| Alastair Lynch |
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Alastair Graeme Lynch (born 19 June , 1968 ) is an Australian Football League full forward from Burnie , Tasmania who had a highly-successful career, despite chronic illness and injury. FITZROY FOOTBALL CLUB He began his senior football career at Fitzroy in 1988 . He was an intimidating player in defence, playing fullback and centre half back. In his early years his notable abilities were strong marking (his outstanding aerial abilities recognised when he won the 1991 Mark Of The Year award) and heavy tackling. His titanic battles with key forwards such as Tony Lockett were highlights, and Lockett has commented on Lynch being one of his toughest opponents. However, he was not a noteable goalkicker in his days at Fitzroy. BRISBANE BEARS Lynch was one of the first players to leave a struggling Fitzroy outfit in 1993 Season , before the eventual merger. At the time, the Brisbane Bears were also struggling, but improving somewhat under the coaching of premiership coach Robert Walls . The term of his contract, ten years, was unprecedented and at the time 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 1994 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 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which sidelined him for the entire 1995 Season . Some commentators believe that if Lynch had played that season, then the Bears could have won a premiership. Others believed that Lynch contracted chronic fatigue when overtraining during his rehabilitation from injury. Lynch was one of the first sportspeople in Australian to expirment with the Ice Bath which proved to assist in his recovery, and became a public figure for the illness which has struggling for credibility at the time. In his return the following season, the Bears, struggling for forward line talent and with an emergingly talented backline, first experimented playing Lynch up forward to releive an ageing Roger Merrett with some success. Successive seasons saw him interchanged between the two opposite ends of the ground. BRISBANE LIONS When Fitzroy merged with the Bears after the 1996 Season to form the Brisbane Lions , 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. Still struggling with intermittent lapses of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 1998, Lynch discovered that the drug he had been prescribed at the beggining of the season, although with the permission of the Australian Sports Drug Agency (official AFL drug agents) had been added to the IOC 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 , under champion coach Leigh Matthews . 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 the most feared forwards in the competition. Endured great success for the 2001 , 2002 , and 2003 seasons becoming a multiple goal kicker against the game's most prominent fullbacks including Stephen Silvagni , Matthew Scarlett and Shane Wakelin from Collingwood , Brisbane's on-going rivals. Lynch now has played in three winning premierships. In 2004 , he was the competition's oldest player at 35 years of age. Lynch retired after the 2004 AFL Grand Final in controversial circumstances. Straining a hamstring early in the match, he reacted to some typical Sledging from Port Adelaide Football Club 's Darryl Wakelin by swinging several punches. Despite none of them appearing to connect with Wakelin and the fact that he had already retired, Lynch was heavily fined and suspended for ten matches by the AFL tribunal. This added salt to the wound of losing and missing out on a record-equalling fourth consecutive premiership for the Lions. Despite this disappointing end to his career, Lynch will 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 Australian Rules Football has seen. Lynch is now enjoying his retirement, and is spending it as a match commentator on Brisbane Lions matches with Triple M Radio as well as an occasional television commentary role with the Fox Footy Channel . He has also co-written a book with Peter Blucher titled, "Taking Nothing For Granted", which was released in 2005. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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