett (born 5 June 1979) is a former Australian rules footballer, who formerly played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A fullback, who is tall and weighing , Scarlett is the eldest son of forme ...

, and

Shane Wakelin Shane Wakelin (born 12 August 1974) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the St Kilda Football Club and the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life Wakelin was born in Wh ...

from Collingwood, Brisbane's ongoing rivals. In this period, Lynch played in three successive premierships. Lynch was in possession of the ball when the final siren sounded at the 2001 Grand Final to signify the Club's first Premiership in 57 years. He would go on to play a key role in two further Grand Final triumphs. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, he was the competition's oldest player, at 36 years of age. He and

Nigel Smart Nigel James Smart (born 21 May 1969) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Smart played most of his career in defence and became a crowd favourite, easily ide ...

were also the last remaining players born in the 1960s. Lynch announced his retirement after Brisbane's loss in the

2004 AFL Grand Final The 2004 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football game contested between the Port Adelaide Football Club and the Brisbane Lions, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne on 25 September 2004. It was the 108th annual grand fi ...

. It was viewed by some as a disappointing end to his career; he injured his quad early in the game, his only statistic for the day was giving away a free kick which led to Port Adelaide's first goal for the match, and he would have missed the first ten matches of 2005 after being reported a record-equalling seven times for exchanging punches in an all-out fight with Port Adelaide's

Darryl Wakelin Darryl Wakelin (born 11 August 1974) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda and Port Adelaide in the Australian Football League as a defender. AFL career Adelaide Wakelin was selected by Adelaide with the 11th pic ...

, for which Lynch was also fined $15,000. Lynch has since admitted significant regret about his behaviour in the match. Lynch would be remembered as a player who overcame great adversity to become one of the premier players with one of the greatest teams the game of

has seen.

Statistics

:Alastair Lynch's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 18 , , 24 , , 16 , , 117 , , 42 , , 159 , , 64 , , 10 , , 1.3 , , 0.9 , , 6.5 , , 2.3 , , 8.8 , , 3.6 , , 0.6 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 18 , , 26 , , 12 , , 138 , , 40 , , 178 , , 79 , , 9 , , 1.4 , , 0.7 , , 7.7 , , 2.2 , , 9.9 , , 4.4 , , 0.5 , , 1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 22 , , 19 , , 34 , , 217 , , 57 , , 274 , , 120 , , 17 , , 0.9 , , 1.5 , , 9.9 , , 2.6 , , 12.5 , , 5.5 , , 0.8 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 22 , , 9 , , 14 , , 215 , , 75 , , 290 , , 88 , , 28 , , 0.4 , , 0.6 , , 9.8 , , 3.4 , , 13.2 , , 4.0 , , 1.3 , , 4 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 20 , , 27 , , 13 , , 159 , , 63 , , 222 , , 74 , , 15 , , 1.4 , , 0.7 , , 8.0 , , 3.2 , , 11.1 , , 3.7 , , 0.8 , , 2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 20 , , 68 , , 31 , , 260 , , 68 , , 328 , , 143 , , 12 , , 3.4 , , 1.6 , , 13.0 , , 3.4 , , 16.4 , , 7.2 , , 0.6 , , 10 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 13 , , 35 , , 22 , , 146 , , 32 , , 178 , , 81 , , 6 , , 2.7 , , 1.7 , , 11.2 , , 2.5 , , 13.7 , , 6.2 , , 0.5 , , 7 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 1 , , 2 , , 0 , , 6 , , 5 , , 11 , , 5 , , 1 , , 2.0 , , 0.0 , , 6.0 , , 5.0 , , 11.0 , , 5.0 , , 1.0 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 18 , , 52 , , 34 , , 153 , , 32 , , 185 , , 87 , , 7 , , 2.9 , , 1.9 , , 8.5 , , 1.8 , , 10.3 , , 4.8 , , 0.4 , , 2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 20 , , 12 , , 7 , , 155 , , 62 , , 217 , , 89 , , 10 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 7.8 , , 3.1 , , 10.9 , , 4.5 , , 0.5 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 15 , , 10 , , 7 , , 109 , , 63 , , 172 , , 55 , , 10 , , 0.7 , , 0.5 , , 7.3 , , 4.2 , , 11.5 , , 3.7 , , 0.7 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 17 , , 31 , , 20 , , 99 , , 27 , , 126 , , 63 , , 8 , , 1.8 , , 1.2 , , 5.8 , , 1.6 , , 7.4 , , 3.7 , , 0.5 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 22 , , 68 , , 25 , , 184 , , 49 , , 233 , , 124 , , 17 , , 3.1 , , 1.1 , , 8.4 , , 2.2 , , 10.6 , , 5.6 , , 0.8 , , 3 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 23 , , 58 , , 34 , , 154 , , 59 , , 213 , , 93 , , 18 , , 2.5 , , 1.5 , , 6.7 , , 2.6 , , 9.3 , , 4.0 , , 0.8 , , 3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 22 , , 74 , , 30 , , 161 , , 42 , , 203 , , 102 , , 14 , , 3.4 , , 1.4 , , 7.3 , , 1.9 , , 9.2 , , 4.6 , , 0.6 , , 4 , - , style="text-align:center;background:#afe6ba;",

† , style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 22 , , 78 , , 36 , , 161 , , 44 , , 205 , , 101 , , 15 , , 3.5 , , 1.6 , , 7.3 , , 2.0 , , 9.3 , , 4.6 , , 0.7 , , 5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 11 , , 13 , , 40 , , 22 , , 78 , , 18 , , 96 , , 54 , , 2 , , 3.1 , , 1.7 , , 6.0 , , 1.4 , , 7.4 , , 4.2 , , 0.2 , , 2 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, Career ! 306 ! 633 ! 357 ! 2512 ! 778 ! 3290 ! 1422 ! 199 ! 2.1 ! 1.2 ! 8.2 ! 2.5 ! 10.8 ! 4.6 ! 0.7 ! 43

Post-VFL/AFL career

Following his retirement from playing football, Lynch has commentated for

Fox Footy Fox Footy (stylised as FOX FOOTY) is an Australian rules football subscription television channel dedicated to screening Australian rules football matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited, operated out of their Me ...

and also been a panelist on

Bounce Bounce or The Bounce may refer to: * Deflection (physics), the event where an object Collision, collides with and bounces against a plane surface Books * Mr. Bounce, a character from the Mr. Men series of children's books Broadcasting, film and ...

with

Jason Dunstall Jason Hadfield Dunstall (born 14 August 1964) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Dunstall is arguably the greatest Australian rules footballer to come from ...

Danny Frawley Daniel Patrick Frawley (8 September 1963 – 9 September 2019) was an Australian rules football player, coach, administrator, commentator and media personality. He played 240 games for the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League ...

and

Andrew Gaze Andrew Barry Casson Gaze (born 24 July 1965) is an Australian former professional basketball player and coach. He played 22 seasons in the National Basketball League (NBL) with the Melbourne Tigers from 1984 to 2005, winning the league's MVP a ...

. He also co-wrote a book with Peter Blucher titled, "Taking Nothing For Granted", which was released in 2005.

Career highlights

1989 *

All Australian The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-performed players during the season, led by ...

1993 *

Best and Fairest 1993 *

Leading Goalkicker 1993 *

Leading Goalkicker 1996 *

Premiership player 2001, 2002, 2003 *

Leading Goalkicker 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynch, Alastair 1968 births Living people People with chronic fatigue syndrome All-Australians (AFL) Australian rules footballers from Tasmania Tasmanian State of Origin players Brisbane Bears players Brisbane Lions players Brisbane Lions Premiership players Fitzroy Football Club players Mitchell Medal winners People from Queensland Brisbane Lions captains Hobart Football Club players Doping cases in Australian rules football Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees Three-time VFL/AFL Premiership players