Footballer Troy Broadbridge’s death one of many sad stories 20 years on from Boxing Day tsunami

Footballer Troy Broadbridge was one of hundreds of thousands of victims of the 21st century’s biggest natural disaster. His best man opens up on the final conversation they had.

The last time Melbourne footballer Troy Broadbridge said goodbye to his best man Chris Lamb was at the international departure gates at Melbourne airport.

Broadbridge, 24, was about to go on his honeymoon to Thailand in December, 2004.

Lamb, a Demons teammate, was heading to Europe for a white Christmas to meet up with his girlfriend.

“We were at the airport the day after the wedding and we were able to have a beer,” Lamb said this week.

“It was his moment, he was going on his honeymoon. We’d said goodbye but then he walked back over and said: ‘I’ll see you in a year.’”

Troy Broadbridge was about to go on his honeymoon to Thailand in December, 2004.

Broadbridge had cemented his role on the half back flank in Melbourne’s senior team.

Lamb flew to Denmark, Broadbridge and his new wife Trisha headed to Phi Phi Island.

On a cold Boxing Day morning in Denmark, Lamb was watching the news.

“We were looking at the TV, it was in Danish so we couldn’t understand it, but we just saw these pictures of the tsunami,” Lamb said.

“Then we thought, has anyone heard from Broady?”

There were many people asking the same question as the devastation caused by the world’s deadliest tsunami came into focus.

A 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck in the ocean off Sumatra, Indonesia, on Boxing Day 2004. Picture: ADH/Stefan Trappe

A 9.1 magnitude earthquake in the ocean off Sumatra, Indonesia, at 7.59am on Boxing Day, killed an estimated 230,000 people in 15 countries, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

Broadbridge was one of those killed.

Lamb struggled with returning to Australia for his friend’s funeral in Melbourne.

“I thought maybe if I didn’t go home then I could think that it didn’t really happen,” he said.

Broadbridge had been married eight days before he died and also just cemented his role on the half back flank in Melbourne’s senior team after coming off the rookie list in 1998.

“His life was really taking off,” Lamb said.

Trisha survived the tsunami and was named Young Australian of The Year in 2006 for her charity work on Phi Phi Island, dedicated to Broadbridge. Lamb also assisted in some of that work in 2005.

Chris Lamb was devastated after hearing about Broadbridge’s death.

Lamb first met Broadbridge at Football Park in Adelaide while playing a practice game in 1999.

They bonded as some of the youngest players on Melbourne’s AFL list, and that Broadbridge, who moved across from Adelaide, and Lamb, who was from Wodonga, both had to make new friends in a new town.

They shared the ups and downs of fighting for a senior place in an AFL team.

But Lamb said that Broadbridge was always thinking of others.

“He was so positive about life, his shoulder would pop out and he knew that would mean weeks or months out of football but there was never any ‘Woe is me,’” he said.

“I’m not just reminiscing and adding a bit of mayo, he was just that kind of guy.

“He would be injured and he would be the first one to text you and ask you how you were going.”

Lamb still keeps in touch with Broadbridge’s parents, Pam, a tireless volunteer, and Wayne, a former Port Adelaide footballer.

They see each other every year when Wayne presents Melbourne’s VFL best and fairest award, which is named after Broadbridge.

Trisha, Broadbridge’s partner, survived the tsunami and was named Young Australian of The Year in 2006 for her charity work on Phi Phi Island.

This year, Lamb took his sons to Adelaide to watch the Western Bulldogs, the team he follows, play there.

Lamb’s eldest son Ben has the middle name of Troy, in a nod to his best mate.

“Wayne was showing him around, saying this is where Troy used to play,” he said.

Broadbridge played 40 AFL games with the Demons.

His last game of football was in the VFL grand final in 2004, lining up alongside Lamb on the half back line for Melbourne’s reserves team at the time, Sandringham.

Broadbridge was a last-minute call up after a player had become ill on the day.

Sandringham won by four points, with reports from the time highlighting Lamb’s late mark on the goal line, denying Port Melbourne the lead in the dying moments.

Lamb shied away from that moment, instead focusing on the joy he felt playing alongside Broadbridge in his final game.

He has a photograph of the two of them, sitting on the turf, drinking in the moment that still hangs on the wall in his lounge room, keeping that memory alive.

Originally published as Footballer Troy Broadbridge’s death one of many sad stories 20 years on from Boxing Day tsunami