Colin Sylvia remembered as a prodigious young talent who lived a childhood dream and now tragically dead at 32

THERE was one at every school and you know the type. Brilliant footballer, talented cricketer and handy basketballer with a good arm, good leg and even better eye. Fellow Sunraysia lad Reece Homfray will always remember Colin Sylvia as that kid.

Colin Sylvia celebrates a goal during his 157-game AFL career with Melbourne.

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THERE was one at every school and you know the type.

Brilliant footballer, talented cricketer and handy basketballer with a good arm, good leg and even better eye.

And when you mixed that with a concoction of competitiveness, determination and even ego in their DNA you had one of those athletes who God simply blessed with being good at everything.

In Mildura in north west Victoria - or more specifically the tiny town of Merbein - in the late 1990s that was Colin Sylvia.

There are only a few thousand people living in Merbein and Sylvia was one of its finest ever sportsmen, and it was clear from a young age too.

Sylvia in his TAC Cup days with the Bendigo Pioneers from where he was drafted to Melbourne with Pick No.3 in the 2003 national draft.

We were the same age growing up in Sunraysia and on Friday afternoons he would roll up to Irymple South Primary School with his Merbein Primary School teammates and dominate games of football like the rest of us weren’t even there.

In the same passage of play he would mark the kick-in from full back then kick the goal at full forward.

His dominance was reflected at club level too where in under 9s, 11s and 13s, Merbein wasn’t much chop but Sylvia was.

“We were ordinary and he was our only shining light,” an old teammate said yesterday.

“He was bloody good at everything really, at interschool sports day there was a limit in how many events you could go in and after all the running events he wasn’t allowed to enter the cricket ball throw.

“But he still wandered over after we’d all done it and picked up the cricket ball and broke the record anyway.”

The football field was where he shone brightest and became a premiership player at 16 when after moving 400km away to chase his AFL dream in Bendigo, he returned for a drought-breaking grand final.

It took a 60m torpedo from Mal Miller - one of Merbein’s Aboriginal stars - on the final siren to beat Wentworth and Sylvia was part of history.

The ‘Magpies’ went back-to-back in 2003 but Sylvia didn’t play this time, and they haven’t won one since.

Now tragically both Sylvia and their premiership coach Merv Neagle are both gone after Neagle was killed in a truck accident in 2012.

In 2003 Sylvia was celebrated as Sunraysia’s highest ever draft pick when taken by Melbourne with Pick No.3 behind Adam Cooney and Andrew Walker, and two picks before Brock McLean who joined him at Melbourne.

Sylvia, a larrikin - which is a nice way of saying he could also be a naughty boy - took McLean back to Mildura one off-season early in their careers where McLean found himself living on meat pies and VB.

Sylvia visiting old Merbein teammates during a break in the AFL season in 2007.

While his talent was never in question during his 163-game AFL career with Melbourne and Fremantle, his professionalism at times was.

An explosive, goal-kicking, game-winning midfielder, but at the same time could be inconsistent, injury-hampered and erratic on and off the field.

When he retired in 2015 some considered him one of the great unfulfilled talents of his generation.

But like beauty, that’s in the eye of the beholder. Sylvia might have dreamt of only playing one game and a great waste of talent would have been never playing at all.

His draft pick suggests he should have done more but there are plenty of top-10 draft picks who don’t play 50 games let alone 150.

Post-AFL he was at times a troubled soul, which isn’t an uncommon story for young sportsmen effectively starting their lives again without the routine, money and rules.

He would have done things and made decisions that he would regret but there would be things he’d be very proud of too.

Sylvia’s stint at Fremantle was short-lived, lasting just six games in 2014. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

After retiring from Fremantle he moved back to Mildura to play for Merbein, albeit briefly.

“It’s where it all begun (sic) for me,” he said in his typical country-slang at the time.

“It was a pretty easy decision in the end to go back and play some games … it’s important for me to give back to the club.”

I saw him in Mildura just two weeks ago socialising with friends and in good spirits, and next week would have been his 33rd birthday.

But he has gone too soon, killed in a car crash near Mildura on Sunday.

At that age there is too much still to live for, even if you’ve had your troubles, and Sylvia was a loving son, brother, partner and friend.

The tributes from former teammates and lifelong friends were constant \on Monday and there were more emotional and heartfelt, but this from Brad Green was perhaps the most fitting.

“Shocked and saddened by the news. Always had time for my family and friends. Had a few troubles the “Kid”, but deep down had a good heart. #ripcol”.

Originally published as Colin Sylvia remembered as a prodigious young talent who lived a childhood dream and now tragically dead at 32