FITZROY - Part One: 1884 to 1917
Affiliated: VFA 1884-1896; VFL 1896-1989; AFL 1990-1996
Club Address: Not applicable: merged with Brisbane Bears after the 1996 season to form the Brisbane Lions
Home Grounds: Brunswick Street Oval 1884-1966; Junction Oval 1970-84; Victoria Park 1985-86; Princes Park 1967-69 & 1987-93; Whitten Oval 1994-96
Formed:1883
Colours: Maroon, royal blue and gold
Emblem: Lions (formerly, at various times, Maroons, Roys and Gorillas)
Premierships: SENIORS - 1895, 1898-99, 1904-05, 1913, 1916, 1922, 1944 (9 total) RESERVES - 1944, 1974, 1989 (3 total) UNDER 19S - 1955, 1982 (2 total) OTHER PREMIERSHIPS - VFL Night Series 1959, 1978 (2 total)
Brownlow Medallists: Haydn Bunton 1931, 1932 & 1935; Wilfred 'Chicken' Smallhorn 1933; Denis 'Dinny' Ryan 1936; Alan Ruthven 1950; Kevin Murray 1969; Bernie Quinlan 1981 (6 Medallists/8 Medals)
All Australians: O.Abrahams 1958; K.Murray 1958; G.Wilson 1979 & 1980; G.Pert 1985; P.Roos 1985, 1987 & 1988; M.Rendell 1983 & 1987 (10 total)
AFL All Australians: Paul Roos 1991 & 1992; Alastair Lynch 1993 (3 total)
V/AFL Top Goalkickers: J.Freake (56) 1913 & (66) 1915; J.Moriarty (82) 1924; B.Quinlan (116) 1983 & (105) 1984 (5 total)
Fitzroy's Official 'Team of the Century': Click here
Highest Score: 36.22 (238) vs. Melbourne in round 17 1979
Most Games: 333 by Kevin Murray 1955 to 1964 & 1967 to 1974
Record Home Attendance: 36,000 at Brunswick Street Oval in round 2 1935: Fitzroy 14.9 (93) drew with Collingwood 14.9 (93)
Record Finals Attendance: 87,217 for 1979 1st semi final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground: Collingwood 16.20 (116); Fitzroy 12.22 (94)
Overall Success Rate 1897-1996: 45.7%
A text only version of this history, which includes several player profiles and a review of the 1913 challenge final, is available as a .pdb file (or eBook) which has been optimised for viewing on pocket PCs and other handheld devices, providing you have the appropriate eReader software installed on your machine. To download the file, right click the following link, and choose 'Save Target As' or 'Save Link As', depending on which browser you use:
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ABOVE (L-R): Ron Alexander, coach Graham Campbell, and Garry 'Flea' Wilson celebrate Fitzroy's defeat of North Melbourne to secure the 1978 night flag, Fitzroy's last senior premiership. |
On Sunday 1 September 1996 a group of players representing the Fitzroy Football Club took the field for the last time. The fact that the venue for the match was Subiaco Oval in Perth was both significant and, in a perverse way, appropriate (see footnote 1); the Australian Football League, which, within the space of a mere decade, had moved from being a suburban to a national competition, had no further use for financially non-viable propositions like Fitzroy. Football in the closing years of the twentieth century had much more to do with finance than sport and in this context Fitzroy's main problem was that, while its performances as a football club occasionally reached great heights, its business achievements - compared to the likes of traditional heavyweights like Carlton and Essendon, not to mention well-heeled newcomers such as West Coast and Adelaide - were negligible. Paradoxically this meant that, after the winning of premierships ceased to be the primary objective of the game, Fitzroy stopped winning premierships. Its demise, whilst poignant and unfortunate, was arguably inevitable.
Fitzroy's on field achievements, particularly during the early years of the VFL, were considerable. During the first decade of VFL competition the Maroons won no fewer than four flags - more than any other club - and were runners up three times. Further premierships followed in 1913 and 1916, but after World War One the side tended to struggle. Paralleling this, the VFL began to take on more and more of the characteristics of a business: payment to players was officially recognised as taking place in 1909, and professionalism gradually became more and more overt. Peripheral marketing also burgeoned, eventually reaching the point were it accounted for the majority of the sport's revenue. The image of the die-hard barracker braving the elements in the outer every Saturday afternoon to support his team may well have represented the popular perception of what the VFL was all about but it is doubtful if it ever genuinely held any credence; certainly by the 1960s it was no longer even remotely valid, if indeed it ever had been. However, the fact that such a romanticised perception existed - indeed, to a certain extent still exists - is undeniable, and the series of developments which ultimately led to Fitzroy’s demise in 1996 only served, in the minds of some, to reinforce and embellish it.
The choice of the word 'demise' is perhaps controversial. After all, 'officially' the merger with the Brisbane Bears did not herald the end for Fitzroy, but rather ensured the club's continuance. As far as the AFL is concerned, the evolving history and traditions of the Brisbane Lions Football Club should be seen as representing a seamless continuation of the history and traditions of both merger partners. This sounds all very well in theory, but ultimately such matters are not decided in the committee room but in people's hearts and minds.
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A prominent early player with Fitzroy, and chosen as 'Champion of the Colony' in 1887 and 1890, Jack Worrall later successfully coached both Carlton and Essendon. |
The Fitzroy Football Club played its first
season in 1884, having been officially formed in September of the previous year
at a meeting organised by businessman George Toms at the Brunswick Hotel. The
citizens of Fitzroy were keen to see a football club representing their district
having witnessed the positive impact which the neighbouring Carlton club had had
on that locality for many years. The VFA, discerning that the new club was
capable of attracting significant support, swiftly made a number of rule changes
to expedite its admission for 1884, and although there was a measure of
scepticism among the football watching public regarding this decision it was
rapidly shown to have been entirely warranted.
From the outset, Fitzroy attracted healthy crowds of up to 3,000, and it was not long before it proved capable of giving these supporters a team worth watching. By the 1890s the Maroons (see footnote 2) were indisputably one of the VFA’s top clubs, consistently finishing in the top four. In 1892 it finished runner up to an all powerful Essendon combination which would go on to complete 4 successive flag triumphs. However, it was Fitzroy which, in 1895, brought the sequence to an end. In those days, premierships were determined on the basis of matches won during the home and away season, as remains the case for example in European soccer leagues. With 3 matches of the 1895 season remaining the Maroons were in a strong position but still needed at least 2 wins (or a win and 2 draws) to be entirely sure of taking out the flag (see footnote 3). All three of the side’s remaining fixtures were against teams from the top half of the ladder, beginning with Geelong, which would ultimately finish runners up. Fitzroy were too good for the Pivotonians though, and when they tied with Essendon in their penultimate match it left an intriguing scenario for the final week of the season. |
Quite simply, if Fitzroy defeated or tied with South Melbourne the premiership would be theirs. Geelong, which was playing Port Melbourne, had to win and see South topple the Maroons in order to force a play off (see footnote 4). Perhaps because a play off would have been an exciting way of ending the season, many observers felt constrained to tip against the Maroons, and for much of the game the Fitzroy players appeared to concur with this view. Finally, however, after trailing at every change, a late goal from Mick Grace secured a tie, and Fitzroy had secured a premiership by, if the cliché is allowable, ‘the narrowest of margins’.
Two seasons later Fitzroy were one of eight clubs to break away from the VFA and form a new ‘super’ competition, the VFL. The circumstances leading to the breakaway are discussed in detail elsewhere (see footnote 5). The Maroons struggled during their initial season in the new competition, winning just 4 of 14 matches to finish 6th. However, in 1898, helped partly by a curious new way of deciding the premiership, Fitzroy rose to the top of the tree.
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Dynamic centreman and dual best and fairest winner (1912-13), Harold 'Lal' McLennan. (Click to enlarge.) |
In the VFL’s first season of 1897 the destiny of the flag had been determined by a round robin series between the sides occupying the top 4 positions at the end of the home and away rounds. However, something more climactic was deemed desirable, and for 1898 the system was overhauled. The format decided upon though has to be one of the strangest and most illogical ever conceived. At the end of the home and away series the 8 clubs were split into 2 sections. The teams occupying the odd numbered positions were placed in Section A with the remaining 4 teams comprising Section B. The 4 teams in each section then played each other once, with the 2 section winners meeting in the final. There was a proviso, however: if the team which had finished the home and away rounds at the top of the ladder did not qualify for the inter-section final it would be permitted to challenge the winner of that match for the flag. (Interestingly, this would prove to be the only feature of the system to be retained - albeit in slightly modified form - in subsequent years.) Predictably, events panned out more or less as anticipated. Essendon, which had proved to be the best team over the course of the 14 match home and away season, and which had thereby guaranteed itself a premiership-deciding match, clearly had little incentive to prove itself in the section matches. The sections were duly won by Collingwood (2nd after the minor round) and Fitzroy (3rd), with the Maroons scoring a 2.10 (22) to 1.5 (11) victory over their local rivals in the play off. The destiny of the 1898 VFL premiership would thus be determined on the basis of a single, decisive match - in effect, the VFL's first ever 'grand final' (see footnote 6). Essendon, having proved themselves marginally the best side over the course of the entire season, were slightly favoured, but Fitzroy, having finished the season strongly, also had their advocates. In the event the match, which attracted a crowd of 16,538, was dominated by Fitzroy, which eventually won by the comparatively comfortable margin for the era of 15 points after leading all day. Fitzroy ruckman Mick Grace, who had taken numerous marks, some of them spectacular, and whose long goal in the 3rd term had effectively snuffed out the last hopes of an Essendon recovery, was awarded a gold medal as the best player afield. |
A year later Fitzroy repeated its success, but only after an absorbing grand final tussle with South Melbourne. (Had the Maroons lost, however, they would nevertheless, as minor premiers, have been able to invoke the right of challenge.) The match was played in atrocious weather conditions and attracted a meagre crowd of just 4,823, but those who did brave the climatic vicissitudes were rewarded with a thrilling game. Aided by a strong breeze South controlled much of the opening quarter and led 2.3 (15) to 0.1 (1) at the 1st change; however, by half time the Maroons had edged in front by a point. It was probably the southerners' failure to trouble the scorers in this 2nd term which ultimately proved decisive as after the long break both teams managed precisely the same score, leaving Fitzroy victors by the narrowest of margins. Pat Hickey, who was indefatigable at centre half back all afternoon for the premiers, was most observers choice as the best player on view.
| Between 1900 and 1906
Fitzroy enjoyed the most successful overall record in the VFL, contesting
the finals every year for flags in 1904 and 1905 and runners up slots in
1900, 1903 and 1906. Indeed, Fitzroy's achievements over the course
of the VFL's entire opening decade were second to none, as the Maroons won
4 of the 10 premierships on offer, twice as many as their closest rivals, Collingwood.
Sadly, success for the 'Roys would never again prove anywhere near as accessible, with the remaining 90 years of the club's existence yielding only a further 4 flags. Meanwhile, clubs like Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Richmond went from strength to strength. After suffering an annihilation at the hands of Carlton in the 1906 grand final Fitzroy was beset by internal administrative wrangles which in turn precipitated the departure of several key players. Among the champions lost to the club over the next half a dozen seasons were Jim Sharp, regarded as Victoria's finest backman, who went to arch rivals Collingwood, and Herbert 'Boxer' Milne, a graceful and highly talented follower, who joined South Melbourne. |
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Despite such setbacks, however, Fitzroy returned as a force in 1913 with arguably the greatest combination ever to represent the club. Nicknamed 'the unbeatables' the Fitzroy team of 1913 took all before it during the home and away rounds, winning 16 games out of 18 and finishing a game and a half clear of the next best side, South Melbourne. An effortless 11.14 (80) to 6.7 (43) semi final defeat of Collingwood then set up the 'formality' of a premiership clinching final encounter with perennial easy beats, St Kilda, but unfortunately for Fitzroy no one thought to send the Saints a copy of the script. Consequently, after trailing by 2 points at the long break the archetypal 'no hopers' of the League exploded into action, rattling on 5 goals to 1 in the 2nd half to win pulling away. The record crowd of 54,747 in attendance at the game had witnessed St Kilda's open, free flowing style of play triumph over the vigorous, intense, 'pressure football' favoured by the 'Roys.
It was at this juncture that the Maroons' supreme performance during the home and away rounds came to their rescue; afforded the safety net of the right of challenge, they obeyed their captain Billy Walker's injunction to "match the St Kilda style and avoid rough play" (see footnote 7) to a tee and set up a seemingly match winning lead of 27 points by half time. Indeed, the Saints did not manage to register their 1st goal until the 3rd term, leaving the new record crowd of 59,479 mute with disappointment. The final quarter, however, was another matter entirely. In a supremely ironic twist the St Kilda players, in desperation, began to throw their bodies around indiscriminately in a style normally favoured by their opponents - and, what is more, it worked. In the opening minutes of the final term St Kilda goaled 4 times without reply to cut Fitzroy's lead back to a single point. All of the momentum seemed to be with the Saints but try as they might they could not make their supremacy count. In the final few minutes Fitzroy managed 2 decisive breakaways for goals to Martin and Shaw, thereby securing a 13 point win. Overall, victory had been deserved, but the last quarter disintegration had made it a close run thing. Best for the Maroons were wingman George Holden, playing coach Percy Parratt, who lined up on a half forward flank, centre half back Wally Johnson, a Collingwood reject, centreman Harold McLennan, and half back flanker Jack Cooper, who would later die in action in World War One.
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(Click to enlarge.) |
Fitzroy still had one
further fixture commitment to fulfill: a trip to Adelaide to contest the premiership
of Australia. Unfortunately, the Maroons' erratic late season
form continued, and they lost to local team Port Adelaide by 9 goals.
If ever a VFL flag came close to being meaningless it was in 1916. Against a backdrop of intense criticism from those who felt that competitive sport should be suspended while the nation was at war the VFL had chosen to continue. However, it was very much a reduced competition, in every sense, and never more so than in 1916, when only Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond and Fitzroy participated. With the majority of able-bodied men away on active duty the teams comprised a mixture of older players and members of vital home services. The standard of play was, needless to say, significantly inferior to a full-blown, peace time competition, but football's proponents argued that it was 'good for morale'. Certainly, as events panned out, few involved with the Fitzroy Football Club would argue. With only four participating clubs the 12 round home and away series in 1916 served only to determine the draw for week one of the finals. Fitzroy, with just 2 wins, thus 'qualified' for the finals in 4th place, its only penalty for its ineptitude compared to minor premiers Carlton being that it would need to win three finals matches rather than two to clinch the flag. (This also applied to Collingwood and Richmond.) Fitzroy duly beat Collingwood in a semi final and Carlton in both the final and challenge final to clinch a premiership pennant to hang alongside the 1916 wooden spoon. |
Geelong and South Melbourne returned to the fray in 1917, creating a 6 team competition. Fitzroy performed slightly better during the home and away rounds this time (won 6, lost 8, drew 1) and went very close to carrying off another flag. In the semi final the Maroons downed Carlton 6.17 (51) to 6.8 (44) and then caused something of a boil over by overcoming minor premiers Collingwood by a goal in the final. In the following week's challenge final, however, the teams reverted to their true form, and the Maroons were never in the hunt, going down in the end by 35 points, a margin which, frankly, flattered them.
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Footnotes
1. It was also appropriate in a tangential sense in that Subiaco Oval had long been the home ground of WAFL club Subiaco, who share with Fitzroy the emblem of the Lion. Return to Main Text
2. The Fitzroy Football Club had the distinction of having worn maroon (initially with blue) playing uniforms from the outset. Return to Main Text
3. With behinds not counting toward a team’s overall score ties were comparatively common at this time. Return to Main Text
4. A play off took place if two teams won an identical number of games, the concept of percentage not having been concocted at this stage. Return to Main Text
5. See, for example, the entries on Essendon, St Kilda and Carlton. Return to Main Text
6. The game nearly did not take place as, initially, the two competing teams could not agree on an appropriate venue. In the end, an agreement to use the St Kilda Cricket Ground was only arrived at on the eve of the match. Return to Main Text
7. Quoted in The Roar of the Lions by Garrie Hutchinson, Rick Lang and John Ross, page 20. Return to Main Text