Australian Football

Since winning its last premiership in 1964 the Melbourne Football Club has been home to many great players, but few if any as noteworthy or influential as Devonport-born Garry Lyon whom the Demons plucked from Goulburn Valley Football League club Kyabram's thirds team.

Statistically, and in terms of honours and awards, Lyon's career was impressive enough, but the qualities which elevated him among many of his peers into the arena of the truly great were mostly intangible. During the fraught times of the mid 1990s, when the club's continued existence as an autonomous entity was often under threat, it was Garry Lyon who somehow epitomised the fight for survival, indeed the Melbourne Football Club's very essence.

In a frequently injury impeded career spanning fourteen seasons and 226 games Garry Lyon booted 426 goals and was twice voted Melbourne's club champion. Tall (193 cm), hefty (96kg) and powerful, Lyon was a potent force on the Demons' forward line throughout his career, even towards the end when he needed to rely more on intelligence and brute force than on the perhaps surprising turn of pace he possessed during his early years.

Selected in three consecutive AFL All Australian teams during his peak years of 1993 to 1995, Lyon was also a natural leader, both on and off the field, and captained the Demons between 1991 and 1997. In 1994 he was chosen as skipper of Victoria for a state of origin game against South Australia. Twice Melbourne's leading goal kicker, Lyon probably provided teammates with at least as many goals as he procured himself.

A chronic back injury limited Lyon's appearances during his later years and he was finally forced to retire in 1999, after which he became a prominent football media personality.

Author - John Devaney