https://www.facebook.com/melbournefc/posts/348886888496439
The passing of Jim Stynes after a 2-and-a-half year battle with cancer was apparently the 3rd-highest Twitter topic IN THE WORLD last Tuesday. He grew up playing Gaelic football in Dublin and was recruited by my beloved Melbourne Football Club as a teenager. He adapted to Australian Rules football, won the 1991 Brownlow Medal (Australian football's highest individual honour) and set a record by playing 244 consecutive games. He built the Reach youth/charity organisation, which saves and turns around the lives of countless young people every year. He received the state's Victorian Of The Year award twice. He became President of the Melbourne Football Club when it was facing extinction, raised over $5 million to pay off its debts and built an on-field and off-field team capable of challenging for the premiership in the next few years. He was the most honest, down-to-earth, modest person imaginable and always put others before himself. I was lucky enough to meet him and chat with him a few times. When his death was announced on Mar20, the city of Melbourne went into mourning, with car headlights on through the day and unprecedented media and talkback tributes. The link above is from TV's "The Footy Show" and consists of a 5-minute "eulogy" from former teammate Garry Lyon, a video montage of Stynes's career and a discussion between Lyon and his co-hosts. There's a state funeral for him on Mar27, televised live, and I'm taking the day off to join thousands of others in the centre of town for it.
Death of Irish-Australian legend Jim Stynes, aged 45
