AFL
By Sam Darroch
BOOLARRA’S Matt Dyer is $5000 richer after being recognised by Australian Football League program ‘Off the Bench’ in their country footballer of the year segment.
The prize money topped off an incredible season of individual accolades for the 27 year-old, which included winning the JJ Lussick medal for best player at the Australian Country Football Championships.
From that carnival Dyer was also named in the All-Australian side and recently made Roslyn Lanigan’s Herald Sun top 10 country players for 2012 in third position, three spots above former AFL star Brendan Fevola.
Dyer also finished runner-up for the North Gippsland Football Netball League best and fairest, an award which he won last year on his return from the Geelong league.
With a tenacious play-style that earned the nickname ‘Mad Dog’, Dyer hopes exposure of this nature can open doors.
“If any opportunities come up, like AFL or anything like that, I’d be happy to jump on board and work hard for it,” he said.
“It’s about being in the right place at the right time otherwise you can miss your boat but I’d jump at anything that comes up.
“It gets your name out there but at the end of the day it’s a hard thing to break in to.”
Dyer said his immediate goal would be to pursue a pre-season with an AFL club, but is taking things one day at a time.
Despite his incredible success this season, the mercurial midfielder maintained a team centric mindset.
“On an individual note you always try to work hard enough to earn things like that but we didn’t do too well at Boolarra as opposed to last year… so it was a bit disappointing there but you’re always happy with the individual things,” he said.
Flitting between Geelong and Boolarra, Dyer has not committed to playing plans for next season but said for the moment he was still with the North Gippsland side.
