His senior career was confined to just two senior appearances for Carlton; the first, against Richmond in the opening round of 1960 where he stood the future Premiership player Paddy Guinane; the second versus St Kilda in Round 3 where he rubbed shoulders with the Brownlow Medallist Neil Roberts.

And then Des Lyons went home to Leeton.

Fifty-four years later, and Lyons finally gave in to the urge to come back to Carlton, making one of his few and maybe last forays into the big smoke, for the club’s sesquicentenary celebrations.

“It’s been a big thing to come down,” Lyons said in the aftermath of last Saturday night’s grand party at The Plenary. “I really hadn’t been down for 50-odd years and I hadn’t really been in contact with anyone much.

“Seeing it was the 150^th birthday and knowing I’d never see another one, I thought I’d like to come down. My wife is also in a nursing home, and having looked after her these past 20 years or so there’s now an opportunity to go to a few places.

“I would have liked to have seen a few more players I knew. I would have liked to have seen Ken Hands, my old coach. I knew he’d be right down the far end from where I was and I didn’t want to go pushing myself. He would have remembered me I’d say, but you know how you get a bit of a feeling – ‘Am I pushing myself’?’.”

Lyons hitched a lift to Melbourne with his son and daughter-in-law, making the 450-kilometre trek south from the Murrumbidgee irrigation area. Accompanied by his granddaughter Tess, Lyons fronted up to The Plenary and took his place at the table with fellow former Carlton footballers, Ganmain’s “Turkey Tom” Carroll and Kyabram’s Barry Bryant.

Originally hailing from the tiny Riverina wheat town of Barellan and a neighbour to Evonne Goolagong and the Goolagong clan, Lyons briefly fronted for training at Collingwood as a solidly-built 16 year-old in 1955.

The lure of home proved too strong for Lyons, who chased leather for Barellan and later Leeton before the Carringbush’s great inner city rival made a play.

It was 1959, and on the strength of a meeting with the then Carlton Secretary the late Allen Cowie, Lyons resolved to try his luck at Princes Park the following year.

Wearing the No.20 on debut, Lyons was named at centre half-forward - sandwiched between Dave McCulloch and Don Nicholls - for the Richmond match at Princes Park. Incredibly, the match ended in what was the first draw between the two teams, 14.14 (98) apiece, with Lyons slotting a big goal in the Blues’ 4.5 final quarter. 

Des Lyons pictured during the 1960s. (Photo: The Irrigator)

For reasons he cannot recall, Lyons didn’t take his place in the team to meet Fitzroy at Brunswick Street in the 2^nd round, on a weekend in which Anzac Day matches were staged for the first time (and he might have been the difference given that the visitors went under by seven points).

But he turned out for the Round 3 contest with the Saints at the Junction Oval, and was part of a narrow four-point triumph before Leeton beckoned yet again.

Lyons’ memories of both contests are crystal. “Oh I remember Guinane, he was a big blighter. I remember thinking ‘What am in for here?’, but I didn’t have a lot of trouble with him,” Lyons said.

As for ‘Coco’ Roberts, Lyons fared okay, although the conditions hardly suited the strapping key position player. As he said: “There’d been a lot of rain in Melbourne that day and the ground at the Junction Oval was terrible . . . the water was almost running through your boots”.

Lyons’ two senior appearances in the opening three rounds of 1960 was effectively it for Leeton’s own.

But did he harbor any regrets in travelling north?

“Sort of,” came the reply, “but there was no money in playing football down there then and I was working for my Dad who had a few trucks and he didn’t want me to go”.

“I’ve always been a bit of a home boy too and city life wouldn’t have been too good for me,” Lyons said. “I’ve got regrets not going down and seeing if I would have done any better. You do think about it later, but whether I would have got injured or done any better I wouldn’t know.”

But Carlton’s loss was Leeton’s gain, for Lyon’s forged a superb career with the Riverina Redlegs, landing three Premierships, two League Best and Fairests and the South West District League’s top goalkicker award, not to mention 20 League representative appearances and an enduring reputation as one of the region’s truly great footballers.

That said, Lyon’s love for the old dark Navy Blues still endures . . . and why?

“I’m proud that I played with a top Melbourne team,” came the reply. “For me it was simply the honour and the glory of playing for a top Melbourne club”.