By JARROD POTTER
UNITY pulled Lyndale Football Club through its darkest day nearly 22 years ago.
Friday 17 September 1993 left a Dandenong-based sporting club rocked to the core after six members – five players and one past player/supporter – died in a light plane crash.
A light-hearted idea – an interstate end of season trip to Tasmania – turned quickly into despair and devastating grief as the club had to say goodbye to six beloved figures.
Lance Baxter, Mark Baxter, Scott Young, Kevin Conner, Dean Prendergast and lifelong Lyndale supporter and past player Glen King died when their 10-seater Piper Navajo crashed on approach to Launceston Airport.
Four other players were injured in the crash and would never pull on the maroon and gold jumper again – pilot Roger Rodriques, Scott Blakely, Ken Stewart and Allan Fisher.
Other members of the party also had a nightmare flight when the door of a different aircraft twice blew open as Murray Collard – future president of the club – struggled to hold it shut as an emergency landing on Flinders Island was necessary.
Collard and Terry King remembered the weeks after the crash were focused on consoling loved ones as returning to the field the next season was the furthest thing from their minds.
“It was more getting back to all the families and helping work through the emotions behind it,” Collard said.
“Getting back to seeing everyone – we were over there for a little while in Tassie – and by the time we got back everyone was distraught.
“At that stage I don’t think we really wanted to talk about it (football) – we were just laying the boys to rest and worrying about the welfare of their partners.
“It wasn’t later until footy started up – there were more people keen to play footy as they wanted to dedicate the year to the boys we lost.”
The grief didn’t send the players away; it only strengthened bonds at the club.
The Pumas rallied around each other and stuck through one of the worst moments in local football history to forge a strong club in honour of their mates.
The club ensured the players’ legacy with their numbers – 1, 4, 13, 15 and 45 – immediately retired and it remains that way to this day.
The accident helped rally new recruits to the Lyndale cause in 1994 – with the incoming brethren helping push the Pumas to the premiership in 1995 – but King it was still impossible to replace the men who lost their lives – both on and off the field.
“We had a pretty good pre-season and it made everyone at the club a bit more determined to show we could have some success as we lost some pretty young, important players to us,” King said.
“Those we lost had won best and fairests and were captains and it’s like losing five of your best 20 players.
“People flocked to the club – but some of them you couldn’t replace – it wasn’t as easy as some people think it was just because of the calibre of players we lost.
“It made us pretty determined – given the boys we lost – we had a sense of respect that we could be a successful team and club.”
Every 17 September unites the Lyndale FC community as friends and family go to Sandown Park Hotel and have a drink in memory of their mates.
“Every sort of year we get together with the family members of the boys who passed away – go down to the pub and see some of their kids that have grown up,” Collard said.
“That’s the day we tell all the stories and the yarns and it’s a good day – we try and stay a bit more positive for the families as it’s their loved ones that they’ve lost.”
A memorial to the six men sits proudly on the wall of the Lyndale clubrooms and the Pumas faithful from that time have ensured that while the game must go on, those left behind will never be forgotten.
