Jamie Lyon

Jamie Lyon (born 24 January 1982) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative goal-kicking centre, he played his first club football for the Parramatta Eels before joining Super League with English club St. Helens, with whom he won the 2006 Championship and Challenge Cup titles and regarded as saints best ever centre. Lyon then returned to the NRL with Manly Warringah, winning the 2008 and 2011 grand finals with them. Originally a five-eighth, he switched to the centre position in 2009 and was regarded as one of the best centres in the game, winning the Dally M Centre of the year in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014, RLIF Centre of the Year in 2011 and 2013, and Dally M Captain of the Year (along with co-captain Jason King) in 2012 and again in 2014 individually. In 2016, he became the fourth player (after Ryan Girdler, Hazem El Masri and Luke Burt) to score 100 tries and 500 goals.

Professional playing career

Parramatta (2000 to 2004)

Lyon made his NRL début coming off the bench in the Eels' round 21 clash against the newly merged Wests Tigers on 25 June 2000 becoming the 622nd first grader for Parramatta in the process. He scored his first try just three rounds later and he finished his début season with a try in Parramatta's 32–24 defeat of the St George Illawarra Dragons. In 2001, Lyon found himself regularly in the run-on squad. By season's end Parramatta took out the J. J. Giltinan Shield as the minor premiers thanks in part to Lyon's 11 tries. After defeating the New Zealand Warriors and the Brisbane Broncos in the qualifying and preliminary finals respectively, Parramatta fell just short of becoming premiers losing to the Newcastle Knights in 2001 NRL Grand Final, in which Lyon played at centre, scoring two tries. At the end of the 2001 NRL season, Lyon became the 697th player to represent Australia when he made his national representative début in the test match at Lloyd Robson Oval, Port Moresby against Papua New Guinea where he scored two tries off the bench. Later that year, he became the youngest-ever Kangaroo tourist when he was selected for the 2001 Kangaroo Tour. The start of the 2002 NRL season started off well for Lyon, and he made his New South Wales Blues début in Game I of the 2002 State of Origin series, scoring a try in 32–4 points victory. He played again in Game II of the series however an ankle injury that was sustained in the Eels round 14 match against the defending premiers, found Lyon out for the remainder of the season. In June 2002, he extended his contract with the Parramatta club until the end of 2006 at around $250,000 per season.

Lyon made his return in Round 1 of the 2003 NRL season. Starting off well again, he scored four tries in four games. That year, he played in all three games for the Blues in their 2–1 2003 State of Origin series victory. A hamstring injury though saw Lyon again on the sideline. However, he recovered and in round 24, he set the club record for the most tries in first grade match when he ran in 5 in Parramatta's 74–4 defeat of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, helping the Eels set their highest ever score and largest ever winning margin in process. But this was not enough for the Eels as they just missed the finals for the first time since 1996, and for the first time in Brian Smith's time at the club. During his time at Parramatta, Lyon had received several club awards including the Jack Gibson Award in 2001 awarded by the first grade coach, the Ron Lynch Media Award in 2003, the Members People Choice Award in 2003 and, along with Matthew Petersen, was jointly awarded the Murray Wilson Try Scoring Award as the top try scorers for the club in the 2003 NRL season.

Lyon made headlines when on 15 March 2004, after four seasons, 70 games and at the age of just 22, announced that he was retiring from Parramatta and the NRL. He did so just two days after Parramatta's round one 48–14 loss to the Canterbury Bulldogs and without talking to his team mates. He had around two years remaining on his contract. In reaction to the announcement, fellow country players Justin Hodges and David Peachey publicly supported his decision. With both players themselves taking breaks from the game, Hodges was quoted as saying that "footy does get a hold on you and it does get you down sometimes. People say it's the life but sometimes there's more bad than good. He's [Lyon] only 22 and he's from the country so it's pretty hard living in a big city like this. Even I struggled." Terry Hill added to the controversy when at the press conference to announce his own retirement, he predicted more young players would take Lyon's lead and leave the top grade. Lyon later said, "I definitely would’ve changed a few things with Parramatta, the finish up there. It wasn’t the best way to go and, you know, I was still pretty young and I let my teammates and the club down out there and obviously I’d love to change that if I could, but I can’t and at that time I was just finishing up totally from footy, I wasn’t going to play anymore."

Wikipedia