AFL news: Melbourne to play GWS in Jim’s Game at the MCG on St Patrick’s Day eve

There’s a new fixture to look forward to on the AFL calendar. Jay Clark has the details on ‘Jim’s Game’, a celebration of the life and legacy of Melbourne legend Jim Stynes.

Melbourne will celebrate the life and legacy of legend Jim Stynes with a St Patrick’s Day eve party at its new ‘Jim’s Game’ in round one at the MCG.

The Herald Sun can reveal the Demons’ clash with GWS Giants on March 16 will be full of Irish flair, with music, dancing, games, traditions, food and drinks to help honour him and raise money for the Jim Stynes Foundation.

The man who was also elevated to legend status in Melbourne’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday night played 264 games in red and blue, led the club as president during his cancer battle and inspired youths through his foundation, Reach.

Sam Ludbey-Stynes, Jim’s widow, urged the Melbourne footy and Irish community to wear green to turn ‘Jim’s Game’ into a party.

“It has to be fun,” Ludbey-Stynes said. “It has to be silly green gats, green face paint, and Guinness. Irish jigs and singing. Music and dancing. Lightheartedness.

“I would hope that game and that weekend captures the essence of being a great human being and going after everything in life, but also just enjoying having fun together and having a beer with your mates.

“He loved a party and I will never forget our first date when we went back to his apartment and he jumped on the electric keyboard and started singing some Billy Joel song.

“He gave me the drums and said start playing and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I have a live one here’.”

Melbourne great and close friend Garry Lyon said the annual ‘Jim’s Game’ was deserving recognition for the trailblazing Irishman, who “had one of the best stories in all of sport, let alone Australian rules”.

Melbourne great Garry Lyon, Jim Stynes’ daughter Matisse, Sam Ludbey-Stynes, Jim Stynes’ brother Brian and Melbourne skipper Max Gawn at the Jim Stynes statue outside the MCG. Picture: Michael Klein

“When he came to our shores in the mid-80s he had never even seen the game, let alone played it,” Lyon said.

“So he had to learn it, work out if he was any good at it, and he got sent back to Prahran because ‘Strawbs’ (Steven) O’Dwyer was our premier ruckman at the time.

“He (Stynes) won the (reserves) best and fairest in about 10 or 11 games and three years later, he was the best player in football.

“He was taken way too soon, so any chance we get to get together and celebrate what he did, not only in football, but his work outside the game with young people, is a bloody good idea.”

Stynes died in 2012 after a long battle with cancer. The Demons want ‘Jim’s Game’ to be an annual feature of the AFL’s fixture on the eve of St Patrick’s Day.

Originally published as AFL news: Melbourne to play GWS in Jim’s Game at the MCG on St Patrick’s Day eve