St heart of anyone
in 1995,’ recalls Mr O’sullivan. ‘His brother Brian was on that team and Jim went into the dressing room to congratulate him. It was a very emotional moment and it was obvious what a fiercely united family they are.
‘I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Jim’s parents and his brothers and sisters all moved over to Australia.’ It was Jim’s dad who spotted the ad in a newspaper offering scholarships to play professional football in Australia. In the Eighties, Jim secured one of the two places and moved to Melbourne. No one expected it to be permanent, but after an unconvincing start, he went on to enjoy an extraordinary playing career.
He is the only foreigner to win an Aussie Rules player of the year award, the Brownlow Medal. He was Melbourne Demons’ club player of the year three years in a row (a record), four times in all (another record) and was included in the Demons’ team of the 20th century.
He was also a prominent player in the International Rules games between Australia and Ireland. In 1987, he played for Australia but in among the pallbearers.
Sam blew kisses to the mourners in Federation Square who stood as one to give her husband his f i nal standing ovation as the Melbourne club anthem provided a fitting send-off.
Kerry superstar Tadhg Kennelly, one of the mourners inside St Paul’s, paid tribute to Jim for inspiring the 1990, he played for Ireland. Former Meath player Bobby O’malley also played in both those tournaments. ‘He was a very gregarious sort,’ he recalls.
‘He dealt with fans so graciously, he was a natural and I think he enjoyed it, in the best possible sense. He was very mindful of how fortunate he was.’
Former Dublin footballer Paul Clarke was captain of the minor team on which Jim played before leaving for Australia in 1984. That year they won the All-ireland Minor Football Championship. ‘He was a careers of Irish footballers in Australian Rules. ‘I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Jim being brave enough to come out here in the first place,’ Kennelly, the only Irish Australian Rules Premiership winner, said.
‘He opened up the mind of every Australian Rules club into believing that international players could play this game. really big fella but he didn’t actually make it on to the team until another player was injured just before the semifinals,’ he explains. ‘He made the most of the opportunity – he was named man of the match and was a shoo-in for the finals team. ‘I organised a 25-year anniversary reunion for the minor team in 2009 and contacted Jim months beforehand to see if he could make it. ‘He promised he’d be there but a few weeks before it, he rang to tell me he was ill and his doctors had advised him not to travel. ‘We set up a Skype link for the day and he spoke to everyone. You could see he was ill but he was so enthusiastic about sharing the
memories with us
‘It’s quite overwhelming the outpouring of emotion there’s been today. I’m proud to have been an Irish player in Australian Rules because of what Jim has done in the game which goes past football.
‘He’s done so much for Irish people here and the work he’s done for young people is inspiring.
‘He’s probably the bravest man I’ve all. It was amazing, I’m so glad we did it.’ Jim retired from playing football in 1998. For ten years, he concentrated on Reach, his charity for youngsters, and in 2008, he became president of his old club, Melbourne.
Crippled with $5million of debt and at the lowest ebb in their 150-year history, the team was to be remodelled ‘like an Irish clan’ by Jim. A blue-blood team founded by wealthy Anglican families was being bailed out by a Rathfarnham man. He told players he wanted to meet each of their families and know where they came from. By the time he stepped down as president last year, Melbourne’s debts had been cleared.
Lyon last week summed up how the ‘pale and skinny’ Irishman had such an immense effect on him. He said: ‘How did it come to pass that 27 years down the track... that the Irish curiosity that I first encountered on the car park outside the MCG [Melbourne Cricket Ground] was to become, and remain, the person I judge and measure myself by?’
Signing off, Lyon stared into the camera: ‘I love you, Jim.’ ever met in my life.’ Current Melbourne players formed a guard of honour as the hearse was driven away for a private cremation.
The ashes will be scattered in Ireland by Sam, Matisse and Tiernan, at a secret place that was special to Jim.
The funeral had begun with the Australian national anthem and it ended with the Derry Air and the Melbourne Football Club song.
The bells of St Paul’s rang half-muffled for 20 minutes while the funeral cortege moved down the road.
As a final tribute, the cortege stopped as it passed the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where Jim played for more than a decade.