COLIN Sylvia's reconnection with Melbourne has been confirmed with life membership from the club at Thursday night's annual general meeting at the MCG.
Sylvia played 163 matches for the Demons between 2004 and 2014, and was recognised with life membership alongside former teammates Jared Rivers and Nathan Jones.
The midfielder retired from AFL football at the end of 2015 after a brief and unsuccessful stint at Fremantle, who signed him as a free agent but for whom he played just four matches in two seasons.
Sylvia, originally picked by the Demons with pick No.3 in the 2003 NAB AFL Draft, was not in attendance on the night after undergoing a shoulder reconstruction on Thursday afternoon.
Despite acknowledging that his talent went often unfulfilled, Sylvia said his AFL experience taught him a lot.
"I came in as a young boy from the country; probably pretty uneducated – people would probably argue I still am,” Sylvia said.
"I turned from a boy into a man. It taught me a lot, especially moving from a small country town like Merbein (in country Victoria).
"I’ve got many great memories – lots of ups and lots of downs and that’s footy - it’s a bit of rollercoaster ride."
Sylvia said he understood why people would be disappointed with how his career panned out.
"I feel proud to still achieve what I did,” he said.
"I think there were some really good moments in my career and it would have been nice if there were some more of those games, but unfortunately there wasn’t, so you’ve just got to deal with the reality and keep moving forward."
But Sylvia said he kept a close eye on how the Demons were progressing.
"I still want to stay in contact and have a link to the football club. [I don’t want to] shy away and [I want to] be involved in the past players events, come along and be a supporter and cheer in the stands," he said.
Filling in for coach Paul Roos, Simon Goodwin – who will take the reins at the start of 2017 – also gave fans an update on how the club was tracking heading into 2016.
"We have come a long way and although you didn’t see it every week on the field (in 2015), we as coaches see it in meetings, we see it at training, and see the development our players are making, which excites us as coaches," Goodwin said.
"But we are not content with just incremental improvement – we want our members to know that internally we are working as hard as we can to fast-track our progress.
"We want to become better quicker and you should have faith that we are doing everything possible to achieve this."
