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Right Centre Wing - Tony Lynn (Morningside, Brisbane, Central District, Carlton, Mt Gravatt) |
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Tony
Lynn enjoyed a long and eventful 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 6 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, he played 87 games for
the Bulldogs (see footnote 1), where he impressed as a
hard running, productive utility. 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 3 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 6 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. |
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The QA(N)FL's only ever triple League best and
fairest winner, Doug Pittard might easily have enjoyed even greater
success had not his career been interrupted by World War Two. After
winning the De Little Medal in 1940 he moved interstate for a time,
playing a few games for Footscray reserves, but he carried on where he had
left off on his return in 1946, winning the League's new best and fairest
award, the Grogan Medal, in its first year. He followed this up with
another win in 1947 when he beat Yeronga's Fred Willets on a countback of
1st preference votes. (In 1990, Willets was given a Medal
retrospectively.) In 1950, Pittard went within 1 vote of winning the
Medal again.
A tough, quick and highly skilled player, Doug Pittard was always extremely devoted to the game he loved, representing Queensland on more than 20 occasions, several times as captain. The highlight of his career probably came in 1952, when he steered his club to its first ever premiership success, an achievement repeated the following year. |
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Syd
Guildford is the QAFL games record holder with a total of 333 senior
appearances officially credited to him between 1963 and 1981, all with Wilston
Grange. However, league records were not assiduously maintained
prior to 1965, and it is likely that Guildford's actual tally of games was
higher, perhaps in the order of 360-365.
He also played 31 times for Queensland, beginning in 1964, and culminating
in the inaugural state
of origin championships in Perth in 1979. Guildford trained with
Carlton in 1966, but never moved south because of a moratorium which
existed during the 1960s precluding southern states clubs from weakening
the game in Queensland by poaching the state's best players. There
is little doubt that he would have been a success in the VFL had he
elected, and been allowed, to go there. Of medium build
(180cm, 74.5kg), he was equally at home on a wing or a half back flank,
and combined scrupulous fairness - he was never once reported - with
tremendous determination and courage. He played in Wilston
Grange's losing 1977 grand final side whilst suffering from a broken
jaw, having earlier enjoyed premiership success in both 1969 and 1972, on
the latter occasion as captain. He captain-coached the Grange for a
couple of seasons in the '70s, and was a dual winner of the club's best
and fairest award as well as finishing second on five occasions.
In 1979, Kevin Sheedy was assistant coach of the Queensland state team, and his impressions of Syd Guildford could scarcely have been more favourable. Writing in 'Inside Football' a couple of years later he recalled: During my time in football I've seen three great trainers who have really stood out. They are Francis Bourke (Richmond), Mark Williams (SA, now with Collingwood) and Syd Guildford (Queensland). These three have always given 110 per cent in concentration, effort and enthusiasm at training. You could sense that playing top football meant something magnificent to them, as though it was a unique achievement in their lives. The annual best and fairest award in AFL Queensland's state league competition is named the Syd Guildford Medal in Guildford's honour. Given his achievements and obvious talent, and particularly bearing in mind the fact that the QAFL was the highest level of competition open to him for much of his career, it is more than a little disappointing that Syd Guildford has so far not been deemed worthy for inclusion in the AFL's much vaunted, but in truth almost wholly Vic-centric, Hall of Fame. |
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1. At least that was the total according to the SANFL Official 1994 Yearbook; Richard Laidlaw in Central District 30 Year Almanac, however, gives the figure as 86. Return to Main Text
2. Brisbane Lions Australian Football Club Yearbook 1997, page 35. Return to Main Text
