Love it or hate it..It’s that time of year again. Your beer tastes a little better…the blossoms are in bloom enough to pretend you are a Japanese samurai walking through Kyoto..and there is just enough warmth in the air to leave the jacket behind and don a t-shirt at a barbeque and be left freezing your derrière as the sun goes down. Yes, it’s September and its Grand Final Week.
Many a customer of ours fly the flag for the mighty black and white of the Magpie army (or sometimes mighty annoying depending on your vantage point). With its origins just across the road from Smith Street Cellars at the Grace Darling Hotel the Collingwood Football Club is a powerhouse of the AFL. It’s supporters are emotional, loyal and barrack with a fervour that is unsurpassed. Even the two brothers who run my local butcher told me they shed a tear when the pies lost to Sydney last Friday night. My response that I shed tears of joy was not met with laughter from the brothers nor the two-row deep crowd at the counter who all coincidentally happened to support Collingwood!
On the other side of Smith Street to the Grace..being the better of the two sides..it is often forgotten that the postcode is 3065 Fitzroy and not that of Collingwood. In Melbourne’s oldest suburb there is a football supporter with a passion forged on rare triumphs and wounds from battles of last century and beyond. Often on a Sunday afternoon I meet these supporters in store as they pick up a traveller on their way home from Etihad Stadium. They now follow the Brisbane Lions and the topic of conversation usually starts with how much they love Vossy the footballer but aren’t sure if they have the same feelings for Vossy the coach. They revelled in Brisbane’s three premierships from 2001 to 2003 but their true passion lies with the Fitzroy Football Club, founded on this day, 26th September, 1883.
This Grand Final week we thought we would provide our customers and perhaps those new to the suburb (including the hipsters and kiwis) a brief look at the history of the football club that was so important to the identity of the suburb Smith Street Cellars calls home. A football club whose name has born a couple of the colours from the spectrum, the strongest of creatures from the jungle and whose existence whilst threatened has once again risen with recent success on a suburban football oval in Sandringham.
The 26th September 1883 saw businessman George Toms and then Fitzroy Mayor John MacMahon meet at the Brunswick Hotel to form the club which would be admitted into the Victorian Football Association (VFA) the following year. In 1895 then going by the name The Maroons Fitzroy won its first VFA flag (premiership). Two years later in 1897 Fitzroy joined seven other clubs including its closest neighbour Collingwood to form the breakaway Victorian Football League (VFL). The VFL is now the Australian Football League (AFL).
Fitzroy won its second VFL premiership against my beloved Bombers, then known as the Same Olds, and during the first ten years of the competition was the most successful team in the competition taking home four flags. 1911 saw a uniform change and 1913 a premiership. The breakout of the First World War meant five teams went into recess and the University Students ceased to exist. In 1916 with just four teams competing Fitzroy became the first and only team in VFL/AFL history to finish last in the home and away (regular) season and win the flag. 1922 saw their next premiership against the team from the other side of Smith Street but Fitzroy bearing the name ‘The Maroons’ would never play finals footy again. This period however saw an era of individual brilliance with Haydn Bunton winning three Brownlow medals, Dinny Ryan winning the Brownlow in 1936 and a man who I believes name pips Steels Sidebottoms’ for the best ever in VFL/AFL history; Wilfred ‘Chicken’ Smallhorn taking home Chas in 1933.
With a lack of team success and a desire to be more intimidating to its opponents 1939 saw a name change to the beefy jungle beasts The Gorillas. The World was at War once again and Fitzroy’s next premiership would come on the 30th September 1944. With the tramways on strike, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) full of septics and off-limits and 30 degree heat some of the 43,000 strong crowd were taken away by ambulance before the first ball was bounced at the jam-packed Junction Oval. Bert Clay standing at 6’4″ and almost 15 stone was outstanding in the Ruck, Bruce Calverley dominated the midfield, Ken Sier and Keith Stackpole (Senior) were lively up forward and Captain-Coach Fred Hughson at Full Back held ‘Captain Blood’ Jack Dyer of the Yellow and Black to just one goal. Kicking with the wind in the last quarter Fitzroy held onto an 11 point three-quarter time lead to run out fifteen point victors over Richmond. Perhaps the Gorillas were ‘Christy’ men and the Richmond boys went in blindfolded without the support of Denyers! (see image below).
Perhaps one of its greatest days in history tuned out to be its last senior premiership and shows how success should be savoured as it can be fleeting. 1950 saw a Brownlow win to Allan ‘Baron’ Ruthven and 1956 saw the club’s best and fairest award go to an 18-year-old whose name would become synonymous in VFL/AFL history and still very relevent to this day.
The powers at be were fifty years ahead of their time and realised that hairy backs were just not in. 1957 saw a name change from the Gorillas to the more noble Lions with the Lions first taste of premiership success coming in the night competition of 1959 against this weeks Grand Finalists Hawthorn. 1960 was a succesful year with the Lions making the preliminary final. The earlier second-semi final saw the first and only time brothers coached against each other in a final with Melbourne’s Norm Smith triumphant over his brother Len from Fitzroy.
1963, 1964 & 1966 saw Fitzroy take home the wooden spoon and at the end of 1966 saw the club move to Princes Park after not being able to secure a ‘satisfactory’ lease from the Fitzroy Council for the use of the Brunswick St Oval (big shout out to the City of Yarra..hopefully you will determine a ‘satisfactory’ outcome to my signage planning permit I will be submitting shortly!). Two years on saw another move to the Junction Oval however the change was not as good as a holiday with Fitzroy not playing finals between 1960 and 1978. There were highlights in this period though with Kevin ‘Bulldog’ Murray; the young man who took out the best and fairest as a Gorilla in 1956 winning the Brownlow in 1969 at the age of 31. 1970 saw Fitzroy play a match before Queen Elizabeth II and also the first match at Waverley (VFL) Park.
1979 saw big name recruits Robert Walls and Bernie Quinlan arrive at the club and a sustained period of success ensued. Quinlan took out the Brownlow in 1981 and Fitzroy obtained the record of the highest winning margin in a game which still stands at 190 points. 1983 however is seen as the one that got away. Quinlan had kicked 100 goals for the season and all three teams (seniors, reserves and thirds) had made the finals. The senior team however had a heartbreaking loss to eventual premiers Hawthorn in the Qualifying final. 1984 saw a move to Victoria Park with the next taste of finals success coming in the 1986 Elimination final against Essendon. Mick Conlan kicked a goal in the dying minutes for Fitzroy to win by one point and ruin the day of this then nine-year old at VFL Park.
1987 saw the club in major financial difficulty with the majority of players and the board voting to relocate to Brisbane as the Brisbane Lions. Then President Leon Wiegard was instrumental in keeping the club in Melbourne. 1989 saw the approval of the merger with the Footscray Bulldogs to become the Fitzroy Bulldogs however this was voted down by the members of the sons of the scray. Winning only one game in 1995 & 1996 and with an estimated $2 million debt the board in early 1996 sought a merger with North Melbourne to become the North-Fitzroy Kangaroos. An agreement was struck however the then main creditor of Fitzroy, the Nauru Insurance Company, appointed an administrator to recover the debt and subsequently removed control from the board. The administrator, Michael Brennan, recommended a merger with the Brisbane Bears. Fitzroy played its last match on 1st September 1996 and the following year the Brisbane Lions were born.
The original Fitzroy Football Club came out of administration in 1998 and the shareholders voted to continue the club developing a partnership with Coburg in the VFL and became known as the Coburg-Fitzroy Lions. This relationship with Coburg only lasted a year. After this the club began a sponsorship agreement with the Fitzroy Reds (formerly University Reds) and the Fitzroy Junior Football Club who both bear the jumpers of the old Fitzroy. In 2008 the Reds agreed to be incorporated into the Fitzroy Football Club and the club was entered into the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) D1 section. Last weekend all three Fitzroy teams played in their respective VAFA Grand Finals. The Seconds & Thirds both won and the Seniors went down to Parkdale.
Hopefully this has given those Fitzrovians who didn’t know the history of their football club a brief insight. I couldn’t possibly do the history of the club and many of its champion players justice in this blog. If you are looking for more information head to the home page of the Fitzroy Football Club which was the source of a large portion of my information. Hopefully you can support them as they forge a new history in the for the club in the VAFA. www.fitzroyfc.com.au Enjoy Grand Final week. Hopefully we can sort you out with any beverages you require and may the best team win!
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