Alan ‘Dizzy’ Lynch, the pacy rover who played two Senior games at Tigerland in 1976 and was a member of our 1977 Reserves Premiership, has died. He was 70.

Lynch died October 29^th of Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and had organised to donate his brain to the Australian Sports Brain Bank for research into concussions.

Outside of footballer he was a dazzling runner, capturing the two-miler championship at Stawell across  three consecutive years.

From a Richmond point of view, Lynch crossed from Footscray on June 25th 1976, just before the transfer period closed, during an incredible 8-day recruiting period where the Tigers also snagged Michael Malthouse from St Kilda, Ian Scrimshaw from Hawthorn, and Graham Gaunt from Oakleigh.

Wearing No.6 (most recently worn by Paul Sproule), Lynch was named in the Round 6 match the following day against Geelong.

“Gaunt and Lynch are both pacy players but they will need time to settle into their new football environment”, The Age’s Percy Beames wrote.

_{Lynch named in his debut}

The Tigers scrapped home by four points, Lynch picking up 19 disposals and kicking a goal.

Three days later he fronted up for Richmond in their National Football League Championship match against Swan District at Norwood Oval.

Then four days later played his second League game for Richmond against Collingwood where he managed 8 disposals until a bruised shin took him off the ground.

He would not make it back into the senior side again.

In the pre-season of 1977 Lynch showed his teammates what an astonishing runner he was, clocking 12mins 50 seconds around the famous 4km Botanical Gardens Tan Track.

For the Reserves premiership season he played 22 games, kicking 32 goals.

In the Grand Final he was one of the players who “cut the Bulldogs to pieces around the packs”, scoring two goals and voted one of the best.

On April 6th 1978, the 24-year-old Lynch accepted the coaching/captaincy at Beaufort then later won premierships with Geelong Reserves, North Shore, and North Ballarat.