Somewhere inside Colin Sylvia was a great AFL player, Mark Robinson writes

AFTER exploding on to the AFL scene with Melbourne, Colin Sylvia’s career ended with a failed stint at Fremantle. Mark Robinson put his career under the microscope in 2015.

Colin Sylvia after a Melbourne loss.

FORMER Melbourne star Colin Sylvia died, age 32, when his car collided with another vehicle near Mildura yesterday.

He played 163 games over 11 seasons with the Demons and Dockers. When he retired early in the 2015 season, Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson wrote this retrospective of his rollercoaster career:

JON ANDERSON: WE ONLY SAW GLIMPSES OF SYLVIA’S TALENT

TRIBUTES: EX-TEAMMATES IN SHOCK AT SYLVIA’S DEATH

IT WAS 2003 and presentation night for the new players and Colin Sylvia had a smile on his face and a coke in his hand all night.

It was only later that Melbourne officials learned the coke was actually rum and coke.

Col never really stopped smiling - and probably rarely stopped having a drink - over the next 11 years, for he was that kind of bloke.

Many young people say they’re not here for a long time, they’re here for a good time. Instead, Sylvia was here for a long time and for a good time.

It’s a rare combination by today’s professional standards.

Colin Sylvia playing for WAFL club Peel Thunder during his final year in the AFL.

Boy, he was a talent.

He would shred the opposition with his muscular frame and explosive legs and sometimes you’d wonder how his chest could be contained by the red and blue jumper.

Like he did against Hawthorn in Round 9, 2009, when he had 37 touches and kicked four goals.

And two weeks later, when he tormented Collingwood with 32 disposals and three goals.

But they were the high points.

Too often over his 163-game career, Sylvia would lumber in the low to middle teens in terms of possessions - he had a career average of just 16 disposals - and too often when desperate Melbourne fans looked for Sylvia for inspiration, Sylvia did not respond.

Somewhere inside of him was a great player.

The problem was the great player didn’t have much control.

Sylvia, like many before him, had the talent but not the dedication to maximise the talent.

It is not a crime to drink and have fun, but old timers would probably say Sylvia pissed away his career.

He retired on Tuesday, effective immediately, and it would be interesting to ask Sylvia how his career panned out.

He departed Melbourne at the end of the 2013 season and joined Fremantle.

Even those frustrated with Sylvia hoped that Ross Lyon could finally shake the great player from the depths.

But even he couldn’t.

Sylvia arrived at the club unfit and was smacked by Lyon, who played him in only six games in 2014, the final game being against St Kilda which ultimately was Sylvia’s final game.

He had three kicks, one mark and four handballs.

Jack Watts posted this on Instagram about his former Demons teammate.

Max Gawn also paid tribute to Sylvia, writing “I’ll miss ya”.

He leaves the game without fanfare, not even with a departing press conference.

Dockers football boss Chris Bond said in a statement: “Colin has been working through a number of issues, including whether he was able to achieve and sustain the physical requirements needed to train and play at the elite level.”

A statement from Sylvia said: “While I have really enjoyed my time here, things haven’t gone entirely to plan in a football sense and I look forward to focusing on the next phase of my life.”

Football, it would appear, was a life of glamour and fame for Col.

He made headlines - he famously was with Alan Didak at Spearmint Rhino before Didak’s escapades with a bikie over the Bolte Bridge - but he was a larrikin more than anything else.

Other than the disappointment of him not reaching his potential, people would say Sylvia was a good bloke.