The Merge

right yeah I'll keep him pretty short sharp or give you an idea and you guys could just elaborate we're not going to feature the the questions on there so just give as much detail those information as you can think of as we go and see which direction we take Fitzroy forever football history is being created tonight with the club's deciding on the future of Fitzroy those times where we got locked out of training we trained at South Melbourne the padlocks wrong there one night so we couldn't get in will the Lions die will it be the North Fitzroy kangaroos or have the Brisbane bears trumped everyone with their eleventh hour' merger upper towards the end we had sellout crowds at the Gabba going to the game it was a bit like angle state funeral people don't like change and particularly football supporters the cut for all happy for mergers to occur as long as it wasn't then all of a sudden hello and another team is supporting let's get down crying crying you know I'm from Melbourne why would i barrack to a club called Brisbane I saw more on the lines of the takeover the merger we're part of the Brisbane Lions and we still be a part of it two of ivory dog you we lived in Fitzroy till I was about eight years of age in wesker Street and when you cross mysteries that separated Fitzroy in Kollywood so we moved in the same street there was a different name once you trust harvest mystery we were in between Collingwood's ground and forest ground I used to sell footy records at Connor woods football ground and football records at for joy free ground Fitzroy Collingwood Richmond and Carlton you know hard to get around it was just your barrack for that team and that was it no one else mattered my father Dan who's passed away he played in a 44 Premiership and my two brothers Ron and Dan both passed away unfortunately they played in the third and seconds too so we had a great association with the future of footy club my father had played with Lynn Smith and Lynn Smith was coaching of foods and he took me over to see Lynn and Lynn let me train with him had no hope of getting a game at 13 years of age but I trained with the Third's for a couple of years before I got a game his teachings the way we went about the training showed you how to train and what to do and he showed a big interest in yourself so that's how it all started we used to catch her furniture bus outside the milk bar Nicholson Street for Troy to go and play of a Sunday and we go in his furniture van all the way down and some children play down there now all over the place up to start early Park in Collingwood and we'd go be in this furniture van and I was playing on the wing as a kid of 14 with them know so well those little teachings taught me well but I was inspired by people that had years of experience under their belt I loved a bloke called Colin Davey number 11 he's our center halfback but I'd been promoted to play halfback Frank alongside Colin but he was tough and hard they used to say to me once I've got a few games under me belt he used to say me Kevin you go through the ball and I'll knock him down it was a great Kenny Ross number 22 a great physical fitness wise and hard as nails but he was a great teacher of how to train and how to be hard on yourself because I used to get 32 training of a Tuesday and Thursday and he had me running laps before we even tried with smithy so but you know those people the 9 gallon puppy dogs tail that's Helen Gail they have captain he was a great leader and an inspirational man but Donnie furnace Tony on Burrell Oh check MacGregor those people norm Johnson those people live in my memory forever [Music] [Applause] is nobody that I mean you've got yeah you didn't play for money the pledge was you wanted to play for your club you know and it meant a lot to represent your club because these fellows that I've mentioned earlier they led you and taught you like they were taught by the younger generation I mean they were coming up through this through the sticks I always remember them when I got a game it was five pounder game and Norman Johnson said you made you kids you know I've been planning for years for three quitte game and when and my dad played in the 30s they used to fight like big river Thursday night to get in the team because that 30 Bob help pay for the rent and features you know so life has changed so much Kevin Murray was probably the second-best player that ever played at Fitzroy the greatest of course was Haydn Bunton who won three Brownlow medals in the 1930s a lot of younger people saw they end of Kevin Murray where he was a strong powerful tough and rough halfback flanker but in the percent half back in the early days Kevin was totally different player he was a skinny an outstanding play by Victoria when he was about 18 or something he played more than 300 games at Fitzroy he was a fantastic player and he actually used to wear a back brace he had a back injury from towards the end of his career he had this huge corset and he ended up playing suburban football I think he was playing with Escott fire when he was about 48 or something he was still playing like he finished playing with Fitzroy maybe 36 the tremendous play as you know he wears a brown ml around his neck it's covered in tattoos as strong a really strong individual everybody loved him I can't think of anybody I know it's a cliche but I can't think of anyone who'd have a bad word about Kevin Murray Murray had returned to Fitzroy in 1967 and won the 1969 Brownlow with 19 votes fantastic sorrel lamb I always recall the night and I don't forget any Brownlow medalists would forget he's tonight and it was wonderful thrill and something that I'll never ever forget well we're here and I don't worry descried about but I was the last over the radio and so you ran a lap of honour at the MCG first semi final day sir Owen dela cone was the governor he dragged the Brownlow around my neck now I don't wear it destroyed about it but I wear it to share it with people because it was the people that helped me win this Brownlow and I used to get stopped in the street so often by a father with his son or his daughter to get a photo taken with them so I put the Braille around the kids neck so they've got something to remember me by when I'm pushing up daisies because you know like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people if they'd be photo taken on not for me to Scott about it but to share with them my name is Jonathan Brown proud future OS supporter and proud at Brisbane Lions Premiership liar otherwise I was associated with futuro and buried from his keep growing up was my father Brian played 251 games back in the late seventies early eighties through the Mardi Gras boys and I was here as a kid growing up or looking through the scrapbooks and when to follow me father's footsteps and supported the lawns it was a tough team to support because that many wins stop the agony of Fitzroy certainly didn't get in trouble from the coaches for wearing my jumper to school because I knew it at allé happen once maybe twice a year towards the end which is funny but sad and the son rod but I was still very proud of my heritage and local launch was happening one night I'd come good didn't say Fitzroy apply a hell of a lot live my father Braun was catching back in the country that's tides sigh so a lot of dies listen to the transistor radio or the rare occasion that child on today so but I did get together the games are the privilege of that obviously could get me into the room so I thought it was unbelievable to get the autographs of Elster Lynch and Paul ruse Richard Osborne just a neighbor feels it was an amazing experience I didn't matter if they got bleeding that day or whatever the margin was just to meet my idols and my heroes was amazing so I was drafted in I think it was October or November of 86 there was financial pressures on the Fitzroy footy club for a number of years those times when we got locked out of training we trained at South Melbourne and the padlocks were on there one night so we couldn't get in which for us young blokes we didn't think that was too bad because I've got a night off training and sometimes that the lights weren't overly bright where the training one corner at the Alberto Hall but again that was all all part of it we sort of still enjoyed ourselves and I think that that's sort of adversity at different times brought us closer together [Applause] Richard Osman cleverly vector Rendell Rendell hooks it back in front of God his danger for North Melbourne let's [Applause] what a great jump from there I've got a good ride on the pack to mark that on your chest at that height excellent leap going for Fitzroy's fifth goal of the game he kicks my name is Ross Oakley I was the chairman and chief executive of the Victorian Football League initially and in the AFL from 1986 to 1996 when I arrived morale wasn't strong the league was in debt things hadn't been going well with football maybe strips are down attendances were down and had been falling for many years and player payments were rising alarmingly and the league really was not economically viable in the in in the form that it was in well they were at least half the clubs technically bankrupt and yes that was a major concern and that's why we had to take some action to try and build the revenue base and that was why the national competition was was important you look back now we were getting three million dollars a year for television rights what are we getting now hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars and that happened because we developed the competition into our national competition and without that a Victorian competition I think would now be dead we were trying to get approval for two new teams in the competition the Brisbane bears and the West Coast Eagles and that was a difficult task Brisbane bears were admitted quite easily but the West Coast Eagles looked like they were going to get knocked back but when one of the club directors was convinced that the 666 thousand dollars that they were going to get us a share of the of the license fees that were going to charge was going to come into his pocket he very quickly changed his vote on October 7th the VFL Directors voted unanimously in favor of granting the Brisbane license to the Cronin Q AFL syndicate sees now well it's official congratulations then have been realized and so the Brisbane Bears came into the comple had two new teams [Music] [Music] we say when we run out to play dare to beat the bear we're on our way we're strong we're a team you've ever seen [Music] today for Australian rules in Queensland it is also a historical day for the new mighty Brisbane bears look we didn't give them sufficient support that's that is a fact and the problem was that we had to get all the clubs to approve the in entry of these new teams to the competition if we weren't tough on them early we would not have got the decision the way it was our feeling was let's let's do what's necessary to get them into the competition and then we can ease the requirements as the years roll by and that's exactly what what happens in the early days the rules have been really tough to get players to come to Brisbane the initial rules of the VFL at the time gave were remarkably poor and even when a player say Scotty McIver it was a Queenslander who'd won Fitzroy his best and fairest wanted to come back to coins lands the club was asked to pay something like a hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in clearance fees it was really a competition that was bereft of money and they saw the private the two new teams coming in as the way to solve the financial problems of the VFL the league was broke the league was broke we didn't have money that the the money that the new clubs needed for help in fact we charged them four million dollars license fee to bring them into the competition so it's got to be seen in that context that we we needed to get a decision out of the clubs and we required the charger licensee in order to do that which was distributed to the club picked up by Bernie Harris [Applause] [Music] my team goals tracking 3 137 feeding North Melbourne 1514 we'll keep improving as time goes by I mean we've had to listen to all the criticism all I can say is that it's not bad for Mama misfits castoffs and rejects Christopher's case one of Australia's most prominent and successful businessmen joined the club as deputy chairman the young and dynamics case whose business interests encompass both media and tourism has staked his personal fortune in his belief in Queensland's future well how long have you got Krista this case was a most interesting character he had no interest in football at all he had interest in Christopher's case and developing and building his profile I think he decided to get involved because when he went to America to talk to the billionaires that he wanted to do business with he needed to be able to say well I've got a football team to just one story the first day big gathering at the at the ground big dinner and and that the normal protocol was for the chairman of the IFL to sit with the current president and a few sponsors well I was right in the back corner of the room sitting with people I had no idea they were we were eating the lobster and the lobster in in Queensland had been flown up by Rollins from Melbourne we had a raffle this raffle was $5,000 a ticket and people were put on the spot in this dining room to put forward $5,000 0 20 tickets the prize was a week in the in the penthouse at the Savoy in London tickets to the British Open sitting at Greg Norman's table at the at the official dinner and no Gordon the future chairman of the Brisbane Lions he actually won it and it's to cut a long story short he never was paid for the tickets and everything that that he went and bought to go to England yeah when I arrived at the Bears things weren't great the facilities that car were really primitive the officers were porter comm units temporary units and virtually all of the stadium was temporary stands at that stage when Christopher left the club from memory I think it had about 28 million dollars worth of debt the team actually didn't play in the pre-suit I felt preseason competition that year the team didn't have an owner for a period of time and so the players actually didn't have contracts and were afraid to play given they might be injured and weren't certain what the future was so there were pretty tough times a lot of people don't realize some of the difficulties back at that stage Rubin pehlivan then agreed to become the owner of the beers yeah when I arrived at the bears the owner was Reuben Parliament so it was privately owned I didn't see a lot of Rubin he had a couple of fellows who pretty much ran his affairs he was supportive when I saw him but he didn't have much of an understanding of the game but from what I'm told had he not invested in the Bears they may not have lasted long at all Rubin was an interesting character every time we went the same at one of his private hospital is it asked if we bought Tony locker with us when we were negotiating in one of the convertible containers shipping containers that at carrara one day we were at a really important part of the negotiations when the door to the container flew open and Reubens standing there in a pair of overalls and gum boots of muddy gum boots and he said have you done the deal at toilets of Iran I've got to get them installs but it's just broke it broke the roof up and I've quite a quite a light-hearted moment and the deal was done very soon afterwards well the view was around the Commission table that there were too many teams involved we could not support economically support all the teams in Melbourne there may have been a loyal band of supporters at the Western oval this morning but not even a hundred thousand fans could have safe Footscray at midday the VFL gave the club two options extinction or merger Footscray were in trouble Fitzroy were in trouble financially both boards were bought into the Thule headquarters and they both decided at that time that they should merge from there on all hell broke loose are very pleased to announce the date of the formation of a new force and fearful football called the Fitzroy Bulldogs the supporters rose up some notable supporters rose up one of them Peter Gordon and Peter did a marvelous job of rallying the troops Footscray in particular had raised I don't know about $25,000 over over nearly two years and they were required to to raise something like 1.8 million dollars in in a period of two or three weeks the judge said well if you can raise that I'll instruct the AFL and in fact the AFL agreed to give their license back well they they raised money from every feel sorry for them and I worried about me because it has been their life and I know I get letters from them I visited an 85 year old guy last night who leaves every year for the Footscray Football Club and they sold a lot of car bumper stickers with up yours Oakley on them and I always say that I help the size of it's great football but because those stickers were very very popular people don't like change and particularly football supporters they're the club's were all happy for mergers to occur as long as it wasn't them the Footscray supporters rose up and it was the one moment where they galvanized in order to save the club and I don't think that would have happened without this action having been taken the Brisbane bears at the time that they were sent up there it's well recorded that they weren't very well prepared they weren't given a decent crack at recruiting and their facilities were poor they had to train and and play out of Carrara where they had portable buildings and Robert walls went up there and he had to rebuild the whole thing I think that was the worst period actually the worst period wasn't really the first three or four years was it it was probably the next three or four years I was sacked as coach of Carlton in 1989 midway through the season and had the 1990 season off and it was through that season that I got an approach from Andrew Ireland and show no Sullivan who football manager and CEO of the Bears and they came to Melbourne and asked me if I'd be interested in coaching the Brisbane Bears and after quite some time thinking about it my wife and I decided yep let's have a crack at it it was a three year contract so we left Melbourne and headed to the Gold Coast for the first two or three months on talking november/december I was still based in Melbourne because I was teaching but I'd go up each weekend and the boys were doing their summer training pre-season I guess the thing that struck me was how temporary everything was there were portable buildings around Carrara for the administration for the change rooms and whilst it was the ground itself was fantastic I just thought gee it looks a temporary situation here and the other thing that that really hit me was just the low membership we played in front of crowds of only five six seven thousand coming from saya a club like Carlton where I'd coached and Fitzroy before that where I coached we were playing in front of pretty full houses and admittedly that was back in the days of the suburban grounds like the junction oval and princess Park you'd be fair to say that in those early days we needed to chase telling them we were able to get some really good talent - the club was really probably as we started to push into the walls era and Scot Clayton who was had been head of recruiting and became head of football or really push that we needed to start to look at the youth side of developing the talent at the club I know that early days when I was coaching the Brisbane Bears we would recruit players and they didn't want to come they just felt that the place had no future and I can remember having quite a few arguments with players and their managers and sometimes we just dug deep and insisted that players that we drafted would come and it caused a fair bit of heartache but we had we had to be strong if we were just going to let players who we drafted just drift away well we had no credibility at all and so I look back on that time and I'm really really proud that we dug deep and insisted that players come and eventually we made it a place where people wanted to come it was an unusual situation to be called the Brisbane Bears but we were actually playing out of the Gold Coast and I know that there were a lot of people in Brisbane who would not be part of the club because of that they just felt treated that here's the club called Brisbane and it's actually being played on the Gold Coast the people in Brisbane who had supported the licence application felt cheated the team had been taken to the groke Gold Coast so it was important for the team to be relocated back to back to the Gabba those couple of years were really tough through Rubens credit he backed the club through that period it wasn't easy for him I suspect over that couple of year period he probably lost over ten million dollars which back in those days was he's a lot of money today but was awful lot of money then I coached the Bears there in 91 and 92 on at Carrara and then the move was to Brisbane and that's one of the best things that ever happened tonight at 7:20 at the Gabba night greyhound racing officially gets underway in Brisbane well the dog track at the Gabba it was it was like an egg-shaped ground and it also had a big slope on it the dog track had been there for years and years but when they redeveloped the game the dog track went the ground was evened out new stands were built be fair to say that coins ain't cricket weren't absolutely enamoured with a football club coming to run over there hello quick cricket pitch and I remember we had quite a few confrontations with Barry Richards who was the head of Queensland cricket at the time we've talked about the ground Berni we don't have 50 meter lines here incidentally we have 40 meter lines that the government has given the go-ahead for work to be done on this ground and it will be very important to the Bears future I'm sure sandy fortunately the government of the day understood the importance of having AFL football played at the Gabba and we ended up negotiating not only a longer term tenancy at the ground but also for the government to support the removal of the dog track and start to build some of the facilities that are here today just one we were playing at a stadium that that was permanent you know the Gabba had established grandstands we'd only been there a year or two and they gave us new rooms new rooms were built had a new gymnasium it was a proper AFL football facility it also was easier for the club to get sponsorship because you know the club was based in Brisbane and also the membership started to grow because a lot of Brisbane people jumped on board and in fairness a lot of the Gold Coast people who'd supported the Bears in the early first four or five years they also made the trip up at Carrara I just felt the place could be dismantled into in two or three days yeah look the Nathan Buckley story could be probably a narrow epic by itself I've seen Nathan Buckley I think it's about 1992 in a reserves Gantt report out later that laid oval and I followed him up to again the following week he played put out a plate again the following week in Alice Springs and I thought it was worth the trip after seeing him play and so Nathan we were interested in at the same time North Melbourne became very interested in him and be fair to say that they had spoken to the club about the possibility of Nathan moving to North Melbourne after playing a season at the club his form actually in proved a decided burn a pretty good young player and then the following year he actually boomed in the South Australian fully league and won the McGarry medal they became hot property and what the club did trying to convince him to come and play with the Bears when he was getting a lot of offers from other clubs was we signed him on a deal which enabled him to come and play for us but agreed that if a club came to the bears at the end of the first year he would be cleared to that club they'd have to give up their first-round draft pick and they could nominate ten players but the Bears couldn't touch and then the Bears could take two players outside that I knew that he would only be coming to us for one year Nathan knew that a lot of people in the footy world didn't I can only speak highly of Nathan he he committed to that year he gave absolutely everything he could we played him in a variety of positions the year before he'd won the McGarry medal in South Australia report out late as a sentiment but we played him half back forward weeks and a half back gave him tagging jobs he accepted everything that we asked of him and he ran runner-up in our best and fairest a Michael McLean so it was it was a true professional he turned 21 that year I remember going to his 21st birthday party at the Morningside Football Club and yeah look I loved him I just thought he was fantastic I had no doubt that he would go on and become a superstar of the competition which he did one of the things that Robert walls had stress was he was happy to have Nathan as long as there was no proceeding deal for him definitely together come he understood that there was the contract was in place that but he wanted Nathan to come virtually uncommitted to any club going forward hoping that we could convince him after a season that the club to stay with us ultimately he didn't do that he made the decision that he wanted to go to college the thing that I'm really pleased about Brisbane dug in and ensured that he came to the club the club could have rolled over and just let him go he wanted to go to Collinwood but they'd been talks with North Melbourne prior to that and the club could have weakened but they didn't and I'm really glad that Nathan Buckley came and played that one year the beers used their first-round pick to select Chris Scott who obviously became a great player for the club and also Craig stars of each and Troy Lehmann from a standing position brings it up in front of [Applause] except the shear strength part mirrored on that occasion one of the tears what Roger baron kicks of the guards once there had been captain of the Bears before I got there I knew Roger has that hard tough center half forward for S&D back to me making the 80s again I got nothing but but high praise for Roger he he trained hard he played hurt his performances particularly in Brisbane where I think the warmer conditioned helped is an older body it was averaging to three goals again there and for our younger players and we feel that some of the youngest teams that have ever played AFL football back in the early nineties though it's those teenagers to have Roger as the captain and the leader and the on-field strong presence was worth its weight in gold [Applause] get players from Queensland zone which made sense and Jason Decker medicine far Keating and a number of players who came onto our list in that time and also we've prepared we had first access of the players out of Northern Territory and Darryl white was probably the leader of the group who came from there and obviously was a great flavor for the club you knew in the pecking order of sports journalism up there we were a long way back because the Broncos were flying the rugby union was strong there was a professional soccer team the bullets the basketball team were playing so you'd have to go well into the paper to see a mention of the Bears once we started to win some games and and become a not a force but we became respected in in the AFL we were getting more coverage and that was really pleasing and also we were getting players and their managers getting in touch with us saying oh we our boy would like to come and play for you and that and that was a far cry from the early days when they didn't want to come so the place to a large extent were anonymous but a lot of them were were Brisbane based boys who'd grown up there and they were just hungry to play AFL and you know we put in a 17 year old michael voice a 17 year old Jason Aker Manas some of the young fellas that we recruited and drafted you know like a 17 year old Nigel lapin and Chris Scott and they came up and they were just thrilled to be part of an AFL club for a couple of years I'd been courted by a few clubs and had no interest whatsoever of leaving and I think I sort of entertained the conversations maybe to get a free lunch more than anything else and then eventually the Brisbane Bears came in spoke to me and again I think realistically I was going to go through the process and then sort of decline at the end of it but they offered me a massive contract which was 10 years it was guaranteed money it was pretty much triple what I was on at the Fitzroy footy club as well and I took it to my skipper in Paul Roos and I think we all agreed at the time that had no choice and it was a as much as was an exciting phase of my fully career it was really tough to actually get to that stage that make the call to Lu Fitzroy when I arrived in Brisbane and the Brisbane bears I think it was a bit of a shock to start with I mean Brisbane had just made the move up the road from the Gold Coast they'd moved to the Gabba twelve months prior biggest thing that I'd noticed was the attention that AFL football has got in the community and going from growing up in tazzy going to Melbourne where even if people don't Barrett them broke for your club they actually know who you are and probably give you some feedback about how bad your played on the weekend so that was fairly typical but then came up here and it's like no one knew you knew you at all and that was great I mean you think how good is it no one knows you no one spoke to you everyone's just goes about their normal life and treats you as a normal person and then I think after six months you thought actually no one knows you at all this is very good so that was a big big change that I noticed and once things started to turn as far as the Bears starting to play some good fully and some of the young players starting to emerge the recognition in Brisbane started to really pick up and they've got to have outstanding level really where the Gabriella's been for what should be a marvelous game we probably wouldn't have felt we'd be saying that a couple of months ago but it's the Brisbane bears on the rampage and looking to continue to build their spot in the top five or six in the competition [Applause] - that country's right foot at the virus [Applause] a couple of really proud moments in my footy career were towards the end of 1995 we had sellout crowds at the Gabba four games against Collingwood in essence and a sellout crowd at the Gabba back then was around about 20,000 people but it was just fantastic that people were desperately trying to get tickets to see the Brisbane Bears play these sides whereas I you go back four or five years before that you couldn't give tickets away well believe it or not Fitzroy for many years was was attempting to to get someone to loan them some money and they had a number of people who did so for some reason or other the island of Nauru loaned the Fitzroy football club money I'm not sure people asked me how what the connection was there was somebody in the Fitzroy field that had had a contact in the roux and that's how it developed and they lent them more than a million bucks I think as a few choice Porter will hang on to any hope and when the government now really came along and said that they were gonna give a super money based on I think was a seagull or something like that was it or something that the island one of their main industries was he still throw yeah this is great the king of Nauru or the Prince of Nauru is gonna give us money that'll get us out of trouble obviously war desperate we're a desperate branch a bunch plot in and we were taking money from anyone unfortunately but it gave us out they then had their own trouble in some troubles and asked for the money back and Fitzroy couldn't provide it so they put Fitzroy in a receivership it was interesting that when the club went into administration whilst there was a senior administrator a young person was actually put into the file to help run the club for the back half of the year and that was the Brisbane Lions current CEO Greg Swan Michael Brennan was actually appointed the receiver and I worked for Michael so I effectively took over as Acting CEO of the club John Burt was the CEO but eyes as the receivers we took over there running in the club for probably the last six months of his existence our coach resigned the first day so we had to appoint a new coach which was Alan McConnell Leon Harris who now recruits for the lines he was also involved at the time as an assistant coach so those guys coached the team for the last I think it was about 8 weeks ok so so I take over and the real is that I really didn't want to take over the second time and the reason I didn't want to take over the second time is because I believe if you're a coach standing in front of a group of players you need to believe that you can make a difference and I couldn't see for life of me how we made things better for them and so I really wrestled with that whole notion I had a conversation with Brad Boyd the captain who suggested that they were the playing what were very strongly of the boys that I should be the one who took over again for the simple fact that in a situation where not too many people were looking out for the well-being at a playing group they felt that I would when we got appointed we went out to Coburg which is where they were training at the time told the players what had happened I mean obviously it had never happened before that a club had been placed in receivership and how that would work which effectively meant that the administrator or the receivers took over and ran the place when we got appointed receivers we went to the officers and the officers at the time were upstairs in the pub at Fitzroy so it wasn't really a professional organization on that basis it would sort of almost look like it was inevitable because I mean you've got you know you're an AFL club and you're running your place at the back of a pub none of the membership records are on computer they were all done in old cards and came to that I thought club and thought well this is this is really struggling and hence you know it probably was right for the merger but that was probably my only memory of it I think that the Fitzroy people felt that they didn't get a lot of support from the media and other clubs too I think they felt they were fighting a losing battle a lonely battle every other club since 1980 with a exception of Essen and possibly Carlton have had financial problems we were the swans were bail that said Kilda had a scheme of arrangement I think McAllister went to the bank one afternoon it coming with in 86 and and fortunately the bag said you you can keep going it's they're not the only club they've had financial problems but they were the only club that was that we really haven't been bailed out Richmond had ups saved their skins campaign didn't know yeah so it from that point of view they're unique in 1996 the Commission was very keen to try and find a way to assist Brisbane and we had to try and do that with finances and with pliers at that time the AFL were keen for clubs to merge though there was a feeling that there was a push for this to happen see they had Fremantle coming in in 95 and for LA 97 and I think they for the national television rights and exposure national platform they wanted fewer teams in Melbourne and greater great a number of teams in a state and so they they offered substantial amounts of money for clubs to merge and obviously foots grade had a chat to Fitzroy as well and then there was obviously Melbourne and Hawthorn that nearly merged and probably some other discussions that people didn't know about I think Carlton might have chatted to North Melbourne at one stage as well because they owned a bit of North Melbourne at the time so there's a whole lot of discussions happening and the AFL we're encouraging that not Neville to be looking at different alternatives to broaden their supporter base - and we talked about travelling into games in the state now we took a lot of ideas and then until meeting in a vfl/afl called meeting at Leon to restaurant early that year and all the clubs are there presidents and CEOs and they've brought a package to every club saying the number one strategic Parodi was to merge two clubs out of Melbourne we took the package back as a board were disgusted a number of times taka-kun would call who who approached her but we sat down with the Fitzroy board and we started working on an arrangement under the conditions that the I had set for to merge clubs it had been a long-term possibility for the club to go down the merger route we knew that Fitzroy back I think around 87 maybe had actually had a meeting where the players had voted to be willing to move to Queensland and so they'd been a bit of interest now Gordon and the board and myself understood that interest we had regular dialogue with the different CEOs and presidents really pretty much from the time we came out of private ownership but as we move back to Brisbane and often Fitzroy would say look we want to try and make it on our own but we continue those discussions that I guess the it really started to ramp up at the start of the 96 season is emerging our list and Fitzroy's list you could never do it with the 40 players you had to give opportunities to more players financial advantages salary cap advantage you needed all those things so we we made it very clear and locally made it very clear with a package offered we took up the offer we then discussed it discussing with Fitzroy we then announced it to the players an announcer of the media whenever the players first and I recall vividly standing in front of the cameras when we announced it in the North Melbourne change rooms the key players stood behind me when I announced that they understood the situation the club was in and they supported our decision it had been alluded to in the media for a long time on and off sometimes the story got harder than other times but the reality was as both as a staff and a plain group we were largely removed from all that in fact I'd say somewhat ignored to be honest my understanding is that the board had been negotiating directly with North Melbourne since late in 1995 but in fact we didn't hear anything about that until someone into the season in 96 we took a giant leap towards Fitzroy when we announced the name and the jumper I think when you announce a name like North Fitzroy you observing their history North Fitzroy kangaroos it was a good combination there and I thought that was a giant step forward and we worked out and we had an agreement and that was going to be easy for any two clubs with their own pride and they're looking at their interest to their own clubs and supporters so I thought it was going to work and the best our board and the Fitzroy board went Ola greens though well down the track with a merger for North but I think the problem was at Melbourne we're gonna be squeezed out but north were gonna have the coach and the colours and I think the only thing they didn't work and I have was the emblem so it was a little bit what it was small I could take over that then then I emerged I never forget we had a thousand I can tailor figure I was not on a thousand and I spend Sundays in the office and we responded to every single letter in those days let us know emails individually and we answered them honestly and I honestly thought we had a 90 95 percent support of the merger with Detroit it's it's a funny one for me because you know I was hoping future would merge in North Melbourne well it looked like an emergen or Melbourne throughout the 96 season that was quite encouraging because I just wanted to play sent out food and you know wine carries the Dominus sent out for the time and I thought jeez here cool that Bo I'll give you guys father Sunday North Melbourne Lauren's or whatever I end up getting cold and I'll get the place why carry that'll be pretty amazing so and then obviously that fell off the table or Brisbane came into the picture so probably took a little bit longer for me to embrace that but it's funny for 12 months I was probably longer Cork in the ocean just bobbing a lie still still following Brisbane not fully embracing him I love the fact that we had the old line on the jumper but obviously I was keeping one on North Melbourne side so I had to be honest outside one foot in North Melbourne can't one foot in the Brisbane camp as a receiver you're you're obligated to get the best result you can for the creditors and we're appointed by the government of Naru we originally thought we had a deal with the North Melbourne we had actually a bit of a drink in the boardroom at Ernst & Young on a I think it was a Wednesday night sort of toasting that that was you know in the process of happening in North we're going to take all the players then we got a call from the AFL saying you know that's probably not going to happen Brisbane this is the next morning first thing in the next morning Brisbane are coming around they're going to come and see you and they came along with a lawyer and offered us a million dollars more than North Melbourne did and and agreed to only take 10 players the AFL in their wisdom had a real good look at this and they thought now this we've told the club's their number one strategic priority is a merger of the two clubs in Melbourne the noir reality it wasn't true that the truth was that they want to success for the northern states and I understand that now I mean it was probably the right number one switching priority but they changed their mind North Melbourne made a very bad blue they Brisbane asked for a certain number of players from the Fitzroy list north normal one of them all and the Cubs were never going to agree to that with north at the time with Kerry and and with a very good team they actually ended up winning the Premiership that year and now they wanted to all the Fitzroy players as well so the clubs were never going to agree to that they jilted us a Sadducees and jilted us basically that's what happened they then arranged for a few club spokesmen to get together and just start promulgating the fact that this was going to produce a super Club I actually was a bit scarce about this I pretended it I thought it was a good idea and and I and I wrote stories saying that this is going to make the North Melbourne that Supreme a powerful team you know a super team and all the Sinister and Richmond got under this in Richmond with the first club to Leon Daphne I remember saying to him in lunch I said she north a gonna be powerful with Fitzroy and so he was I think pretty sure he would was the first one who said hang on well this is not going to happen a strength you know the team that's already on top of the ladder by additional players available to them on their list and a special allowance on the salary cap could create a super team that would be equal to at least five years of the draft process if it's unacceptable the 13 clubs then I wonder why they didn't say so 12 months ago no clubs were supported because they they feared this super Club as Leon Daphne used use those words a few times now they weren't supportive of it because they'll concerned I wouldn't be out of competing it's a team that that had the stars at North Melbourne had at the time and the sprinkling of players that Fitzroy had together with a list of 50 players they were going to be unbeatable for a number of years that was their concern well not when I left the base I came back to Melbourne and became coach of Richmond and there you know there was talk about teams merging and becoming super teams and so on and and yeah I thought well this there's a fair chance that could happen because you're picking the eyes out of out of one club and putting it with the young talent that that's had five or six years to develop and was ready to be at their best for the next five or six years so yeah I thought there was every chance that a super team was in the making and the future of petroi is being decided right now with a crucial meeting of all AFL clubs the meeting began late this afternoon and is still going on right now Peter Donegan is at the MCG so Peter the Brisbane Bears have added yet another twist to this ongoing saga yes well it certainly seems to say this afternoon that the Bears have emerged as a serious contender to merge with Fitzroy it did look as though the Kangaroos had it stitched up but the Brisbane offer apparently has blown everyone out of the water the delegates started arriving around about 2:30 this afternoon and they've been filing into the social club at Richmond not too many of them had much to say as they went in but one man who did speak was North Melbourne chief executive Greg Miller and he was still hopeful the lines and the ruse would be able to get together the offers on the table from the AFL which is quite clearly a merge between between Northland in Fitzroy so that's the first of all he talked of Brisbane the clubs have got to overturn that first do you like the idea of North Beach right now we're not going over Barrett was 254 players and I don't think there's any support within the competition opening two clubs for that what about if Brisbane stand up and say they'll have imagined the 42 we'd be very interested in that so we met at Richmond I remember the meeting mark Dawson and I went and we listened to what they had to say and we said no we're not changing so we knew then that pretty much knew then that the Commission would favor the Brisbane opportunity that had been presented to them that's exactly what happened the AFL were pretty powerful in in those oh there were a lot of clubs that were beholden to the Oh Phil so though not too many clubs were going to say you can't do this to Fitzroy wouldn't it wasn't a great feat to convince all the clubs to block the North Melbourne merger but the clubs ended up unanimously supporting the Brisbane side of the merger and didn't want it to go to North Melbourne I was a famous meeting prior to the actual official meeting where the decision was made by the Commission delegates then made their way to AFL house for tonight's meeting with the Commission when the fate of Fitzroy will probably be decided both merger proposals need the support of at least six clubs to succeed the Commission met this evening and approved a merger relationship with the Brisbane Football Club and the Fitzroy Football Club the Commission had no hesitation in in bringing Brisbane and Fitzroy together because it just worked as a as a combination Fitzroy were the Lions Brisbane didn't want to be the Bears the line is a strong symbol it had a terrific song it had a great jumper and Brisbane were prepared to adopt all those things because there wasn't a great deal of support in Brisbane for the Bears than the Bears jumper to get a song get support base in Melbourne to get six million dollars from the Commission and some pliers some very good players all look like the best possible deal at the AFL could extract from this situation from a commision point of view this is the absolute best outcome for the competition and certainly fits in with our strategic plan in our view given the two deals that were before us tonight the Brisbane bears deal was a good deal better for the competition than the North Melbourne one yeah when a company goes into administration administrator really comes in and has got a couple of things that they need to do and a creature that is making sure that the people owed money by that company looked after we were very clear about what we could offer Fitzroy in regard to its debt the meetings we'd had with them they'd indicated what they thought that it was in the end of they were a fair way off what it was and that was a bit compounded by the fact that the administration took over partway through a Susan so you still have to get out the other end of the year and obviously there were bills to pay through that year but fundamental to it when the final decision was made the offer to the people owed money at the Fitzroy was much better all of the players and the employees will be paid in full there's an accommodation reached with the neurone Insurance Corporation and most importantly there'll be a significant dividend payable to other unsecured creditors as I said we were legally obligated to take that offer and we did and anyway the Brisbane were pretty tough that they got the lines and it probably that's a little bit ironic for me that I end up working here yeah although she is later so interesting the Kangaroos were prepared to compromise but not to the stage where it became detrimental to their club when it got back into I felt headquarters in there they the auction continued and we weren't paid to be part of it we weren't going to change will offered a package they wanted us to reduce that package she didn't really want us to reduce it back is there one of the deal to go through through there with Brisbane they offer been changed deal changed you wouldn't you wouldn't go back on what you already agreed upon the FL as I said before they seduced us they got us so involved they chills at us they change their mind and probably for the for the right reasons but what's got to remember be remembered is that a great bunch of supporters here in Melbourne are going to be considerably disenfranchised but the number of games they'll have on their doorstep was very whole I feeling all of a sudden fellow I didn't ever tame this important obviously had now filled me with Brisbane the time and so it's a whole I feel and all sudden as a kid you've grown up very passion as a lion supporter and you gotta know what a very full six year old David Robinson has lost the love of his life he's a Fitzroy fanatic his bedroom a shrine to the club I just kept on crying and crying I was quite upset about my 40 club just disappearing mom's actually got quite a little bit of memorabilia from me at home of letters that I wrote to the AFL about the about the merge and the lines I'm actually the other one in my family that barracks a Brisbane off Nancy Troy and as for friends I think from memory when I was young I'd I was a sort of the early Lone Ranger in that department that a mom used to dress me up in all the future all year for a teddy bear which were also on football like footballers and they're pretty fanatic back when I was six I think the majority of Fitzroy people would have been happier with a merger with Northmen I think that was the that's what had been sold that was what probably their hope was because I could stay in Melbourne and go and watch the team I really didn't want to sneak out in North Melbourne even though North Melbourne or great Club one of the great clubs of the AFL but I wanted us to have a future up in in Brisbane because I could see the progress that could be made up there was a bittersweet situation really I mean in some ways it was it was great that now I was back with my own club but at the same time and why was so hard when I left was the fact that Fitzroy was no longer in its own right it wasn't a standalone club which was I think was terribly sad for so many that were so passionate but then here the sweet side as I said was you know I was back with so many of those supporters and a number of teammates that I'd played a lot of fully with so yeah it was it was a funny strange old night that one when the announcement came through it's six maybe a few more games in Melbourne each year you know I'm from Melbourne why would I barrack for the club called Brisbane I played with Fitzroy Football Club not the Brisbane Lions and may have the same jumper but it's not going to be the future of football Caudill I know it's a new era you ever support that or you live with your memories the overriding thought I have of the whole situation is the fact that it's a business if you can't pay the bills you you can't operate there was a portion of that I felt of the Brisbane Bears supporters that were disappointed with it because they were on the rise with the likes of boss and some of the young superstars that were coming through and in planning the finals for the first time over the last couple of years of previous couple years I think a lot of them sort of were asking the question why I had mixed feelings be one of the feelings that I had was the Bears are well on track to become a successful team on their own after doing it so hard that they were just getting very close to becoming a really successful side and I thought do we want to dilute that by merging with another club now that other club was my old club Fitzroy where where I played for three years and coached for five years and met some fantastic people in that eight year period and and really enjoyed my time at Fitzroy but I also knew that Fitzroy couldn't survive on their own in Melbourne and that writing was on the wall way back in the 80s when when I was coaching Fitzroy I knew that they didn't have a great future but Bayer supporters weren't quite happy about taking on Farina because they made representation about that you know about Fitzroy come here boy a wider and why do we need Fitzroy you know that look it's still the Lions which has turned out to be magic you know with the merger deal now done it's time for the AFL and Brisbane to celebrate and for North Melbourne to lick its wounds after the documents had been signed other Club representatives there the Commission went over the road had a few celebratory drinks during the period of time that we were there The Footy Show were in touch at the big news of course today is that the first merger in a Thor history has finally come to fruition it was an eleventh-hour bid by the brisbane bears to get control of the fitzroy football club the man who has done the deal of a hundred years please welcome the chairman of the brisbane bears mr. null gordon [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the biggest issue for the VFL at the time was the fact that one club was going to be running two teams so there needed to be an absolute assurance that what Fitzroy was doing in their last season wasn't in any way any way compromised to help brisbin's results and clearly one of those problems was the Brisbane going to play for Troy again at the back end of a season yeah and on The Footy Show now Gordon the president of Brisbane listed well to be perfectly blunt tactless when he described the new merger Rhian 20 a table disabled you play Fitzroy that's an interesting one well this is a chance to build a I've genuinely believe in Noel's case by the time he'd had a few champagnes and got onto the footy show he thought it was probably a bit cute to sort of say given we're running two teams you'd be surprised if we didn't you know have a good win clearly didn't go down well with a lot of the Fitzroy people I'd absolutely convinced that now now in the spirit The Footy Show used to be in terms of comedy and things that the like thought he was being funny it wasn't meant to be a slight I don't think for Fitzroy it was more around the fact that you have this very unique situation where one club was actually running both teams we started I said four years ago with three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in the bank and we'll make a profit of a hundred thousand dollars in four years it's taken Fitzroy 120 113 years to lose four million dollars so I mean draw your own conclusion I don't know all right now of them's fighting words and I don't know how many of the Fitzroy Wars would be too happy to hear that but at the end of the day that is the deal that has been done he was pretty unsympathetic to Fitzroy wasn't he flippant and there's pretty unkind of Fitzroy supporters are suffering enough at the time so we get to the Brisbin game and the the press during that work is around you know the fact that this is a great opportunity for the playing group to put on a dress rehearsal for a great job rehearsal if you like and so it was seen externally as a huge uniting opportunity for the plan group to put on a good show and the reality is it was in my mind it was 180 degrees the opposite to that good hands to Keating and Keating goes for goal and bouncing through fries third that's a good start but a playing group who probably there's six or seven them at this stage were already pretty clear they were going to get a contract with the new entity we had three or four players who thought they might get a opportunity with the new entity we had a group of older players who'd probably realized it was all over and then we had a young group who basically had no idea what was going on and so I'm rather than being a unifying force it actually became one that drove a level of survival and selfishness which is inconclusive they're good 40 so not surprisingly it was the first of the games where we really got belted well if it's really got the jumper out of it I think that was important in 1996 Fitzroy played 19 games in Victoria whereas the next year they only played 7 and they didn't even clocha long they and I think they played the merged team this year 2009 and will play 7 games of Victoria 1 one of which is a fella right it's it's access to that but though that they the Brisbane Lions did make other concessions didn't they I mean and there were reasonable concessions such as retaining the Fitzroy Guernsey in in some shape or form there's no doubt that Brisbane did well out of it but what we did do was use the Fitzroy song use the Fitzroy jumper get involved or all the old Fitzroy champions of the past and Kevin Marian these guys they all became very important parts of the whole Brisbane experience that we also had a batch of supporters when Brisbane came down to Melbourne and they used just the lines name when they came to Melbourne they dropped Brisbane and just call themselves the lines so they tried very very hard to make it as equal a merger as they could they did more than anyone else could have certainly more than North Melbourne was ever going to contemplate doing in order to really take the Fitzroy supporters in behind them and all the history of the club I snigger a little bit at the term merger as as I articulated because though for me and for those working in in the business I saw probably more along the lines of a takeover than a merger it would suggest a degree of collaboration at no point did I ever or to the best of my knowledge any of the staff have a meeting with the Brisbane staff about anything about us about the playing group about what might be the case going forward so in that context you know I know there were a couple of stuff have finished up working for Brisbane the following year and obviously the the playing group that that moved up there but other than that there was it was basically every man for himself on a weekly basis it got more and more acutely oppressing going to the game each week was a bit like going to a state funeral and each state funeral was more widely promoted and scrutinized and and it became it became more and more of a public exhibition if you are so we get to the Melbourne game and there's 80 odd thousand people were playing Richmond and to be honest the the performance was embarrassing with pretty dark at the moment for the final time for Fitzroy in Melbourne for old lines were down and out and they got hammered that day by the Tigers it was a sad day it was a really sad day and I can remember seeing so many of the old Fitzroy supporters the diehards who had been following the club for 40 50 60 years they were there to see Fitzroy play its last game Fitzroy got a wonderful history of players who gave so much to the game but you think that you think of Kevin Murray and boots girl and Gary Wilson towards the end of it Bernie Quinlan it was one of the best plays you could ever wish to see Hayden bunt and going back over many years triple Brownlow medalist yeah it was a pretty sad occasion for me and for thousands of others to see the last Fitzroy team play in Victoria as far as finishing in Melbourne they absolutely laugh they may wanted he keeps the war to doing and Richardson the end has come in Melvin official the Richmond theme song but it is the Fitzroy flag as I say farewell they're so long fits I guess that's all we've gotten out of it your football coven [Music] and the worst bit of that day is that at the end of the day somebody enough I can't tell you who but it was resolved that the players needed to do a lap of honour and we just been beaten by 180 points in front of 80,000 people none of whom left they're all still there at the end there's actually a photograph of myself and Brad Boyd standing in the center circle of the MCG I've got my armor and the caption is around the intimate relationship that exists between the captain and his coach and the reality was I was whispering in easier might you got to go and he's basically telling me where to go because the last thing that the plane group wanted to do at that point was to do a lap of honour and my explanation to him was that it wasn't us who needed to do the lap of honour but the jumpers needed to so unfortunately we were the poor fools who had to who were inside those jumpers there's a great scenes here with Fitzroy getting a standing ovation from Richmond supporters who have joined in the Fitzroy beeps off can't help but be moved by what is taking place at the moment was incredibly embarrassing well that's our certainly I can't account quantify for others how they felt but for me it was incredibly embarrassing that something that was a hundred years old and had such a proud history despite all its struggles had come to this and here we were somehow representing that entity on that day and it's sort of final appearance in Melbourne and so yeah it was it was it was a tough day it's just fitting tribute for a minute sorry I think you just think about hundred years it's just gone walk past their door must have been on it is a sad day at footy and hopefully we can all tell our grandkids and pass on the memories of the great warriors from Fitzroy and then they also had to suffer the fact that their last game was not in Victoria it was that in Western Australia against Fremantle and so that would have denied many fits were supporters the chance to see the game see their team play their last game in its in their hundredths season unbroken season the last game of a hundred years in the competition was not in Victoria [Applause] the end of an era for Fitzroy 113 years where - for some of these youngsters Brisbane will snap some of them up others will go in the draft and some I can be seen in the AFL again normally Brandon I went over to Perth to see them play over there we were on the ground at halftime and before the game and that was sad it was sad very sad I mean Kevin ELLs were standing beside me on the ground and he was crying and he was our trainer been there for 50 years you know but I had I was quite upset because you know to see you club going that way but not knowing that what was going to happen in the future when it we came to Brisbane Lions and that was the heartening part about it September 1 1996 it's a day the Fitzroy faithful will remember long after the club is forgotten there's a lot of sad stories in in football and I mean I I've just felt that they should have been supported but a lot of people disagree with me but that's that was just my view I felt though as a foundation member of the AFL the goodwill all are from all those aspects I felt that the AFL could have propped him up at least for another couple of years but it wasn't to be I loved Fitzroy and one of the things I loved about Fitzroy is that it was a club it was a genuine Club the people that were were attached to the club were rusted on through thick and thin if you by this stage given what the club had been through if you still fight Fitzroy actively then you were pretty rusted on individual and you know I loved you know the supporter groups I loved the interaction with those people because come rail hail rain or shine they were supportive of what we were trying to do and supportive of the playing group it probably is the best thing - but I definitely know it's a fishery Lions scene because you know we lose or draw as supporters never deserted us it virtually they stuck with you through thick and thin I'd be there the next week even though Yamada got beaten by 15 girls they were there on the boundary supporting you all the time I'm eternally grateful despite all the crap that went on for the opportunity that I had to both work at Fitzroy and to Bert's coach it afforded me amazing an amazing experience an amazing opportunity some of which were pretty horrendous that are also very unique originally I was offered to go to the Lions but I had to wait for 12 months and you know I kid that can on school I'll just finish your lemon Isles and that came to wait 12 months Hawthorn knocking on the door who came from any God but dad had the great logic of brisbin's to him on the way out they'd just won the wooden spoon so I thought the old man must be losing his mind but he's logic wisely Matthews just taking over they've got a terrific young list and there might be a spot at centre forward I didn't realize he was a yeah he had a fairly handy crystal ball we all mean bein a future I support a growing up I probably saw it as almost to Lisa saw the future boys which I probably want to want to get their autograph and I saw the rest and you know so Chris Johnson Jeremy LOI Brad Boyd in one of my pro seasons but yeah I saw it as United club I thought it was a United Club and fell disease the dark days of the pre and post merger were passed manly because of ways ways power or surprise grand final week when we flew down in 2001 and arrived for the airport and I think I answered had just gone bust so we had a cut with chartered Jets but landing there and maybe it's my memory but it seemed like it was a packed house like that seemed like there was a thousand people there walking through that crowd and seeing the old Fitzroy scarves and the old Fitzroy jumper and their passion to see once again their jumper run out in the MCG and grand final day was was great and I think it was great for it was great for me as an expert straw player but I think it was fantastic for even I suppose especially someone like Luke power whose family were Fitzroy supporters and and he was now seen this passion as a player himself to run into Fitzroy people week in week out over my free journey was was pretty special and especially that week when the Brisbane Lions finally broke through for a flag we're really solidified for me that we had future oi supporters dyed-in-the-wool future supporters on board was the data pride you never know what to expect when you're coming from in a state and you're playing it's Melbourne carbon applying a testament the pride you think ah on either it's gonna be 90 percent black and red when we got out there and those fifty percent and the least lawns colors I thought that is amazing for this merger this merger is successful was a uniform cop and gotta be great conference guy in the next at two o'clock while the granite falling from he's had seven marks ten positions to go [Applause] time what [Applause] you know I didn't want been honest to me but over the other side of the ground the camera was on me all across the ground standing just watching the presentation and I was crying I just couldn't help it only because my dad played him f40 for Premiership so my brother Ron played in the thirds and seconds and my brother Dan played in the sturgeon spearing so pretty long association with Detroit but also to be part of the Brisbane Lions meant so much to me he's a wonderful feeling having seen the passionate Fitzroy supporters and what they've gone through and that was why is leaving including myself that club had ceased to exist in its own right and most emerging leaders in beards but the passion of those supporters we saw come out again it was an amazing weekend it was why we've been called the uniform we can talk solidifying our relationship experience of the game from a fried post match celebration lat when we looked up in the grandstand the silver gray Bulldog Murray for these scarf on obviously he's there he's the Patriots patron saint of all things lines to see the way he embraced it I felt like that it healed a lot of wounds but the next day early we caught a bus out to the Brunswick Street oval and there was there was thousands of supporters there at the oval and we'll roll it out on the stage and were introduced to the crowd and that was extremely special because it was probably a the time that the merger really sort of set in and the supporters were together they are on the same page they were passionate for their club their jumper that had just succeeded so yeah that was a special day at the Brunswick Street over in 2001 when finally I think everyone thought yeah that is my club boy dig an honest about that weekend I think they're proud to be a Brisbane Lions I'm really proud of what the brisbane lines did under lee matthews winning those premierships i've got to say i think they're the best team that I've ever seen and the fact that they they came from Fitzroy and the Bears which I had the privilege to be part of I know I enjoyed my coaching days at Fitzroy that's where I first started as a coach I was only 30 and I was given the opportunity and had the chance to coach you know champions that became household names like Roos Bert Osmond Rendell the Brisbane bears days you could write a book about it because it was tough work we had very little we had little support little interest but it grew I was a Fitzroy player and I was extremely proud of being a Fitzroy player it was something that I never thought would change and never wanted to leave Fitzroy circumstances worked out that I left Fitzroy and moved to Brisbane and in Brisbane I met another great group of young highly motivated athletes that were determined to be successful and I suppose a way or that I want on Brisbane Lions player I think the Brisbane Lions are Norman out of history of the Fitzroy Football Club for over a hundred plus years and certainly don't discount that the part of the club that I was also a part of the Brisbane Bears who had enormous amount of support along Gold Coast and passionate supporters that hung in there when they'll play now - Kirara and we're losing a lot of football games that hung in there through those difficult times and again that group actually got to experience the Brisbane Lions success as well so now it's a it's a great situation of being know a number of passionate groups and be a part of a great era he'll move to Brisbane to join the bears I believe was one of the best moves we've made to survive and we survived we did because the ones that supported the Brisbane Lions really accomplished something because they watched all those mighty players when those three flags first was just phenomenal uh-huh well then Kevin Murray's impact on this merger and his attitude towards it has made us be a success without Bulldog I'm not sure where or what a very embraced by the future in public not to say we wouldn't have gone on a win memberships and been well supported but I doubt very much whether it would have been a healing experience without influence of boodle my well I'm thrilled to be able to be so proud of it I'm coming on 81 this year and I've had a couple of strokes a couple of heart attacks but you'll never you'll never give me to give in either we're part of the Brisbane Lions Fitzroy in Brisbane and we'll still be a part of it till the day we die [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Brisbane Lions

Views: 32,303

Rating: 4.9615912 out of 5

Keywords: brisbane, lions, afl, football, goal, kick, yourclubrepresent, your, club, represent, Allforone

Id: FhHY0rv7PJI

Length: 81min 21sec (4881 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Exambolor]

Good job by the club to upload it themselves.

[u/GF8950]

Big thanks to the Brisbane Lions for uploading this to YouTube. Not only that, but it isn’t regional restricted! So, an American Footy fan like me can watch it!

[u/[deleted]]

Amazing watch! My takeaways:

• I wish they'd have put more time into the "tennis court oath" - where Fitzroy players agreed at the Scotch College tennis courts to move to Brisbane in 1986. Would have loved some detail as to why that never eventuated. Would have saved 10 years.

• On the Brisbane side of things, I wish they'd put more focus on the evolution of their colours, song and guernsey.

• On the Fitzroy side of things, I'd like to have seen more detail into the geographical and financial issues that caused their demise.

• Fucking hell, Noel Gordon had no chill - what an absolute savage!

• What a terrible position Alan McConnell was put in as coach of Fitzroy. Love how candid he is about that time. No rose-tinted glasses and pulls no punches. Glad he's with our club now because he seems like a top bloke.

[u/THMB10]

That was fascinating. Gotta love Kevin Murray. I knew most of the Fitzroy story but not much of the Bears and as a Suns supporter it was interesting to see it all happen with our position at a similar spot to the Bears early on.

[u/morelikeradiomatt]

Also on Kayo, well worth a watch

[u/escapekate]

Very interesting, being that I was only 4 Y.O when this merger took place I never really knew the story or much about Fitzroy as a foundation club.

Would love to hear from some OG Fitzroy fans, not just the few they interviewed in the doco.

Did you switch to barracking for Brisbane or did you find another Vic club to support?