FOR THE past quarter of a century, Garry Lyon has been one of the most respected voices of the senior past players in the game.
Careers in the media don't last a decade, let alone stretch towards 30 years, without both significant preparation work and a level of gravitas.
Across each of the AFL's free-to-air and pay television partners (now with Fox Footy), both FM and AM radio (nowadays a breakfast radio host on SEN 1116) and with various newspaper columns (News Ltd currently), he's lasted across such a long period by doing the work, offering a considered view, and being prepared to have a strong opinion when required.
His footy mantra when you listen to him, if you break it down far enough, could probably be left ultimately with one word he values above all others – 'competitiveness'.
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As he enters the Hall of Fame, the former Melbourne skipper, two-time Bluey Truscott medallist and five-time All-Australian who modestly describes himself as 'competitive' when he played, says he would be happy with that as his football epitaph.
"At the end of my time, Neale Daniher was my last coach and he was talking about me to the group on my retirement and he said that his view of me, which might sound stupid, was that every time I ran on the ground, I tried, and that I tried as hard I could every single time," Lyon reflected on his 226-game career with the Demons between 1986-99.
"That's probably a really basic thing but I was proud of that, because effort can vary a lot.
"I wasn't a great mark and while I had pretty good skills, if the best thing that people remember me for is that I tried hard every time and gave my best effort, I'll take that every day."
For one who isn't comfortable looking back on his playing career and talking about himself, Lyon was so much more, absolutely so much more, than his basic description of his capabilities.
In fact, he stands alone among every player at League level for the past 45 years.
As a hard-running mobile tall player, he twice earned All-Australian selection at centre half-back with the Demons in 1989-90 and then went forward for the second part of his career, kicking the bulk of 426 career goals in his last 100 or so games and winning three more All-Australian blazers between 1993-95, bagging hauls of 79 and 77 goals back-to-back in 1994-95.
Across the last 45 years, he is the only player with at least two All-Australian selections as both a forward and back. Hall of Famer Matthew Pavlich had three selections as a forward, and one as a back, plus another two on the bench, while another pair of Hall of Famers in Andrew McLeod and Jason Akermanis each had selections as a midfielder, forward and defender.
No one can match Lyon's achievement as a true great swingman, equally adept in the backline with ball in front of him and then latterly as a forward, regularly competing despite being outsized as a key forward.
"If I had a choice, I’d have been a centre half-back my whole career," he said.
"I could run guys into the ground and I thought I could read the play better than most, and know where the ball was going, when it was in front of me.
"Playing centre half-forward in my time was a pretty tough gig when you're a bit lighter than most key position players out there.
"You'd have Terry Daniher on one side of you as the centre half-back and a ruckman like Simon Madden on the other side of you, making it hard for the forward, but you do what you do for the team."
He was a better runner than pretty much all his key position contemporary opponents and was a natural born leader, even if he downplayed his marking ability.
He was a superb kick, both at goal and to a leading teammate, while his repertoire also boasted something not seen too much these days – the long torpedo soaring forward to gain enormous distance at times when territory with the ball was all-important.
Particularly on a wet day, his ability to send a bomb 70m or more with a huge torp was a crowd-lifter, before conservative modern coaches preached only ball-retention.
His skills and touch were exceptional and when the ball left his possession, it was usually either to be a goal, or into the hands of a teammate.
When representative footy was at its peak in the heady days of Tuesday night State of Origin games, he would captain Victoria, and he was picked as skipper ahead of Big V teammates Gary Ablett snr, Gavin Brown, Chris Langford, Stephen Silvagni, Chris Grant, Garry Hocking, Nathan Burke and David Neitz.
Every one of those players is already in the Hall of Fame and each would be club leaders at some point in the career, which should give a simple explanation of where Lyon stood among his peers.
Son of former Hawk Peter ('Panch') who played 16 VFL games in an injury-shortened stint at the highest level, Garry was the second of four children growing up in Kyabram and was the quintessential country kid who was always playing one sport or another, with footy as the first love.
"I was the archetype maniac footy kid," he remembers.
"That's all I did throughout the winter. I kicked the footy over and over again and I loved it, I was passionate about it and I wanted to be a footballer from pretty much whenever I could remember."
As a dedicated Hawthorn fan, albeit with a poster of Tim Watson on the wall as one of his heroes, the Lyons lived in the Demons' zone and young Garry was on the club's radar early as he was rising through talent squads, before coming down to the city as a 16-year-old and progressing quickly to League ranks.
He arrived at Melbourne as the club was coming out of a 23-year stint without finals action and, during his time, the Demons were a consistently strong September performer without ever achieving the ultimate success.
It would ultimately be 57 years before the flag would come, with Lyon on hand that night in Perth to hand over the 2021 premiership cup to the modern-day Demons of Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Viney, May and Lever.
A powerhouse West Coast side stood in the way during the 1990s while the initial years of his career would run up against his childhood heroes Hawthorn.
"We had a good group and we consistently gave good effort and gave ourselves very good chances across a fair few seasons, with some great finals wins," Lyon said.
"That Hawthorn side of the 1980s though was basically full of All-Australians, while West Coast were a great club performing like a state side. You give your best and they were a bit better than us.
"I look back at that 1988 Grand Final and we could have played Hawthorn 100 times, and maybe we might have got them once if they had an off day. Great, great team."
Playing under John Northey, then Neil Balme, and finally Daniher, he took much from each of his coaches and has lasting friendships to this day with likes of Rod Grinter, Brett Lovett and Todd Viney, while the untimely early passing of another great mate Jim Stynes remains a lingering ache.
"John Northey knew he had a malleable group and he was 'us against the world'," Lyon said.
"He'd convince us every week that the opposition were against us, the umpires were against us, the media were against us, the kids selling the pies were against us, and we'd believe it and run out there breathing fire.
"That has a shelf life after a while and then 'Balmey' came along and he was a teacher who just explained the plan and trusted us. He didn't scream at us, when you were brought up thinking that coaches screamed a lot of the time.
"Neale Daniher was the first step into modern footy and he just taught us a way to play and to be super professional.
"I had great coaches."
Looking back, footy has been less and less about the games and more and more about the friendships and the journey.
When the call came from AFL Commission Chair Richard Goyder in February, that he would be inducted, it was a total shock. But the chance to celebrate the night with fiancee Nicky and sons Ben, Tom and Josh, as well as the extended family, is a rich reward.
"I've been retired since 1999 and you don't think about the Hall of Fame," he said.
"I had met Richard a couple of times back in 2021 when the finals were held in Perth, but I had no idea why he was wanting to talk to me. I was thinking I'd done something stupid or Melbourne had had something go wrong.
"I've loved what I've been doing through my whole time in footy and I'm very honoured and the chance to be there on the night with those important to me is very special."
That's not to say that his sons don't give him grief in the same manner of a former teammate.
"I swear Fox Footy must never show any good highlights of me," he said.
"There’s a couple of times every summer one of the boys will text me or ring me and say, 'Dad, this game is on TV and what the hell were you doing there when you stuffed this up?' They keep you grounded."
These days, he spends three mornings a week with his childhood hero Watson on breakfast radio in Melbourne, and now they form a Hall of Fame breakfast radio duo.
Hopefully there's a sleep in for one morning after a career's worth of celebration.
Garry Lyon
Melbourne (1986-99): 226 games, 426 goals
Victoria: 9 games
Best and fairest: 1990, 1994
All-Australian: 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995
Leading goalkicker: 1994, 1995
Captain: 1991-97
