Australian Football

Tony Lynn enjoyed a long and eventful playing career in three states. After impressing as a junior he began his senior career with Morningside before being drafted by Brisbane. He made an eye-catching start to his VFL career with the Bears in 1988, only to break down with a serious knee injury after just six games. After returning to Morningside for a spell, his career was resurrected at SANFL club Central District under first, Neil Kerley, and later Alan Stewart.

All told, Lynn played 86 games for the Bulldogs, where he impressed as a hard running, productive utility, and won a club best and fairest award in 1991. In 1993 he played a starring role in Queensland/Northern Territory's impressive state of origin victory over Tasmania in Hobart, and it was largely on the strength of this performance that he was drafted by Carlton at the end of the year. Always at very least a serviceable performer, Lynn played a total of 27 AFL games during a three-season stint with the Blues, before returning home to Queensland in 1997 with, it soon emerged, plenty of football left in him.

Lynn played a further six seasons at state league level, initially with Morningside, and later with Mt Gravatt, bowing out of the game in the best way imaginable by winning the Joe Grant Medal for best afield in the Vultures' 2002 Grand Final defeat of Southport.

Author - John Devaney