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Fitzroy Football Club, most recently nicknamed The Lions or The Roys, 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 Fitzroy Football Club Ltd came out of administration after the merger of the playing operations in late 1998. For a brief time it experimented in partnerships with other semi professional and amateur clubs before merging with the Fitzroy Reds (formerly University Reds) to play in the Victorian Amateur Football Association, retaining its original identity through its jumper, theme song and home ground at the Brunswick Street Oval and resumes as a playing club in D1 section of the VAFA in 2009.[1]
[edit] History [edit] Early yearsThe Fitzroy Football Club formed at a meeting at the Brunswick Hotel on 26 September 1883 [2], 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. 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[dubious ]. 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. [edit] Between the warsThe 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. [edit] Post-war 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. In 1967, Fitzroy moved its home games from Brunswick Street to Princess 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. [edit] The merger yearsTalk 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 Friday, June 28, 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 AU$1.25million was to be repaid. The AFL guaranteed funds to allow Fitzroy to continue in the competition for the remainder of 1996. During this time the Fitzroy Football Club had been in merger discussions with the North Melbourne Football Club to become the Fitzroy-North Melbourne Kangaroos Football Club, with negotiations for elements such as club colours, guernsey and song well underway. The AFL Commission met with the remainder of the AFL clubs to discuss the merger. Fearful that a merger between Fitzroy and the then-dominant North Melbourne Football Club would result in a superteam, the clubs opposed the proposal. Instead, they approved a last-minute approach from the Brisbane Bears, who were not considered a particularly strong club on or off the field (although they would almost claim the 1996 minor premiership). In just a few years the newly formed Brisbane Lions would rise to the top of the league and become the dominant superteam the other clubs had feared the Fitzroy-North Melbourne Kangaroos would become. On July 4, 1996, the Fitzroy Football Club merged with the Brisbane Bears, to be based in Brisbane at the Brisbane Cricket Ground (often referred to as the Gabba) - an arrangement ensuring 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. 48,000 people came to the MCG on the 25 August 1996 to say farewell to Fitzroy, as they played their last game in the city of Melbourne. They witnessed the Lions being torn apart by 151 points, the second greatest loss in the club's history. Richmond 28.19 187 V Fitzroy 5.6 36 1 September 1996 The Fremantle Football Club hosted Fitzroy at Subiaco Oval. 22,000 odd thousand people turned out to say goodbye to the 113 year old team as they played their final game. Fitzroy played out the game with dignity, winning the last quarter by 2 points, but by that time the margin had blown out to 86 points. At 4:45pm the siren sounded and the playing days of the Fitzroy Football Club had finished. Fremantle stood by and ushered Fitzroy off the ground for the final time. Sara Macliver from the West Australian Opera sang Auld Lang Syne as a final tribute to the lions, which Fremantle gladly paid for. the final scores were Fremantle 24.13 157 V Fitzroy 10.11 71. [edit] Post-mergerThe 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 Coburg, a club playing in the VFL. Coburg were known as the Coburg-Fitzroy Lions for one season in the VFL, however when Coburg entered into an alliance with Richmond the Fitzroy connection was abandoned. Fitzroy FC now 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. Fitzroy FC Ltd has also improved its relationship with the Brisbane Lions dramatically in the last 5 years. Brisbane agreed to use the BB-FFC logo on the back of the new 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 and Brisbane wear the old Fitzroy jumper every two years in the Heritage Round. Due to the popularity of the old Fitzroy jumper it is now worn for most Brisbane matches played in Victoria, except a Lion replaces the FFC monogram. With the dominance of the Brisbane Lions from 2001-2004, this led to some degree of reconciliation between the old diehards and those who accepted the merger. At a meeting held at Fairfield on 8 December 2008, the club merged with the Fitzroy Reds and will play in the VAFA D1 section from the 2009 season.[3] [edit] Club facts[edit] Premierships
* 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. [edit] Brownlow Medal winners
[edit] Coleman Medal / Leading Goal Kicker
[edit] Leigh Matthews Trophy winners
[edit] Norm Smith medallistsNil [edit] Best and Fairest winnersSee Fitzroy FC honour roll for list of winners 1884-1996. [edit] Home venues
Note: Fitzroy also played home matches at North Hobart Oval and Canberra Stadium. [edit] Former nicknames[edit] Club records
[edit] Team of the Century[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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