Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the fine words of the member for Aston in his moving tribute to Jim Stynes. A lot of issues have been touched on today and tonight and I would like to go to just one of them—Jim Stynes's ability to deal with adversity; his mental toughness. I think it should stand as his legacy, stand as an inspiration to all of us both here in Australia, his adopted country, and in Ireland where he was also loved and where he was also very much an inspiration.

The first aspect of that mental toughness was shown through his career and his ability to play with injury. For those of us who know Australian Rules football and have played it, it is an incredibly tough game. People come at you from 360 degrees. There is no protection behind you, in front of you, beside you. You can get hit any which way. It requires you to play with injury and Jim Stynes did that and set the record for the number of games played consecutively. Toward the end of his career he became legendary for it so much so that on The Footy Show, which is a legend in Victoria in particular, Sam Newman, the compere, at times used to joke about Jim Stynes's ability to play on. On one memorable Thursday night when the teams were being read out, Sam Newman said, 'And Jim Stynes has had his leg amputated this week but he will still be lining up for the Demons'. That lovely little bit of humour just summed up what Jim Stynes was like. He played with broken ribs. The member for Aston mentioned the fact that he had to pass a fitness test and they got three of the toughest players in the Melbourne squad to ram into him over a period of time. One of them was Rodney Grinter—one of the toughest characters to put on a Demons jumper. Jim Stynes got through the test, and I think his coach said after the game, when there was evidence of the pain that Stynes had been through, that on this occasion Jim probably put one over them.

Jim's mental toughness was absolutely inspirational. It was also there when he had to deal with adversity on the field. He had something happen to him that all of us who have played Australian Rules, and any sport, dread. It was a preliminary final—playing to make the grand final; playing to win the game that gets you a chance to play for the premiership that everyone strives for in Australian Rules football. Jim made a mistake—he ran across the mark; there was a 15-metre penalty and the Hawthorn player—Gary Buckenara—kicked the goal that put Hawthorn into the grand final. If he had not had that 15-metre penalty he would have been too far out and would not have been able to kick the goal. Jim had to deal with those demons. How did he do it? Instead of saying, 'This is all too hard; I can't deal with it; the psychological scars are too great,' he said, 'No—I am going to learn from this and I am going to be an even better player.' And he became an even better player. If you look at his final records, after that incident occurred, he was one of Melbourne's best players consistently in every single final that he played in after that event.

Legend has it that he was bailed up on a train in Paris by an Australian backpacker in the summer after that incident. The backpacker said to him: 'You're Jim Stynes, aren't you. You ran across the mark and cost Melbourne a place in a grand final.' Jim became absolutely determined that he was going to put that behind him and, through his inspiration and leadership, was going to demonstrate that you can overcome that type of adversity. And that is what he did.

Those feats on the football field were writ large with his battle with cancer. I think it was there for all of us to see: the mental toughness that he showed in dealing with that illness. He was not going to let it get him down and he was not going to let it defeat him. He tried absolutely everything he could—some of the more radical things you can do to try to overcome cancer, some of the normal things you can do. He tried it all because he was absolutely determined not to let this illness beat him. He fought it like he fought with the pain to deal with those injuries that he played with. He fought it like he fought to play with those mental scars that he had from that one mistake that he made in that preliminary final. That is how he took on his battle with cancer, and he was absolutely determined to make sure it would not get to him, so much so that he was prepared to take on the presidency of Melbourne and to continue in that role while he played that battle, because he did not want to let his football club down. He fought and fought and fought. He was, in no other words, an absolute inspiration.

People have touched on his role with Reach, which he set up after he left the Melbourne Football Club, and what it did for young people. Members tonight have talked about what he did with young Indigenous Australians. Everything that he did he did with the best intentions, he did to the best of his ability and he did with that toughness which said, 'Whatever role I take on I am going to make sure that I cut through and that I deliver.'

It is incredibly sad that in his battle with cancer, ultimately the cancer won. Today in this place and as a Richmond supporter who has sung this song for the football club that I play for, I think we could say that, from what we have heard this afternoon and tonight, every heart beats true for the red and the blue. Jim, we sing today this song to you. To Sam, Matisse and Tiernan, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

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