Alastair Lynch
Lynch in April 2018
Personal information
Full name	Alastair Graeme Lynch
Nickname	Lynchy
Born	(1968-06-19)19 June 1968 (age 57) Burnie,Tasmania
Original team	Hobart (TFL)
Draft	No. 50,1986 national draft
Height	194 cm (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	97 kg (214 lb)
Positions	Key Forward,Key Defender
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1988–1993	Fitzroy	120 (173)
1994–1996	Brisbane Bears	0320(89)
1997–2004	Brisbane Lions	154 (371)
Total		306 (633)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
1989–1993	Tasmania	4 (1)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2004.
Career highlights
3×AFL Premierships: (2001,2002,2003) Brisbane Lions Captain: (1997–2000) Mitchell Medal: (1993) All-Australian Team: (1993) Fitzroy Leading Goalkicker: (1993) Brisbane Bears Leading Goalkicker: (1996) 4×Brisbane Lions Leading Goalkicker: (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003) Fitzroy Team of the Century Tasmanian Team of the Century
Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com

Alastair Graeme Lynch (born 19 June 1968) is a former professionalAustralian rules footballer who played in theAustralian Football League (AFL). He is best known as a three-time premiershipfull-forward for theBrisbane Lions.

TheTasmanian began his career in defence, but moved forward and became a leading goal-kicker forFitzroy. 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 withAll-Australian status. However, he left a financially struggling Fitzroy to join theBrisbane Bears after the club's move from theGold Coast. With the merger of his former clubFitzroy and new club Brisbane, Lynch rejoined with former teammates and became club captain.

A long battle withchronic fatigue syndrome 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 holds the record for the most combined goals for the merged Brisbane-Fitzroy entity and one of the last remaining former Fitzroy players to play in the AFL.

With a passion for cricket, Lynch went on to represent Australia's Over 50's team in one match against England in 2018.

Lynch was born inBurnie, north-west coastalTasmania, the son of Graeme and Mollie Lynch, where he attendedBurnie High School. He began playing football with Wynyard club where he played in the U17s and U19s before moving toHobart. In Hobart he played senior football with theHobart Football Club under coachPeter Hudson.

Selected at pick 50 in the1986 VFL Draft, Lynch began his senior football career atFitzroy in1988. 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 1989Mark of the Year award) and heavy tackling. His titanic battles with key forwards such asTony Lockett 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 TasmanianState of Origin team, the first Tasmanian team to defeat Victoria in 30 years.

In 1994, Lynch transferred to theBrisbane Bears. At the time, the Brisbane Bears, like the Fitzroy Football Club, were experiencing lean times, but they were improving somewhat under the coaching of premiership coachRobert Walls. 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 the1994 AFL season, 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 fromchronic fatigue syndrome), which sidelined him for the entire1995 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 theice bath, 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 ageingRoger Merrett with some success. Successive seasons saw him interchanged between the two opposite ends of the ground.

When Fitzroy merged with the Bears after the1996 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.

Lynch was appointed as club co-captain withMichael Voss 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 theInternational Olympic Committee 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 in1999 under champion coachLeigh 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 of the most feared forwards in the competition.

The Brisbane Lions enjoyed great success for the2001,2002, and2003 seasons, with Lynch becoming a multiple goal-kicker against the game's most prominent full-backs, includingStephen Silvagni,Matthew Scarlett, andShane Wakelin fromCollingwood, 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.^[1] In2004, he was the competition's oldest player at 36 years of age, and became the last remaining player born in the 1960s to play in the VFL/AFL.

Lynch announced his retirement after Brisbane's loss in the2004 AFL Grand Final. 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 toPort 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'sDarryl Wakelin, for which Lynch was also fined $15,000. Lynch has since admitted significant regret about his behaviour in the match.^[2]

^[3]

Following his retirement from playing football, Lynch has commentated forFox Footy and also been a panelist onBounce withJason Dunstall,Danny Frawley andAndrew Gaze. He also co-wrote a book with Peter Blucher titled, "Taking Nothing For Granted", which was released in 2005.

• Mark of the Year 1989
• All Australian 1993
• Fitzroy Best and Fairest 1993
• Fitzroy Leading Goalkicker 1993
• Brisbane Bears Leading Goalkicker 1996
• Brisbane Lions Premiership player 2001, 2002, 2003
• Brisbane Lions Leading Goalkicker 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAlastair Lynch.

• Alastair Lynch's playing statistics from AFL Tables

• 1968 births
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• People with myalgic encephalomyelitis/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
• Australian rules footballers from Queensland
• Brisbane Lions captains
• Hobart Football Club players
• Doping cases in Australian rules football
• Australian sportspeople in doping cases
• Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame inductees
• People educated at Burnie High School
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