Fitzroy

Fitzroy was an AFL/VFL club that formed in 1883 and lasted up until 1996 where it merged with the Brisbane Bears and became the Brisbane Lions.

Although Fitzroy was not very successful which caused its down fall in 1996 it did retain 8 VFL/AFL premierships and where minor Premiers on 4 occasions and Fitzroy also maneged to secure a couple of the night series Finals, their last VFL/AFL premiership was in 1944.

VFA years

Fitzroy was very successful in the time of the VFA they where a strong side in the VFA and always maneged to draw in large crowds at there homeground the Brunswick Street Oval, and where consitently in the top 4. They won there first VFA premiership in 1895

VFL early years

Fitzroy made its start into the VFL successfuly and kept their winning stride for the first 10 years of the VFL competion the maroons as they where known at the time were nicknamed the "unbeatables" but fell away in the 1916 vfl season due to world war one, but also thaks to world war one they won the premiership and also recived the wooden spoon due to the fact there where only 4 teams competiting.

Fitzroy won the seventh VFL premiership in 1922 during this time in 1939, Fitzroy changed there name from the maroons to the gorillas but the nickname was critizied by the public and the quickly changed there name back to the maroons. by 1944 the maroons had won their last VFL preimiership and the era of failure now loomed ahead

Era of Failure

Fitzroy finnished last 11 times during the 60s and 70s and went completly winless in 1964. in 1966 Fitzroy ended it 83 year association with the brunswick st oval, and chose to become tenants with Carlton at Princess Park they later moved to junction oval. moving grounds failed to help Fitzroy become more successful so they altered there uniform placing a small lion on the guernsey in 1967, in 1974 they made anothe change to the uniforms altering the colors making them brighter for the coming of color telivision. the year of 1979 seemed brighter for the lions, that season they scored nine wins in a row which became Fitzroy's record for most consecutive wins, that same year they made more records, the largest winning margine came to them at the hands of 81 point belted essendon in an elimination final, fitzroy also kicked theit highest and the vfl highest score agaist melbourne, although the highest score from that match is no longer a record the winning margine from it still is with Fitzroy 36.22.238 to Melbourne's 6.12.48 which adds up to 190 winning margine. at the end of 1984 Fitzroy moved form junction oval to Victoria park with Collingwood, in 1985 Fitzroys financial difficulty started to emerge but maneged to make it to a preliminary final for the first time since 1960 in 1986, the 1 point win over essendon in the elimination final cost them with major players out they lost the 1986 preliminary final. In 10987 the club decided to move back to Princess park again with Carlton, that same year Fitzroy's board and most of the players voted on relocating to brisbane becoming the brisbane lions to solve financial troubles but Fitzroy's president Leon Wiegard declared that the club would not move. in 1989 with financial troubles still mounting the club began talks with Footscray on a posible meger, the purposed "Fitzroy Bulldogs" was rejected by Footscray supporters coming to their Footscray's aid. in 1991 Fitzroy launched the save the lions appeal which raised $800,000 to stave of financial matters for a while longer, on the feild Fitzroy was delt with many losses but won it's last 3 matchs of the season including the surprising defeat of top of the ladder team W est Coast. 1992 saw the Fitzroy's last Grand Fianl of any type with Fitzroy going down to 91 premiers Hawthorn in the pre-season night series. 1994 Footscray and the Western Oval made a generous offer to ease Fitroys financial troubles by allowing them to move in with them at the Western Oval, Fitzroy would see the last of it's years at the Western Oval, also in 1994 talk where held with Melbourne on a possible meger but the talks lead no where.

Merge and Farewell

in 1995 the debt of Fitzroy esstimated over 2 million in 1996 Fitzroy tryed to conclude it's self distruction by merging with North Melbourne, the deal looked done with board members from both side agreeing to the purposed "North Fitzroy Kangaroos" but Fitzroy's main crediter Nauru Insurance Company appointed a administrator to recover the debt from Fitzroy and this also ment Fitzroy's Board had no power to approve the deal with North Melbourne. months down the track Brisbane came out of nowhere and over night a deal between the two clubs was reached with the Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy Lions merging to become the Brisbane Lions, Fitzroys last win was agaist Fremantle, but a few months later there last game in history was a loss to Fremantle, there last game in melbourne was agaist Richmond where 48,884 people showed up to see the game they where beaten by 150 points but the Fitzroy faithful did not leave untill the players where off the ground, before the match a lap of Fitzroys past players and heros, people discribe it as the saddest day in 100 years of football, the following weak as stated Fitzroy went up to Fremantle to play and lose there last game in the VFL/AFL and after 100 years of VFL/AFL competion the lions finaly rolled over and died.







Mentioned

As of 2011 Fitzroy has been mentioned by the media as an example. Fitzroy is used to compare to the struggles of the Port Adelaid Power, the media state what happened to Fitzroy is now currently going on with the Power example of this is the Power's on feild failures and their financial troubles, the media also uses the fact that the current coach of Port Adelaid M atthew Primus was a former Fitzroy player. currently in 2013 Melbourne also wears the tag after poor preformances under coach mark neeld. Richmond also carried the tag for a while as well

Supporter Base

a lot of Fitzroy Supporters have decided to stick with the Brisbane lions, and have been treated to success with the lions hat trick of wins in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Other former supporters have since stopped their support of the club and have adobted another victorian team to support.