Fitzroy Football Club

Fitzroy Football Club

Names
Full name	Fitzroy Football Club
Nickname(s)	Lions, Gorillas (previously)
Club details
Founded	1883 (AFL club operations merged with the Brisbane Bears in 1996). Resumed playing operations in 2009 in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.
Colours	Maroon and      Yellow (1883–1908)      Maroon and      Blue (1909–1974)      Red,      Blue and      Yellow (1975–1996)
Competition	Victorian Amateur Football Association (2009–present)
Coach	Tim Bell
Captain(s)	James O'Reilly
Premierships	VFA: 1 (1895) VFL/AFL: 8 (1898, 1899, 1904, 1905, 1913, 1916, 1922, 1944)
Ground(s)	Brunswick Street Oval
Other information
Official website	http://fitzroyfc.com.au/

The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League (now the Australian Football League) on its inception in 1897. The club experienced some early success in the league and was the first club to win a VFL Grand Final. It also achieved a total of eight VFL premierships between 1898 and 1944.

The club ran into financial difficulties in the 1980s after decades of poor on-field performance and was forced to merge its playing operations with the Brisbane Bears at the end of the 1996 season to form the Brisbane Lions, the latter of which won three consecutive premierships between 2001 and 2003.

The Fitzroy Football Club Ltd came out of administration after the merger of its AFL playing operations in late 1998. For a brief time it experimented in partnerships with other semi professional and amateur clubs before incorporating the Fitzroy Reds (formerly University Reds) to play in the Victorian Amateur Football Association. Fitzroy largely resumed its original VFL-AFL identity through its continued use of their 1975–1996 VFL-AFL jumper, their theme song and their 1884–1966 home ground at the Brunswick Street Oval. Fitzroy Football Club resumed as a playing club in the D1 section of the VAFA in 2009.

History

1944 Grand Final winning side

Early years

The Fitzroy Football Club formed at a meeting at the Brunswick Hotel on 26 September 1883, at a time when Melbourne's population was rapidly increasing. The Victorian Football Association (VFA) made changes to their rules, allowing Fitzroy to be join as the seventh club in 1884, playing in the maroon and blue colours of the local Normanby Junior Football Club.

VFA

They quickly became one of the most successful clubs, drawing large crowds to their home at the Brunswick Street Oval in Edinburgh Gardens, and consistently in the top four and winning the VFA premiership in 1895. Their rover Jack Worrall was twice named Champion of the Colony.

After they had won their first V.F.A. premiership (in 1895) The Argus published the following table of the club's performances in premiership matches for the entire 12 years of its participation in the V.F.A. competition (note that the "for" and "against" are goals scored because, in the V.F.A. competition, "behinds" were not part of the official score):

Season	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	For	Against
1884	16	7	8	1	27	29
1885	19	8	8	3	51	51
1886	20	10	8	2	66	44
1887	20	11	4	5	71	56
1888	18	6	10	2	64	71
1889	29	10	8	2	86	66
1890	18	11	6	1	44	51
1891	19	12	5	2	70	70
1892	21	15	4	2	141	63
1893	21	11	8	2	114	84
1894	18	10	6	2	75	60
1895	18	12	1	5	77	47
Totals	228	123	76	29	993	692

VFL

In 1897, Fitzroy were one of the eight clubs who broke away from the VFA to form the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Despite winning only four games and finishing sixth in the first season, the Maroons, as they were then known, won the premiership the following year, winning the VFL's first "Grand Final" against Essendon. Fitzroy was the most successful club in the first 10 years of the VFL, winning four premierships and finishing runners-up on three occasions. Despite internal problems after the 1906 season which led to the players and set the club back for several seasons, the 1913 team won the flag after winning 16 of 18 matches in the home and away season, earning the nickname "Unbeatables". In contrast, the 1916 Fitzroy team only won 2 home and away matches and finished last in a competition reduced by the effects of World War I to four teams. All four teams qualified for the finals, and Fitzroy won their next three games to win one of the strangest VFL premierships.

Between the wars

Haydn Bunton, three times Brownlow Medal winner.

The Maroons won their seventh premiership in 1922, a year season which included four very rough games against eventual runners-up Collingwood. However, after this their fortunes waned, and they did not make the finals at all from 1925 to 1942. During this time, highlights for the club were individual achievements of their players, especially Haydn Bunton, Sr. Originally a source of controversy, lured to Fitzroy with an illegal £222 payment, and subsequently not allowed to play in the 1930 season, Bunton became one of the game's greatest players, winning three Brownlow Medals while at Fitzroy. Brownlow Medals were also won by Wilfred Smallhorn and Dinny Ryan, while Jack Moriarty set many goalkicking records. It was during this time that the Maroons became known as the Gorillas.

Post-war

Fred Hughson, Fitzroy's last premiership winning captain

Football was less affected by World War II than it had been in 1916, and by 1944 was starting to return to its normal level. It was in this year, under captain-coach Fred Hughson, that the Gorillas won their eighth VFL flag against Richmond in front of a capacity crowd at Junction Oval. However, it was also to be their last senior premiership, as the club, which became known as the Lions in 1957 entered one of the least successful periods any VFL club has had. The club finished in the bottom three 11 times in the 60s and 70s, including 3 wooden spoons in 4 years and going completely winless in 1964, but still continued to produce great individual players, including Brownlow Medallists Allan Ruthven and Kevin Murray.

Allan Ruthven

In 1967, Fitzroy moved its home games from Brunswick Street to Princes Park and from then on suffered from a lack of a permanent home. In 1970, they moved to Junction Oval and had a short lived promising start to the decade, followed by a night premiership win in 1978 and a then League record score of 36.22 (238) and greatest winning margin of 190 points in 1979. However, Fitzroy's most significant post-war success was in the early eighties, when the Lions made the finals four times, culminating in a preliminary final appearance in 1986. This success occurred under the coaching of Robert Walls and David Parkin, with players such as 1981 Brownlow Medallist Bernie Quinlan, Garry Wilson, Gary Pert and Paul Roos, but still without financial success or a permanent home. The Lions played at Victoria Park in 1985 and 1986 and then moved back to Princes Park.

Merger years

Talk of the death of the club due to financial troubles occurred as early as 1986, and in 1989 the directors agreed to amalgamation with Footscray. Many Footscray supporters did not approve, and made donations which averted the merger. At other times, joining with Melbourne or relocating to Brisbane was suggested. As well as trying several fund-raising ventures, the Lions experimented with playing four home matches in Tasmania in 1991 and 1992, but lost money in the process. In 1994, the club moved its home matches to Western Oval, its fourth home ground in 10 years. While the financial future of the club was uncertain, its on-field performances continued to deteriorate, to the point where the Lions finished last by a long way in 1996.

On 28 June 1996, the Nauru Insurance Company, a creditor of the Fitzroy Football Club, appointed Michael Brennan to administer the affairs of the Fitzroy Football Club in order to ensure a loan of A$1.25 million was to be repaid. The AFL guaranteed funds to allow Fitzroy to continue in the competition for the remainder of 1996.

During the final years, the Fitzroy Football Club had been in merger discussions with several teams, but discussions were most advanced with North Melbourne. The club had mostly agreed to arrangements to become the Fitzroy-North Melbourne Kangaroos Football Club, with negotiations for elements such as club colours, guernsey and song well underway. However, on 4 July 1996, Fitzroy merged with the Brisbane Bears, to form the Brisbane Lions, to be based in Brisbane at the Gabba. The arrangement ensured that all creditors were repaid, at least eight Fitzroy players were to be selected by the Brisbane Lions before the 1996 National Draft and three Fitzroy representatives were to be on the new club's 11-member board.

Those involved have different opinions on why the merger with North Melbourne was rejected, despite negotiations being so far advanced. The other AFL club presidents rejected the North Melbourne-Fitzroy merger by a vote of 14–1, and it is commonly thought, and claimed by then Richmond president Leon Daphne, that the potential on-field and off-field strength of an all-Victorian merge would create a superteam, particularly considering that North Melbourne was the premier in 1996, and because the merged team had proposed to take a 50-player senior list into the 1997 season; this is compared with the Brisbane Lions bid, which proposed a 44-player senior list for 1997, and did not have the potential off-field strength of an all-Victorian merge. Then North Melbourne CEO Greg Miller has accused the AFL of contriving the two bids in this manner to manufacture a result which would fulfill its strategic direction to strengthen the game in Queensland. Additionally, then North Melbourne vice president Peter de Rauch believes that his club's decision not to include Fitzroy president Dyson Hore-Lacy on the board of the merged club was a catalyst for the unravelling of negotiations between the clubs.

In Round 21, 1996, 48,884 people attended the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the 25 August 1996 for Fitzroy's last game in Melbourne as part of the AFL competition. They witnessed the Lions being defeated by 151 points, the second greatest loss in the club's history: Richmond 28.19 (187) defeated Fitzroy 5.6 (36). The club played its final game ever the following week against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval, losing by 86 points. Sara Macliver from the West Australian Opera sang Auld Lang Syne as a final tribute to the Lions as they left the ground.

Post-merger

On-field

The original Fitzroy Football Club came out of administration after the merger of the playing operations in late 1998. The shareholders voted to continue the club, and Fitzroy then developed a partnership with the Coburg Lions in the VFL. Coburg were known as the Coburg-Fitzroy Lions for one season in the VFL, however when Coburg entered into an affiliation with the AFL's Richmond Football Club, the Fitzroy connection was abandoned.

Fitzroy began a sponsorship arrangement with the Fitzroy Reds (formerly University Reds) in the Victorian Amateur Football Association and the Fitzroy Junior Football Club in the Yarra Junior Football League. Both wear the old Fitzroy jumper, play the old theme song, and play from Brunswick Street Oval in the heart of Fitzroy. In 2008, the Reds agreed to be incorporated into the Fitzroy Football Club. The "Fitzroy Football Club (incorporating the Fitzroy Reds)" entered the VAFA D1 section from the 2009 season, fielding a senior and reserves side, as well as two Under 19 sides and a Club 18 side. All the teams were made up mainly of Fitzroy Reds personnel.

Fitzroy lost in the VAFA D1 Grand Final to Rupertswood in 2009, but as a Grand Finalist was promoted to C-Grade for the 2010 season. At the beginning of the 2011 season, Fitzroy appointed Tim Bell as their new senior coach following the resignation of Simon Taylor.

Relationship with Brisbane Lions

Fitzroy FC Ltd improved its relationship with the Brisbane Lions in the ten years from 1999–2009. In that time Brisbane acknowledged the two parent clubs for the merger with the letters BBFFC printed below the back of the neck of the club's guernseys from 2002, the Fitzroy Reds played the curtain-raiser at the MCG when the Brisbane Lions met Collingwood in the AFL Heritage Round of 2003. Brisbane also now wears a version of its guernsey with red instead of maroon in most matches played in Victoria, consistent with Fitzroy's most recent colours.

Relationships between Fitzroy and Brisbane were strained in late 2009, when Brisbane announced that it was adopting a new logo for season 2010 and beyond, which Fitzroy Football Club believed contravened Section 7.2 c) of the merger agreement. The new logo, a lion's head facing forward, replaced the former Fitzroy logo of a passant lion with a football. On 22 December 2009, Fitzroy lodged a Statement of Claim with the Supreme Court of Victoria, seeking an order that the Brisbane Lions be restrained from using as its logo, the new logo or any other logo other than 'the Fitzroy lion logo'. On 15 July 2010, the two clubs reached a settlement, agreeing that the Fitzroy logo symbolically represents the historic merger between the Bears and Fitzroy and the first 13 years of the Brisbane Lions competing in the AFL, and that Brisbane would use both the old and new logos alongside each other in an official capacity (e.g. on letterheads, marketing, etc.), with the old logo to be phased out altogether after 2024 (or 2017 in the case of the Brisbane Lions website).

Club facts

Premierships

• VFA: 1895
• VFL-AFL: 1898, 1899, 1904, 1905, 1913, 1916, 1922, 1944

• Runners up – VFA-VFL 1893; VFL-AFL: 1900, 1903, 1906, 1917, 1923

* The 1916 premiership came in a year when the club also won the wooden spoon. Only four teams contested the premiership that year, and at the end of the home and away rounds all teams made the finals. Fitzroy finished last at the end of the home-and-away season but finished strongly in the finals to complete a stunning form reversal.

Brownlow Medal winners

• Haydn Bunton, Sr. – 1931, 1932, 1935
• Wilfred Smallhorn – 1933
• Dinny Ryan – 1936
• Allan Ruthven – 1950
• Kevin Murray – 1969
• Bernie Quinlan – 1981 (co-winner with Barry Round)

Coleman Medal for leading goal kicker

• Jimmy Freake – 1915
• Jack Moriarty – 1924
• Bernie Quinlan – 1983, 1984

Leigh Matthews Trophy winners

• Paul Roos (1986)

Best and Fairest winners

See Fitzroy FC honour roll for list of winners 1884–1996.

Home venues

VFA/VFL

• 1884–1896 Brunswick Street Oval

VFL/AFL

• 1897–1966 Brunswick Street Oval
• 1967–1969, 1987–1993 Princes Park
• 1970–1984 Junction Oval
• 1985–1986 Victoria Park
• 1994–1996 Whitten Oval

VAFA

• 2009–present Brunswick Street Oval

Former nicknames

• The Maroons 1883–1938
• The Gorillas 1938–1957
• The Lions 1957–1996

VFL-AFL Club records

Win-loss record:	Played: 1928	Won: 869, Lost: 1034, Drawn: 25
Highest score:	238 points (36.22)	v Melbourne FC, Round 17 28 July 1979
Lowest score:	6 points (1 goal)	v Footscray FC, Round 5 23 May 1953
Greatest winning margin:	190 points	v Melbourne FC, Round 17 28 July 1979
Biggest loss:	157 points	v Hawthorn FC, Round 6 28 April 1991
Longest winning streak:	14 games	Round 10 16 July 1898 to Round 4 27 May 1899
Longest losing streak:	27 games	Round 11 20 July 1963 to Round 1 17 April 1965
Most games played:	333	Kevin Murray 1955–1964 & 1967–1974
Most Best & Fairests:	9	Kevin Murray 1956, 1958, 1960–64, 1968–69

Team of the Century

Fitzroy Team of the Century
B:	Bill Stephen	Fred Hughson	Frank Curcio
HB:	Kevin Murray (Captain)	Paul Roos	Gary Pert
C:	Wilfred Smallhorn	John Murphy	Warwick Irwin
HF:	Owen Abrahams	Bernie Quinlan	Garry Wilson
F:	Allan Ruthven	Jack Moriarty	Norm Brown
Foll:	Alan Gale	Norm Johnstone	Haydn Bunton, Sr.
Int:	Michael Conlan	Alastair Lynch	Harvey Merrigan
	Richard Osborne	Percy Parratt	Percy Trotter
Coach:	Len Smith

See also

• Brisbane Lions
• Fitzroy FC honour roll – for coaches, captains, leading goalkickers and team position.
• List of Fitzroy Football Club coaches – for a list of coaches and their career records.
• List of Fitzroy Football Club players
• Proposed VFL/AFL clubs for the Fitzroy-North Melbourne Kangaroos Football Club

References

• Lovett, M. (ed.) (2005). AFL Record Guide to Season 2005. Melbourne: AFL Publishing. ISBN 0-9580300-6-5. 
• Holmesby, R.; Main, J. (2004). The Encyclopaedia of AFL Footballers: Every Brisbane and Fitzroy AFL Player Ever. Melbourne: BAS Publishing. ISBN 1-920910-09-3. 
• Hutchinson, G.; Lang, R.; Ross, J. (1997). Roar of the Lions. Port Melbourne: Lothian Books. ISBN 0-85091-880-4. 
• Piesse, K. (1995). The Complete Guide to Australian Football. Pan Macmillan Australia. ISBN 0-330-35712-3. 
• Fitzroy Football Club: Silver Jubilee, Fitzroy City Press, (Friday, 18 September 1908), p.3.

External links

• Official Website of the Fitzroy Football Club

• "In Defeat We'll Always Try" – Radio National documentary on the death of the Fitzroy Lions
• Fitzroy history
• "Around the Grounds" – Web Documentary – Brunswick Street

Preceded by Essendon Collingwood Essendon Carlton Richmond Richmond	VFL/AFL Premiers 1898, 1899 1904, 1905 1913 1916 1922 1944	Succeeded by Melbourne Carlton Carlton Collingwood Essendon Carlton
Preceded by Essendon Collingwood South Melbourne	VFL/AFL Minor Premiers 1899, 1900 1904 1913	Succeeded by Geelong Collingwood Carlton

Fitzroy Football Club VFL Premiership Teams