Colin Martin Sylvia (8 November 1985 – 28 October 2018) was an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

er who played for the

Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Demons or colloquially the Dees, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier comp ...

and

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL).

Football career

At 15 years of age, Sylvia made his debut for the Merbein seniors in the

Sunraysia Football League The Sunraysia Football and Netball League, also known simply as the SFNL is an Australian rules league in the Sunraysia district of north-west Victoria (Australia), Victoria and south-west New South Wales. History Australian Rules football ...

and was a member of Merbein's 2002 premiership side.

AFL career

In 2009, Sylvia had his best year at Melbourne, averaging 22 disposals and kicking 17 goals. In Round 9, against Hawthorn, he had a career-high 37 disposals and four goals, kicking three goals in a row during the third quarter. He was awarded three

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as Charlie), is awarded to the best and fairest player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by the f ...

votes for his effort. At the end of the year Sylvia signed a two-year contract to remain with Melbourne. Sylvia's 2010 season was marred by injury, causing him to miss seven games. However, he was regularly one of Melbourne's best players in the 15 matches that he did play and he ended the season finishing fifth in the club's best and fairest award. He was also Melbourne's equal leading vote-getter, with Aaron Davey, at the

2010 Brownlow Medal The 2010 Brownlow Medal was the 83rd year the award was presented to the player adjudged the fairest and best player during the Australian Football League (AFL) home and away season. Chris Judd of the Carlton Football Club won the medal by poll ...

. In May 2013, Sylvia copped a three-game ban from the AFL tribunal for striking 's

Jared Brennan Jared Brennan (born 28 July 1984) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who last represented the Gold Coast Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He also previously represented the Brisbane Lions. Early life B ...

in the Demons' embarrassing 60-point defeat to the Suns. At the end of the 2013 season, after finishing fifth in Melbourne's best and fairest award for the season, Sylvia signed as an unrestricted

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

with Fremantle. After being relegated to the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL) prior to the commencement of the

2015 AFL season The 2015 AFL season was the 119th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eig ...

for failing to meet fitness standards, Sylvia announced his retirement from the game, effective immediately, on 28 April 2015.

Personal life

Sylvia courted controversy with his off-field behaviour. He was accused of violence towards his girlfriend in 2006. In March 2008 he received a one-match ban and a $5000 fine after breaking a 1:00 am curfew and failure to attend a compulsory recovery session. Almost exactly a year later in March 2009, Sylvia "breached team expectations by being out late on Sunday evening" and was suspended by the club's leadership group five days later for the NAB Challenge match against the

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football club based in the Melbourne suburb of Footscray. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Originally named the Footscray F ...

. In 2009, Sylvia talked openly about his off-field problems and behaviour and how he nearly gave up football because of injury. On 23 October 2011, police spoke with Sylvia after he left the scene of a serious accident in South Melbourne in the early hours of that morning. It is believed Sylvia was not the driver of the vehicle.

Death

On 28 October 2018, Sylvia was driving in the Mildura suburb of Irymple when his car collided with another vehicle at the intersection of Nineteenth Street and Benetook Avenue about 2:20 pm. Sylvia died at the scene. The driver of the second vehicle was not seriously injured, but was sent directly to hospital for treatment in fair condition. Former Melbourne Football Club captain Garry Lyon stated the next day: A public funeral was held in Mildura on 9 November, the day after what would have been Sylvia's 33rd birthday, followed by a private cremation.

Statistics

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2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

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2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 16 , , 8 , , 5 , , 129 , , 52 , , 181 , , 64 , , 25 , , 0.5 , , 0.3 , , 8.1 , , 3.2 , , 11.3 , , 4.0 , , 1.6 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 17 , , 10 , , 6 , , 142 , , 66 , , 208 , , 68 , , 53 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 8.4 , , 3.9 , , 12.2 , , 4.0 , , 3.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 16 , , 12 , , 7 , , 136 , , 73 , , 209 , , 68 , , 47 , , 0.8 , , 0.4 , , 8.5 , , 4.6 , , 13.1 , , 4.2 , , 2.9 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 18 , , 16 , , 9 , , 197 , , 123 , , 320 , , 119 , , 50 , , 0.9 , , 0.5 , , 10.9 , , 6.8 , , 17.8 , , 6.6 , , 2.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 17 , , 17 , , 10 , , 209 , , 170 , , 379 , , 115 , , 53 , , 1.0 , , 0.6 , , 12.3 , , 10.0 , , 22.3 , , 6.8 , , 3.1 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 15 , , 16 , , 7 , , 213 , , 122 , , 335 , , 82 , , 61 , , 1.1 , , 0.5 , , 14.2 , , 8.1 , , 22.3 , , 5.5 , , 4.1 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 19 , , 25 , , 10 , , 215 , , 165 , , 380 , , 74 , , 101 , , 1.3 , , 0.5 , , 11.3 , , 8.7 , , 20.0 , , 3.9 , , 5.3 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 17 , , 15 , , 6 , , 170 , , 135 , , 305 , , 59 , , 64 , , 0.9 , , 0.4 , , 10.0 , , 7.9 , , 17.9 , , 3.5 , , 3.8 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 12 , , 19 , , 9 , , 11 , , 212 , , 157 , , 369 , , 75 , , 85 , , 0.5 , , 0.6 , , 11.2 , , 8.3 , , 19.4 , , 4.0 , , 4.5 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

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References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sylvia, Colin 1985 births 2018 deaths Melbourne Football Club players Fremantle Football Club players Sandringham Football Club players Peel Thunder Football Club players Casey Demons players Bendigo Pioneers players Australian rules footballers from Mildura Road incident deaths in Victoria (state) 21st-century Australian sportsmen