Dukes of depth - Saturday 10 June 2000
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Football is a game of more contrasts than snakes and ladders. In yo-yo
speak, certain players are remembered for going round the world and
walking the dog one minute then the string winding too tight the next.
David Hynes has seen it all.
The men with a chemistry set at Port Adelaide had developed a formula for winning from the earliest years of the club. Hynes walked in the sunshine of success during a relatively long SA Magpies career. He played in the Port premiership teams of 1988 and 1990. Injury always seemed light years away. Big David brought to the footy table meat and potatoes swimming in a sauce of aggression and physicality. His Bob Geldof style designer three day growth added to the fearsome look. At the mature age of 24, Hynes made his senior debut with West Coast in 1991 despite having been the Eagles' national number 24 pick in the 1988 draft. DH had the versatility of Peter Ustinov. Could take centre bounces, go to centre half back, centre half forward, full forward and be a burst player off the interchange bench. As a result, Hynes was tougher than the Icelandic language to match up. He took a strong grab and booted truly in the 1992 Round 15 game against Essendon that the Westies won 20.17 to 9.8. Visits to Vic Park were always about as welcome a week of flu. Yet at the 10 minute mark of the last quarter in Round 13 1993, Hynes spun in the air like the Tasmanian Devil and pulled down one of the marks of the year. Before he hit the ground, he handpassed to Kemp who kicked to Sumich. Goal. Coasters in a canter. Round 16. Although a victory for the Dons at home, David booted two majors under pressure at critical times in the match. Showed he was cool as a slurpee. The Hynes force of one supported team mates during the famous half time brawl with Bulldogs in the last round of 1994. With all the feuding through the second half, Hynes took two great marks and recorded a major from just outside 50. The yo-yo equivalent of rocking the baby for David Hynes was rucking all day in the 1994 grand final win over Geelong 20.23 to 8.15. Number 22 played some steady football over the following season. Salary cap problems saw him thrown on to the market from which he was snapped up by the Dockers. Hynes inherited John Hutton's 16 guernsey for the 1996 season. A top game in the purple, green, red and white was the derby of Round 1. As a defender took two monster marks. One was a vertical lift off as if he had a rocket pack on his back. Alas Freo lost 6.9 to 9.13. Another sparkling performance was Round 6 against Brisbane at Subiaco. This time the big fella played in the forward pocket and snagged three. After that injury and form problems hurt him. The Hynes star appeared to fade quite suddenly. He was dropped off the list. From '91 to '97 West Coast 73 games. Freo 13. Plus a handy career of 65 games with Weststar mob South Fremantle. David Hynes revealed more than one string to his championship yo-yo. |
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