THERE'S a saying that you don't know what you've got until it's gone.
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And for Gisborne's Jarrad Lynch that's certainly what he felt after he had intended to retire from football in May of 2022.
Lynch tore his ACL at training in the week leading up to round six of that 2022 season and conceded at the time given his work and family priorities that he had more than likely played his last game of football.
Later that season the Bulldogs would go on to win the Bendigo Football Netball League premiership and in doing so ignited Lynch's drive to give his playing career another crack.
Lynch returned to play two senior and four reserves matches late last season and on Saturday the highly respected midfielder both within and outside the walls of Gisborne plays senior game No.200 for the Bulldogs against rivals Golden Square at Gardiner Reserve.
"It was likely a couple of years ago after I did my ACL that I had played my last game of footy," Lynch said this week.
"But then after a while you realise just what your love for footy is and then there's the desire to want to continue.
"For the boys to win the premiership that year and for me to miss out on it gives you that bit of incentive to want to keep playing and try to have another crack at it.
"When you watch your mates win a flag you realise just how much you want it as well."
Lynch has played with Gisborne since 2010 following stints with the Sunbury Lions and West Footscray and is still craving that elusive first senior flag with the Bulldogs.
While injury cruelly cost him the chance of being part of the Bulldogs' 2022 premiership team against Strathfieldsaye, 10 years earlier he played in Gisborne's 2012 grand final team that lost to Golden Square by an agonising three points.
In between those grand final years of 2012 and 2022 were some lean seasons for the Bulldogs in which Lynch's leadership traits in helping to navigate the club through were crucial.
He captained Gisborne between 2016 and 2019, with the Bulldogs rising from 9th to 7th to 5th to 3rd during his four years as skipper.
It was Lynch's efforts in his first season as skipper to galvanise the playing group that was instrumental in him being a joint recipient of Gisborne's Ernie Bullard Club Person of the Year Award.
"While I didn't play in that 2022 premiership win, I was incredibly proud of where the club had come from four or five years earlier," Lynch said.
"It was really special to be one of the ones who had been there through every moment of it from the low points to the high point.
"Not getting to play on that grand final day in 2022 hurts and is a huge driver for me, but at the same time, the club most importantly is a place where all my friends are.
"It allows you to say fit and healthy and social and win, lose or draw... I've had some of my most fun times during those lean years on the field.
"Athough I do want that premiership more than anything else, ultimately, you get enough out of a footy club as a reward over just wins that make it well worth being part of.
"I'm very fortunate that I became a part of Gisborne when I did and my life has certainly been shaped by the club in many ways."
Meanwhile, there will be another milestone of significance on Saturday when Strathfieldsaye's Shannon Geary plays his 250th senior game in the competition against Castlemaine at Camp Reserve.
More than 200 of Geary's BFNL games have been played with the Storm, with whom he joined in 2011, while his tally also includes matches with Kangaroo Flat, Sandhurst and Eaglehawk.
Geary is a four-time premiership player with the Storm.
