Retired Lion set to continue career alongside brother at SANFL club

Jarryd Lyons will likely continue his football career in the SANFL next year.

The 32-year-old announced his AFL retirement last month after six seasons and 102 games with the Brisbane Lions. He also played 55 games with the Crows and 37 with the Suns.

Having spent the first six years of his AFL career in Adelaide, Lyons is planning to return to the City of Churches with his family.

He says he could link up with brother Corey at SANFL club Glenelg and finally play together having crossed over at the Lions a few years ago.

Corey, who was on Brisbane’s list from 2017 to 2020 but never played a senior game, has been at Glenelg since 2022 and contributed greatly to their back-to-back SANFL premierships in 2023 and 2024.

“I think we’ll be coming back to Adelaide which will be nice,” Lyons said on SEN SA Breakfast.

“A possible return to Glenelg to play with my brother might be on the cards.

“There is a lure of playing with my brother who was here (in Brisbane) for four years and we never actually got to play together.

“It was a tough decision. In the end one of my mentors said, ‘In 30 years if you look back and say you had the chance to play with your brother and you didn’t do it, how are you going to feel about it?’.

“That was one of the main reasons. Family is big thing for us. It’ll be great fun too.”

Lyons revealed that he sought out some coaching work at both Port Adelaide and the Crows but the South Australian clubs were unable to facilitate because of the timing.

“I spoke to Port and Adelaide but there wasn’t exactly any sort of AFL roles,” he added.

“They’d been finished for so long before the Grand Final came along that they’d appointed a few people in those areas.”

Regarding his decision to call time on his AFL career, Lyons simply felt the opportunities to be a starting inside midfielder had been diminished due to the quality of player at the current AFL premiers.

That scenario forced Lyons to play regularly in the VFL over the past few seasons, but with that came the chance to help nurture some of Brisbane’s youngsters who would play key roles in the premiership triumph.

“I was 32 and as an inside mid we’ve got Lachie Neale and Josh Dunkley who had great seasons,” Lyons said further.

“That’s just the way footy is sometimes. I had a great time.

“The VFL was really rewarding. A lot of young guys that came through there played in the Grand Final. You look at Logan Morris and Kai Lohmann, guys I worked closely with, it was really rewarding to see those guys get that reward in their second and third seasons.

“I was sitting with Dyson Heppell in the stands and we looked at each other thinking ‘14 years of this and we never got to experience it and there’s a couple of guys out there playing in their 20th game and winning a flag’.

“That’s the great game, isn’t it. They’re that hard to win and that’s why you enjoy them (when you do).”

Lyons played a total of 194 games over the course of his AFL career, averaging 21 disposals and almost five clearances per game.