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A Fitzroy fan burns a flag after the club’s last AFL game game in Melbourne, during round 21 of the 1996 season at the MCG. Photograph: Getty Images
The jumper is very important,” says Lord, who concedes that it is hard to cater to the individual tastes of every member. Ironically, a tour of the club’s museum would serve as a reminder to them that for the greater bulk of its history – and certainly its greatest success when it still stood alone – Fitzroy was attired in the maroon and navy blue more readily associated with Brisbane. Fitzroy were also known as the Gorillas for that final flag in ‘44 and before that The Maroons. It wasn’t surprising when it did happen, but it was disappointing of course. It’s pretty heartbreaking to think that a foundation member of the VFL – 113 years in the competition, we won eight premierships and had six Brownlow medalists, so we had a pretty good history in the AFL. So that was very disappointing. At the end of the day it was out of our hands.” The Brisbane Lions have been terrific,” Wilson tells me, but I wonder whether it still feels like it did during the old days at the Junction, and whether someone who cherished something so dearly and for so long could fully embrace the re-birth of a club that was allowed to die with so little dignity. The first time we chatted, he’d described Fitzroy’s final days as “bloody awful.” The new generation Lions administration respects the wishes of those who refused to come on board with Brisbane. “We know that there’s a lot of old Fitzroy people who have never been and will never be Brisbane Lions fans,” says Lord. “We respect that. After 20 years they’re not going to change their tune and everyone dealt with the emotion differently. But there are still probably a few who are on the fence, which sounds silly after 20 years. If we do the right things, engagement-wise, they might really feel that connection.” Fitzroy’s 333-game champion and 1969 Brownlow medalist Kevin Murray models an earlier incarnation of the Lions’ jumper. Photograph: Getty ImagesThe last of the Mohicans: Fitzroy’s 1996 players line up before their round six encounter against Richmond at Western Oval, a game they’d lose by 92 points. Photograph: Getty Images Fitzroy fan flood the playing arena after the club’s last ever game in Melbourne, against Richmond in round 21 of the 1996 AFL season. Photograph: Getty Images What has led us to suicide is an insane belief in money and in a society that has no history. When we die and go to heaven the only thing we will take with us is disgrace, because that’s the new name for love, and Fitzroy Football Club. You think that I hate them? I feel deader than they are. Like I’ve wept a weir. This year, to the surprise of nobody who knows of his efforts in keeping the spirit of the Roy Boys alive, the Brisbane Lions inducted Arthur into its Hall of Fame. Club legend John Murphy draped the award over his head and Jonathan Brown interviewed him afterwards. He was suitably chuffed. The (Melbourne) membership has remained quite steady,” Lord says. “It doesn’t have a significant drop because they’re all the rusted-on Fitzroy people. No doubt we’d have more if we were winning but they still stay rusted on.”
Yes, it feels like the old days but it’s not the same mate, it’s not Fitzroy,” he admits, though not with bitterness. “That’s obvious. When you’ve had 113 years of a club... My first introduction when I was about three and my parents took me down in the pusher. So having 80-odd years supporting them, you know, there’s a hell of a lot of good memories.” None of it would be there without indefatigable Wilson, who absorbed the sadness, anger and frustration of Fitzroy’s demise and made sure the club’s history and the memories of its fans would never be forgotten. This has meant, at times, weathering the odd storm of criticism and conceding ground to the club’s Victorian members, for whom the number of Melbourne games and the design of club jumper are constant bug bears. For Melbourne fixtures the club wears the royal blue, red and yellow of Fitzroy’s 1980s pomp, but when Brisbane introduced to the infamous “Paddlepop Lion” guernsey design there was, well, an uproar.
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It was certainly a surprise and felt an honour,” he tells me. Better still, his elevation came on the same night as that of George Coates, former Roys player, designer of the club’s prowling lion logo and Arthur’s good mate. The pair formed a post-merger committee which ensured the newly-formed entity would appropriately honour the heritage and traditions of Fitzroy, one of the most successful clubs of the league’s foundation years. If we wear the FFC jumper, generally it brings a better crowd in for games,” says Lord. “It’s fair to say the jumper plays a very important role.” It might not seem a big deal to outsiders, but it’s instructive that Brisbane’s Victorian manager Sam Lord is a former Roys diehard himself and also sits on the club’s historical society. In his main role at the club he succeeded Jeremy Guard, a former Fitzroy player. It is Lord’s job to link Roys fans to the Brisbane Lions and foster not only the spirit of the old club, but something new.
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