A COMBINATION of Wayne Carey when he played forward and Michael Voss in the midfield.

Footballing comparisons don’t come any bigger than that, but it’s how Andrew Walker describes the way in which his 2003 Bendigo Pioneers team-mate Colin Sylvia dominated the TAC Cup season that year.

“I can still remember when I’d be on a wing or the half-back flank and kicking the ball to his area and it would be just like a mini Wayne Carey coming out of the forward line,” Walker said this week.

“The thing with Col that year was you could play him in the forward line, but if we were struggling in the midfield then he’d go into there and he was just like an absolute bull.

“Get him in the midfield and he’d be like Michael Voss…up forward he’d be like Wayne Carey. He was such a hard match-up, hence the reason we had a really good season that year and were probably a bit stiff not to go all the way.

“The opposition would put any player they could on him to try to stop him, but he was just an absolute animal and such a huge talent… he was an absolute freak of a player.”

Walker’s recollections of the 2003 Bendigo Pioneers’ season follow the death of Sylvia, 32, in a car crash in Irymple last Sunday.

That year Sylvia and Walker were the two stars of a Pioneers team that made a preliminary final.

Sylvia – from Merbein – had already spent 2002 with the Pioneers after re-locating to Bendigo.

Walker arrived at the Pioneers as a bottom-aged player from Echuca in 2003 and immediately gravitated to Sylvia.

“I had a lot of good times with Col from the age of 16 right through to playing footy at the highest level together,” Walker said.

“Probably those early days are the memories that really stick out the most with Col.

“I was from Echuca, he was living in Bendigo with Simon Cook, Kurt McGlynn and Ben McGlynn and not really knowing a lot of people, those boys all really took me under their wings.

“I created a really close bond with Col and when I think of players to have gone through the Pioneers, he’s the one who really stands out as an absolute champion of a footballer.

“But to my family in Echuca and speaking to my mum, dad, brother and sister, he left so many good memories with all my family.

“One of my cousins who might have met Col only six to 10 times rang me the other day and we spoke about how each time we would catch up there was always a memory of Col doing something funny to make the group laugh.

“It really is an emotional time for all us guys who played with him and it’s obviously hard to comprehend what his parents and family are going through.”

When it comes to accolades, the explosive Sylvia won plenty of them in the Pioneers’ season of 2003 in which he was captain.

Coming off a restricted pre-season due to osteitis pubis, Syliva won the TAC Cup Coaches Award, was the Pioneers’ Neville Strauch club champion and was selected in the TAC Cup Team of the Year.

Sylvia was picked in the centre in the Team of the Year; Walker was on a wing.

“I’ve tried to become more of a leader around the club and do more of the disciplined things and it has all paid off,” Sylvia said in September of 2003.

Sylvia – who was also runner-up to Mungara Brown in the TAC Cup Morrish Medal –  and Walker were also selected in the All-Australian team following the National Under-18 Championships, which were won by Victoria Country, with the pair touted among the top draft prospects in 2003.

In November’s National Draft Carlton took Walker with pick No.2; Melbourne snared Sylvia at No.3.

“We spent a lot of time together that season going back and forth from Melbourne in 2003, but it was probably more the year after we got drafted when our friendship grew the most,” Walker said.

“Being two kids from the country, even though he was at the Dees and I was at Carlton and he lived in Footscray and I was the completely opposite way out near Caulfield Grammar, we were really close.

“He was living with his grandparents and I’d often stay with them and they treated me like I was part of their family as well.

“For my family, it was nice for them to know I had that sort of support down there, but for myself and Col, we really looked after each other for those first two or three years in Melbourne.

“And that’s the time when we really needed each other in those first couple of years away from country living.”

And that close bond between Sylvia and Walker remained throughout their AFL careers and beyond.

Sylvia played 163 AFL games – 157 for Melbourne and six for Fremantle – during a career in which he endured inconsistency and injury, while he was stripped of his place in the 2011 International Rules Series for leaving the scene of a car crash in South Melbourne in which he was a passenger.

“We were in constant communication, and when you’ve played a lot of footy together and spent a lot of time together we had a lot of stories we would share,” said Walker, who is now back living in Echuca after his 202-game career with the Blues ended in 2016.

“When the two McGlynn boys moved to Melbourne, myself and Col and the McGlynns would often catch up for dinners on a regular basis to make sure we didn’t lose touch with each other.

“Col was at my wedding back in 2013 and there was always going to be a strong bond between the two of us for the fact that we spent so much time together.”

Sylvia’s two-year stint in Bendigo also included being part of the Bendigo Senior Secondary College team that won the 2002 Herald-Sun Shield.

The BSSC team was coached by Damian Drum and it didn’t take Sylvia long to leave an impression.

“We’d had a couple of light training sessions before the first game against Catholic College at the QEO. I said to team manager Jock Turner to put the boys in what he thinks is their best positions and we’ll have a look at them,” Drum said.

“At the opening bounce the ball came down to one of the Selwoods (Troy or Adam), who grabbed it, had a couple of bounces and kicked it into the forward line. This guy then stood on the shoulders of the full-back and took one of the best marks I’d seen in my life... that was Colin Sylvia and a snapshot of what was to come.”

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