Aquamarinejewel
Norm Smith Medallist
Here is an article about Lynch in the Australian today a very good read....
Lynch
Lynch's travels end at the Bulldogs
Chip Le Grand
November 27, 2006
FOR the past five years, Malcolm Lynch has led a double life. During the school year, he would don the blazer and tie of St Ignatius, a prestigious Jesuit school in Sydney. Whenever school was out, he would return to Darwin, lace up his footy boots, and practise the one true religion of the Top End.
Throughout his young life, Lynch has been prepared to go wherever fate and circumstance have taken him. He was born on Bathurst Island but completed most of his early schooling in Darwin. He lived in Melbourne for a couple of years.
When he was 12, he travelled to Sydney to visit an aunt.
The next thing he knew, he was boarding at one of the most expensive schools in the country and the only private school in Sydney with an Australian football team.
If it sounds like a lottery, it has nothing on the AFL national draft. Lynch did not play much football last season and had no idea whether he would be drafted.
When his name was read out on Saturday by Western Bulldogs recruiting manager Scott Clayton, he was fast asleep in his parents' house in Darwin.
He had planned to play football that afternoon with South Districts in the Northern Territory league. Instead, he started fielding calls from family, friends and player agents. "I went to have a shower, came back and there were 10 messages on my phone," Lynch said. "I read the first one and it was from a guy from a footy management team who sent me the result. I looked at it and couldn't believe my eyes."
One of the first people Lynch called with the news was Michael McLean, his coach at Southern Districts and an Aboriginal player who in the 1980s baulked and bounced a trail for others to follow into the AFL. One of the clubs McLean played for was the Bulldogs.
If Lynch becomes the kind of player the Bulldogs think he will -- a match-winning small forward with jaw-dropping speed and agility -- much of the credit should go to Kaye Buckeridge, the Sydney-based aunt who thought to check on St Ignatius's scholarship policies.
"She pretty much took me into her family," he said. "Even though I was boarding, her house was a home away from home."
St Ignatius was the first private school in Sydney to form an Australian football team and remains one of the few to embrace the sport. Although Lynch admits it was difficult adjusting to life in a Sydney boarding school, he quickly developed a network of expat friends who shared his love of football.
Throughout the winter, Lynch played with St Ignatius against the junior teams of Sydney Football League clubs. In the summers, he would return to Darwin and play throughout the rainy season. "I would pretty much play footy the whole year round," he said.
Over the course of his travels, Lynch became known to AFL recruiters. He played in the national under-16 carnival three years ago and this year joined other young Aboriginal players on an AFL-sponsored trip to South Africa.
Not only did Lynch captain the side, he calmly narrated the documentary film produced to promote the trip.
In the lead-up to this year's draft, Lynch was rarely mentioned. Injury meant he played only one game for the NSW-ACT under-18 team and he was not included in the draft camp. But on the same day as the best players in the country were put through their paces at the AIS in Canberra, Lynch was invited to do state screening with other NSW players.
In the words of Clayton, Lynch "tested the house down".
"If you had asked me a month ago I would have given myself a very slim chance but today is the day," Lynch said.
"I don't know if it was luck. Everything just sort of happened.
"They say everything happens for a reason. I am just happy it has."
Lynch
Lynch's travels end at the Bulldogs
Chip Le Grand
November 27, 2006
FOR the past five years, Malcolm Lynch has led a double life. During the school year, he would don the blazer and tie of St Ignatius, a prestigious Jesuit school in Sydney. Whenever school was out, he would return to Darwin, lace up his footy boots, and practise the one true religion of the Top End.
Throughout his young life, Lynch has been prepared to go wherever fate and circumstance have taken him. He was born on Bathurst Island but completed most of his early schooling in Darwin. He lived in Melbourne for a couple of years.
When he was 12, he travelled to Sydney to visit an aunt.
The next thing he knew, he was boarding at one of the most expensive schools in the country and the only private school in Sydney with an Australian football team.
If it sounds like a lottery, it has nothing on the AFL national draft. Lynch did not play much football last season and had no idea whether he would be drafted.
When his name was read out on Saturday by Western Bulldogs recruiting manager Scott Clayton, he was fast asleep in his parents' house in Darwin.
He had planned to play football that afternoon with South Districts in the Northern Territory league. Instead, he started fielding calls from family, friends and player agents. "I went to have a shower, came back and there were 10 messages on my phone," Lynch said. "I read the first one and it was from a guy from a footy management team who sent me the result. I looked at it and couldn't believe my eyes."
One of the first people Lynch called with the news was Michael McLean, his coach at Southern Districts and an Aboriginal player who in the 1980s baulked and bounced a trail for others to follow into the AFL. One of the clubs McLean played for was the Bulldogs.
If Lynch becomes the kind of player the Bulldogs think he will -- a match-winning small forward with jaw-dropping speed and agility -- much of the credit should go to Kaye Buckeridge, the Sydney-based aunt who thought to check on St Ignatius's scholarship policies.
"She pretty much took me into her family," he said. "Even though I was boarding, her house was a home away from home."
St Ignatius was the first private school in Sydney to form an Australian football team and remains one of the few to embrace the sport. Although Lynch admits it was difficult adjusting to life in a Sydney boarding school, he quickly developed a network of expat friends who shared his love of football.
Throughout the winter, Lynch played with St Ignatius against the junior teams of Sydney Football League clubs. In the summers, he would return to Darwin and play throughout the rainy season. "I would pretty much play footy the whole year round," he said.
Over the course of his travels, Lynch became known to AFL recruiters. He played in the national under-16 carnival three years ago and this year joined other young Aboriginal players on an AFL-sponsored trip to South Africa.
Not only did Lynch captain the side, he calmly narrated the documentary film produced to promote the trip.
In the lead-up to this year's draft, Lynch was rarely mentioned. Injury meant he played only one game for the NSW-ACT under-18 team and he was not included in the draft camp. But on the same day as the best players in the country were put through their paces at the AIS in Canberra, Lynch was invited to do state screening with other NSW players.
In the words of Clayton, Lynch "tested the house down".
"If you had asked me a month ago I would have given myself a very slim chance but today is the day," Lynch said.
"I don't know if it was luck. Everything just sort of happened.
"They say everything happens for a reason. I am just happy it has."
